KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — The Malaysian Bar demanded today that Putrajaya retract its decision to outlaw an outspoken coalition of human rights defenders, saying the move was illegal, flawed and made in bad faith.

Its president Christopher Leong said that by banning the Coalition of Human Rights NGOs (Comango), the government was ultimately telling the public that it has no intention to protect their rights to free speech and assembly.

“Its only standard operating procedure appears to be to ban or declare unlawful any organisation or coalition of organisations that appears to promote views that are not in consonance with that of the Malaysian Government, or whose ongoing presence is a bane to its continuance in power,” Leong said, referring to Putrajaya.

“Instead, it should welcome and constructively engage with Comango to adopt and implement as many of the 63 recommendations as possible.

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“This can only lead to a more decent, honourable and human rights-positive country that all mature and right-thinking Malaysians hope for,” he added.

On Wednesday, the Home Ministry declared Comango illegal in a statement by its secretary-general, claiming only 15 out of its 54 groups under its umbrella were registered, and accusing the coalition of promoting sexual rights contrary to Islam.

But according to the Bar today, there is no provision under Societies Act 1966 that gives power to the secretary-general of the ministry to make such pronouncements, and instead must be done by the Registrar of the Societies under Section 3A of the Act.

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The Bar also highlighted that it is not a settled law that coalitions — of which Comango is one — need to be registered under the Act, referring to the previously overturned ban of the electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 in 2012.

“It is public knowledge that the High Court in that case held that the Minister of Home Affairs’ declaration that Bersih was an illegal organisation was “tainted with irrationality”, and quashed the declaration,” Leong pointed out.

The Bar claimed that in its “mischievous” statement, the Home Ministry was providing inaccurate or not up-to-date data, as more than 15 society members of Comango have actually been registered under the Societies Act.

In addition, several bodies are already registered under the Companies Act 1965, making it unnecessary for them to register under the Societies Act.

The Home Ministry also failed to mention that Putrajaya has been engaging with Comango since September 2008, when it was preparing for the first United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

“The Malaysian Government has had more than five years to check on the background of COMANGO (sic) and has had no problems working with it until now,” said Leong.

“To now declare COMANGO to be unlawful when for the past five years the Malaysian Government has had direct dealings with it smacks of mala fide,” he added, using the latin term for “in bad faith”.

Putrajaya was also criticised for alleging that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights dominated Comango’s recommendations and therefore pose a threat to Islam, with only four out of 63 recommendations relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Home Ministry also made a highly prejudicial reference suggesting that most of Comango members are non-Muslim-based and as such wrong or illegal when it is not, the Bar added.

On Thursday, three lawyers polled by The Malay Mail Online, including Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee co-chairman Andrew Khoo, suggested that the Najib administration is pandering to Malay-Muslim hardliners with its surprise ban on Comango.

Co-ordinated by Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower) and human rights watchdog Suara Rakyat Malaysia, Comango submitted its report to the UPR in March 2013, which touches issues such as the administration of justice; freedom of religion, expression and participation; rights to work, health and education; indigenous and migrants’ rights; and discrimination involving sexual orientation and race.

The coalition is made of 54 NGOs, which also included women rights group Sisters in Islam, Amnesty International Malaysia, Centre for Independent Journalism and Tenaganita.

However, Putrajaya has been under pressure from Malay-Muslim NGOs ― which have banded under the name MuslimUPRo ― which claimed that that Comango is trying to challenge the position of Islam in the nation and spreading “liberalism teachings” backed by Western powers.

Spearheading the move was Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia, which launched a nationwide campaign against human rights recommendations made by Comango last month.

Called ‘Sejuta Ummah Tolak Comango’ (Community of a million rejecting Comango), the campaign includes a petition, nationwide rallies which have started since early November, and distributing leaflets against Comango at mosques after Friday prayers.

The leaflets slammed Comango for allegedly calling for the freedom to renounce Islam; the protection of LGBT rights; the removal of Malay privileges; the freedom to embrace Shiah teachings; and the right for Catholics to refer to God as “Allah”, among others.

Malaysia had gone through the UPR in October to assess its human rights conditions, during which some 19 countries, including Muslim-majority ones, asked Malaysia to sign one or more of the six core international conventions on human rights which the Southeast Asian nation has yet to ratify.

Malaysia first came under the UPR on February 2009, and consequently accepted 62 of the 103 recommendations issued by the UPR working group.