Sevan Doraisamy is a veteran Malaysian human rights defender and activist who’s been fighting the good fight for more than 25 years. He also served as the Executive Director of SUARAM, one of the country’s leading human rights organisations for 10 years, before deciding to step aside this year.

Over the years, he’s been at the forefront of numerous human rights campaigns, from pushing to abolish ISA (which was eventually done in 2012), to advocating for police accountability and championing freedom of expression. He has faced consequences for his activism, including being detained by authorities numerous times.

In this episode, we speak to Sevan about his years of activism, how much Malaysia has progressed on the human rights front, where we’ve stagnated and the tasks that lie ahead for the next generation of activists.

Image Credit: SUARAM's Facebook

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.