Impact of NGOs in promoting human right awareness

Abstract

On behalf of NGOs in the country, I take great pleasure in participating in this gathering of distinguished fellow workers and advocates in the arena of human rights in Malaysia. I have been asked to speak on the "Impact of NGOs in Promoting Human Rights Awareness". The earliest work in education and the creation of awareness of human rights in the country can be said to have been that of the Penang-based social reform movement ALIRAN, which carried the message in its journal, Aliran Monthly. In later years, the most comprehensive, nationwide-coordinated struggle for human rights took place from late 1987, after the government's Operasi Lallang, which not only resulted in the arrest of more than 100 NGO, political party and trade union activists, but also saw the closure of three major newspapers, one Malay, one English and the other Chinese.