Malaysia admitted to UNHRC to rectify its abysmal human rights record

ADUN SPEAKS | Congratulations to Malaysia for winning a seat in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the period from 2022 to 2024.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was happy that Malaysia was recognised as a country serious in the promotion of human rights.

In fact, after the admission was announced, an elated Ismail Sabri was confident that Malaysia would be able to assert its influence on the council.

While I am happy that Malaysia won the seat in the UNHRC, I am also wondering about the basis of admission of a country like Malaysia with such a poor standard of human rights, let alone their promotion.

The government might pay lip service on the importance of human rights, it is not something that can be ignored. But surely, Malaysia has no interest in the promotion of human rights.

In fact, it is against human rights. It has only paid a grudging recognition of human rights. I really wonder how Malaysia could have been admitted and on what basis because its record on human rights is dismal if not pathetic.

Admission to learn a lesson?

Maybe there is a subtle intention on the part of the council to bring in members with bad records so that they could learn from the experience of being council members.

If this is the reason for admission, then the UN has made the right decision to include countries like Malaysia and others with miserable records on human rights.

It is not that Malaysia is in the council to preach to the world about human rights from its experience, but to learn about what are the dos and don’ts of human rights.

It is public knowledge that Malaysia is one of the most racially and religiously polarised countries in the world. Although there is no official proclamation of the policy of apartheid, there is indeed this nefarious practice.

All these years after independence, governments functioned on the basis of the twin axis of race and religion. The institutions in the country are so steeped in racism and religious extremism, that these elements have become institutionalised.

The division of the country in terms of bumiputera and non-bumiputera means that the former receive preferential treatment in all aspects of society while the others continue forms of discrimination and marginalisation.

The ethnic and religious divisions are not easy to dismantle because politics, elections, political mobilisation and others are sadly based on ethnic and racial divisions.

The government is organised and functions on racial and religious considerations. In other words, it actively promotes one community at the expense of other communities.

The non-bumiputera, principally the Chinese, Indians and others are treated worse than second class citizens in the country. Some would even say that some sections of foreigners are treated better than the non-bumiputera.

The Chinese and Indians are not just recent immigrants but have been in the country for more than three generations and their contribution to the prosperity of the country is so immense that it cannot be measured.

Discrimination through policy

Discrimination and the gradual exclusion of the Chinese and Indians have been done systematically in the form of policy measures.

In the name of correcting the economic imbalance, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was envisaged to increase the equity share of the bumiputera.

Even though there is overwhelming evidence that the bumiputera have far exceeded the 30 percent target that was envisaged, the narrative that the bumiputera have yet to catch up with the Chinese and Indians are orchestrated time and again.

This is to establish the preponderant role of the bumiputera, never mind the actual beneficiaries are the elite and not the masses.

Meanwhile, in the name of the NEP or the special rights of the bumiputera, the bumiputera elite have amassed immense wealth at the expense of the ordinary members of the bumiputera community.

There is no end to this gross and inhuman exploitation of the Chinese and Indians.

Yet Ismail Sabri has no shame or dignity to talk about human rights in Malaysia or elsewhere. He is either pretending not to know or is ignorant of the situation in the country.

This is a man who once advocated racist solutions to assist the bumiputera. The social, economic and political rights of the non-bumiputera are being gradually eroded to reinforce the idea that the country is only meant for the bumiputera.

The term “pendatang”, or “immigrants”, is often derogatorily used against the Chinese and Indians to show that they have no place in the country.

Malaysia has no right

Malaysia is often falsely described as a successful political experiment in multi-racialism, while our backdoor prime minister has the gall and temerity to proclaim proudly that the country has been admitted to the UNHRC. It sounds like the joke of the year.

I hope it was not a mistake; if this was so, it should be rectified before causing further embarrassment.

If a government cannot even have basic respect for its citizens just because they are ethnically and religiously different, then what human rights you are talking about.

It serves no purpose in talking about human rights if a country like Malaysia has such a rotten record of human rights.

If people are differentiated according to their ethnicity and religious affiliation and governments are run on the basis of promoting the interests of one community over the others, then what human rights are there?

In Malaysia, it is not human rights of the human race, but the perverted rights of one ethnic and religious community.

If there is an opportunity for Ismail Sabri to address this august council in the future, he should be questioned about the human rights of Malaysians, particularly the non-bumiputera or the Chinese and Indians. If he fails to address this, he should be booed out of the council.

But there might be a point to keep Malaysia in the council just to show others how human rights have been systematically abused in the country. In other words, Malaysia is an example that other countries should avoid.

This will make more sense than the admission being an example of the good human rights practice of Malaysia.

I personally think that Malaysia can use the membership to show the world how bad is the actual situation of human rights, such as how a government functions by dividing and separating one race from another under the umbrella of the ideology of Bumiputraism.

Malaysia is one country that has strictly adhered to the colonial policy of divide and rule. It makes no sense to talk about human rights in a country where one ethnic community is pitted against another to ensure the reins of power will be in the hands of the racist and religious zealots. - Mkini

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P RAMASAMY is Perai assemblyperson and Penang deputy chief minister II.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.