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by Edmund Bon Tai Soon

I have great pride being born and bred here.

But it is difficult being a Malaysian today. When in a foreign country, I am confronted with pointed questions about life in Malaysia. How does the government treat you? Do you still have the NEP (New Economic Policy)? Is there an on-going “Talibanisation” process? Try as one might, it is not easy to explain away some of these criticisms.

Pride translates to stubbornness. “Err...of course, we are better than those who live in Zimbabwe under Mugabe with 300% inflation, or in India under the caste system, or in China as a human rights defender.” It then turns abjectly defensive. “Oh! We are still a young, developing nation.”

It has been said before, but it should be said again. Basic issues concerning our citizenship and place in the country need to be reconsidered in our 50th year of independence. Whilst India is experiencing a “reverse-brain drain”, many Malaysians are leaving our country - for good. Why?

Let me catalogue some of the concerns, and propose what may be done from a civil society perspective.

>> An increasing disconnect between how Malaysians are to be treated (theory) and how we are actually treated (practical) persists. The indigenous peoples have not been given due recognition of their rights. The bulldozers of development fell jungle timber for material gain, as the lives of the Orang Asli are displaced. Little has been done to preserve the Orang Asli’s way of life while providing them with choices to map their own progress.

Recommendation: Protective measures for the Orang Asli should be enacted in addition to reserving ancestral lands. Greater efforts at including the Orang Asli in political and decision-making processes must be made.

>> The Federal Constitution guarantees non-discrimination based on gender. Yet, at the United Nations, the decision of our highest court in sanctioning the dismissal of a pregnant employee in the Beatrice Fernandez case was criticised.

The court adopted the archaic “formal equality model” whereas the “substantive equality model” is the international standard.

Recommendation: The government needs to withdraw all reservations lodged with respect to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and pass a Gender Equality Act to fulfil our international obligations.

>> Despite the thrust of equality in our modern age, discriminatory practices in trade and employment based on irrelevant factors such as race or religion continue. It has become the nation’s Achilles’ heel. A model of resource distribution based on needs would be more suitable.

Recommendation: A public inquiry needs to be held to document complaints and thoroughly investigate the present system’s advantages and deficits. Ways to reconfigure resource distribution with a focus on poverty eradication and greater opportunities for the marginalised have to be found.

>> The gulf between the government’s rhetoric and policy implementation has grown.

Much ink has been spilled in the press to record the government’s promises to eradicate corruption and improve public delivery services. After two Royal commissions and amendments to certain laws, little has improved, unfortunately. In some areas, it may have worsened.

Recommendation: Refer to the archives and list the pledges made. The government should attempt to fulfil at least half of them, and fully implement the Royal commissions’ recommendations immediately.

>> Presenting ourselves as a “moderate Islamic” nation (whatever that means), there seems however to be covert attempts to deny all citizens freedom of choice in private matters of conscience. Morality has also become the domain of the majority, interpreted only by the powerful. There is a need to redefine this.

Recommendation: Secure freedom of belief and religion for all citizens by legislative intervention as an adjunct to the constitutional ideal in Article 11. Places of worship should be specially protected. Syariah laws should reflect human rights principles.

>> We sit on the UN Human Rights Council but probably have one of the poorest ratification records of contemporary rights treaties in the world. Development as freedom needs a working balance of rights values and proportionate limitations. We cannot will human rights away. Sincerity in practising these norms needs to be more evident.

The historic Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened for signature recently saw our latest rebuff.

Recommendation: Make human rights a key plank in the Government’s administration. Debate Suhakam’s reports in Parliament, and implement the recommendations.

Ratify key international human rights treaties on issues such as racial discrimination, torture, refugees, civil and political, economic, social and cultural rights. Have greater consultation with non-governmental organisations and civil society groups.

There are others. Repeal the Internal Security Act. Shut Kamunting just as voices around the world have called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

Have the King call off our more than 30-year-old state of emergency.

Disband Rela and in its place, have professionally trained law enforcers.

Free our academics and students from the strangleholds of legislative bureaucracy and bureaucrats. Educational institutions cannot be run by politicians.

Allow greater constructive dissent. Un-ban books, allow greater free speech and press.

The Internet should not be controlled.

Review our process of judicial appointments.

Kickstart interfaith and inter-cultural conversations. Minority oppression peaks where there is insufficient understanding of different cultural traditions. Religions should not be treated as monolithic but living philosophies.

The elimination of extremism in whatever form must be a project concerning every citizen, and not just the cause of political or religious leaders.

The people of our nation must stand up this Merdeka and be counted. We cannot leave this land only to our government. Support our civil society initiatives, and institutions that call for greater accountability and rights consistency.

May there be no necessity to repeat the aforesaid annually. Hopefully, things will change for the better soon, and answering questions on foreign soil will no longer have to be an uncomfortable exercise.

Edmund Bon is the chairperson of the Bar Council’s Human Rights and National Young Lawyers Committees, and a secretariat member of human rights organisation Suaram. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the organisations.

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