Patriot invites academics to debate
PETALING JAYA: The four academics who advised the Rulers and convinced them to reject the Rome Statute should attend the forum on the international treaty this Saturday, says National Patriots Association (Patriot) president Brig-Jen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji.
“They presented an executive summary (to the Rulers) in private and they should be brave enough to debate openly about what they wrote,” said Mohamed Arshad.
He said he was disappointed that the four academics had kept mum on the forum on the Rome Statute, which was organised by a group of student activists known as Coalition for Academic Freedom.
The four academics, Mohamed Arshad said, should debate openly about their stand on the matter and defend their academic integrity and accountability.
“Patriot would like to see the public to be fully engaged in the discourse on this issue. It is a healthy development towards a caring, informed civil society, on important issues at home and abroad.
“Patriot is proud to endorse the April 27 public forum Malaysia & Rome Statute,” he said.
The forum at the Tun Suffian Auditorium in Universiti Malaya’s Law Faculty will start at 9.30am.
It is organised by a group of student activists who leaked a 10-page executive summary prepared by the four academics – Universiti Teknologi Mara law professor Datuk Dr Rahmat Mohamad, International Islamic University Malaysia’s Dr Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia law lecturers Dr Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi – that was presented to the Conference of Rulers on April 2.
The student activists claimed that the arguments in the summary were one-sided and only discussed why the Conference of Rulers should reject the Rome Statute.
On April 5, Malaysia withdrew from ratifying the international treaty that covers serious crimes and crimes against humanity.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Cabinet had decided not to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which governs the prosecution of perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression.
The ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based international criminal court, and its objective is to end the impunity for perpetrators of the most serious crimes known to the international community.
It was established in 2002 and is governed by the Rome Statute.
Dubbed the “court of last resort,” ICC takes action against individuals when a government is unwilling or unable to prosecute on any of those four crimes.
The ICC’s powers are limited to only those four crimes – genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression – and it only prosecutes individuals, not groups or countries.
The ICC usually only exercises jurisdiction over these crimes if committed by citizens of a country that had acceded or were within that country – unless the UN Security Council refers a situation to the ICC or when a country declares that it accepts the ICC’s jurisdiction.
As of March 18, 122 countries have been signatories to the Rome Statute.
Some countries that have not acceded to the statute include the United States, China, Russia and India.