Human Rights Day 2007

Contributed by Noreen Ahmad Ariff
Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 05:17am

“As I Believe: Freedom of Expression through art, music, culture and conscience”

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually on 10 December and it is almost the time of the year again when the Malaysian Bar celebrates the Day. This year, the Bar’s Human Rights Day will be held on Sunday, 9 December 2007. (Please click here to download the poster)

Human rights is something that cannot be confined within four walls; it can soar as high as the sky and as wide as the ocean. The right to believe and express oneself finds its voice through various means – music, art, culture and conscience. Our Human Rights Day this time is therefore themed: “As I Believe: Freedom of Expression through Art, Music, Culture and Conscience”.

If the United Nations celebrates the Day in New York, ours will be held in two parts in Kuala Lumpur. At 7.30 am, we will commence with a peaceful walk, the “Peoples’ Freedom Walk” from Sogo Complex through Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman-Jalan Raja to the old dame of Arts, the Central Market through Jalan Leboh Pasar Besar.

At Central Market, the second part of the Day will be held from 9.00 am onwards. There will be a host of events including poetry reading, Orang Asli cultural dance and performances by the underrated but talented Dr Wan Zawawi, and our own ‘home-grown’ lawyers, Fahri Azzat, Syamsuriatina Ishak, Dipendra Harshad Rai and Lai Chee Hoe. There will be other guest appearances being lined up.

The highlight of the Day will be the “When Faith Meets Law” multi-religious panel session discussing conscience rights. At this session, we seek to give religious groups the opportunity to discuss issues and concerns on faith, law and human rights. Prominent figures from the various religious groups in Malaysia have been invited as speakers.

There will also be a session titled “I wish that…”. Here, the various NGOs and groups will present their particular demands on issues affecting them. It will be a fun day out.

As C.S Lewis once said, “We are what we believe we are”. Share with us what you believe. See you on Sunday, 9 December 2007!

Source: http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/content/view/12185/99/

Raja Nazrin’s keynote address at the National Economic Outlook Conference 2008/2009

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY RAJA MUDA OF PERAK, RAJA NAZRIN SHAH
AT THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK CONFERENCE 2008/2009
DATE: 28 NOVEMBER 2007 (WEDNESDAY), TIME: 10.00 AM
VENUE: HOTEL HILTON KL

“Fifty Years of Development: Lessons Learnt”

Ladies and Gentlemen:

1. I am delighted to be here this morning to speak at this National Outlook Conference, an event that is one of the high points in the nation’s economic calendar. The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research has served the nation well for over twenty years with its independent research, and it is only fitting that we recognise its many contributions. Independent research institutes have a very important role to play in modern societies. Their analyses and conclusions may not always receive universal agreement but divergent viewpoints can be useful in provoking healthy debate about issues of national importance They force us to think more deeply, more clearly and more creatively. They help us avoid the dangers of “groupthink”.

2. It is in this spirit that I turn to the subject at hand. Today, I want to exercise speaker’s licence and focus my address on issues of development and nationhood. I do this for the obvious reason that whether we can achieve our development goals hangs critically on whether we can remain one united and cohesive nation. The latter is a mantra that is constantly repeated but quite often construed and implemented in narrow and self-serving ways. I am of the view that we urgently need to re-evaluate our existing stereotypes and notions about development. I will draw attention to some concepts from the recent development literature that I believe are very relevant to us, with the hope that these can take root in discussions among scholars and policy-makers.

3. Let me start with the present state of development and then proceed to deconstruct it into its component parts. Malaysia today runs with the pack of middle income countries. With a 2006 GDP per capita measured in purchasing power terms of almost US$11,000, the country has a figure that is higher than Mexico and Turkey, two countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At independence in 1957, Malaya was comparable with Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ghana, Morocco and Senegal in terms of per capita income. Fifty years on, the country’s per capita income had increased six fold, to reach a level that is double that of Sri Lanka, three times that of the Philippines and Morocco and six times that of Ghana and Senegal. More importantly, there have been marked improvements in life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, access to education, health services and in the incidence of poverty. The country has surpassed most of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and, while there remains a great deal to be done, the UNDP accords the country a High Development Index.

4. All of this point to Malaysia being a development success story, and, not just from the viewpoint of our own policymakers but also from the international community. The standard reasons for this are an open economy, liberal foreign investment policies, high savings and investment rates, prudent macroeconomic management, pro-private sector policies, and high public investments in education, infrastructure and rural development. These days it also seems relevant to point out an often taken-for-granted fact: Malaysia has always had a civilian government and no military presence in domestic politics or the economy. If nothing else, this alone should be a strong selling point for the country. Overarching all of these reasons is the fact that development has taken centre place on the national agenda for the greater part of the last half-century and produced undeniable results. The relative lack of civil conflict has enabled the focus on development to take place, while development has, in turn, had a generally calming effect on the various social groups.

5. The question as to why some countries grow rapidly while others grow slowly or not at all constitutes one of the most important in all of economics. It is a question that has kept economists busy for decades, and, I expect, will continue to do so for some time yet. It is now a cliché to talk about the growth performance of the East Asian economies during the post-Second World War period, first that of Japan then those of the newly-industrialising tiger economies, namely South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. These countries had grown at an average of 6% per annum in per capita terms over a sustained period. To put things in perspective, compare this with the growth records of the leading economies during the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century (around 1-1.5%) or the growth records of the advanced capitalist economies during the first three decades of the post-Second World War period (around 3%). These East Asian countries underwent the fastest economic transformation in human history, to be surpassed only by developments in China and India in recent years. The spectacular economic performance of these countries naturally generated a lot of interest in the so-called East Asian model of development, and in particular on the extent to which this model could be replicated in other countries.

6. In two very important respects, Malaysia is a more suitable model for other developing countries than the East Asian tiger economies. This is because Malaysia shares features with many countries in Asia, Africa and, to a lesser extent, Latin America that makes it an ideal case study.

7. First, Malaysia is a resource-rich country, in contrast to the East Asian tiger economies that are resource-poor. It might seem intuitive to some that Malaysia’s success was a forgone conclusion given its rich resource base. But other countries have large resource endowments as well and they have not enjoyed the same result. Many resource-rich developing countries have found natural resources to be a curse rather than a blessing. They have experienced little more than short-lived resource booms, their economies expanding rapidly while resources last, but contracting once these have been exhausted. Some have succumbed to Dutch disease, with its attendant ills of accelerating inflation, declining export of manufactures and rising unemployment. Many have squandered their resource riches on wasteful expenditures. Malaysia remains one of the few that have managed to transform its rich natural resource base into sustainable development. Resource rents were productively invested in primary and manufactured exports, in improving infrastructure and in strengthening the human capital base. Within a span of 50 years, the economy underwent significant structural transformation, from one that was heavily dependent on primary commodity exports to one that is more broad-based. Gaining a better understanding of how this was achieved is not only of academic interest to scholars but should be of relevance to policy-makers in other countries.

8. Second, Malaysia shares with many countries in the developing world in having a multi-ethnic, multi-religious population. This is in contrast to the East Asian societies that are largely homogenous. Governing a country that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious is very different from governing one that is homogeneous, particularly in a society like Malaysia’s where ethnic groups differ sharply in occupational pattern, income level, geographic location, culture, language and appearance. This makes promoting national unity of utmost importance for continued political stability and economic progress. The Malaysian experience is a classic illustration that development in multi-ethnic societies consists of more than just unleashing market forces. It demands economic growth that is broadly shared among all citizens, as well as the necessary institutional environment to help bring that about. In such a situation, the state has an important role to play in ensuring an equitable distribution of wealth and income between people, between groups of people and between regions. In countries where it has worked well, the result has been a developmental state that has promoted industrial transformation and stimulated economic development. When it has not worked well, state intervention has verged on the predatory, extracting resources and providing nothing much of value in return.

9. History seems to have had a very pervasive hold over some countries by trapping them in an endless cycle of recrimination and violence. Certainly, colonialism, foreign invasion and occupation have had an extremely negative impact on development in much of the Third World. It would take a brave soul to argue otherwise. I cannot, however, come to terms with – and, indeed, I am not convinced at all about – the idea of historical inevitability. As bad as it may have been, colonialism has not held back economic progress in all cases. We forget that both Korea and Taiwan were also colonised, but they still managed to make significant economic leaps. In Malaysia, the colonial legacy left the country with some very strong positives, including the legal system, an efficient civil administration and the English language.

10. If development is not a random occurrence but the result of direct human intervention, it becomes of critical importance to find out why some countries have been able to pursue sound economic policies with greater success than others. Since humans are involved, culture would seem to be a natural candidate. Culture has many definitions but can be seen as the shared values, norms, meanings and behaviours that characterise a society. It can affect development through its impact on organisations and production, on attitudes towards consumption and work, on the ability to create and manage institutions, and on creating bonds of trust through social networks. I will expand on the last of these shortly. But exactly how important culture is to the development process is a question with many answers. Much depends on how it is thought to function. Some subscribe to the functionalist or consensus school. Others prefer Marxist conflict-driven interpretations of culture. Yet others adopt a post-modern view of culture that sees society as the product of open, negotiable and changeable social interactions.

11. The problem with culture is that some elements of it change over time, while others can remain firmly entrenched. In many respects, there can be no economic change without there being at least some degree of cultural change. Take as an example the multinational companies that located themselves in Malaysia’s free trade zones in the mid-1970s and began the process of industrial transformation. These depended on large numbers of young Malay females many of whom were from rural villages and thus traditional social structures. This required breaking strong social values that favoured marriage and household work and disapproved of the unsupervised movement of females to and from the workplace. That this occurred to a significant extent – at its height, females accounted for 75% of electronics, and over 90% of textile, employment – meant a measure of social adaptability and dynamism. This, in turn, allowed rural families to enjoy lessened dependency, higher productivity and additional source of incomes.

12. Many middle-income countries are now focused on human capital development, entrepreneurship and scientific and technological innovation, and Malaysia is no different. The question, however, is whether these can be standalone propositions. Can entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists be nurtured without an enabling political, social, economic and cultural environment? Can they flourish in the presence of perverse incentives and disincentives? The answer is obvious: they cannot. They cannot be removed from how society functions, from the societal norms and values at play, and from how state and private institutions counteract or reinforce these norms and values. Human capital development without the right environment is futility in itself. There are countries today whose citizens are highly educated and whose scientists and engineers are at the leading edge in their fields but who want nothing more than to leave their countries. Countries must change in line with the aspirations of their citizens or they risk losing their best and brightest.

13. It is time that we reunite these disparate parts into our development story. Until we merge the economic discourse of development with the socio-political setting in which societies are embedded, we will tend to underestimate what needs to be done and overestimate our capacity to do it. We will develop selective memory, remembering only results but not causes, only gains but not costs. The inability to reduce the development process to a neat set of propositions or equations will no doubt put some off. Academic journals might be reluctant to publish cross-disciplinary studies. But unless we are prepared to step outside of the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, it is unlikely that that we will be able to conceive a clear and undistorted picture of development’s prerequisites.

14. In earliest development thinking, physical capital was seen to be the catalyst for development. The Harrod-Domar model, for example, saw growth as simply the function of savings (which was equal to investment), multiplied by the productivity of capital. There has therefore been a central preoccupation with securing the financial resources to develop. Notwithstanding the fact that it was introduced as early as Adam Smith, human capital then became the centrepiece of development. Practice though may differ from principle and some countries loudly and proudly trumpet their human capital policies but still exhibit strong physical investment-bias. With the far-reaching work of sociologists such as James Coleman, Robert Putnam and others, there has been another quantum leap in our understanding of the software of development, and that element is social capital.

15. Social capital refers to the organisations, networks and institutions that allow citizens of different backgrounds to act collectively in the national interest. As Putnam nicely puts it, “Just as a screwdriver (that is, physical capital) or a college education (that is, human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups”. It fosters trust and cooperation and is essential to all kinds of economic transactions, especially long-term investments and efforts to raise human capital and productivity. Researchers have found other significant positive externalities, such as lower crime rates, improved child welfare, better public health, and lower rates of corruption and abuse of power. Thus, the economic benefits of social capital, and, conversely, the costs of social division, can thus be much higher than anyone expects or believes.

16. Social capital manifests itself in four ways. First, it can take the form of organisations such as associations, clubs and community groups. These promote collective action and esprit d’corps based on common goals and objectives. Much care is needed to ensure that social institutions do not, wittingly or unwittingly, promote social exclusion and discrimination rather than social cohesion. The unwavering aim should be to establish organisations that transcend ethnic, religious and cultural boundaries, promote social contacts and create conditions for reciprocity and trust.

17. Second, social capital is represented by the vertical and horizontal networks of relationships among and within citizens of different ethnic, religious and territorial groups. These networks are supposed to lead to bonding and bridging but they may again defeat the purpose if they are not inclusive in nature and are instead used to pursue narrow sectarian interests. The emphasis must therefore be on increasing opportunities for bonding and bridging in residential neighbourhoods, classrooms and the workplaces, all with the understanding that more cultural mix is better.

18. Third, social capital is embodied in official institutions such as political parties, the legislature, judiciary and civil service. Douglass North, Dani Rodrik and William Easterly have all argued that institutions determine the capacity of countries to pursue their collective interests. They are responsible for formulating and implementing policies and laws that affect all groups and these can either promote or penalise good socio-economic behaviour.

19. Fourth, social capital takes the form of synergism or co-operation between state institutions and non-governmental networks. There can probably be no higher expression of trust and confidence than governments working alongside community groups to reach target groups in the population.

20. Physical capital, human capital and social capital constitute the three prerequisites of development. At the end of the day, the difference between a fully functional state and a fully dysfunctional one may lie in nothing more than the quantity and quality of its social capital. How else do we account for economies that, in their early stages, had little physical infrastructure and not even skilled labour to speak of but which have demonstrated great economic dynamism? What would account for landlocked and/or otherwise isolated economies with widespread poverty but able to make the transition to high productivity and incomes? Good fortune? Maybe. I believe that shaping the right socio-economic environment is a very important task and that this does not lie entirely, or perhaps even mainly, in the economic domain.

21. We, in Malaysia, must seek to refine our development thinking. The development community should make social capital an integral part of its discourse. Interestingly, there are studies that show that social capital and institutional quality are related. A recent study by Easterly, Ritzen and Woolcock demonstrates that it is social cohesion that determines how effective institutions are and this, in turn, impacts the formulation and implementation of development policies. Together, social capital and institutional quality may determine our development headroom or how high we will be able to climb.

22. Malaysia has accomplished a great deal over the past 50 years. The next 50 years will be equally, if not more, challenging. Policies that have served us well in the past are unlikely to work in the future. Malaysia today finds itself squeezed between the low-cost economies of China and Vietnam and the high-technology economies of Japan and South Korea. Malaysia’s comparative advantage in the export of manufactured labour-intensive products is fast eroding. Nothing less than the most competitive, innovative and flexible responses are required. To keep internationally competitive, the country needs to take a big step up the technological ladder by moving into high-technology and knowledge-intensive industries. It is well understood that Malaysia’s past growth was driven mainly by large increases in the use of labour and capital inputs. Future growth will have to come from productivity gains and technological breakthroughs. This in turn requires the country to vastly improve its human capital base by investing heavily in training and education, and promoting research and development. Economic policies must be aimed at nothing less than performance. Economic management must be driven by nothing less than competence. In this environment, the lack of social capital and cohesion will be ever costlier to nations.

23. Throughout history it has been crises that have most often driven change. I believe this will not be the case for Malaysia. I believe that in facing future challenges we will demonstrate both pragmatism and fairness.
Updated: 04:02PM Wed, 28 Nov 2007

Source: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=20094

The broom blunder

Radzuan Halim

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary; they must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain. – Simms

The recent “award” of brooms to two local council heads had raised a right royal ruckus. The ordinary-looking brooms were handed over by Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo to two heads of district councils in Selangor which had failed to fulfil set financial targets.

The picture of Khir presenting a broom to the president of the Hulu Selangor District Council, an officer of the Malaysian Civil Service (MCS), created a furore. Public opinion was mostly against such awards. But there was a spirited defence of it as well.

Those against view the award as going against local traditions and beliefs. A broom supposedly symbolises a “sial” (accursed) instrument which can only bring bad luck and humiliation for the recipient. The contra view is that officers in government agencies had been getting the cushy treatment for too long, had not been performing to par and needed harsher treatment from their bosses.

The award apparently did not go down well with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who uncharacteristically stated his views in no uncertain terms. He was quoted as saying, “It should not have happened at all. Use more effective methods to enhance the performance of agencies.” He also regarded such awards as “demeaning… undignified… humiliating… (and) should be scrapped”. By the looks of it, that would be the first and the last of such broom awards in Malaysia. It may be noted that our prime minister was a senior MCS officer prior to his entry into full-time politics.

Some friends regarded the award as reflective of more important issues. A retired civil servant told me that he was deeply disturbed and had a sleepless night over it. He felt that such an award reflected the low status and esteem currently faced by the inner civil service, at least in the eyes of some senior politicians. According to him, in the old days MCS officers, even junior ones, were accorded great deference by the highest in the land.

Another friend, a Second World War buff, was of the view that dishing out such “punishment” to one’s own officers and men could spell trouble for the giver. He gave the example of General George S. Patton, commander of the US Third Army in France, a war hero and military strategist, who met his downfall after striking a combat-shocked soldier with his gloves.

Yet another friend, a lawyer with human-rights leanings regarded such awards to be contrary to the norms of common law. He asked me to look up the US Constitutional Amendment Article VIII, which reads, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Personally, I find describing the broom award as “cruel and unusual punishment” to be somewhat excessive.

From the above discussion, you can see that there is a lot more to the broom award than meets the eye. Let me share with you some of my research findings.

English: There are several expressions involving brooms. There’s the popularly used proverb “New brooms sweep clean”. This is a somewhat sarcastic description of newly appointed office-holders who start off enthusiastically. In time they become no better than their predecessors. “Swept her off her feet” refers to those whirlwind romances in which the girl is thoroughly impressed with a beau she’s only just met. “To sweep under the carpet” is to hide problems while keeping up appearances. Which reminds you of Enron and the subprime debacles – two financial disasters which were successfully kept hidden for extended periods.

Apart from the broom being used by English witches to fly about, the broom does not signify any real taboo nor an object of condemnation for Englishmen. William Shakespeare made only one mention of broom in his plays. It was uttered by Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“… not a mouse

Shall disturb this hallow’d house.

I am sent with broom before

To sweep the dust behind the door”.

Chinese: I was told early in life that the Chinese do not sweep their houses on the first day of the Lunar New Year. This “pantang” is observed in order to avoid sweeping away the good luck coming with the onset of the new year.

One morning I accompanied a Chinese colleague, a senior executive, up the lift to his office. He was known to enjoy a flutter or two at the race course and this was a Saturday. At the lift, a cleaner was sweeping the floor and the broom ends just barely touched my friend’s well-polished shoes. His face turned slightly red and his steps became more brisk. When he reached the office he immediately called the building supervisor to issue a terse reprimand, “Why do you have to clean when people are walking in? Why do you not use vacuum cleaners? Out of date to use brooms!” It is clear that for the Chinese, the broom is not associated with good luck.

Malay: The controversial award involved Malays and so Malay cultural underpinnings are highly relevant here. It is common for Malays to refer to “broom” as a term of rebuke or worse. A married lady would confide to a female friend, Kalau dia berani kahwin lagi, aku kejar dengan penyapu! (“If that hubby of mine dares to take a young wife, I will chase him with the broom stick.”) Or an unwanted visitor is forewarned, Jangan tunjok muka, nanti kena penyapu. (“Don’t come around, you’ll get the broom treatment.”)

Given such invocation of “broom” in everyday language, it is not surprising for many Malays to regard the use of the broom as a source of humiliation and an affront to personal dignity for the recipient.

In looking up literary sources, I found many references to perahu (boats) but very little on penyapu. However, I managed to find a gem in MBRAS’ (Malaysia Branch Royal Asiatic Society) collection of Malay Proverbs and Sayings by E.S. Hose of the Malayan Civil Service (1933 ).

Penyapu diikat benang sutera (A broom tied up in silk). Explanation by author, “A beggar in finery.”

There you have it. One does not present a symbol of beggary to one’s own officer, what more to a senior officer of the crown.

Radzuan Halim, a former banker, teaches MBA and law students. Comments: feedback@thesundaily.com

Updated: 11:42AM Thu, 29 Nov 2007

Source: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=20102

Hotels warned to ensure cleanliness

HOTEL operators and owners of commercial buildings can be fined up to RM10,000 if they fail to provide piped water supply in Muslim prayer rooms and restrooms, Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Robert Lau said.

He added they could also be fined an additional RM500 per day under a bylaw that requires hotels to provide such facilities for their tenants.

The bylaw came into force in June 2003.

“Local authorities have been directed to make checks on hotels, whose operating licences can be suspended if they fail to fulfil the cleanliness requirements,” he told Datuk Baharum Mohamed (BN – Sekijang).

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/
2007/11/29/parliament/19606322&sec=parliament

Chinese youths prefer to be officers instead of constables

KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese youth want to become police officers but not police constables.

This was the finding of the MCA police recruitment campaign, which saw encouraging response from Chinese youths wanting to join the force as police officers.

MCA Youth chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said there was lukewarm interest in filling up posts in the lower ranks.

The month-long campaign, jointly organised by MCA Youth and the Police Recruitment Department, attracted 250 Chinese youths. It ended on Monday.

“When we went around (during the campaign), 250 youths responded and applied to join the force as police officers. In fact, more than 80% applied for the posts of police inspector and above.

“However, there was lukewarm response for the post of police constable and other lower ranks.

“Therefore, we have to come out with better programmes to woo youths, particularly SPM leavers, to take up the post of police constable,” Liow, who is Youth and Sports Deputy Minister, said in an interview yesterday.

Liow said MCA Youth would come up with more awareness campaigns to inform them that they could advance in the force by joining as police constable even with an SPM qualification.

“We want to let them know that even as police constables, they can further their studies by pursuing degrees,” he said.

He said many Chinese youths were unaware that they could still join the force even with only four credits and a pass in Bahasa Malaysia in their SPM.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said that of the 90,000 policemen and policewomen in the country, only 2.38% were Chinese.

Between January and the end of October, he said police received 7,226 applications to join the force.

“Of these, only 46 (0.6%) were Chinese, while 80% were Malays. The rest (1.9%) were Indians.

Fu said the Government’s target was to raise it to 10%, but he agreed that it would be a great achievement if they could achieve 5% in the next few years. – Bernama

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/
2007/11/29/nation/19609412&sec=nation