Saturday, January 06, 2007

We are in Malaysia, aren't we? (2)

On Wednesday, at the Simpang Renggam detention camp two of its younger inmates were involved in a fracas. Senior inmates helped resolved the differences and calm the situation – all was under control.

Two hour later, an unspecified number of warders attacked around 40 inmates in the camp afternoon leaving scores injured. Initially the detainees were made to squat; then they were pulverised.

A malaysiakini source said: “They [the wardens] used rattan canes and batons. Some of us were beaten until we vomited. Others could not walk as their bones were broken.”

Beaten until bones were broken?

He continued: “Normally, they would call detainees in for questioning to find out about any fights that have taken place, but not this time.”

“This is a Pusat Pemulihan Akhlak (Moral Rehabilitation Centre) but they treat us worst than animals. Kita langsung tidak boleh baik. Depa buat kita lebih teruk. (We can’t be better persons like this. They make us even worse).”

16 detainees were given out-patient treatment at the Kluang Hospital on Wednesday evening following the incident. The New Straits Times reported that one inmate, S Selvam, suffered a broken hip.

Naturally the detention centre authorities could not be contacted for comments.

Meanwhile, over at Kampong Serampang Indah, things weren’t all that ’indah’ because an Indian Malaysian family were found to be in modern day bondage - meaning they were treated like slaves.

malaysiakini reporters traced the members of the family to a Felda plantation in Triang, Pahang, less than 200km from Kuala Lumpur.

Their plight reminded me of an old movie show, which was fiction of course, but the Malaysians’ story weren’t.

In that movie, set in the southern USA, in a remote farm, white thugs held Mexican workers as virtually slaves, to work at a vegetable farm. Whatever little money they were supposedly to receive for their work, conveniently disappeared to settle mysterious ‘expenses’ they had incurred, which of course was worked out by the white boss, at his whims and fancies.

Each week, the workers became more and more in debt even as they worked harder and harder. Those who refused to work were either beaten up or ‘disappeared’ mysteriously. The good looking females were raped and ravaged by the white boss and wardens.

Well, fact is stranger than fiction because, save for the ‘strange disappearances’ depicted in the movie, all those draconian punishments and oppression were alleged to have happened to the Malaysian family.

BTW, just as a reminder the alleged case (not the movie story) occurred in Malaysia – yes, where we live.

So there we are - we have, all alleged of course, government thugs beating up inmates at a detention centre until bones were smashed, and a Malaysian family or perhaps even families treated like slaves and beaten up from time to time by the 'boss'.


Oh, not to forget, early last year I posted Rela-gate! Do we have Warlords?, where I highlighted the plight of a group of Indian nationals contracted to work here.

When they were short changed (not paid, etc) by their employers, and sought help from the Indian High Commission about their plight, a group of Rela personnel suddenly arrived outside the gates of the Hi-Comm and started bashing the Indians.

Despite Hi-Comm officers rushing out to
inform the government thugs that the Indians possessed work visas, those Rela blokes continued to beat the hell out of the visitors, before dragging them away to the Lenggeng detention camp.

All the above incidents involved Indians, with the police strangely silent.

But that’s hardly surprising when in January last year I posted Police has done it again where I wrote:


“An Indian couple was forcefully dragged away by several men on some pretext. They bashed the husband and repeatedly raped the wife through the night. When the couple was eventually released the following day, they went to report the rape to the police in Brickfields.”

“Then our wonderful police did what we, knowing them, would have expected them to do. The police instead
arrested them for overstaying in Malaysia and dumped them in the Sungai Buloh prison. Isn’t that just great?”

“Hellooooo – the couple have been the victims!”

We are in Malaysia, aren’t we?


Related:
We are in Malaysia, aren't we?

1 comment:

  1. The 3 most important human rights are (1)survival, (2)development and (3)equal opportunity.
    Everyone knows that the defination of human rights can be twisted by anyone to suit their own interests. Look at how the Americans treat the human rights of their native Americans, the African-Americans and the illegal migrants from Latin America.

    They are allowed to use weapons of mass destruction ie. firebombing German cities, atomizing the Japs and using chemical/biological poisons in Korea and Vietnam but others are not allowed to have WMDs. They closed an eye when prisoners are beheaded in Saudi Arabia, but raised hell when a dissident is jailed in China.

    In Malaysia, we have the 'caste system' whereby the well-connected Bumi caste enjoy the most privileges, the 'dhimmi caste' have to pay taxes but left to care for themselves while the 'untouchable' caste are left to rot in the estates.

    SUHAKAM should close shop and hence save public money.

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