In search of greater civil liberties

Getting rid of draconian laws like the ISA does not mean Malaysia has embraced the fundamental rights of the people.

COMMENT

Three months ago Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak trumpeted his “respect” for human rights, claiming the repeal of three anti-human rights laws was proof that ruling party Barisan Nasional was all for human rights.

He went on to say that BN had kept to its word of adapting to growing demands for greater civil liberties.

Human Rights Day was commemorated throughout the world yesterday (Dec 10): dare Najib as head of the nation and BN take credit that he has done his best to allow the basic rights of the rakyat to flourish?

Reality on the ground does tells a different story. Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion were never allowed to exist – in short, the rakyat are languishing, their efforts in reclaiming their fundamental rights being thwarted by the ruling government.

Getting rid of draconian laws like the Internal Security Act does not mean Malaysia has embraced the fundamental rights of the people; on the contrary, the abuse of human rights continues in every realm of the rakyat’s life.

From the continuous persecution of leaders of electoral reform activist Bersih to punishing designers for “thinking out of the box”, the federal government has done all it can to quash any semblance of human rights in this country.

The people have no freedom to speak their minds; just look at how the federal government treats academicians who dare “call a spade a spade”.

One such example was that of constitutional law expert Professor Abdul Aziz Bari, formerly with the International Islamic University who was suspended after he publicly expressed his opinion regarding the decree by the Sultan of Selangor over the controversial JAIS raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church on Aug 3, 2011.

Abdul Aziz spoke his mind without fear or favour and was forced to pay a price for that but not before learning that academic freedom is not cherished by the powers-that-be.

So much for Najib’s claim of wanting to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world”.

‘Best democracy’ a hogwash

In Malaysia’s “Bolehland”, there is always place and space for corruption and cronyism but not for emancipation of the people.

The BN government has never been fond of seeing the rakyat emancipate and so ways and means are continuously devised to undermine the people’s determination to exert their fundamental rights.

Even a basic gesture of appreciating the monarchy is not welcomed by the federal government, as was the case with celebrity designer Bernard Chandran.

On May 9 this year, eight plainclothes cops walked into his boutique and confiscated 52 T-shirts bearing the image of the current king. They also arrested two of Chandran’s staff.

The cops mumbled that Chandran had breached the “percetakan” (printing laws).

Last month when PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar shared her thoughts that everyone is deserving of religious freedom, including the Malays, the powers-that-be were appalled and went on a mission to condemn Nurul, who is also the Lembah Pantai MP.

Taking a cue from Nurul Izzah’s earnest remarks, a letter was penned on the topic by one Steve Oh and published by online portal Malaysiakini.

And what followed next was shameful for instead of allowing the writer the freedom to express himself, “top orders” came for the police to confiscate all materials pertaining to the issue.

Unlike the eight cops who walked into Chandran’s workplace, this time the number that made their way to Malaysiakini’s office was double.

Is this how “democracy” works in Malaysia or is this BN’s way of making democracy work?

Malaysia has a long way to go

The reverence for human rights is unthinkable to the BN leadership; to it, respecting the basic rights of a person would be “life threatening” to its existence.

That explains why the government, as foolish and insecure as it appears, tries hard to bar the rakyat from gaining access to materials that challenge the norm, be they in the form of books or movies.

For that reason too, the government has created a political quagmire when it decided to embark on a never-ending persecution of marginalised communities like the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenders whom it has labelled as deviants.

The same fate is suffered by the natives of Sarawak who continue to lose both their lands and dignity to unscrupulous timber loggers and gluttonous development.

The fact that human rights apply to everyone across the board is lost to BN and the scenario will remain unchallenged as long as the party wields power.

In the meantime, the cry for the federal government to uphold the fundamental rights of the people will find no sympathy with the BN.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.