Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Undocumented Migrants are not Cockroaches Posted: 02 Sep 2013 08:17 AM PDT
One would have been forgiven to think that the newspapers were writing about an operation to rid the country of cockroaches or some other vermin: "No place to hide"; "…will be hunted down…"; "to flush out unwanted foreigners"… Dr Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser The hypocrisy and injustice of the on-going mass operation against undocumented migrants has been accompanied by the most unfortunate use of language by the mainstream press in this campaign. One would have been forgiven to think that the newspapers were writing about an operation to rid the country of cockroaches or some other vermin: "No place to hide"; "…will be hunted down…"; "to flush out unwanted foreigners"… The hypocrisy of this mass operation is exposed when we are reminded of "Project IC", when foreigners were given identity cards so they could vote in elections. The existence of seafront ghettoes all along the Sabah coastline has come about through the connivance of the authorities especially when the government was providing training for the Muslim insurgents who were fighting the Marcos regime. The numbers of undocumented migrants in the peninsula have varied according to the political will of the government. Employers have also made use of migrant labour as it has suited them. The injustice of the current mass operation is seen in the failure of the government's "Illegal Immigrant Comprehensive Settlement (6P) Programme to properly register migrants. Consequently, there are those whose work permits are pending renewal; others who have been cheated by the companies tasked by the government to register the migrants. There are also migrants whose work permits have been terminated by their employers because they have brought cases in the Labour Tribunal or the courts. Tenaganita has also reported cases of government-approved companies that have outsourced the dispensing of work permits to "shell companies" which have cheated the migrant workers. The Malaysian Immigration Act 1959/63 does not differentiate between migrants and refugees. Unlike migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland; hence they flee their country of origin and cannot return home. The principle of non-refoulement in Article 33 (1) of the 1951 Refugee Convention states that: "No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." After 56 years of independence, it is sad that our government has not imbibed the culture of human rights, nor has our mainstream press learnt to use humane language. How ironical that the South African president Zuma should be given a honorary doctorate for humanity (sic) by a local university after South African police had only recently shot dead more than 30 striking miners at Lonmin platinum mine. |
| Fuel hike - Najib is personally responsible for the consequences of human disaster Posted: 02 Sep 2013 08:14 AM PDT
In other countries where public transport services are adequately and efficiently provided, petrol price increase will encourage private car drivers to switch to public transport. However, in the case of Malaysia, each fuel hike exercise means more deaths on the road. Liew Chin Tong Research has shown that motorcycle fatalities shot up as a result of the March 2006 and June 2008 fuel hikes as the lower income group switched transport modes from cars to motorcycles. A new human disaster of more motorcycle fatalities is imminent, following the latest petrol price increase. Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak is personally responsible for the failure of the government in providing adequate public transport services ever since he called on Malaysians to "change their lifestyle" when announcing the fuel hike in March 2006 in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister. When announcing the fuel hike today, Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak argued that with a higher amount of 1Malaysia assistance (BR1M) , the impact of the increase would be absorbed. But what the government is not acknowledging is the human cost of increasing the petrol price without providing adequate, efficient and affordable public transport services. Malaysia has the dubious record of having the highest road fatality risk, i.e. death per 100,000 population, in the world since 1996.(1) Between 2000 and 2009, 4.5 million road accidents were reported with 58,582 deaths.(2) Motorcycle fatalities are 3 times higher than car fatalities, 6 times higher than pedestrian fatalities and nearly 50 times higher than bus passenger fatalities.(3) In other countries where public transport services are adequately and efficiently provided, petrol price increase will encourage private car drivers to switch to public transport. However, in the case of Malaysia, each fuel hike exercise means more deaths on the road. Najib announced the government's commitment to improve public transport with a RM4.4 billion fund in March 2006 but nothing much happened since then. Most of the so-called public transport projects such as the long delayed LRT extension project and MRT project are Kuala Lumpur-centric with no national relevance. These are essentially mega projects designed to feed the big construction lobby than to improve public transport throughout the country.
In fact, the estimated RM1.1 billion subsidy reduction from this exercise is less than the amount lost due to diesel fuel smuggling.
I call on the Government and Prime Minister Najib to acknowledge the human cost of more motorcycle fatalities as a result of the latest fuel hike and take immediate action to formulate a national transport plan with the focus on providing adequate, efficient and affordable public transport services nationwide. |
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