Human rights in Msia: Understand the matrix
Published: Feb 15, 2006 9:50 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
Before accusing Malaysia of violating human rights with its preventive laws, critics must understand the matrix that forms the social and political template of the country, said a former high-ranking United Nations official today.
Before accusing Malaysia of violating human rights with its preventive laws, critics must understand the matrix that forms the social and political template of the country, said a former high-ranking United Nations official today.
Former UN Special Envoy to Burma Razali Ismail said only when the critics understand these two important templates, can discussion on matters like detention without trial, abuse of power, lack of freedom of religion, speech, assembly and association become more meaningful.
By and large, he added, Malaysia was regarded as a human rights backwater due to the existence of preventive laws like the Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance.
However, he said the extent to which power can be civilised had always been contingent on a nation's history, geography, legal tradition and local situations.
"No human rights discussion can be adequate unless it first takes these factors into consideration," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
He was speaking at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia's (Suhakam) forum on The Culture of Human Rights in Malaysia.
National security
With this in mind, he said human rights implementation in the country had to be balanced with national security considerations.
"Indeed human rights revolved almost wholly on providing Malaysians with economic livelihood and rights first - to prevent them from falling into the influence of the communist and its version of collective labour rights.
"When a country can be easily penetrated or infiltrated by emigrants and others, the laws should ideally be held supreme. But even this is not foolproof strategy. There are now up to two million illegal immigrants in Sabah for example," he added.
He pointed out that due to the fear of high penetration from abroad, the Malaysian legal system had a melange of preventive laws to establish certain matrix of order, and that these laws were regarded as deterrents against elements that sought to undermine nation building efforts and security.
"When one considers the fact that Malaysia is the only country to have succesfully battled the communist insurgency from 1948 to 1960 without throwing the whole country into war, it is little wonder that the police and government have, by and large, felt sufficiently vindicated by the virtue and the need for strong laws.
"Indeed preventive laws like the ISA, the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act were not Malaysian inventions. They were inherited from the colonial administrators," he said
According to Razali, those unhappy with preventive laws in Malaysia should study the country's history deeply as the nation had inherited a conservative political culture that continued to "shape us and one that would defend strongly the retention of our preventive laws."
"Those of us that want the situation to change would need to embark on the effort to help Malaysia sever that, what I call 'feudal link' without, even which the mere removal of preventive laws would not be enough to make Malaysia a human rights bastion," he said.
He said yet despite these laws, Malaysia and its government were far and away ahead of many other countries in the region in terms of preserving human rights.
Uphill task
On another note, he said Suhakam alone could not bear the responsiblity of upholding human rights in the country as the commission had "its plate full" in examining actual human rights violations.
"Suhakam can only be a lighting rod but it cannot be the catalyst to transform the political culture on human rights in Malaysia. Malaysians need to be persuaded, educated to re-look at the issues of human rights with much critical awareness," he said.
Razali added that Malaysians must be urged to show more interest in public policy, especially over human rights although this would be an uphill effort.
"In the first place, if a poll is taken there will be a lot more people supportive of the status quo than those that would petition for change and improvement," he added.
The former UN envoy also said another uphill task would be to convince the government, political parties and the public sector institutions to the good of human rights.
Former UN Special Envoy to Burma Razali Ismail said only when the critics understand these two important templates, can discussion on matters like detention without trial, abuse of power, lack of freedom of religion, speech, assembly and association become more meaningful. By and large, he added, Malaysia was regarded as a human rights backwater due to the existence of preventive laws like the Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance.
However, he said the extent to which power can be civilised had always been contingent on a nation's history, geography, legal tradition and local situations.
"No human rights discussion can be adequate unless it first takes these factors into consideration," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
He was speaking at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia's (Suhakam) forum on The Culture of Human Rights in Malaysia.
National security
With this in mind, he said human rights implementation in the country had to be balanced with national security considerations.
"Indeed human rights revolved almost wholly on providing Malaysians with economic livelihood and rights first - to prevent them from falling into the influence of the communist and its version of collective labour rights.
"When a country can be easily penetrated or infiltrated by emigrants and others, the laws should ideally be held supreme. But even this is not foolproof strategy. There are now up to two million illegal immigrants in Sabah for example," he added.
He pointed out that due to the fear of high penetration from abroad, the Malaysian legal system had a melange of preventive laws to establish certain matrix of order, and that these laws were regarded as deterrents against elements that sought to undermine nation building efforts and security.
"When one considers the fact that Malaysia is the only country to have succesfully battled the communist insurgency from 1948 to 1960 without throwing the whole country into war, it is little wonder that the police and government have, by and large, felt sufficiently vindicated by the virtue and the need for strong laws. "Indeed preventive laws like the ISA, the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act were not Malaysian inventions. They were inherited from the colonial administrators," he said
According to Razali, those unhappy with preventive laws in Malaysia should study the country's history deeply as the nation had inherited a conservative political culture that continued to "shape us and one that would defend strongly the retention of our preventive laws."
"Those of us that want the situation to change would need to embark on the effort to help Malaysia sever that, what I call 'feudal link' without, even which the mere removal of preventive laws would not be enough to make Malaysia a human rights bastion," he said.
He said yet despite these laws, Malaysia and its government were far and away ahead of many other countries in the region in terms of preserving human rights.
Uphill task
On another note, he said Suhakam alone could not bear the responsiblity of upholding human rights in the country as the commission had "its plate full" in examining actual human rights violations. "Suhakam can only be a lighting rod but it cannot be the catalyst to transform the political culture on human rights in Malaysia. Malaysians need to be persuaded, educated to re-look at the issues of human rights with much critical awareness," he said.
Razali added that Malaysians must be urged to show more interest in public policy, especially over human rights although this would be an uphill effort.
"In the first place, if a poll is taken there will be a lot more people supportive of the status quo than those that would petition for change and improvement," he added.
The former UN envoy also said another uphill task would be to convince the government, political parties and the public sector institutions to the good of human rights.
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