ii. Right to Vote Some participants expressed their concern about unequal voting rights. Registered voters in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur can only vote for representation in Parliament unlike voters in other states who can vote for representatives in the state legislative assembly and in Parliament. While acknowledging that Kuala Lumpur is governed directly by the Federal government through the Ministry of Federal Territories together with a local authority, namely Kuala Lumpur City Hall, the participants expressed hope that the government would give due attention to this matter. iii. Freedom of expression The rise of racial and religious hate speech and fake news on social media platforms was a primary concern for several participants. They asked SUHAKAM and other key stakeholders to play their respective roles to mitigate the problem. iv. Employment A participant requested SUHAKAM to look into the termination of 1,200 civil servants from the Special Affairs Department (JASA), under the new government. v. Freedom of religion There were repeated queries about the right to freedom of religion in the context of Malaysia and the role of SUHAKAM in this regard. Some participants saw Article 18 of the UDHR - on an individual’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - as a threat to Islamic teaching in Malaysia. Similarly, they also saw the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) as a threat to the Muslim community in Malaysia. Perception survey findings SUHAKAM continued to conduct perception surveys of participants at these sessions to assess their understanding of human rights as well as the work of SUHAKAM in general. Based on the feedback of 1,001 respondents, the following key outcomes were identified: i. That 87% of the respondents were of the opinion that human rights are basic rights and freedoms belong inherently to all human beings while 12% perceived human rights as a basic right belonging to certain groups. The remaining 1% viewed human rights as foreign values or western ideology. 40 SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2018