Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
I am a product of migrant labour. My father was a migrant worker from Kerala,
India. He worked in the rubber plantations during the British rule in Malaysia.
I know the experience, the pain, anxiety and discrimination that we went through. And it is this part of my history that gives me the passion and the zeal to
commit to promote and protect migrant workers and women affected by violence,
denied rights, dignity and justice. </p>
<p>We never dreamt that the road we have walked and the journey we have taken
together with a domestic worker violently abused, or rescuing and rebuilding
the life of a Cambodian female child trafficked into Malaysia , or obtaining
redress and compensation to a Bangladeshi or a Nepali worker or empowering the
most marginalised communities would bring us today to be with you and gain the
global recognition through this award.</p>
<p>It is fantastic. It is motivating. And the communities we work with are celebrating.
They celebrate because it brings a renewed hope that this global recognition
will foster solidarity internationally to move forward the struggle in order
to gain their dignity and claim their rights.</p>
<p>Tenaganita means women’s force. We are a force that does not use guns or goons
to make our point or dominate others. We are a force that conscientises, builds,
and empowers the oppressed communities, in particular women and migrant workers,
by creating spaces and opportunities for expression, for sharing and for taking
actions to protect and claim their rights. Where they are invisible, we become
a voice for them. Where they are discriminated, we make them our equals.</p>
<p><b>What drives migration</b></p>
<p>One of the worst outcomes of injustices is poverty. It robs human beings of
their dignity. When people are poor and when they are reduced to beggars, they
feel weak, humiliated, disrespected and undignified. They hide alone in corners
and dare not raise their voices. They are neither heard nor seen. They often
suffer in isolation and desperation.</p>
<p>And this reality is manifested in the current patterns of migration. In Asia
alone over 40 million people are on the move in search of work or anything to
survive. There are over 60 million people, again in Asia who go hungry each
day. And more than half of humanity earns and lives on less than US$2 a day.</p>
<p>Migrant workers are forced to leave their loved ones, their homes and sell
all they have because they can no longer survive in their countries where poverty,
unemployment and hunger is increasing day by day. Confronted with this reality,
the poor are becoming vulnerable.</p>
<p>Feminisation of migration, particularly in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia
and Sri Lanka is the norm. Governments are more interested in exporting their
last resource, the human being, as labour in order to get their remittances.
The remittance is a source of foreign exchange to pay the countries debts to
the rich countries via the international financial institutions.</p>
<p>In short, the human person has become a commodity to be bought, sold, resold,
used and discarded like a piece of tissue. It is the modern day slavery.</p>
<p>It is a slavery that is growing. It is a slavery that is institutionalised
and legalised through repressive regulations like the Malaysian immigration
laws and the laws of many developed nations. Gripped with current globalisation
strategies that are imperialistic and exploitative, people are made to believe
that this form of trade and economic growth which embodies centralisation of
wealth and power is the panacea for hunger, poverty, conflicts and violence.
It’s an illusion.</p>
<p>It has devastated the lives of millions of people. It has robbed our communities
of their resources, of our land and of our production processes. This form of
globalisation has turned every possible resource into a commodity. Let it be
water, health or the human being, it has become a product, a commodity to be
exploited for pure profit. The humanity in us is being numbed and killed. And
we have to stop it.</p>
<p>It is to arrest this form of senseless growth and repression of people that
in 1995, Tenaganita raised the hidden cries and tears of detainees in immigration
detention camps in Malaysia through a memorandum and a press conference. The
government went into a state of denial. Unfortunately it continues to do so.</p>
<p> In the absence of a free media, of an independent judicial system and independent
oversights for police and state accountability, I was found guilty of publishing
false news under the Printing Presses and Publication Act on Oct 16, 2003 and
sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. I came out of court smiling because I knew
that I had spoken the truth; we had not compromised on fundamental rights and
dignity of people. The conviction has in more ways than one, brought about a
new awakening to Malaysians and to the global community.</p>
<p>There are signs, expressions of commitment from our current prime minister
for a more democratic and just society. I recognise it is not easy to undo the
embedded corruption, institutionalised violence and abuse, racism and xenophobia
after 22 years of dictatorship. And we hope it will be translated into action.
But migration, migrant workers, trafficking and smuggling of persons and violence
are not issues that affect Malaysia alone. These are a global reality that demands
a global resolution and action for change.</p>
<p><b>Outcome of globalisation</b></p>
<p>We now have a global community that calculates how to maximise the benefits
for a few at the expense of the majority. At the beginning of the 20th century,
the revolutionary thinker Rosa Luxemburg made her famous comment about the possibility
that the future might belong to "barbarism". Barbarism in the form
of fascism nearly triumphed in the 1930s and 1940s.</p>
<p>Today, corporate-driven globalisation is creating so much of the same instability,
resentment, and crisis that are the breeding grounds of fascist, fanatical,
and authoritarian populist movements. Globalisation not only has lost its promise
but it is embittering many.</p>
<p>But we must change the rules of the global economy, for it is the logic of
global capitalism that is the source of the disruption of society and of the
environment. The challenge is that even as we deconstruct the old, we dare to
imagine and win over people to our visions and programmes for the new.</p>
<p>We need to take this challenge for we can no longer see and watch people dying,
women sold and forced into prostitution, families torn apart, racism and xenophobia
pushing its ugly head through violence and children denied a future. We must
protect life for life is creation. Let it be life in Mozambique or in Cambodia,
in Malaysia or in Sweden, it is the same. And to life we must give the highest
value. It is only when we do this can we call ourselves human beings.</p>
<p>The coming together today for this inspiring award ceremony, can be another
step for forging the international solidarity. It is the belief in human rights,
that it is universal and indivisible that forms the basis of our unity.</p>
<p>I believe a decision to change our lifestyle can lead to the protection of
our forests and biodiversity; an initiative to press for a global ban on the
use of hazardous chemicals especially paraquat can protect a women pesticide
sprayer from cancer and other health hazards.</p>
<p>A simple letter to the governments to recognise human rights can set a detainee
free and a protest over the current international agreements made through the
World Trade Organisation – which does not recognise the democratic rights of
people and nations – can reduce forced migration and protect our communities
and increase the realisation of global justice.</p>
<p>I believe that today what happens in Sweden will have repercussions for us
in Asia. After all, we belong to one race, the human race and we have only one
earth. This solidarity of people must ensure that we put people and the planet
before profits. The earth we are given is not just for us but also for those
who come after us. They need a tomorrow and that rests on us today.</p>
<p>This award strengthens me and my organisation. We are more determined to realise
our mission to promote and protect rights and dignity of the poorest even though
the one-year jail sentence hangs over me. With your support, we will forge the
struggle to bring humanity back into our lives and into the daily lives of the
most vulnerable communities in our midst.</p>
<p>In this light, I once again would like to say syabas, congratulations and thank
you to the Right Livelihood Foundation for today’s award ceremony.</p>
<p>I end my acceptance address with the inspiring words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
the well-known Russian novelist and Nobel Prize laureate (1970): "Justice
is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of
humanity. Those who clearly recognise the voice of their own conscience usually
recognisse also the voice of justice."</p>
<hr />
<i>IRENE FERNANDEZ is director of Tenaganita. The above is her edited acceptance
speech delivered during the Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the alternative Nobel
Prize, on Dec 9, 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden.</i></p>
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