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Malaysia: Rights and
wrongs
By Anil Netto
PENANG,
Malaysia - The continuing allegations of abuse and
deaths among illegal migrants being repatriated from
Malaysia come just as the Human Rights Commission of
Malaysia (Suhakam) is about to mark Malaysian Human
Rights Day on Monday, September 9.
Suhakam was
reported to be planning separate investigations into
conditions at the Sabah immigration holding centers
after the allegations, including one of the sexual
molestation of a 13-year-old detainee at a temporary
detention center in Kota Kinabalu, the state's capital.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo-Macapagal reportedly
expressed her outrage over the allegation in a letter to
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, prompting him
to order a probe.
The swirling allegations of
abuse and mistreatment come hot on the heels of a
memorandum to the country's chief justice by 27
non-governmental organizations calling for inquests into
three cases of deaths of detainees while in Malaysian
police custody.
Add to that the continuing
incarceration of more than 110 detainees, including
political activists, without trial under the Internal
Security Act and a picture emerges of just far Malaysia
has to go to improve its human-rights record.
Once again, Suhakam is coming under the
spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Critics have
frequently accused it of being too passive and not
"proactive", and for not being in the forefront when
this is potential for rights abuses to occur. The
commission was set up through an act of parliament,
which came into force on September 9, 1999, and the
first brief two-year term of office of Suhakam
commissioners lapsed on April 24 this year.
Hopes that the commission might be able to tread
a more independent path appeared dashed when a few of
the more outspoken commissioners were then replaced by
less-known establishment figures. That, if anything, has
contributed to Suhakam's slide in credibility.
"The fact that the three commissioners have now
been axed is a clear signal to the other commissioners
and the new ones appointed that their tenure is
dependent on the executive," said rights groups in a
statement reacting to the changes in the commission.
Suhakam is marking its anniversary on Monday
with a conference on "Human Rights and Education" -
scheduled to be officially opened by Mahathir. The
conference will cover themes such as human rights and a
caring society, the role of education in promoting human
rights, and children's right to education. Among the
topics to be discussed: "Is an exam-oriented system a
violation of children's rights to education?"
Critics say Suhakam appears in effect to be
reducing the agenda of human rights to one of promoting
a "caring society". No doubt these are important themes
but they are the "safe", bland ones that skirt the real
human-rights concerns in Malaysia today. Most pressing
is the lack of civil and political rights especially in
relation to detention without trial, lack of freedom of
expression and assembly, and the vulnerability of
migrant workers and other marginalized communities.
Three years after the passing of the Human
Rights Commission of Malaysia Act, Malaysia has not yet
ratified major human-rights instruments such as the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and the Convention Against Torture.
So no one is really waiting with bated breath
for the government to ratify the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families - which is
a pity. The convention, approved on December 18, 1990,
by the United Nations General Assembly, requires 20 UN
member nations to ratify it before it can "enter into
force". As of Tuesday, 19 UN member nations - the
Philippines is the only Southeast Asian nation among
them - had acceded to or ratified the convention.
The convention is a far-reaching document that
sets the basis for internationally accepted norms for
the treatment of migrant workers. It views migrant
workers as more than laborers or economic entities,
regarding them as social beings with families and rights
of their own. Recognizing that these rights are often
unprotected by national laws, the convention extends
basic rights to all migrant workers, both documented and
undocumented - with additional rights for the documented
ones. Among its aims is to eliminate the exploitation of
all migrant workers and their families, including an end
to their illegal or clandestine movements and to
irregular or undocumented situations.
Where such
illegal situations arise, the convention urges state
parties to collaborate with a view to eliminating such
practices. It calls for measures to be taken against the
dissemination of misleading information relating to
emigration and immigration and urges sanctions to be
imposed on those organizing and assisting such illegal
movements. Sanctions should also be imposed on persons
or group that use violence, threats and intimidation
against migrant workers in an irregular situation.
Crucially, the convention wants host states to
adopt effective measures to eliminate employment in
their territories of migrant workers in an irregular
situation, including sanctions on employers of such
workers. When states want to regularize these
situations, their actions should be in accordance with
applicable national legislation and bilateral or
multilateral agreements. States should take "appropriate
account" of the circumstances of the workers' entry, the
duration of their stay in the states of employment and
other relevant considerations, in particular those
relating to their family situation.
The problem
is that host countries often want to have their cake and
eat it too. During economic boom times, they like the
cheap labor that migrants present. But they are
reluctant to provide the internationally accepted rights
that come with the use of migrant labor.
In the
case of illegal situations such as the current
unilateral crackdown in Malaysia, the brunt of the
action hits undocumented migrant workers. Less attention
seems to be paid to the syndicates, agents and
operatives - and the corruption involved - in recruiting
and trafficking in such vulnerable people, all of which
involves huge sums of money in fees and commissions.
Neither have there been many publicized cases of
Malaysian employers being hauled into court for thriving
on and exploiting undocumented migrant workers.
These are the issues that Suhakam has to grapple
with - apart from other civil and political rights for
ordinary Malaysians - if it is to become relevant.
Otherwise, it will only reinforce the widespread
impression that it is nothing more than an official
sponge to absorb the outrage over human-rights abuses
whenever they arise.
(©2002 Asia Times Online
Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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