Globalization kills Diversity

I have been changing the television channel. Nothing interest me. Not for lacking of program but because it’s the same, only the language is different. They teach you to cook. They share recipes. They test your ability to cook and create recipe. The style, the way they judge the cook and the way the ‘judges’ dress up, all looks the same. From cook show to song competitions, game show and even reality shows. Hmmph!!!

When you go for holidays and visit other countries. They look the same like our country as well. Very little difference. Be it the way, young people dress up, shopping complex, the brand, the company and the decoration inside, looks almost the same. People walk fast, smile, always looking at their mobile phone, some are very helpful, some are not, just like in my country, nothing unique.

To see something genuine or unique, one have to go to some rural areas or find it in the museum.

Sometime ago while I was reading about communism, it says those people under communist rule wears and owns the same thing at the same quantity. I wonder if the author meant to say under globalization!

Even terminology is globalized. Everyone talk about sustainability from the rich capitalist to the poor who are in need of loan for micro business. Everyone talk about going green, organic, no plastic and what not while burning the jungle and keep building skyscraper.

What is left that is not copied?

No longer watching Astro!
Letchimi Devi

Feeling so Important!

Yes, why it’s so important for each or maybe most people to tell the world how important they are and desperately seeking attention. Action speaks louder, that’s what I keep telling myself. Never mind how much one talks or for how long, only action counts.

How do you survive among people who talk and talk and then waste your time just so they can show you how important they are and how ‘small’ the rest are. Whatever happened to humbleness!

I could not help but look up on the internet about self importance. It leads me to Narcissists. This sounds a bit more strong though.

While narcissists may appear to have an inflated sense of self-importance, this often stems from low self-esteem and insecurity.

Sometimes it seems like we live in a world plagued by people with an inflated sense of self-importance – like that one Facebook friend who brags about every minute of her life, or the coworker who drones on and on about how wonderful he is.

But it can be hard to decipher whether these people simply lack self-awareness or if they suffer from a deeper problem, like narcissism.

Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and a licensed clinical psychologist, shares some of the qualities that might make you, or someone you know, a narcissist.

• You blame others for your problems
• You’ve been told you lack empathy
• If you do something kind for someone, you expect endless thanks
• You’ve been told you’re charming or charismatic
• You’ve been told by former significant others that you came on really strong at first
• You’ve cheated on your significant other in the past
• You lack self-confidence
• You think you’re more important than everyone else
• You think the world doesn’t see how truly amazing you are
• You think you’re above it all
• You like to give advice, even when it’s unsolicited
• You have a perfectly curated appearance
• When you accomplish something, you crave validation from others — especially on social media
• You often have fits of anger

Now, I feel like a narcissist too!!!
Letchimi Devi

How far would they go?

I was terrified. 3 family members (1 more is feared dead as well) were brutally murdered. Two of them from UK, and they were here to visit their family. It would not have crossed their mind at all that this is how their life will be terminated by the very people that we supposed to trust, the Malaysian police.

If this could happen to them, what stops from happening to any of us, despite whether you are a saint, activist or just an ordinary lay man going about your life?

What safety is there especially if this could happen in country like Malaysia, a kidnap, abuse and then shot to death. All in a daylight. The supposedly ‘man of duty and honor’ can go on and manipulate, lie and distort the whole incident to their ‘typical’ police line, “they were running away, had weapons and we shot to defend ourselves”. How far will they go? Who are they protecting? When Altantuya brutal murder came to light, we all kind of figured out, who are being protected but this one is quite mystery still. It’s linked to previous convict who supposedly went missing in 2016 while under police custody.

I wonder if these people in power are bound by any consciousness? How are they got promoted and kept in the job and serving whose interest? Definitely not the public if we the public are subject to such brutality?

If you are reading this and not sure what the hell I am talking about, please the article by MalaysiaKini. https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/492159?fbclid=IwAR1XruPMza9Qrp7RwhTYRNnE0QYnU7fjgoGxaGGB7-IpN1KtS8z4VHll6dk#.XX-HkMdvAL0.facebook

I am still in shock. Probably because one of our friend called my husband to relay a message about receiving a distress call from a lady about their family members gone missing since they went out for lunch and that their car was found somewhere in Serdang. The family went to check the car and asked around, eyewitness said the car was surrounded by few other cars and taken away in another car. It was assumed they could be police or somebody else. In my mind if it was police , they would have informed the family, why would they ‘kidnap’. How naive I could be? Few hours later, the lady in distress called to say, they were murdered by POLICE. Whatever the crime, how could they just abduct and kill, worst still when the victims were not even involved in any crime!!!

Off course, my logical mind need to see some stats to believe if this is isolated incidence or we should really be worried about crime within the police department. We have heard this in other countries, how much is it really happening in Malaysia?

Altantuya Shaariibuu, 2006

Sirul Azhar Umar and another police officer, Azilah Hadri, were sentenced to death in 2015 after being found guilty in Malaysia of the murder of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu, a former model working as an interpreter to a former associate of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak. Shaariibuu was probably blown up with explosives in a forest on the outskirts of Malaysia’s capital in 2006, court records quote a forensic pathologist as saying, in a case shrouded in mystery 13 years later.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2186953/malaysian-policeman-convicted-killing-mongolian-interpreter

Human Rights Watch 2014

In an interview, then-Deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid bin Abu Bakar (now the Inspector General of Police) told Human Rights Watch that police could use lethal force for “self-protection … if police are threatened with death [and] there is no time to use a less lethal weapon.” But Human Rights Watch’s investigations found an apparent pattern of police seeking to justify fatal shootings by asserting that a suspect had a parang (a type of machete), or posed a menace to police during a car chase or avoiding a roadblock. Yet even when these accounts plainly contradicted witness accounts, police rarely investigated their own officers’ claims. Often police from the same station carried out the investigation of their colleague’s alleged abuses.

Selected Quotes
On shooting of suspects:
“We didn’t know that he was a police officer as the car was not marked ‘police’ and he was not in uniform. Dinesh got out of his car and headed towards the police. When the police started shooting he ran back to his car. He [the man in civilian dress] then started shooting at our car. My friend Moses and I heard about 10 to 15 shots fired during the incident. At all times, Dinesh didn’t hold any weapons.”
—Nelawarasan Yoakanathan, witness to shooting of Dinesh Darmasena in Ampang

“I was adjusting my seatbelt and looking down when my friend told me that two men were approaching the car and had sticks in their hands. When I saw the men with sticks – they did not have any uniform on – I thought they were robbers so I began reversing. I panicked. Suddenly, there were bullet sounds. We bent down. The car was shot at least two to three times. I felt numb and could not feel anything and my friend told me that I had been shot. When I looked down… I saw blood.”
—Shahril Azlan, truck driver shot by police in Selangor

On deaths in custody:
“My husband didn’t deserve this, and we don’t want this to happen to others like it has happened to us … We will fight to the end to make sure that this kind of torture doesn’t happen again … We don’t have anyone else now, he was the only breadwinner in our family – there is no one to take care of us, what can I do without my husband? I really believed that my husband would come back, because the investigating officer said to me not to worry because my husband didn’t do anything wrong and they were just borrowing my husband to make a statement. I am going to fight for him all the way.”
—Marry Mariasusay, wife of Dhamendran Narayanasamy, speaking at Kuala Lumpur Hospital morgue

On torture and ill-treatment by police:
“One policeman took a pipe hose and beat under my feet many times until I could not bear the pain. . . . He said I am drug user and said dirty words to me in Malay. After that they let me be for over an hour. Then an Indian constable Ragu without uniform came, and I asked him “Why am I being beaten? I need to send my kids to school this morning.”…. He kicked my face. Another constable stepped on both legs and Ragu took the hose pipe and beat my leg … then took a gun and put it to my head and ordered me to confess that I am drug addict and stole a lorry.”
—Mogan Subramanian, tortured by police in Taman Jaya, Selangor

“Three police took me outside of the cell. Two were in uniform and another in plainclothes. The one in plainclothes punched me in the stomach several times until I collapsed to the floor. Then another police kicked me from behind. He kicked me in the back very hard repeatedly. He kicked me several times. People in the cell saw this and they shouted at those police, telling them to stop. That, perhaps, saved me. The beating stopped and I was put back in the cell. I was in severe pain. I had bruises all over my chest, stomach, and back.”
—Ahmed Amin Draman, tortured by police in Tenah Merah police station, in Kota Bahru, Kelantan.

Misconduct or Ordered to Kill?

If it’s misconduct due to work stress or human error, there is still some hope of rehabilitation through policy changes, education and training, better monitoring mechanism and better reward system.

If it’s racial, considering there are more Indians targeted as in like US where black and minorities lives matters very little, then this is a serious issue considering politicians, current or previous are alike in using race and religion to break and rule. You know how obvious that is in the whole drama with Zakir Naik. Suddenly he is more important than our unity!

If it is related to some high level crime involving the police force as alleged by the father of the family who were murdered recently, I could only think of one intervention. Pakatan Government need to do proper “clean up” activity. When these Pakatan fellows were in Opposition, how much noise they made over police brutality issue, but now as government, do we hear their voice? Police force is the governments executive and implementing agency and so, did the police received order from someone in the government? Is this issue of corruption?

Violence is inherent to policing. As critic Kristian Williams notes, “In the field of social control, police are specialists in violence. They are armed, trained, and authorized to use force … Violence as well as the law is what they represent.”

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/police-interaction-course-brutality-racism

What is Police Brutality?

The first step in preventing police brutality is understanding what it is. Police brutality oftentimes falls under the category of excessive force or unreasonable force. Excessive force occurs in any situation where a government official who is allowed to use force against other people uses too much force. Remember that a police officer is allowed to use force as long as it is reasonably necessary. The issue occurs when there are not grounds for force or the force gets escalated to an inappropriate level.

If a conflict occurs, a police officer should use gradual methods to resolve the situation. Ideally, a police officer won’t need to use force at all. Their mere presence or verbal interactions with a suspect would be enough to resolve any issues. This is oftentimes what happens.

Police officers themselves admit to excessive force. A study conducted by the Department of Justice found that 84% of police officers surveyed say they have seen colleagues use excessive force. Over 60% also admit that they do not always report police brutality.

https://www.ruaneattorneys.com/civil-rights/police-misconduct/police-brutalityexcessive-force/

The fact that police abuse remains a significant problem does not mean there has been no progress. In communities all across the United States people have organized to bring about change, and some of the most successful strategies are described in this manual, now in its 3rd printing. This manual was not inspired by, nor is it intended to generate, animosity toward the police, or to promote the perception that all police officers are prone to abuse. They are not. Rather, it arose out of our realization that, ultimately, it will take a strong and sustained effort by community groups to bring about real and lasting reform. And it is to those efforts that this manual is dedicated.

https://www.aclu.org/other/fighting-police-abuse-community-action-manual

In Malaysia, IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) is the way forward. What is the Home Ministry’s position on IPCMC?

13 and 12 year old boys arrested for ‘trespassing’ and playing at one of the college premises, near my town. This was today. They are kids. The police could just have advice them and let go. What is the need to arrest and put in prison, even given 2 days remand? From morning, until now (4. 50 pm), my husband was on the phone talking to the family and the police, so that the children are released. They are released but I cannot let go of the feeling, that these kids could also be another victim. There is no guarantee…

By
Letchimi Devi

Untold Desires

“Thirty year old Mintu has a bent leg (diplegic cerebral palsy), he has to use a stick. He has seen economic hardship since a child. He is desperately looking for job, whether it be a night guard or an office assistant. He thinks his family doesn’t respect him or his opinions because he doesn’t have an income. Mintu had received a missed call on his phone one day. He called the number back and started talking to the woman on the other side. There was an instant romantic interest on both sides…..”

Untold Desires, written by Saad Adnan Khan and Farhana Alam. Both are attached to The Centre for Excellence of Gender, Sexual and the Reproductive Health and Rights BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University (Bangladesh).

The book reminds me of the recent tamil movie, Peranbu, directed by Ram and the main actors are Mammooty and Sadhana.  It’s about a single father tries to raise his daughter, who has cerebral palsy, even as she is beginning to wake up to her sexuality. The movie really made my cry but I must admit, at some point I felt uncomfortable because the truth really hits you.

Both the movie and the book is truly an eye opening. It never crossed my mind, such ignorance about the life of people who are considered different and not of the general norm or standard ‘fixed’ by the society. Not to forget, the taboo behind this topic.

Untold desires reached out to both urban and rural disabled individuals and across the intersection of class of both gender. Each personality in this book has gone through so much hardship and growing up in an environment that is made for ‘the able bodied’ who has many misconceptions, make living a ‘normal life’ harder.

“Twenty one year old Neetu has post-polio syndrome.  She can’t walk at all and has to crawl on all fours. Regardless of these limitations, she has an active life and does most of the household chores. Five years back, she had a relationship with her maternal cousin and became pregnant from that relationship. She bore the child believing that the cousin will marry her……”

An article by Sonali Shah from the Centre for Disability Research, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom:

However, societal misconceptions of disabled bodies being non-normative, other, or deviant has somewhat shaped how the sexuality of disabled people has been constructed as problematic under the public gaze. The pervasive belief that disabled people are asexual creates barriers to sexual citizenship for disabled young people, thereby causing them to have lower levels of sexual knowledge and inadequate sex education compared to their non-disabled peers. As a consequence, they are more vulnerable to “bad sex”—relationships, which are considered to be exploitative and disempowering in different ways.

“Thirty three old Redwan has congenital band syndrome. He was born with club foot – a deformed leg. Chronic pain was his constant company while growing up. He dated a girl for few months. It didn’t work out. According to Redwan, the girl was controlling and constantly compared him to other men. He thinks he is more confident after being with her. He used to stammer, but no longer.”

Back to the movie Peranbu, I was impressed how the story involving a father and his relationship with his teenage daughter on many delicate matter was told. Especially when the daughter is vulnerable and helpless e.g. having menses. Really amazing parents out there who are in the same situation and being the support needed for their child. The research study, untold desire concluded with a statement for us to ponder, disability cannot be seen as the only aspect of a person’s life. A person cannot be and should not be judged and understood based on their disability solely.

Thank you
Letchimi Devi

 

 

Trade interest surpass Myanmar’s arrogant nationalism

In Malaysia, we have some 145,000 refugees from Myanmar alone.  Due to persecution they flee to neighboring countries since late 1970s. Myanmar government ‘produces’ refugees in the name of ‘nationalism’. Their arbitrary citizenship law, intolerance towards diversity and continuous crime against humanity, for a Buddhist country, is totally unacceptable. Yet, it seems the world is ‘afraid’ of Myanmar, including the superpowers. No serious action and that leads one to question how genuine are the world humanitarian response to the refugees from Myanmar especially the Rohingya.

I felt even more angry after visiting the Rohingya refugee camp at Cox Bazaar, almost a million people living there. How is it possible that the Myanmar government can be so heartless. For sure they are not the only one. We have many crime against humanity and the international laws and conventions for human rights are merely ‘decorative tool’. National interest comes first or should I say trade interest? How at all the perpetrators keep on justifying their act, at mass level. Refugees in Malaysia are the living prove of these crimes –> the Yemenis, Syrians, Somalis, Pakistani,  Palestinians, Iraqis and the various ethnic minority from Myanmar. The largest of them all are the Rohingyas.  Is power all about killing and displacing people???

Let’s talk about the cause of my frustration.

I am working with refugees for past 15 years. During these period, Achehnese refugees returned home (repatriated) because of the peace agreement between the Acheh freedom movement and Indonesian government, 2005. Some autonomy was granted to Acheh people. Then there was influx of large ethnic minorities, mostly Christians and stateless people from Myanmar. Record says the internal conflict between the ethnic groups and Myanmar military government going on since their independence in 1948.

Resettlement seems to be the only solution for some of them, in Malaysia. Those lucky ones were largely resettled in United States and Australia. The democratization process (moving away from army led government) since 2015 (election held but many minority groups were not allowed to vote – it’s definitely not free and fair election!) in Myanmar, led to peace talk between the government and  the ethnic minority armed forces. Rohingya community was not even invited in this peace talk. The irony is though all these ethnic minorities has armed factions for ages but for some reason Rohingya ethnic arm group, ARSA,  was new but immediately declared as terrorist group. How are they different?

[According to data released by Myanmar Peace Monitor in 2013, Myanmar remains home to some 50 ethnic armed forces, which include both revolutionary armed groups, government-backed militia of various ethnicity and smaller insurgent groups]

Some of these ethnic group are already represented in the government. Apparently the government also welcomes these refugees back to their country but for some security reason and potential threat to their live, the repatriation was cancelled early this year.

[The Irrawady reported, 11/9/2018 that after two and half years of the NLD in power, political parties of Myanmar’s different major ethnic groups— the Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Mon and Chin— have officially announced their solidarity in the run for the 2020 elections. “We accept the concept of having one party that represents one ethnic group. We [Chin] voted for the NLD in 2015 because we thought they would create policies to defend ethnic rights and form federal states. After getting involved in the peace process, we have gradually come to understand that their stand for ethnic rights is weak.”]

I believe the above mentioned political parties have the responsibility to ensure safety and meaningful livelihood of those displaced and wants to return home. If the said ethnic groups are holding political power and no longer persecuted, they have obligation to bring back their displaced community. Hopefully the 2020 election in Myanmar, brings durable solution to some of the largest ethnic Myanmar refugee minorities in Malaysia and other states.

How about others such as Myanmar Tamil and Burmese Muslims (different from Rohingya Muslims) in Malaysia and claim they are too discriminated and not given citizenship?  

No doubt, the stateless Rohingya would remain in Malaysia, Bangladesh and other countries. Will they be integrated in their current refuge country, resettled or relocated to an island? Bangladesh already prepared the island. Would it be like the  Christmas Island (Australia) refugee detention camp?

How long can one live in uncertainty since Malaysia might not integrate all of them. Refugees are treated as illegals under the law. They don’t have the same rights as Malaysians. Everything (food, shelter, job, health care, education, public space, freedom, mobility, family, relationship, participation, assets, finance) is a struggle. HOPE is there still. But where is social justice? 

Why those who have influence such as US, Australia, European Union, ASEAN, India, China and Russia ‘endorsing’ Myanmar government by only condemning verbally. Not much gained from peaceful negotiation. How is it fair that other poor countries like Bangladesh, who are already battling with both their own environment and socio-economic issue, to give up more than 2,000 acres forest land and other services for Rohingya refugees.  Managing refugees must be a business by itself because it creates job, brings in donor money and more consumers to help the local market.

[Myanmar Times reported on 8/9/2019, Singapore has overtaken China as the country’s main source of foreign investment in 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations. The other top investors were Thailand, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Japan, India, France, the United States, Indonesia and Canada. Some investors from Singapore may not be Singaporean but are based in the island-nation. Many companies investing in Myanmar from Singapore are multinationals that set up regional headquarters in the Lion City. ]

The people, you and I must do something, at least for the future of these children.
We need to continue put the pressure as the above mentioned countries has vested interest, hence will continue to manipulate the people with their rhetoric only.

# Citizenship
# No Statelessness
# No racial discrimination
# No religious discrimination
# Love Diversity
# Love Humanity

Thank you for reading my scribble,
Letchimi Devi