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Community messages. Please read and pass word along.

Dear Malaysian Bloggers,

My name is Aris Oziar.

For the past three months I have been working on a website project called FiftyRefugees. As the name implies, it chronicles the story of 50 refugees who currently call Malaysia their home.

This project is part of the 50-44 Merdeka Coalition, a group of local NGOs who will conduct an alternative celebration of Merdeka in September after the official celebrations have died down. NGOs in their respective fields will touch on various issues, highlighting migrants, refugees, Orang Asli, the urban poor, race and religion etc.

Malaysia does not recognise the Geneva Refugee Convention, and partly as a result of this (we have other legal avenues to give them rights, such as IMM13 but the government has refused to act), Refugees in Malaysia who cross the border illegally or whose visa has lapsed are classified as Illegal Immigrants, subject to arrest and detention by the police, RELA and Immigration. They have restricted access to healthcare services and the children cannot go to government schools, effectively denying them education.

As a Malaysian, I am outraged to hear their stories of Malaysia - 3 years of detention or living in makeshift jungle camps / jungle due to fear of arrest. Stories of a 6 year old girl whose last visit to town was 4 years ago (the mother is too afraid to bring her out), and her 55 year old father who eventually died because the police took all their money the one time they were desperate enough to go to the hospital to treat his illness. And of course, of the Malaysian immigration authorities dumping them across the border in Thailand, where they are rounded up by agents and either pay these agents to get back to Malaysia , or face slave labour - the men in fishing boats and the women, probably sold to the sex trade.

I want average Malaysians to know. To know that refugees do exist in Malaysia. To know that they braved a dangerous journey to Malaysia to escape atrocities in their own country. To know that most of them live a marginal life, often exploited, almost always in fear.

We have tasted independence for the past 50 years. And yet, today, there are still people in this country who have none.

Please, if you have time, write about this issue or perhaps mention www.fiftyrefugees.wordpress.com. Malaysians read your blogs. I want them to know.

Warmest regards,

Aris
arisoziar@yahoo.com

This is from a dear friend. Please help. For the record I’ve sat in this car and I miss it too. I sincerely hope Claudia gets her car back.

dear friends,

my car just got stolen on wednesday night where i parked along jalan tun sambanthan (brickfields main road) not far from the monorail station bus-stop, a busy place. i’ve already done the necessary - reporting to the police and insurance. naturally, i’m very upset over the whole episode and am trying to adjust to being without my wheels. using public transport to work now and will continue for as long as i can manage.

but please keep a lookout just in case you spot my car anywhere within klang valley or outstation, and no matter how long it takes.

details:

solid red (pls bear in mind the possibility of a different colour)
toyota corolla KE-30
plate no NL 5131

pls call me at 019-3141874 if anything pops up. much obliged!

claudia

(polytikus: Claudia’s car looks a lot like this. Credits to Toyota Club.

* * *

And back to my regular scheduled programming. Just quickly pointing out a few stupid things in the press recently.

Kedah State Assembly: Rep: Blame pupils’ stomachs, not the milk

“It is not the milk’s fault. The problem could be with the stomachs of the Malay and Chinese pupils.”

Datuk Dr Afifuddin Omar (BN-Kuala Nerang) had everyone in the state assembly in stitches as he tried to pin down possible causes behind the spate of food poisoning involving pupils in the school milk programme in Kedah since early this year.

The latest incident took place at SK Seberang Ketil, involving 60 pupils, most of them Malay boys and girls.

Afifuddin, who gave the assembly a crash course on the chemical nature of milk, said a study showed Indian pupils did not get stomach upsets after consuming milk.

I say let YB drink some of those milk. Does he not have the poor students in his heart and mind? What kind of elected representative would say such inane things and expect to get away with it? Vote him out!

Measures to tackle poverty on right track

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is set to achieve its target of eradicating hard-core poverty by 2010.
Universiti Malaya Centre for Poverty and Development Studies CPDS director Dr Sulochana Nair said the incidence of hard-core poverty in the country was 2.9 per cent in 2004, a figure which could be easily reduced.

She said certain initiatives of the Ninth Malaysia Plan and studies being undertaken by CPDS were geared towards addressing the issues of poverty in the country, adding that these issues were “very manageable”.

“We have pockets of poverty where certain policies and programmes in place aimed at helping the poor have not been able to reach.”

CPDS recently began 18 projects aimed at studying poverty from various aspects.
A seminar on issues related to poverty will also be held on Aug 13 and 14 at UM’s Dewan Tunku Canselor.

2010? I’m sorry but shouldn’t the target be now? Today? Right this instant? And I most certainly hope this includes East Malaysia where the problem is prevalent most. Also, this would be a good indicator whether NEP has done any good in eradicating poverty. And poverty better include urban poverty because the high cost of living is killing many urbanites.

Najib: Our education system a big success

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has made education available to all classes of people at a faster rate and with a wider reach than other countries.

This was a huge success for the country, thanks to the vision of past leaders like former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who expanded secondary school education for Malay students.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said this at a dinner last night to celebrate the 50th anniversary of three of the country’s first Malay secondary schools — Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR), Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak (SDAR) and Sekolah Tun Fatimah (STF).

Najib’s father, Razak, who was then education minister, had issued what is now known as the “Razak Statement” in 1956 in which he called for the establishment of Malay secondary schools.

STAR, SDAR and STF were the result of that policy which Najib said “revolutionised” Malaysia’s education system by making education available to all.
He said these schools, which were residential schools, provided students with the right environment to mould them as future leaders.

“In one generation — the children of poor farmers, fishermen, the lower working class, and the lowest ranking civil servants — could all achieve new heights of success.

First of all, an extremely misleading title. Or a really misrepresenting story. Education in Malaysia is flawed. It is only as flawed as the arbitrary government scholarship awarding system. It is only as bad as it’s vernacular schools policies. It is only as bad as the rote memorising system that has crippled critical thinking by students. It is only as bad as the biased secondary school History syllabus. It is only as bad as the 60,000 (stats from 2005) unemployed graduates with some 70% coming from public universities and institutes of higher learning. If DPM’s idea of education is up to only secondary school level, then no wonder he can say our ministers are all damn educatedlah.

Negaraku Parody Cannot Be Recalled - Syed Hamid

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 9 (Bernama) — The government cannot recall the Malaysian student studying in a Taiwan university for mocking the national anthem as he is not a government scholar, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said.

“We can recall him if he is on a government scholarship. If a Malaysian citizen commits something unlawful under Malaysian law in a foreign land, we cannot recall him or her except to frame charges.

“Once the charges are in place only then we can apply for an extradition and that also depends whether there is an extradition treaty between us and that particular country,” he told reporters after the Asean Day flag-hoisting ceremony in conjunction with Asean’s 40th anniversary Wednesday.

Wee Meng Chee, a 24-year-old mass communication student at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, has come under fire for mocking the national anthem and making offensive racial remarks.

Wee is said to have frequently courted controversy with his numerous postings on video search engine “YouTube”, but his latest parody of the national anthem has been severely criticised by politicians.

Syed Hamid said that as a Malaysian, no matter how modern the individual is, he or she should not make fun of their own national anthem.

“I think you must know the limit for making fun, the limit for cracking jokes, not on the fundamentals of your own nation as you are part of it.

“I don’t understand how a person can do that sort of things,” he said.

He, however, said the Foreign Ministry has not receive any request from the authorities to extradite the student.

He said it was up to the police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers to decide on the next course of action.

I guess the song can only hurt you if you’re erm, stupid. lol.

C’mon, it’s a parody!!!!! Jeeez. I think it’s true that Subuh prayers wake people up but you don’t see us petitioning for the mosque to be closed or worse, getting MCA (gawd forbid) to get the mosque demolished. Yes, morning prayers wake me up every time especially when I’m sleeping in Nat’s loft - so there I said it, did I just insult Islam? I don’t think so. I too think some Muslim girls in tudung walk far too slowly. Am I maligning Muslim girls by saying it? I don’t think so either. It’s like saying Chinese girls are so Ah Lian. Indians girls smell like coconut. Pleaselah … 50 years of nation-building and we can’t laugh at ourselves and at each other? 50 years of independence and we can’t see past humour - everything is ’sensitive’ and everything is ’seditious’?? Between what is fact and what is observation, are we not matured enough to differentiate them?

Extradict Wee lah if necessary. He’s only benefitting the Taiwanese if he’s there. Might as well come home so I can belanja him kopi.

So what stupid things have you heard recently? :)