(f)
CHAPTER 1
detainee at the lock-up. The Commission was shocked to find that all
male detainees in the lock-up were clad only in their underpants. More
appalling still, the Police informed the Commission that the practice of
forbidding detainees from wearing clothes in the lock-up had actually
been outlined in a written guideline issued by the Officer-In-Charge
of the Police Station (OCS), which document was then shown to the
Commission. The Commission urged the Police to stop the practice
and annul the outrageous order as it was clearly against the Lock-Up
Rules 1953.
Cultural Rights
Article 15(1)(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR) states that everyone has the right to benefit from the
protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific,
literary, or artistic production of which he is the author. Article 15 of ICESCR
is actually echoing Article 27(2) of the UDHR. The UN Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC) in its General Comment No. 17 (2005) considers “literary
and artistic productions” as including sculptures.
On 16 August, the Commission received a memorandum by the Puncak
Purnama Declaration Committee concerning the demolition of the Puncak
Purnama sculpture on 1 July by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL). The sculpture
was built in 1986 by National Artist Laureate, the late Datuk Syed Ahmad
Jamal, commissioned by the United Malayan Banking Corporation Berhad
(UMBC) and presented to DBKL to be placed at a public area for the benefit
of the public to enjoy the artwork. The Committee strongly condemned the
demolition of the Puncak Purnama Sculpture without informing the family
of the artist, and took it as a humiliation to the artwork. They demanded,
among other things, for the rights of artists and their works to be respected
by authorities and lawmakers; for the Government of Malaysia to ratify
the ICESCR; for the National Visual Arts Gallery, as the respected patron
of arts in the country, to be consulted on any decision affecting artworks;
and for DBKL and any local authority to appoint a special advisory board
relating to the arts, comprising representatives from the National Visual Arts
Gallery, established artists and designers, culturists, and academicians to
work together in any future plans involving arts and culture.
The Commission wrote to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture (MOTAC) and
DBKL on 23 September highlighting the complaint and the demands of
the complainant. In addition, the Commission reminded the authorities
of the Government’s responsibility to adopt appropriate legislative,
administrative, budgetary, judicial, promotional, and other measures
towards the full realisation of Article 15(1)(c) as highlighted by the UN
ECOSOC in its General Comment. Although Malaysia has not ratified the
Convention, the MOTAC in its reply to the Commission stated its approval
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