I couldn’t help but choke, puke, pee, fart, shit & sweat in my underarms all at the same time when I read the above news article. This must be one time my PM told the most number of lies at once. If his statement is to be taken as truth… then it’s pretty much like calling him a pig when he’s actually human (I think)
Statement 1: “People traffickers do not respect international borders and legal jurisdictions any more than they respect the human rights of their victims, which is why Malaysia and Australia worked together to develop a way of stopping them,”
- Before even we worry about human traffickers, we should be more worried about out law enforcers. Malaysia for one do not mind refugees coming to Malaysia.. Mainly for 2 reason.. 1. Additional source of income for our RELA members when they raid refugee camps and extort money. 2. BN gets to register the bulk of them to force them to vote for BN in the coming elections1.
- The below might be a bit lengthy for a read but I suggest you to read to understand the true situation of refugees in Malaysia.
- “The information collected during the FIDH mission showed that these raids are conducted with unnecessary use of violence. A Rohingya reported this incident to the FIDH mission: during a raid, a RELA volunteer thumb on him various times until his leg was broken. He was then brought to the police station, locked in a detention centre and then deported at the end of the year. Another member of this community told that his motorbike was stolen during a raid after he was beaten on his back. The Burmese community reported the case of a seventeen year old boy who was kicked by members of RELA on his stomach. Several victims of RELA raids and persons arrested by immigration officers and the police met during the mission explained that if you are arrested in the street you should better directly give 50 or 100 Ringgit to the officer. If not, at the police station, another negotiation will be engaged with the migrant community: the price to be released will be fixed around 2000, sometimes 3000 Ringgit by the police.Various interviews confirmed the bribes and extortion, adding that RELA people are stealing inside the house and keeping the wallets, money and passports of the one they arrest. The raids reportedly take place both in the living quarters and in the working places of migrants. E.g., in mid- February 2006, four dead bodies were recovered from a lake in the area of Selayang. The day before, there had been an important RELA raid in this area. This event was reported in the BBC media and a week after, on the Asian Centre for Human Rights website raising the possible link between these deaths and the raid of these untrained volunteer. FIDH believes that a prompt and impartial investigation should be carried out on those deaths.”2
Statement 2: “As the prime minister of a progressive, liberal nation, I’m not prepared to stand by and watch that happen,”
- BBBBBBUUUUULLLLLLL SSSHHHHHIIITTTTT!!!! The fact of the matter is this. You have stood back and watch even when your own country men (the orang asli) are marginalized, harassed, denied access to basic amenities in their own country. What guarantee then do you have as a PM to care for the incoming refugees?
Statement 3: “Malaysia has been at the forefront in Southeast Asia of dealing with international problems and pledged to continue working with Australia to find new ways to stop human traffickers.”
- Errr… you mean stop Malaysia from being at the forefront of human trafficking? We are currently placed in Tier 2 Watch List in the 2010 U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report.3
- Definition of a Tier 2 Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, AND: a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or, c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.4
- It gets better, the Tier 2 Watch List rating puts us together with countries like Afghanistan, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Kosovo, Lebanon, Swazilan, Africa, Libya, Tunisia, Laos, Kazakhstan, Iraq… etc4
Statement 4: “Malaysia is not some repressive, backward nation that persecutes refugees and asylum seekers,”
- Again.. so far from the truth. There are already multiple cases which refugees are extorted in exchange for being able to stay a bit longer in Malaysia until the next raid.
- “In any case, the mission heard from many people from different refugee groups who alleged that they or persons holding UNHCR documentation have been arrested and detained by RELA, or the police.The mission also received a number of allegations that UNHCR document holders have been beaten or otherwise mistreated in custody when they have produced their documentation.”2
- If we are so committed to providing fair treatment to refugees (or Malaysian’s definition – asylum seeker as we do not recognized “refugees”) then why on earth haven’t we sign the “1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or to the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. Both of the documents are key international instruments relating to the protection of refugees. As a result, Malaysia does not provide any specific formal protection to people who have fled their own country.”2
Statement 5: “He stressed that the majority live freely outside detention centres and are entitled to cheap healthcare, and added that the government is currently working with the UN to allow some refugees to work in the country.”
- In Malaysia, we have a saying that goes "the frog under a coconut husk" in which it means a person who is oblivious to its surrounding and that's exactly what my beloved PM is. Refugees (especially those from Myanmar) cannot work legally (or if they do, they do so illegally in which they are open to harassment and exploitation without any recourse as any report made would probably end with them being placed in detention centers and deported back to their country)
- “The family is ethnic Chin from Myanmar. With the aid of smugglers, the family got to Malaysia safely. But when Lal Pe Nu's wife and daughters followed a year later they were caught and thrown in detention for seven months. The experience traumatized the entire family and they live in fear of being imprisoned again.”5
- What was it again about refugees being able to roam around freely let alone work...?
Conclusion:
It really saddens me when I have a PM who’s literally blind, mostly deaf to the goings around and pretty much mute when it comes to speaking the truth.
We as Malaysians already have problem handling human rights when it come to OUR OWN PEOPLE (as in the case of peaceful protests, death in custody, representation of a lawyer during detention, the indigenous people) and LEGAL WORKERS (as in the case of Indonesian maids and Cambodia maids which both the countries have frozen – they must have a very good reason to deny their people opportunities in this beautiful land of Malaysia)… what makes you so darn sure we are able to guarantee the rights of refugees/asylum seekers? It really baffles me as to what went through your mind when you made those statement.
The peaceful protest of 50k ppl were accused of tarnishing Malaysia’s reputation… but I think the statement from 1 PM is enough to make Malaysia a laughing stock when all the evidence of how we treat refugees is all so clear.
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