Most of the constitutions of the world provide a fundamental right to every citizen of any given country where he can earn his livelihood with grace and get a decent sum of money in return for the services. The advent of the service economy in Malaysia saw an ugly turnaround of the events when the case of domestic worker Adelina Sau hogged the limelight (Walton, 2019). While looking at a first look it seems like a case of gruesome torture and culpable homicide which was not proved. However, the financials attached to the case raised a series of question-related to the financial rights of the migrants in Malaysia, valid questions have been raised about the legal status and the minimum wage structures for the migrants (Bhattsali, 2013). In the case of Adelina Sau, the proceeding of the crime started to explore a murder, however, the investigation opened a Pandora of many other irregularities and atrocities that she was facing when she was alive. She was not able to retaliate the moves of her master because her financial rights were seized; her master was not paying her salary and forcing her to stay with him amidst all the torture. Financially she was incapable to set herself free. The investigators considered it as the major reason behind her “no reporting of the crime.”
The details of this forced the legal authorities and social engineers to rethink about a nexus of the human traffickers, recruitment agents, and legal advisors appointed by the Malaysian government, policymakers of Indonesia and Malaysia and related departments. The crux of this case indicates a clear violation of human rights because Indonesian government failed in recognizing their workers, working in the service economy of Malaysia. Quite surprisingly, Indonesian government didn’t take a serious note of the need for drafting adequate laws for the migrants that are traveling from Indonesia to Malaysia (economic And sociAL rights in the courtroom, 2014).
When we see this case from the lens view of the fundamental rights prevailing in Malaysia and Indonesia, we find that most of the migrants prefer to acquire illegal ways because the procedures associated with the migration are very strict. The details of this crime give us the idea that “fundamental rights” related to the earning of livelihood are not practiced properly, serious gaping holes are present, for instance, both the governments failed in looking at the condition of the migrant workers in accordance to a synoptic outlook. The number of migrants is much higher (Wai, 2017).
The fundamental rights to livelihood and economic emancipation should be protected by the governments by coming up with supporting legislative. This case study also gives us the idea that the fundamental rights of a human being cannot survive with patronage from the supportive local laws and legislations.
In order to corroborate this fact we can take the example of the case of Lena Hendry, she is a social worker and her issue was related to the freedom of the expression. Her documentary film “No Fire Zone” received undue censorship because some of the contents of this film were promoting an anti-establishment thought process. However she met with success because of some of the provisions of the “The communication and multimedia act of 1998, “some of the provisions of this act safeguarded the freedom of the expression for Lena, the clause related to the broad interpretation of any content safeguarded her freedom of expression.
On a conclusive note, we find a striking contrast between the practice of the fundamental laws in Malaysia and neighboring countries. The case Adelina Sau is only a tip of the iceberg, this iceberg is full of such migrants that are finding it difficult to survive in the absence of adequate supporting laws to protect their fundamental economic law of earning a livelihood with human dignity and justified remuneration. The case of Lena Hendry, on the other hand, presents an example that how “freedom of expression” can survive under international pressures and the pressures created by the sovereigns and other mighty bodies that matter.
According to a recent report published in all the leading daily newspapers of Malaysia, many whistleblowers raised an alarm about the number of death sentences awarded in the case of drug trafficking. Malaysia has strong laws against drug trafficking, in recent years the courts of Malaysia granted the death penalty to more than 1200 hundred culprits. Many human rights activists raised an issue over the fact that more than 40 percent of them are foreign citizens.
In spite of repeated requests of the amnesty international the government of Malaysia refused to remove these strict laws, most of the cases who received death penalties often claimed that trials were unfair to them because they were now aware of the exact procedures of the country (Liotta, 2019). In the absence of proper external support, most of them fought their battles halfheartedly. It is a general case that cannot be denied, for instance Malaysian courts and other assisting mechanism are not providing substantial support to remove the language barriers associated with the foreign culprits, this is one area of deficiency many more such areas can be identified in general proceedings (Yusof, 2019).
The principles of the natural flow of justice clearly advocate the human right of “fair trial” for any individual, the courts of Malaysia are not providing enough support to conduct fair trials in the courts, especially for the foreign citizens.
The above-mentioned case indicates towards the lethargic and myopic approach of the concerned authorities and institutions, recently US commission of Malaysia raised a case of human rights violation where institutional barriers and active policing against a minority community can be adjudged as the main reason behind the violation (Case Study: The case of Lena Hendry and Freedom of Expression in Malaysia, 2018). This case belongs to the mysterious disappearance of Pastor Raymond Koh, the authorities of the US commission presented it as the case of “religious freedom violence.” According to a declaration of UN authorities, such types of cases are not a violation of human rights. They serve as an indirect violation where the government of the country decided to tolerate wrongdoings against a religious minority group. The detention of the religious minorities is a serious issue and it should not be tolerated (Malaysia: Unfair trials, secretive hangings, and petty drug convictions reveal ‘cruel injustice’ of the death penalty, 2019).
These two issues are strikingly different, in one case the authorities are not showing a soft heart towards a fundamental human right of passing through a fair trial, in the second case the authorities are over sighting the acts of their own forces. The case of Koh is a living testimony of the statement.
References
economic And sociAL rights in the courtroom. (2014). Equal Right’s trust, https://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/ESR_Guide.pdf.
Case Study: The case of Lena Hendry and Freedom of Expression in Malaysia. (2018). Forum Asia, https://www.forum-asia.org/?p=27067.
Malaysia: Unfair trials, secretive hangings, and petty drug convictions reveal the ‘cruel injustice’ of the death penalty. (2019). Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/malaysia-unfair-trials-secretive-hangings-petty-drug-convictions-cruel-injustice-death-penalty/.
Bhattsali, D. (2013). Economic Growth and Development in Malaysia: Policy Making and Leadership. Commission of Growth and Development Vol 27, https://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/489960-1338997241035/Growth_Commission_Working_Paper_27_Economic_Growth_Development_Malaysia_Policy_Making_Leadership.pdf.
Liotta, E. (2019). Nearly Half of Individuals Sentenced to Death in Malaysia Are Foreigners. Vice, https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/59nj4k/malaysia-death-row-foreigners-drug-trafficking.
Wai, S. (2017). Education and Economic Growth: The 6th International Conference on Computer Science and Computational Mathematics, In Malaysia, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322222847_Education_and_Economic_Growth_A_Case_Study_in_Malaysia.
Walton, K. (2019). Malaysia to appeal boss’ acquittal over Indonesian maid’s death. Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/malaysia-appeal-boss-acquittal-indonesian-maid-murder-190515234103736.html.
Yusof, N. (2019). U.S. Commission Cites Malaysia for Alleged Religious Freedom Violations. Benar News, https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/malaysia-religion-10182019170617.html.
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