Archive for category Human Rights
Second urgent motion knocked out — no debate on Malaysia listed as “worst human traffic offender”
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Parliament on Wednesday, 20 June 2007
My second of three urgent motions for Parliament this week was rejected by the Deputy Speaker Datuk Lim Si Cheng this morning.
My motion to urgently debate Malaysia’s inclusion in the United States Government’s 2007 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report in the Tier 3 list of the worst human trafficking offenders together with 15 other nations including Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.was rejected on the ground that it was not urgent.
Most shocking of all, the rejection was received with table-thumping by Barisan Nasional MPs as if they were overjoyed that Parliament is denied an opportunity to clear Malaysia’s good name which had been stained internationally by the shameful listing of the country mong the worst human trafficking offenders.
When Dewan Rakyat debated the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Bill on May 9, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who piloted the bill through Parliament, referred to Malaysia’s being ranked as Tier 2 Watch List in the US Government’s 2006 TIP Report released in June last year.
Nazri did not condemn or challenge the right of the US Government to issue any TIP Report.
In January 2007, the US Government issued a Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment “to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti-trafficking progress of countries which may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2007 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking”.
Yet, despite the TIP Interim Assessment and guidance, Malaysia fell into Tier 3 ranking in the TIP 2007 report.
The Malaysian government is not bounden to justify its record to the US Government but it is duty-bound to vindicate its record to Parliament and the Malaysian people. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia “worst human trafficking offender” – notice for urgent motion
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Parliament on Monday, 18 June 2007
18th June 2007
Yang di Pertua,
Dewan Rakyat,
Parlimen,
Malaysia
YB Tan Sri,
S.O. 18 motion of urgent, definite public importance: Inclusion of Malaysia in the United States Government’s 2007 “Tier 3” list of the worst human trafficking offenders together with nations such as Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia
_____________________________________________________________________
This is to give notice under S.O. 18(2) to move a motion of urgent definite public importance for the Dewan Rakyat sitting on Wednesday, 20th June 2007, as follows:
“That under Standing Order 18(1), the House gives leave to Ketua Pembangkang YB Lim Kit Siang to move a motion of urgent, definite public importance, viz the inclusion of Malaysia in the United States Government’s 2007 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report in the Tier 3 list of the worst human trafficking offenders together with 15 other nations including Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
“The inclusion of Malaysia in the Tier 3 list of the worst human trafficking offenders is a matter of grave shame and dishonour to the nation, which had recently the signal honour of being Chair of three international organizations simultaneously, i.e. ASEAN, Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of Islamic Conference and is seriously proposing a candidate to be the next Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.
“The reasons cited for Malaysia’s inclusion in the US Government list of the worst human trafficking offenders are:
- The government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
- Failure to show satisfactory progress in combating trafficking in persons, particularly in areas of punishing acts of trafficking, providing adequate shelters and social services to victims, protecting migrant workers from involuntary servitude and for not prosecuting traffickers who were arrested and detained under preventive laws.
- The government needs to demonstrate stronger political will to tackle Malaysia’s ‘significant’ forced labour and sex trafficking problems.
“The Foreign Minister has lambasted as ‘ill-informed’ Malaysia’s inclusion in the US trafficking blacklist while the Prime Minister has promised severe punishment for human traffickers. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia in US govt list of human trafficking offenders – Hamid should give full details in Ministerial statement to Parliament
Posted by Kit in Human Rights on Thursday, 14 June 2007
Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar should present a Ministerial statement in Parliament on Monday giving a detailed rebuttal to the United States government’s inclusion of Malaysia on its list of human trafficking offenders.
It is not enough for Syed Hamid to brush aside the US government report as one-sided for not taking into account what Malaysia had been doing or just to express amazement as to how the US government could come up with such a report.
The listing of Malaysia in the US government list of human trafficking offenders must not be taken lightly.
Malaysians should not be left with having to accept either the Malaysian government or the US government claim without the facts, and this is why Hamid should present a detailed Ministerial statement in Parliament fully stating the case for Malaysia as to why it should not be included in any list, whether US government or otherwise, of human trafficking offenders.
In the Ministerial statement, Hamid should give a full report of the exchanges between the two governments on the issue, as there must be considerable interaction between the two governments before the inclusion of Malaysia in the US government list of human trafficking offenders. Let the entire file of the bilateral exchanges be made public. Read the rest of this entry »
After Lina Joy case – Malaysia, Quo Vadis!
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Human Rights, Religion on Thursday, 31 May 2007
The Federal Court 2-1 majority decision rejecting Lina Joy’s appeal marks a tectonic shift of Malaysia in moving further and further away from the Merdeka “Social Contract” founding principles of nation-building agreed by the forefathers of the major communities on the attainment of independent nationhood.
It casts a larger shadow over the national horizon with the country entering the second half-century of nationhood, with increasing doubts among Malaysians about the meaning, permanence, sustainability and viability of constitutional guarantees, civil liberties and fundamental rights.
This is because the Lina Joy case has shattered confidence in the constitutional guarantees on freedom of religion, the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and above all, the sacred Merdeka “Social Contract” underlying the Constitution that Malaysia is a secular nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state.
Malaysians alarmed at the abandonment of the “Social Contract” principles are fully justified in their concerns, especially when one compares as to what would have happened to a Lina Joy case in the first quarter-century of the nation’s history as compared to today when the nation stands on its 50th year of nationhood! Read the rest of this entry »
Marimuthu/Raimah case – foreign media reports
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Human Rights, Religion on Thursday, 3 May 2007
[1] (International Herald Tribune)
In landmark case, Hindu man in Malaysia gets custody of children born to Muslim wife
The Associated Press
Published: May 3, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s Islamic authorities gave a Hindu man married to a Muslim woman custody of their children Thursday, in a landmark decision for minority rights, after the couple were forcibly separated because they follow different religions.
The decision was announced at an emotional hearing in the High Court attended by the ethnic Indian couple, Marimuthu Periasamy and Raimah Bibi Noordin, both rubber tappers who had been happily married for 21 years.
The case is the latest in a series of conflicts involving the religious rights of minority groups that is straining ties in multiethnic Malaysia, where Islam is the dominant religion. Buddhists, Christians and Hindus are the minority faiths.
The crisis began unexpectedly when Islamic authorities took away Raimah Bibi and six of her seven children on April 2 on the grounds that her marriage with Marimuthu was illegal. It was not clear why the authorities acted now when the couple had been together for 21 years.
At the hearing Tuesday, Raimah Bibi, 39, broke down and sobbed openly when the judge asked her if she will give up custody of their seven children, who are aged between four and 14.
“Yes, I agree to surrender my children to Marimuthu,” she said, wiping her tears with the ends of her headscarf.
Marimuthu had filed an application demanding that the Islamic Affairs Department bring his wife and children to court. The department has indicated the couple cannot live together because Marimuthu did not convert to Islam as required by law for their marriage to be legal. Read the rest of this entry »
1987 Ops Lalang and Chinese primary school crisis – will Cabinet own up to historic wrongs?
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Mother Tongue on Friday, 27 April 2007
Veteran Chinese educationist Sim Mow Yu has said that Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser and former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should apologise for what he had done over the 1987 Ops Lalang mass arrests under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the controversy over dispatching of staff unversed in Mandarin to hold senior posts in Chinese primary schools.
As one of the Ops Lalang ISA detainees served with a formal two-year detention order and incarcerated at Kamunting Detention Centre, Sim is most qualified to speak up on these subjects.
The Ops Lalang detention was my second ISA detention, which lasted 18 months as compared to 17 months in my first ISA detention in 1969-1970.
DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng and I were the last two of the Ops Lalang ISA detainees incarcerated in Kamunting Detention Centre to be released in April 1989 — serving the longest Ops Lalang ISA detention after all the other 49 Ops Lalang detainees had been earlier released from Kamunting in various batches.
Anwar has admitted that he was wrong in 1987 in the dispatch of staff unversed in Mandarin to become principals and senior assistants of Chinese primary schools which resulted in the subsequent Ops Lalang mass arrests.
Anwar has now taken a stand on mother-tongue education which is in accord with justice and fair play for mother-tongue education in plural Malaysia as well as the higher national interests of enhancing Malaysia’s international competitiveness, which should be commended and supported. Read the rest of this entry »
New Police Vision re-branding – proof of pudding in the eating
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Police on Thursday, 29 March 2007
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan should declare whether the Police would accept the Suhakam inquiry findings that excessive police force was used against protesters at the KLCC demo on May 28 last year on petrol and power price hikes and whether disciplinary action would be taken against the errant police personnel.
The findings of the Suhakam public inquiry, which was made public last Friday, will be an acid test as to whether Musa is serious and not just indulging in a publicity stunt when he announced during the 200th Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) anniversary celebrations that the police is being rebranded with a new vision and mission to implement the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create an efficient, incorruptible, accountable, trustworthy, professional world-class police service.
The deadline for Recommendation 2 of the Royal Police Commission to “Review and refine the Vision Statement” was August 2005 — which means that the RMP has lagged nearly 20 months behind this time-line.
Among the proposals by the Royal Police Commission for the review and refinement of the Police Vision are “to reflect the need for police personnel to respect and uphold human rights in view of the allegations of abuse of human rights”.
Musa should tell Malaysians whether in the rebranded police Vision, the Royal Police Commission’s specific proposal that it expressly incorporate the principle “Respecting and upholding human rights as provided for in the Federal Constitution and the laws of Malaysia” has been accepted.
As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Musa should declare whether he is serious about a new rebranded Police Vision which respects and upholds human rights by accepting the Suhakam public inquiry findings that excessive force was used against a group of protesters at the KLCC last year, resulting in 10 people being injured. Read the rest of this entry »
PM – address cumulative Article 11 concerns
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, nation building, Parliament, Religion on Friday, 23 March 2007
Secondly, on Inter-religious relations today and the past 50 years. In the first two decades of nationhood, the government sponsored the establishment of a Inter-Religious Council headed by a Cabinet Minister to promote inter-religious dialogue, understanding and goodwill. Today, a very similar proposal, the Inter-Faith Council, is regarded as highly sensitive and intolerable by the government-of-the day. What has gone wrong?
It is most regrettable that despite six requests in the past nine months, the Prime Minister has refused to meet the Article 11 coalition of 11 civil society groups to uphold the Federal Constitution as the supreme law of the land — or even to give any response.
Why is the Prime Minister who preaches inter-religious dialogue in international conferences adopting such a hostile attitude to Article 11 and domestic inter-religious dialogue?
Non-Muslim concerns about religious freedom as entrenched in Article 11 have been re-ignited by the latest Court of Appeal judgment in the R. Subashini case.
Just like the S. Shamala case in 2004, the Hindu women found they could not seek legal remedy in the civil courts to protect their rights after their husbands converted to Islam and unilaterally converted their children.
Read the rest of this entry »
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