The All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaysia headed
by British MP Tom Greaterex has repeatedly raised free and fair
elections with premiers Najib Tun Razak and David Cameron.
LONDON:
Malaysia’s growing civil rights movement and its ability to mobilise
tens of thousands onto the streets of KL has clearly not gone unnoticed
in the corridors of the Whitehall Government in the United Kingdom.Foreign Office officials who attended a briefing session provided by the Human Rights organisation Suaram at the House of Commons last week gave assurances that they were fully aware of the democracy issues raised by the Bersih movement and supportive of the calls for reform by civil rights groups in Malaysia.
At the briefing, which was chaired by the MP Tom Greatrex, a Shadow Energy Minister and member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaysia, the officials said that they have repeatedly raised the matter of free and fair elections and also election observers with politicians both in Malaysia and the UK.
“In all our briefings right up to the highest level we keep pressing home about free and fair elections and election observers,” confirmed one of a number of officials who were at the briefing.
When asked what “the highest level” meant, one of the officials who declined to be named said: “With Prime Ministers Najib and Cameron”.
The briefing last week, which came hard on the heels of the massive turn out for the Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat rally at Merdeka Stadium on Jan 12, took place in a Committee Room at the House of Commons and was attended by politicians, NGOs (including Transparency International, Article 19, Reporters Without Borders, Global Witness) and local journalists.
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