Governed by Reason, Common Sense, Compassion and Prudence: malaysiakini

By Jose Mario Dolor De Vega | 12:54PM Jun 23, 2012I refer to the unfortunate news concerning the suspension of a high school girl from Malacca for wearing a miniskirt.At the onset, it is my uncompromising stand that the act undertaken by the school, the Methodist Girl’s Secondary School, in suspending a Form Five student by the name of Stephanie Tan Joo Sing for one week by reason of the latter’s wearing a miniskirt during a charity event held outside the school was unreasonable, oppressive and a grave violation of said student’s human and constitutional rights.

In the words of Raul Pangalanan, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law (School as Facebook Patrol, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Passion for Reason, March 29, 2012): “It’s less about whether to be libertines or prudes, or how lenient and how severe. That will merely drag us into the amorphous debate on obscenity, and lead us to say, ‘I know it when I see it’, in the famous words of US Justice Potter Stewart. “Rather, it’s about who gets to make the call, and whether we can carve out spheres in our lives where we can be free to be ourselves without having to worry about prying eyes.”The act complained of by the school does not warrant the stiff penalty that they meted out and handed to the poor young lass.It is a basic elementary knowledge in law, especially criminal law, that the penalty to be imposed for violation or infraction thereof must be commensurable to the illegal or prohibited act committed.

The pertinent central question to this whole case is that: Does the act of the student in wearing a miniskirt in a charity project outside the vicinity of the school justify the decision or action of the said school in suspending the said student for one week?I do not think so! Hence, based on the legal principle of the commensurability of the imposition of penalty for any legal violation, it is my firm view that the decision arrived at by the school is both inhuman and unconstitutional. Could you imagine that? A student was suspended for one week for wearing a miniskirt? Undeniably that is utterly cruel!According to reports, the parent-teachers association (PTA) chairperson Chua Hong Pioh has defended the move by the school, saying the action was not unprecedented.He said the school had also acted similarly in 2008.Following the 2008 case, he said the school had issued a directive which outlined that there must be proper dress worn during events, including external ones that were linked to the school.Commentaries: Notwithstanding the fact that the act done by the school is not unprecedented, by virtue of the fact that there was already a precedent way back in 2008; still it is my firm view and passionate stand that the school, so as the PTA has viciously violated and encroached on the rights of the said student.

The violation or transgression that I am referring to squarely pertains to the basic fundamental principle of due process; and its corollary necessary twin requisites of due notice and fair hearing.What is due process?It is based on the principle of: “Strike me, if you will; but hear me first”!Following closely the facts of this case, nowhere is it stated nor was it highlighted that the aggrieved student, subject of the order of suspension, was afforded the necessary procedure of due process.On this sense, I completely subscribed to the position taken by the state Education, Youth and Sport Committee chairperson Gan Tian Loo when he categorically stated that he would only comment after he had heard from both sides.

I am applauding the said chairperson in his statement which undeniably shows his impartiality, sense of fairplay, equity and justice! That is the right thing to do in the first place and most reasonable way of handling this sensitive issue that is so impressed with both private and public interest!Was there a prior notice given to the student and to her family? Stating therewith that she is being charged or accused of violating any school rules and/or regulations?Was there an investigation conducted by an impartial tribunal or student-faculty disciplinary committee to see the whole picture or scenario and to ferret out the truth?Was the girl given an opportunity in any forum to face her accuser, to explain her side and to defend herself?It appears that none of the said procedures were undertaken or utilised. Instead, the school, in protecting their “reputation which was smeared” due to the “indecent” attire wore by the said student, with the concurrence and connivance with the PTA, hastily decided to suspend the said student. 

To put it in another way: the school with the support of the PTA, just struck the hapless girl and simply invoked the 2008 precedent; without bothering whether their act will violate the rights of the said girl, hurt her feelings and so as her family and besmirched their reputation.I completely understand the sentiments and I am in full solidarity with the family of the said girl.

I concur with her father, Tan Eng Hock that the said suspension was unwarranted and that the allegation was an embarrassment to their family.As the said father, further stated: “I would have been the first to tick her off if she had dressed sexily”.As an academic myself and as a observer of our society, my other primordial concern with regard to this issue is the welfare and well-being of the central figure and that is no other than the said student herself.I believe she is still a minor and a sad experience like this might affect both her psychological and emotional state.According to the reports and the testimony of her father, the said girl has been crying often since the suspension.

I cannot imagine the situation. The school that was supposed to teach us good manners and right conduct is the very institution that viciously and unjust violates our rights. This is a shame! This is a disgrace! It is on these inhumane grounds, in my view that the school’s judgment is unreasonable, utterly oppressive and indeed, a grave violation of the said student’s rights.Why?As already noted: They’ve struck the girl without first hearing her side! That is unjust, unfair and totally oppressive!It is also my view, that the ruling or judgment or order of the school is void ab initio (void from the beginning).

My humble suggestion to the family of the said girl is to sue the school as well as the PTA for abuse of rights and to demand for moral damages.The school must be taught a lesson by the court.Doing the right thing means we must be governed by reason, common sense, compassion and prudence.

Taken with thanks from: Malaysiakini. No infringement of copyright intended

Malaysiakini: Harrowing 'torture notes' emerge from Kamunting

Harrowing 'torture notes' emerge from Kamunting

Aidila Razak 10:27AM Jun 18, 2012

EXCLUSIVE The emergence of 'torture notes' smuggled out of the Kamunting detention camp, where Internal Security Act detainees are held, has raised questions about interrogation methods used by the authorities. 

The notes, allegedly smuggled out by camp staff and passed on toMalaysiakini, detail the Guantanamo-style 'torture' experienced by some of the 45 detainees still held at the infamous facility in Taiping, Perak.

No dates are given, but the incidents are said to be from the interrogation process while they were held at a remand facility, prior to being transferred to Kamunting.

The contents of the notes cannot be independently verified but the claims include:

• Being forced to strip down to their underwear, and ‘hung’ upside down from a ‘machine’ which moves around the “torture room suspected to be in Bukit Aman”: “Suddenly the machine stops and (the detainee's) body is hit repeatedly with a blunt object (likely with batons). When the blows stop, the machine moves again, but it will soon start up again. Then it is stopped and (the detainee) will be beaten up badly.

• Hot oil being poured onto the genitals

• Ripping out of body hair, including pubic hair

• Smearing of  chilli paste on the body, especially the genitals, with the paste being “left to dry on the body for two to three days.

• Burning of the genitals with cigarettes

• Being made to do naked half-squats for several hours a day for 60 days

It is understood that a Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) team that had recently visited the camp to check on detainees, who were on hunger strike, had also received the same set of notes.

Confirming the existence of the notes, commissioner Muhamad Sha'ani Abdullah said the commission is “discussing” its contents. 

“We will then decide on our next course of action,” he said.  

When contacted, police spokesperson Ramli Yoosuf said the complaint has been noted. 

“We are in the midst of formulating a response as this matter has to be referred to top officials first. We will provide our feedback to you as soon as possible,” he said. 

'Names exist'

Gerakan Mansuh ISA chairperson Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, who has sighted the notes, confirmed that these were from the detainees.

“It is definitely from them,” he said. 

The notes list names and detainee numbers of the alleged victims, but Malaysiakini is withholding the details in the interests of the detainees' safety. 

Lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri said ISA detainees have confirmed that those named in the notes are currently serving out their detention orders. 

Her clients, whom she had visited last month, are not listed in the notes. 

However, she said her clients claimed that they had been “kicked around” in order to force them to sign confessions during the 60-day remand period at Bukit Aman. 

Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam, who visited the camp with Home Ministry officials last month, said the detainees include those being held for alleged human trafficking, involvement in the Jemaah Islamiah, Darul Islam and Jemaah Santri Melayu groups, and for falsifying documents.

Taken with thanks from Malaysiakini:  http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/201143

What's Important by Kirsten Lee

This essay will be divided into three main sections.  The first section will cover a brief history of what I have endeavoured in for the past 2 years and my passion for change in the current Malaysian education system.  The second and third sections will focus on women’s rights and LGBT rights.  These issues are predominantly important to me.  However, it is in no way trying to say that these three aspects are more important than any other human rights but mainly to state my personal views. 

My Encounter with the Malaysian Education System

Only with quality education will a country be able to create a global community that would be able to provide skilled and knowledge workers to compete in the world arena.  As of now, Malaysian graduates, do not have the competitive edge to be able to function beyond Malaysia. 

Upon graduation, I lectured at Stamford College and a year later, was appointed at an Assistant Lecturer at Multimedia University.  During my tenure at these two institutions, I noticed that undergraduate students struggled with the English language.  Not only did they struggled with the language, they struggled with the steeper learning curve as an undergraduate as the local education system in primary and secondary levels have failed to equip them with analytical and creative thinking skills.  Thus, I was inspired to work hard to guide them in building their confidence in self directed learning.      

In 2006, I took a leap of faith to break away from employment to try my hands on being self employed in the supplementary education industry – tutoring.  I chose Johor Bahru because it is mainly a predominantly mandarin speaking community, due to the influence of Singapore mandarin sitcoms and family upbringing.  Johorians have a different perspective towards the Malaysian mainstream education system whereby a majority of them would whisk their children off to Singapore daily for school in a hope to give their children a better education.  These students would then struggle by commuting daily in and out of Singapore.  Others would choose to send their children to a private Chinese medium school even though upon graduation, the certificate is not recognised by the Malaysian Ministry of Education.  Most of the students from this system will seek to study abroad, either in UK, Australia, United States, China or Taiwan.

I started my venture by offering door-to-door tutoring services for students all around Johor Bahru, teaching mainly English language to Malaysian students who study in Singapore primary and secondary schools.  I have always known that there is an urgent need to change the education landscape in Malaysia to allow students the right to quality education.  However, after taking up the role as a private tutor for primary and secondary students this conviction for change had grown stronger.  Thus, I decided to found Think Tank Centre. 

I founded my centre on the basis of wanting to provide supplementary education to the local Johor students to help with their level of proficiency in English.  My centre opens to all segments of the society regardless of race and economic background.  There have been cases where many centres throughout Johor only accept students of a certain ethnic race.  It has become a common practice here as there is a strong belief that students of a certain ethnic race tend to do better in exams and thus, this directly brings up the status of the centre in terms of excellence. 

I advocated a change in mindset amongst parents that learning English was a lifelong experience.  The perception of an exam oriented method of learning for English is not the solution for a student to increase his or her proficiency level. Of course I faced a lot of disagreement from parents about my point of view as they still viewed that scoring distinctions was the main objective of extra tuition.  I don’t disagree with them, but I try to educate parents to see that learning is not only about exams.  It is about preparing their children for the future and how they can use English as a communication tool to bring them further in life.  Early this year, I also opened up new classes for Math and Science for both Singapore and International School syllabuses.  Things are going running well with the centre and there is remarkable academic progress amongst my students.  
  

Malaysia needs to create more graduates that are able to think globally to provide Malaysia an international advantage in fostering better relations with the international world.  What role does higher education have between nations?  Higher education facilitates high movement of students from all over the world to travel to countries that offers quality education.  United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are popular educational destinations for students all over the world as it is wide acknowledged they pride on their high quality of education.  According to the Organisation for Economic Coorperation and Development, there are 4 million tertiary students that study outside of their country in 2009.  Higher education is also important in advocating acquisition of foreign languages, area studies and intercultural appreciation, which is key to creating a borderless world community. 

Institutions of higher education have spear headed numerous scientific and cultural projects that has created opportunities within its country of origin as well as abroad.  This creates a relationship between foreign institutions to work towards scientific and cultural discoveries in a global scale.  Apart from this, since the 1960s, universities and colleges also provide consultancies in the creation of foreign educational institutions.  To give an example of this consultation work is by MIT that helped the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India.

I strongly believe that international relations and diplomacy is needed for implementing new policies within a government and education is always left in the back burner in policy making of any country.  Thus, this is why I feel that it is important that an educational revolution is needed in Malaysia to be able to be a part of this global educational movement. 

Women’s Rights

Moving on to the next section, I would like to expound on women’s rights.  Women have come a long way to fight for their rights in which earned them the right to divorce their husbands, to vote and to protect themselves from any forms of violence. 

In the late years of the 1800s, women were not allowed to vote and waves of protests were started by independent groups of women known as the suffragettes.  The suffragettes movement were then lead by Millicent Fawcett to fight for women’s right to vote with an argument that working women pay the same amount of taxes as working men but were not allowed to vote.  In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst founded Women’s Social and Political Union and believed that if men refused to listen to reason then women would have to use force to persuade them.  Her methods eventually lead to a victory for women’s rights to vote in 1928. 

Women’s rights have come a long way and have won many battles, but the reality is that there are still many battles to be won.  In this time and age, there are still many women who are unable to exercise their rights and are subjected to violence such as sexual abuse and domestic abuse. Apart from physical abuse, women are subjected to constant discrimination in the work place and have to constantly work harder than men to break the glass ceiling.

What baffles me more is the growing practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) amongst certain ethnic groups in the United Kingdom despite it being illegal.  Approximately a total of 500 school girls aged 12 will be circumcised during the summer holidays and most of these are done at home by a non medical practitioner.  This practice is based upon cultural beliefs by certain African tribe groups and is mainly motivated by a belief that circumcision will increase the sexual pleasure of men and to guarantee a girl’s chastity before marriage.  But the desire to conform to traditional practices is the main motivation of these practices.  Some 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and an estimated further two million are at risk every year.  Most live in 28 African countries while others are in Yemen, Kurdistan, United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada. 

In the Malaysian context, laws and legislation relating to rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment is still inadequate.  In 2000 alone, there were 1217 reported cases of rape 3468 cases of domestic violence.  These are only the reported cases with hundreds of cases not being reported due to overwhelming shame due to cultural influences.  These issues are still very much a taboo to be discussed about openly in Malaysia.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Rights

Another issue of human rights that strikes a chord with me is LGBT rights. All of us have our sexual orientation and gender identity.  Thus, discrimination against Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals and Transgender based on sexual orientation or gender identity is an infringement of basic human rights. Sexual orientation covers sexual desires, feelings, practices and identification towards people of the same or different sexes (same-sex, heterosexual or bisexual orientation). Gender identity refers to the complex relationship between sex and gender, referring to a person's experience of self expression in relation to social categories of masculinity or femininity (gender). A person's subjectively felt gender identity may be at variance with their sex or physiological characteristics. 

The rights for LGBT people to get married and to share equal rights as their heterosexual counterparts and decriminalization are two issues within the LGBT rights movement.

Marriage equality for LGBT has become a highly political issue, especially in the United States, where success in the parliamentary election is very much influenced by the political parties’ stand regarding this issue. There has been several milestones achieved in the US gay rights movement in 2011, most notably the abolishment of the “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy in the US army.  President Barrack Obama has given his full support to make this change in the US legislation.  However, with the recent pressure to win the elections, Obama has somewhat softened his support for the gay community to win the hearts of certain Americans who disagree with making marriage equal for LGBT individuals.  There is still a long way to go in US politics for the gay rights movement. 

Criminalization of LGBT individuals just because of their sexual orientation and gender identity is a violation of human rights.  The detention of Jean-Claude Roger Mbede in Cameroon is an example of criminalization that is happening around the globe. Decriminalization of LGBT individuals is a must to allow these individuals to enjoy the right to walk freely without fear of incarceration. 

In 2006, the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was developed by a group of LGBT experts in applying international human rights law to discrimination experienced by lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people to ensure human rights protections. Nevertheless, across the globe, instances of discrimination towards LGBT individuals are a norm.  Some examples of discriminations are through execution by the state, denial of employment, housing or health services, denial of asylum, rape or torture in detention, and loss of custody of children. 

These discriminations are an act of violation of basic human rights and many governments in many countries still refuse to address the violence committed against LGBT people.  One example of a heinous crime that is happening in South Africa is where ‘corrective rape’ is committed towards African lesbians, claiming that it would make them ‘straight’.  These crimes have gone on without much intervention from the South African government. 

Back home in Malaysia, LGBT rights are not recognised.  The LGBT community in Malaysia is a ‘hidden community’ due to fear of humiliation and incarceration as Islam is the official religion of Malaysia. The ruling party in Malaysia, United Malaysia National Organisation (UMNO) set up a “People’s Anti-homosexual Voluntary Movement” in 1998 to advocate for stricter criminal laws against homosexuality. The Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case in 1998 was a political debacle for Malaysia as well as a highly sensational court case. Despite national and international protests, he was not released until he served his four year sentence. 

The only political party that publicly states their support to fight for LGBT rights in Malaysia is the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Instead, most LGBT rights movement in Malaysia are ran at a pretext of organizing an annual sexuality rights festival called “Seksualiti Merdeka” or “Independent Sexuality”. This festival hopes to provide an advocacy platform for sexuality rights in Malaysia. In recent years, it has had to battle with backlash from the government and numerous anti-gay groups in Malaysia. 

The rights of LGBT individuals in Malaysia are in dire need of representation as what is happening right now in the Malaysian community is an approach that LGBT individuals do not exist in our society.  Personally, I have close friends who have been disowned by their own family due to the shame that it brings and I can see their struggles to reconcile their love for their partner and with their family.

There is a great need for more advocacies for the LGBT rights movement.  Governments and gay rights movement have to continue to work together to play a role in drafting and approving legislation to protect the rights of LGBT individuals.  Apart from this, greater awareness is needed to educate the masses that discriminating against people just because of their sexuality and gender identity is not a warranted behaviour as it can cause grievous repercussions to those who are directed to. 

 To conclude, I have great aspirations to make a change in Malaysia as well as for the global community as a whole, mainly in the fields of education and human rights. I wish to create an environment in Malaysia through politics and NGOs in which Malaysians will have the opportunity to be competitive in the global arena and be able to practice their rights to the fullest extent as we all deserve so much more.    

  

References:

1.      Lane, J. & Kinser, K. (March 12, 2012). The Chronicle of Higher Education. In What is Higher Education’s Role in International Relations? Retrieved May 25, 2012, from http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/what-is-higher-educations-role-in-international-relations/29208

2.      McVeigh, T. & Sutton, T. (July 25, 2010). The Guardian The Observer.  In British Girls Undergo Horror of Genital Mutilation Despite Tough Laws. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/25/female-circumcision-children-british-law

3.      Josiah, Ivy. (September 9, 2001). Asia Society. In There are No Human Rights Without Women’s Rights. Retrieved on May 25, 2012 from http://asiasociety.org/policy/social-issues/women-and-gender/there-are-no-human-rights-without-womens-rights

4.      N.A (nd). Amnesty International Website. In About LGBT Human Rights. Retrieved on May 26, 2012, from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/lgbt-rights/about-lgbt-human-rights