CHOGM 2005 Series: Focus Malaysia

Malaysia is the first country I shall be focusing upon in a series of articles focusing on participating countries and issues concerning the CHOGM 20005 meeting to be held in Malta.

Malaysia is a strong economy with a weak human rights record. Having hosted the CHOGM in 1989, the 24 million inhabitant federation is an influential player in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and an exporter of electronic equipment and petroleum amongst others.

The fourteen-state federation, currently governed by a constitutional monarchy, gained independence from Britain in 1957 after its states became colonies and protectorates of the British Empire in the late 18th and early 19th century. Malaysia experienced a short spell of Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945. The Southeast Asian country has a low unemployment rate currently standing at 3% and its economy last year reached a peak growth of 7%. This followed a crisis in 1997 when exports went down by 11%.

Several ethnic groups are present in Malaysia. The majority of the population (50.4%) is Malay followed by Chinese at 23.7% of the population. Other ethnic groups present in the country include the Bumiputera and Indians. This results in a mix of religions with Islam being practised by the majority followed by the presence of Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism, Christianity and Sikhism. A diverse linguistic scenario is also present with more than ten languages being spoken with the official language of the country being Behasa Melayu.

Democracy, an essential aspect for all Commonwealth Countries, is present in Malaysia – at least on paper. In fact, the country’s democracy is governed by a bi-cameral system (known as Parlimen) where the lower house, known as the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) is elected by general elections held every five years where everyone aged 21 and over is able to participate. The Senate (Dewan Negara), is composed of 70 members, 44 of which are appointed by the paramount ruler who is in turn appointed for a five year term by the hereditary leaders of the fourteen-state federation.

The current paramount ruler is Syed Sirajuddin while the current prime minister is Prime Minister Abdullah. The latter hails from the National Front Coalition government which controls 91% of the seats in Parliament. Prime Minister Abdullah replaced Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 2003, in the first ever leadership change since in more than two decades.

As you can imagine, the opposition, being small in size, has a very difficult job in ensuring a proper democratic system where all individuals are respected. In fact Human Rights Watch claims several cases of abuse of power and lack of judicial independence in the resource rich nation. One of the thorny human rights issues mentioned on the human rights organisation web site is the presence of an Internal Security Act which is supposed to protect Malaysia from any internal security threat but which is sometimes used to rack down on opposition and dissidents of the current government. This Act paves the way for arbitrary detention of alleged Islamic militants. Human Rights Watch says there are currently 80 people detained under the ISA.

The same organisation also mentions a series of laws regulating the media and a day-to-day monitoring of the media which are curbing freedom of expression on media. This activity is muting media criticism of government policy. One of the very few news web sites which are openly critical of the Government is Malaysiakini.

Deportations of a large number of illegal migrant workers and refugees which started in 2003, is another problem Malaysia is faced with. In 2004 government decided to deport more than 1.2 million migrants and refugees. Since Malaysia is not a signatory of the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugee treatment, it does not recognise the presence of tens of thousands of Indonesian refugees fleeing from the war-torn Aceh region.

The medium-income country, currently facing a number of environmental problems including air pollution from industry, water pollution from sewage and deforestation, was involved in a number of disputes with Commonwealth members Singapore and Brunei some of which are still present today.

CHOGM 2005 may be an opportunity for these countries to enter into a more positive dialogue with each other that would yield greater benefits for all parties involved. Moreover the high-level Commonwealth Meeting is an outlet where countries, organisations and individuals may exert pressure on the Malaysian government to ensure greater respect for human rights and continue committing itself towards greater proliferation of telecommunications and technology.