Our People
Directors of Pusat KOMAS
Jerald Joseph
For the last 30 years, Mr Jerald Joseph has been a human rights defender and trainer consultant at local and international levels on human rights issues concerning the rights of Indigenous Peoples, elimination of racial discrimination, and economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR). In Malaysia, he has served as a Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) for the terms 2016-2019 / 2019-2022. He has developed advocacy and education tools on combating racial discrimination, such as pioneering the Non-Discrimination programme since 2006.
In the regional and international levels of civil society work, he has served as a member of various human rights civil society organisations (CSOs) including:
- Commonwealth Foundation Advisory Body
- Asian South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education (ASPBAE)
- International Steering Committee (ISC) Asia-Pacific NGO Steering Committee of World Conference against Racism (WCAR)
He has been a Consultant Trainer for many NGOs including:
- Forum Asia, Bangkok
- South East Asian Popular Communication Programme, Jakarta (SEAPCP)
- Commonwealth Foundation, UK
- Al-Aman Iraq
- Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), India
- Eastern & Southern Africa Farmers' Forum (ESSAF), Ghana and NPSN and Hakijami, Kenya.
Notably, he had led the Malaysian NGOs’ reporting to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in Geneva (2013) and was also the Chairman of the ACSC/ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) process in 2006/2007.
Presently, he is a Board Member of Pusat KOMAS and Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and Chairperson for FORUM-ASIA for the term 2022-2025.
Tan Jo Hann
Tan Jo Hann has over four decades of experiences in community organising and grassroots advocacy since 1980's till 2023. His expertise include strategic planning, popular communications, developing and organising human rights and political campaigns. He has trained and mentored thousands of community organiser-facilitators in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Japan, and the Philippines.
He founded the Southeast Asia Popular Communications Programme (SEAPCP) in 1991, and established Malaysian Human rights NGO Pusat Komas in 1993. He was the President of PERMAS (Persatuan Masyarakat Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan), a network of urban poor squatter and slum communities (2000-2015) , and served as a Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) local councilor (Ahli Majlis) in Selangor State (2008-2012).
Jo Hann obtained a BA in Journalism and Political Science from the University of the Philippines and was an active freelance photojournalist from 1986 until 2000. His writings on community organising include 'Get Organised' (translated to Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Vietnamese and Burmese languages), 'Walking on Water', 'Art of C.O.' and 'Popular Communications Facilitation'.
Staff Members of Pusat KOMAS
Dr. Ryan Yumin Chua
Ryan is also an adjunct lecturer in Monash University Malaysia. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, examining the psychological resilience mechanisms and processes of the Semai indigenous communities in Peninsular Malaysia. His research interests include areas related to cross-cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, resilience and indigenous communities and racism and discrimination.
Faribel Maglin Fernandez
She was also the country representative of the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum for the past 3 years (2019 – 2021) and currently oversees and coordinates the CSO Platform for Reform.
Umi Maisarah binti Kamis
When she joined the Malaysian Relief Agency, she actively participated in various programmes involving the communities, especially in giving aid such as food packs to over 1000 families in Pulau Pinang during the pandemic. She also directed Program Sumbangan Buku by giving free books to 250 university students in Penang in collaboration with Bookxcess.
She then joined the All Women's Action Society (AWAM), exploring women's issues while advocating for changes in Malaysian policies in the women's sphere. She was the anchor during AWAM's Merdeka Campaign in 2022 through social media posts.
Loving the idea of public policy making, she subsequently joined Khazanah Research Institute where she assisted the Employability Team in developing a Graduate Career Tracking Survey for analysis of 50,000 Malaysian graduates over the past decade in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education. She also co-authored the viewpoint piece "Mengatasi Salah Tanggap dan Memahami Peluang Pekerjaan Graduan Ph.D.".
Becoming a member of Pusat KOMAS was one of the steps she took to pursue her desired career in the humanitarian rights industry further, particularly in public policy-making. One can always find Umi reading on the train to work or laughing with her friends at popular spots around KL.
Yogavelan Balamurli
Sharmila Vani
Associates of Pusat KOMAS
Associates are individuals who continue to be committed to the goals and mission of Pusat KOMAS. These individuals have been providing support and assistance to Pusat KOMAS over the past two years to advocate and champion equality and non-discrimination in Malaysia.
Adli Zakuan Zairakithnaini
Barathi Selvam
Arul Prakkash
Prakkash is a human rights activist, community organizer and media specialist leading WITNESS’ programmatic work in Asia and the Pacific. He works to strengthen the use of video to expose human rights violations in critical response situations in the region, such as war crimes, ethnic cleansing, forced evictions, elections-related violence, police abuse, and others.
He trains and supports frontline activist networks, grassroots movements, social network influencers, journalists, independent media, citizens, and NGOs in the use of video and technology for human rights, and especially their evidentiary uses. This includes video archiving and region-wide advocacy, as well as issues of digital security and physical safety.
Prakkash’s expertise includes the use of internet and social media technology for human rights education and advocacy in southeast Asia. Prakkash has been immersed in grassroots multimedia communications for more than 20 years in Malaysia, especially with civil society organizations, independent media, and activists. He also has extensive experience in using popular communications in empowering and advocating for human rights, and community organizing with urban poor youth, indigenous peoples’ communities and plantation workers.
Before joining WITNESS in 2014, Prakkash had for 10 years served as the executive director and senior programme staff member at Pusat KOMAS. He was also a steering committee member of BERSIH 2.0, a civil society movement advocating for free and fair elections in Malaysia. He later helped set up and co-coordinate a nationwide web-based election observation body, and trained hundreds of independent observers during the 2013 Malaysian general elections.
Prakkash recently directed the documentary film Melawan Arus (‘Against the Tide’), which traces the growing critical mass movement that toppled the 61-year Barisan Nasional government in Malaysia.