Day: January 27, 2016

Minister: Eight labour laws to be amended after TPPA is finalised

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

TPPA - TRP file pic

TPPA – TRP file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 ― Eight labour laws will be amended to improve labour standards in the country after Malaysia finalised its participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot said the laws were the Trade Unions Act 1959; Industrial Relations Act 1967; Employment Act 1955; Sabah Labour Ordinance (Chapter 67); Sarawak Labour Ordinance (Chapter 76); Private Employment Agencies Act 1981; Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act, 1990 and the Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act 1966.

“Malaysia needs to implement reforms and improvements in labour legislations in line with the high labour standards requirement, like other TPPA member countries.

“If Malaysia does not comply with the labour standards, it is likely to be prosecuted under the dispute settlement mechanism, in which case, it will be detrimental to Malaysia,” he said when winding up the TPPA debate for his ministry at a special sitting of Dewan Rakyat today. Read more →

Usul TPPA lulus 127-84 undi di Parlimen

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Malaysian Parliament - MMO File pic

Malaysian Parliament – MMO File pic

Perjanjian Perkongsian Trans Pasifilk (TPPA) yang dibahaskan di Parlimen selama 2 hari sejak semalam akhirnya diluluskan melalui undian belah bahagi di Dewan Rakyat.

Ahli Parlimen pembangkang bangun dan meminta undian belah bahagi dilaksanakan ketika Speaker Dewan Rakyat Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia memulakan sesi undian suara selepas Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa Dan Industri Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed selesai memberikan ucapan penggulungan bagi usul tersebut.

“Berikut keputusan belah bahagi, tidak bersetuju dengan usul 84, yang bersetuju dengan usul 127,” kata Pandikar, ketika membacakan keputusan pengundian. Read more →

Orang Asli demand educational reforms for their children

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Source: The Rakyat Post

The Orang Asli Development Department will continue to persuade parents to send their kids to SK Tohoi despite the fatal runaway incident last year. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 10, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27, 2016: Representatives from the Orang Asli community in Kelantan today delivered a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) demanding that the government initiate reforms for Orang Asli children in the educational system.

The demands were made as the community felt that no action had been taken by the government following the recent tragedy where seven Orang Asli children from Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Pos Tohoi, Gua Musang went missing.

Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan (JKOAK) deputy chairman Nasir Dollah said the government must take into account the proper nurturing as well as the wellbeing of Orang Asli children.

He said the Orang Asli community, like any other community in Malaysia, valued the significance of knowledge and learning and were willing to go to great lengths to ensure that their children received proper education. Read more →

Detained under Sedition Act, student activist denied use of toilet

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Source: FMT News

Khalid Ismath claims he had to “hold it in” for a day until he was allowed use of the washroom.

S tudent activist Khalid Ismath - FMT News file pic

Student activist Khalid Ismath – FMT News file pic

PETALING JAYA: A student activist alleged that prison authorities refused to let him use the washroom for a day when he was detained last year under the Sedition Act.

“I had to hold it in for a day until the next morning, when I was finally allowed to go,” Khalid Ismath said at the launch of Amnesty International Malaysia’s report titled “Critical Crackdown: Freedom of Expression Under Attack in Malaysia”.

He spoke of his ill-treatment at the hands of the Johor Bahru Selatan police last October, after he was detained over tweets regarding former Batu Kawan Umno Deputy Chief, Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Khairuddin’s lawyer, Matthias Chang. Read more →

Malaysia’s human rights deteriorated further in 2015, says rights watchdog

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

HRWlogoMalaysia’s human rights situation deteriorated sharply during 2015, as Putrajaya increased its campaign of harassment and repression against activists, political opposition figures, and the media, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

The report came hours after Malaysia’s rank on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2015 dropped by four points to 54, compared with 50 in 2014, said global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI).

“The Malaysian government responded to public criticism of a major corruption scandal and its persecution of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim with a wave of repression,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said in a statement.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is trampling on fundamental rights to hush up corruption allegations and maintain his grip on power.”

In the 659-page World Report 2016, the New York-based HRW executive director Kenneth Roth wrote that the spread of terrorist attacks beyond the Middle East and the huge flows of refugees spawned by repression and conflict led many governments to curtail rights in misguided efforts to protect their security. Read more →

Malaysia: Crackdown on Rights Intensifies

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Source: Human Rights Watch

Malaysia: Crackdown on Rights Intensifies
Activists, Political Opposition, Media Under Attack

HRWlogo(New York, January 27, 2016) – Malaysia’s human rights situation deteriorated sharply during 2015, as the government increased its campaign of harassment and repression against activists, political opposition figures, and the media, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2016.

Cartoonist Zunar

Cartoonist Zunar’s depiction of the ongoing use of criminal laws to suppress dissent in Malaysia. © 2015 Zunar for Human Rights Watch

In the 659-page World Report 2016, its 26th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that the spread of terrorist attacks beyond the Middle East and the huge flows of refugees spawned by repression and conflict led many governments to curtail rights in misguided efforts to protect their security. At the same time, authoritarian governments throughout the world, fearful of peaceful dissent that is often magnified by social media, embarked on the most intense crackdown on independent groups in recent times. Read more →

Najib tidak serius perangi rasuah, kata Transparency International

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Datuk Akbar Satar berkata sepanjang tempoh 6 tahun menjadi perdana menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak memenuhi janji untuk memerangi rasuah. – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider, 27 Januari, 2016.

Pentadbiran Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak serius dalam memerangi rasuah walaupun sering berjanji berbuat demikian, kata Transparency International (TI).

Presiden TI Malaysia Datuk Akbar Satar berkata, Najib tidak mengotakan janji tentang usaha memerangi rasuah apatah lagi janji-janji lainnya sepanjang tempoh 6 tahun menjadi perdana menteri.

Ini katanya, termasuk cadangan mewujudkan undang-undang untuk membuat syarikat bertanggungjawab ke atas pekerja yang korup dan pengisytiharan aset ahli-ahli politik kepada awam.

Pentadbiran Najib juga berkali-kali mengabaikan permintaan daripada kumpulan-kumpulan anti rasuah untuk menjadikan Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) lebih bebas. Read more →

Malaysia drops to No. 54 in global graft index

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

Malaysia has dropped four points to 54 in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 27, 2016.

Malaysia’s rank on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2015 has dropped by four points to 54, compared with 50 in 2014, trailing behind other developing countries such as Jordan (45), Namibia (45) and Rwanda (44).

The country’s score also dropped by two points to 50 in 2015 from 52 in 2014, said global graft monitor Transparency International.

Malaysia was also among the list of countries whose scores declined but its score was still the second highest in the Southeast Asian region, said TI’s Malaysia branch in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Other countries whose scores also declined in the region are the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong. Read more →

Malaysia must end unprecedented crackdown on hundreds of critics through Sedition Act – Amnesty International

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Source: Amnesty International US

Press Release, January 26, 2016

Malaysia must end unprecedented crackdown on hundreds of critics through Sedition Act

Malaysia’s government has launched an unprecedented crackdown through the Sedition Act over the past two years to silence, harass and lock up hundreds of critics, Amnesty International said in a new briefing today.

Critical Repression: Freedom of Expression Under Attack in Malaysia shows how the use of the Sedition Act – which gives authorities sweeping powers to target those who oppose them – has skyrocketed since the Barisan Nasional coalition government narrowly won the 2013 general elections, with around 170 sedition cases in that period.

In 2015 alone, at least 91 individuals were arrested, charged or investigated for sedition – almost five times as many as during the law’s first 50 years of existence.

“Speaking out in Malaysia is becoming increasingly dangerous. The government has responded to challenges to its authority in the worst possible way, by tightening repression and targeting scores of perceived critics,” said Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s South East Asia Deputy Campaigns Director. Read more →