ASEAN today is deeply muddled by racial and religious issues. Racial and religious signifiers take precedence over other forms of self- and other- identifiers, signifying the deep-seated ethnic and religious identity...
Pusat KOMAS applauds the message of unity heralded by the incumbent Sabah state government, led by Dato Seri Shafie Apdal in the campaign trail of the Warisan plus coalition and other like-minded politicians. This step is...
Selamat Hari Malaysia from Pusat KOMAS! This year will be the 57th year of Malaysia Day – the day that forged the 3 nations into one State of Malaysia. It is on this day we celebrate the formation of this beautiful and...
We the undersigned civil society organizations, trade unions and democratic movements in Malaysia demand that the military rule in Thailand be immediately ended and democracy be restored. The political crisis in Thailand should be resolved in a democratic and peaceful manner where the people of Thailand will be able to participate in the fullest sense in determining the future of the country. We have seen that all experiences with military juntas all over the world have spelled the death of...
17th of May 2014, Five Malaysians from different walks of life were given an opportunity to pitch their story idea for a film to a panel of judges. If their pitch is picked, they will walk away with a grant of RM6000 to make their film and have it premiered at the FreedomFilmFestival 2014 in September. They were commercial filmmaker Danny Chong; video journalist Arvind Raj; a father of 2 children with cerebral palsy Mohd. Affandi Ramli; independent filmmaker and editor Azhar Rudin; and...
United, We Malaysians Stand to Reject Violence, Hatred, Exclusion and Fear We, the undersigned groups and individuals, remember solemnly the pain of all those who have suffered in the May 13 Riot 45 years ago, deceased or living, pray for the full healing of the nation from this greatest tragedy in her 51 years, and vow to reject violence, hatred, exclusion and fear from our public life. We hold that 1, Malaysia, as formed in 1963 with Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and then Singapore coming together,...
Malaysian civil society organisations are appalled that, ahead of the ASEAN Summit on 11th May 2014, the Malaysian government has objected to the Malaysian civil society delegate due to attend the Interface Meeting between Civil Society and the ASEAN Heads of State. We are further dismayed by news that the Cambodian and Singaporean governments have also rejected the civil society Interface Delegates from both countries respectively. The Interface Meeting is a platform for ASEAN civil...
We, the civil societies below representing multiethnic and multi-faith, hold that Malaysia was formed as a secular federation in 1963 and hudud law at state-level is unconstitutional unless the entire federal arrangement is renegotiated. Hence, it is grossly incorrect and inappropriate for a matter of such paramount importance to be dealt with by the Federal Parliament voting on a Private Member’s Bill or even by any State Legislature. Our full position is as follows: 1. Malaysia was formed by...
Background On the evening of July 3, 2013, Pusat KOMAS, together with the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Civil Right Committee (KLSCAH CRC), organized a private screening of “No Fire Zone”, a documentary on the former war in Sri Lanka, directed by British Director Callum Macrae. The screening was organized at the request of Callum Macrae who was on a road show screening his documentary in various countries. Before arriving in Malaysia, he showed the film in Australia and after...
Hantarkan Penyertaan anda ke http://freedomfilmfest.komas.org/competition-2014/ sekarang. Tarikh akhir untuk menghantar penyertaan anda adalah 7hb May 2014.
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: FREEDOMFILMFEST(FFF), an annual human rights film festival organised by Malaysian human rights NGO, Pusat KOMAS, is now calling for film entries. Established in 1993, with the running theme, “Dare To Document”, FFF is the most established annual human rights film festival in Malaysia and showcases a variety of eye opening, daring, award winning films that are not easily accessible on mainstream media. This festival is the birthplace of many Malaysian activists and...
Freedom Film Fest Screening was held during the ASEAN People's Forum, Myanmar in collaboration with Equality Myanmar. The screening was done over two days in Myanmar Convention Centre (MCC) from 9.30 am - 12.30 pm as a side event. 6 different films the ASEAN region were shown with the themes of women empowerment, land rights, housing rights, right to food, free and fair elections and sexuality rights. An average of 150 people attended the two day screenings and there were discussions after the...
25th Session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 6 General Debate Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Malaysia Thank you Mr. President, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Pusat Komas, a member of COMANGO-Coalition of Malaysian NGOs for UPR, an organization which works to promote huamn rights in Malaysia, welcome the UPR Report on Malaysia which includes a number of positive recommendations to create a more enabling environment for civil society....