Bad Politics And Boatloads Of Refugees

A little bird tells me (okay, it was the Rakyat Times) that Tash Aw of The Harmony Silk Factory (I have actually read the book) fame, has waded into the huge conundrum of what to do with the Rohingya refugees.

To be fair, he makes some really good points about Malaysia stepping up to its role as ASEAN chair and using its economic power to deal with Myanmar.

After all, Malaysia has $1.65 billion worth of trade deals with Myanmar. That is no small amount.

It turns out that Myanmar also has gas, and Petronas is the principal foreign partner (yes, Malaysia unfailingly perks up at the mention of oil and gas) in the Yetagun offshore gas field.

For obvious reasons, Malaysia would have to think twice about upsetting Myanmar.

So like everyone else, I was rather surprised when the Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman, actually met up with his Myanmarese counterpart and "asked for a guarantee from the Myanmar government to help in tackling the crisis while also stressing on the importance of Myanmar identifying and resolving the main cause of the problem."

That is progress because it tackles the root of the problem at this point: Myanmar.

Myanmar has categorically marginalised the Rohingya people. And bloody Aung San Suu Kyi has not said a damn thing about it; so much for her Nobel Peace Prize. Pooh.

One point that Myanmar repeatedly makes is that Rohingya are not inherently citizens of Myanmar. The accusation is that they are economic migrants from Bangladesh.

Assuming that this is true, this would force us to shift our attention to Bangladesh.

Now Bangladesh is a whole new can of worms.

I presume that at one point in time, it was part of India - back in those days when borders were superfluous and people moved about as they wished.

Then the British showed up, and after a prolonged battle for independence, India became a sovereign nation, resulting in many Muslims moving up to Pakistan.

Bangladesh was considered East Pakistan, before it finally seceded from Pakistan.

The governance of Bangladesh has always been pathetic. Like India, there has been assassinations, but the power has always been a game of musical chairs between the Zia dynasty, the Sheikh dynasty and the military.

Actually, it's been more of a wrestling match than game of musical chairs. But I digress.

All three groups are useless. The Sheikh governance particularly springs to mind, because in 2011, they tried to remove Muhammad Yunus from Grameen Bank.

Photo: Shahidul Alam, New York Times

I confess that I always sound like a teenage groupie whenever I talk about Grameen Bank and its founder Muhammad Yunus.

This is because this economics doctorate-holder from Vanderbilt University in the US, who works as a professor in Bangladesh's Chittagong University, has managed to do what most governments could not.

He pioneered micro-credit in Bangladesh - basically lending money to classes of people formerly underserved: the poor, women, illiterate, and unemployed people.

Grameen Bank is founded on the principle that loans are better than charity to interrupt poverty: they offer people the opportunity to take initiatives in business or agriculture, which provide earnings and enable them to pay off the debt.

The bank is founded on the belief that people have endless potential, and unleashing their creativity and initiative helps them end poverty.

I confess that I am incredulous when I read that most of the loans are repaid.

The. Loans. Are. Repaid.

And these are poor people!

Another thing that he did, that would never come under the purview of a modern, impersonal bank, is that he created social rules for those taking credit from his bank.

These include: educating the children, community hygiene, and even against accepting dowry!

Yes, I was very impressed.

But good things never last. Someone always shows up and spoils the fun. This was the Sheikh Hasina administration, who took advantage of "non-compliance" in Bangladeshi banking regulations to get rid of him.

I was in high school when Muhammad Yunus was bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his outstanding work. I remember reading about him.

Greed and jealousy of the incompetent Bangladeshi government, however, fomented within those 5 years to shut him out.

Muhammad Yunus and his bank could have done much more to improve the lives of the common Bangladeshi. Perhaps this would have reduced the number of refugees trying to flee Bangladesh.

Ironically, this is the story of two Nobel Prize winners.

One who was forced into silence, and one who remains silent of her own accord.

Related:
Malaysia’s Duty to the Rohingyas - New York Times

Seeking But Finding The Unexpected

A lot of them come to seek jobs in Malaysia. After all, Malaysia has a huge need for low-skilled labour.

Apparently only 30 to 40% of them were Rohingya; the rest of them were Bangladeshis seeking their fortune.

They never found it.

Unfortunately, many of them met their ends at transitory migrant camps at the border between Malaysia and Thailand. These were suspected human trafficking camps, about 139 of them.

My nationality - and the consequent opportunities that it brings - are an accident of birth and not of my choosing, but it does make me stop and wonder how misfortunate some groups of people can be.

Being Demoted

Two bits of news caught my eye this week.

The first is that Malaysia has been downgraded by the United States for human rights abuses, namely in the trafficking of people.

From the Guardian:

The US has downgraded Malaysia to the lowest ranking in its annual human trafficking report, relegating the southeast Asian nation to the same category as Zimbabwe, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. The move could result in economic sanctions and loss of development aid.

Malaysia's relegation to tier 3 in the US state department's Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report – published on Friday – indicates that the country has categorically failed to comply with the most basic international requirements to prevent trafficking and protect victims within its borders.

Human rights activists in Malaysia and abroad welcomed the downgrade as proof of the government's lax law enforcement, and lack of political will, in the face of continued NGO and media reports on trafficking and slavery.

"Malaysia is not serious about curbing human trafficking at all," said Aegile Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, a local charity that works directly with trafficking victims.

"The order of the day is profits and corruption. Malaysia protects businesses, employers and agents [not victims] – it is easier to arrest, detain, charge and deport the migrant workers so that you protect employers and businesses."

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't give two shits about what the US govt thinks or does not think of Malaysia. The US has Guantanamo Bay, privatised prisons for which there is a must-fill quota; conveniently resolved by the arrest and incarceration of ethnic minorities over minor offenses. They are in no position to moralise.

However, what rankles is that in this instance, they are right in putting Malaysia in the same category as .... Zimbabwe, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Yuck.

What's the deal with Malaysia then?

"When you Google 'Malaysia', it's among the five worst countries for refugees," said Lia Syed, executive director of the Malaysia Social Research Insitute, which supports refugees.

"There is no policy for refugees in Malaysia at all. They are not recognised, they do not have legal status, they are just considered illegal migrants.

It doesn't matter what country they come from, what their story is, they do not get any support officially from the government."

It looks like we're a country deeply lacking in compassion. Ironically, do you know what's happened? The government has become the Malaysian version of America's GOP or better known as the Republicans whose main aim in life is to figure out new ways to line their pockets at the expense of everyone else.

Number one on the GOP agenda is THEMSELVES. Malaysia is turning into them. No thought could be more revolting than that, in my honest opinion.

And then, the second bit of news is that we have been demoted in university ranks. According to the Times Higher Education rankings, we don't even make it to Asia's top 100!

What?! Where are we going??

That is disheartening, since I am a proud graduate of one of Malaysia's once esteemed universities.

I am not even going to dwell on Singapore's placings (which used to be part of Malaysia) but even territorially unrested Iran's Sharif University has made it to rank number 37, so we should thoroughly be ashamed of ourselves!

Rip Van Winkle has a point: the value of Malaysian education is questionable.

Our education is going down the drain and it is no wonder that parents are sending their children to private institutions/academies.

Perhaps instead of doing that, we should be more firm with our government?

It is after all, their role to keep the standard up if not to improve it.

Results, Not Rhetoric

We're obviously full of talk, and next to nothing on substance.

And reaching new heights on the Malaysia Boleh scale, we have been blacklisted by the United States for human trafficking.

The government has protested and called the blacklisting unfair treatment.

But the US is obviously not gullible.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The United States welcomes Malaysia's crackdown on human trafficking, but wants to see "results rather than rhetoric" before it can remove the Southeast Asian country from a blacklist, a senior official said Thursday.

Several alleged traffickers, including government officials colluding with them, have been arrested and charged in recent weeks after Malaysia was labeled one of the world's worst offenders in a U.S. State Department report released in June.

The prosecutions were "heartening," Luis CdeBaca, a top State Department official, told reporters at the end of a three-day visit to Malaysia where he met with government officials and aid groups.

But "we are looking for sustainability. We want to make sure that cases are brought (to court) not simply in the interim period," he said.

Check out our status on Human Trafficking.

Half the time, it's the Malaysian immigration officers who are guilty of the crime:
Malaysian Officers Held over Burmese Migrant Sale
Five immigration officers nabbed for human trafficking

But for reporting the truth through her organisation Tenaganita, Irene Fernandez goes to jail.

And we're celebrating 52 years of independence? What have we achieved??