Cornered, a Tiger Regime Overreacts

In Malaysia, you can be jailed for embarrassing the government. They embarrass easily, according to Irene Fernandez, a Malaysian citizen of Indian descent who is on trial in Kuala Lumpur for publishing a human rights report.

Fernandez heads a group devoted to women’s empowerment through human rights. Tenaganita (meaning “women’s force”) has introduced feminist thinking into Malaysia, a largely Muslim country. For its trouble, the group has been harassed, its offices raided, its founder arrested, its finances frozen by the government. Tenaganita also monitors the welfare of female migrant laborers and sponsors special counseling and health programs for them, particularly those who are HIV-positive. On July 27, 1995, Tenaganita released a shocking report on inhumane conditions and atrocious abuses in camps where the government holds undocumented workers.

Detainees reported being beaten and forced to stand in the sun for hours just for asking for more than two glasses of water per day. Water and sanitary napkins were sold to the women detainees or given after they provided sexual favors both to the police and immigration officers.

The report’s case studies include that of Magmul Islam, a pharmacist from Bangladesh. For lack of papers, he was detained at Semenyih Camp, where officials kicked him in the head, stomach and ribs. When forced to strip naked, he objected that “such action is not Islamic,” and was beaten further.

The detainees have no legal recourse, and many told Tenaganita that there was no medical attention, even for those who were ill. Fernandez said, “To allow immigrant detainees to die of beri beri, a highly treatable disease, involves serious government negligence.”

Malaysia, one of the “tiger economies” of Southeast Asia, is a country of 19 million people with low unemployment. About 750,000 foreigners work legally under temporary work permits, but employer demand outstrips supply, hence illegal workers abound in construction, factories and plantations. In them, employers have compliant laborers who are ever fearful of being found out.

Tenaganita estimated that the 11 camps around the country held about 10,000 detainees. Conditions in the camps were hidden from public view until 1995 when Fernandez’s group completed its study of the situation.

“The Tenaganita Memorandum” was published by the New Straits Times in March 1996. For supplying it to the newspaper, Fernandez was arrested and charged under the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984 for “maliciously maligning the good name of the country in the eyes of the world.” That a report is true is not a sufficient defense.

While the government takes a “punish the messenger” stance, it need not show why it believes its good name has been internationally maligned. Few doubt that the explanation lies in the country’s heavy dependence on imported labor and the government’s draconian efforts to manage human resources and the labor supply. For example, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s National Security Council has recommended whipping and caning for illegal immigrants who reenter the country after being deported and those responsible for bringing them.

The “show trial” of Irene Fernandez is also calculated to carry a warning. It started last June and is scheduled to drag on to October. If the judge finds the defendant guilty, she may be subject to three years’ imprisonment and a fine equivalent to $8,000--enough to squelch the freedom of expression of nongovernmental organizations in defending human rights and promoting democracy.

The Bangkok NGO Declaration on Human Rights of 1993, supported by more than 100 civic action groups throughout Asia, called on governments “to respect the work of human rights activists/defenders . . . including NGOs, to cease harassment and intimidation and other malpractices against this sector and to facilitate, rather than obstruct, the operations of these catalysts of social change.”

The criminal charges against Fernandez have been such an obstruction. But ever the optimist and activist, Fernandez says, “Well, even if they send me to jail, it will give me an opportunity to write a report on jail conditions and see what changes need to be made.”