Myanmar workers stand up and win

I thought this was an encouraging development in the defense of workers' rights.

26 ex-employees - all Myanmars - of Jogoya an upscale restaurant at Starhill successfully stood up against alleged unfair termination of employment and deductions made to their wages. Their plight was publicised back in March 9 when Malay Mail first broke the story that they were 'unlawfully fired' and given a week to move out of their quarters.

The 26 Myanmar workers who claimed to have been duped by their former employer, an upscale restaurant in Starhill Gallery here, finally had their demands met and will get to return home.

The Malay Mail learnt that negotiations between the workers and Jogoya Restaurant concluded last Wednesday and matters were settled amicably via intervention by the Federal Territories Labour Department and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).

At the end of negotiations, held at the FT Labour office in Wisma Perkeso, Jalan Ampang, Jogoya management agreed to return all levies deducted from the workers’ salaries from April 1, 2009 up until last month.

With each worker’s monthly levy being RM150, total levies deducted for all 26 Myanmar workers for 11 months would have amounted to RM42,900.

Jogoya also agreed to pay the workers their full salaries for January and February 2010 as well as their service points for January, which were previously held back after the restaurant claimed poor performance by the workers.

Jogoya additionally provided full airfare tickets for the workers who had been with the restaurant for more than three years, and a RM250 airfare subsidy for those who worked under three years.

You can read all about it here at human rights activist Charles Hector's blog.

The same blog post also reported that MTUC secretary-general, G. Rajasekaran, expressed surprise that the Federal Territories Labour Department had had enterd negotiations with Jogoya Restaurant when legal action ought to have been initiated against them.

Meanwhile Malaysikini reports on Amnesty International's public statement on Malaysia's appalling treatment of migrant workers. The report said that many of the 2.2 million migrant workforce were "lured" here and "used in forced labour or exploited in other ways".

Amnesty also documented over a dozen cases in which Malaysian immigration officials allegedly handed over Myanmar detainees to traffickers operating on Malaysia's northern border with Thailand between 2006 and 2009.

"The Malaysian government has the responsibility to prevent such abuses, but instead facilitates trafficking through its loose regulation of recruitment agents and through laws and policies that fail to protect workers," it said.

More: New York Times - Report Says Migrants in Malaysia Face Abuse

Shift happens

There's so much drama in our part of the world it's easy to think it's a sign of life. Or progress. You wish. Shift happens. And unless we recognise it, the country will end up a footnote on the trash heap of history.

Here's a video to jolt your senses and and wake you to the big picture. A little old, first posted in 2007 when MySpace was er, cool - it's been forwarded like maybe a gazillion times now - but that's exactly the point. The world is not going to wait for Malaysia to get her act together..........

Breaking the silence

Next to Vishal Mangalwadi's Truth and Transformation, this book by Sri Lankan scholar Vinoth Ramachnadra is a must-read. I'm just starting on Subverting Global Myths and already it's challenging some cherished ideas. It's a close-up look at real world politics and global myths that have with too many regurgitation assume an appearance of irrefutable fact with devastating consequences.

Subverting Global Myths is really quite different in tone and perspective compared to Truth and Transformation, but I prefer to see both as complementary voices to a better appreciation of the complexity of global issues.

I was particularly interested to read the chapter entitled, Myths of Religious Violence, in the light of our Malaysian experience. In that chapter, Ramachandra quotes the Hindu scholar from Trinidad Anantanand Rambachan who is currently teaching in a Christian college in the US:

"Communities on the other hand, which engage each other in a deep search for mutual understanding and which honestly acknowledge differences and cultivate respect are less likely to explode in times of conflict. Such communities are less likely to cite differences as a basis for hostility towards the other. I often wonder about this matter when we witness neighbours, in many recent conflicts, suddenly turning upon each other with ferocity and violence, shattering the veneer of civility and harmony."

Considering how those in authority continue to cite communal sensitivities as the reason to avoid dialogue, it seems we are prepared to live with superficial 'harmony' than genuine understanding. Yes, Malaysians are afraid of hard choices prefering denial to de truth.

Tragically, our 'betters' prefer lumpy carpets than mutual acceptance through continuing dialogue. May 13, race, royalty, religion, Allah, etc, we have a long list of taboos lurking in the shadow of 1 Malaysia. Rambachan also makes the observation that, "Communities where differences are real, but where they are minimized or downplayed, are most likely to suffer violence and traumatic upheavals when, in times of tension and conflict, such differences become prominent."

God knows plural Malaysia needs to talk to each other. Heaven knows we can no longer gloss over deep-seated differences and pretend silence is the price of tolerance.

(Read an interview where Vinoth Ramachandra talks about his book here.)

Don't Let The Provocateurs Succeed

(Malaysiakini graphics)

This can't go on.

In every society there's a lunatic fringe that cannot differentiate pig-headed bigotry from civility. We cannot and dare not let these provocateurs cow us into ever narrow racism, sectarianism, and communalism. If these people win, Malaysia loses.

"The latest incidents today at the two mosques along Jalan Kelang Lama, Kuala Lumpur demonstrate how sick perpetrators of such acts can be and to what extent they are willing to go to cause hurt and harm to religious communities. Their end is to drive a wedge between religious communities in the country.

We who are law-abiding citizens must not allow them to succeed in their wicked mission.

Let us not speculate about the identities of the culprits until the police and the courts have done their work. Let us stand together and resist such people.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism condoles with Muslims, Christians and Sikhs whose places of worship and prayer have been so rudely desecrated."

MCCBCHST Statement