Ambiga tags ex-IGP Rahim Noor as a ‘dictator’

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan labelled today Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor an “oppressive dictator” after the country’s former chief of police likened the rise of the human rights movement to communism.

The chairman of electoral reforms movement Bersih 2.0 said that Abdul Rahim’s opening speech for Malay rights group Perkasa’s general assembly yesterday “shows a lack of understanding of both human rights and the status of communism today.”

“It is a view that would only be held by dictators and oppressive regimes who abhor dissent,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

Yesterday, Abdul Rahim called the human rights movement a “new religion” that would lead to Malaysia’s social contract being questioned.

The former IGP warned that civil liberty activists saw the US and UK as their spiritual home, and drew parallels to how the Comintern had engineered the global spread of communism from its Moscow base.

But Ambiga, who led tens of thousands of marchers into the capital on July 9 to call for free and fair elections, said Abdul Rahim should read the Federal Constitution “that enshrines fundamental liberties and therefore human rights.”

“It is evident that the former IGP is unaware that Malaysia is on the Human Rights Council and that we sought membership on that council by making pledges and a solid commitment to human rights,” she added.

Bersih went ahead with its July 9 demonstration in defiance of a government ban and police action. Nearly 1,700 were arrested, scores injured and one ex-soldier died during the rally.
International condemnation of Putrajaya’s clampdown led Datuk Seri Najib Razak to announce in August a parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms.

The prime minister also initiated a raft of democratic reforms including the repeal of the Internal Security Act to give Malaysians more freedom.

A coalition of Muslim NGOs also organised a rally last week to stand up to the “challenge of Christianisation” after repeated allegations of proselytisation levelled against the church.
Abdul Rahim resigned from the police force after confessing to assaulting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when the former deputy prime minister was under custody over sodomy charges.