A Nation Doomed to Never Progress

There is a common understanding that service help providers for the marginalized communities in Malaysia, are not what we expect them to be. Or at least, a common understanding amongst those who are in this line of work, or have been.

It is no secret, that prisoners in our prisons, are raped by their wardens or care providers, both men and women. It is also not unheard of, that drug rehabilitants, exchange sexual favors with their wardens or prison officers for a fix of heroin, and they end up leaving the rehabilitant center, more addicted than ever, with greater contacts of drug dealers to purchase their drugs from. It is not unheard of, that refugees or migrants in the detention holding centers are abused, live in horrible conditions, sexually abused and stripped of dignity and all forms of human rights. It is not unheard of also, that children in orphanages, care-homes, are not given the tools to help them evolve into functional adults, but abused for their “difficult” behavior as a form of discipline; molested, and some even raped.

I’ve been in the NGO circle for more than 3 years now. Although my cause has nothing to do with human rights now, I have seen it, lived through it, agonized through it, and experience repeated failures of trying to make a change in improving the help-service providers caregiving methods and sensitivity. I was a trained trainer in addressing gender based violence and introducing coping strategies for gender based violence. But people were resilient, even those of the NGO circle.

The thing is, I see things in black and white. For example, if you cheat, you get caught. If you shoplift, you will be prosecuted. If you knocked a person’s car, you have to pay. If you embezzled your company’s funds, you will be legally charged for it. If you parked in a non parking area, you will be summoned. So why can’t things like these, be done something about? After all, it is a human’s life we are talking about.  Doesn’t it baffle you?  

While you might think that dirty politics are the cause behind these discrepancies, The answer to these questions is ignorance and indifference.

We like to think that as we curl up in our comfy homes, and Thank God for being in a good place, that all the other sufferings and injustice is being taken care of someone else. On the contrary, I’ve learnt that the media and the public has a bigger voice and say. If people in general, were more informed about the long standing issues that our care providers have been sweeping under the mat, we could be the ones to voice out the need to change, to re-evaluate the methods and treatment that the supposedly marginalized are encountering.

However, if we reside in out cocoon, and pretend that all these human rights violation does not affect us,neither us nor our children, will live to see a progressed nation, or a progressed country.