Report on the Immigration Department Arrest of Burmese Migrant Workers
- By AdminL
- July 14, 2008
- Comments Off on Report on the Immigration Department Arrest of Burmese Migrant Workers
Three foreign workers from Myanmar were arrested by the Immigration Department enforcement officers in Malacca on June 25th, 2008 for the alleged breach of S.6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/1963. On the basis of a complaint lodged by their employer, their temporary work permit has subsequently been revoked. It is understood that these workers are currently detained for an indefinite period at the Lenggeng Detention Centre in Negeri Sembilan.
One of the workers had, on June 11th, 2008 lodged a police report at the Brickfields Police Station, Kuala Lumpur with the assistance of the Labour Resource Centre. In her report, she alleged that the other two workers who were arrested and herself were subjected to frequent sexual harassment and assault while engaged at work. To date, police investigation (Brickfields Report No: MTR/004964/08) is still ongoing.
It is our view that the Myanmar nationals should not have initially been arrested; not least before a preliminary investigation is conducted. In this case, their arrest was carried out based on the report of their employer. Ideally, had the Immigration Department perused the workers’ documents and work permit with their said employer, the arrest would not have occurred. Furthermore, since the Immigration Department has a complete network database of foreign workers in Malaysia, this procedural check would be relatively straightforward.
The workers were alleged of having absconded. However, the arrest actually took place at the workers’ hostel lodging which clearly shows that they had not, in any way, fled.
We are also of the view that it is beyond the jurisdiction of the Immigration Department to arrest the complainant as police investigation on the alleged sexual harassment and assault is still ongoing. Likewise, the ambit of sexual harassment is under the prerogative of the Labour Division, and not the Immigration Department.
We are of the further view that these workers have the right to file a claim against their former employer vide S.20 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 through the Industrial Relations Department for the revocation of their temporary work permit.
Mr. Anthony Chua, the Malacca Bar Human Rights Sub-Committee Chairperson had spoken to an officer of the Immigration Department in Malacca to expedite their release. As an auxiliary action, Ms. Florida A. Sandanasamy and Mr. Saharuddin Bin Adnan will be going to the Lenggeng Detention Centre to receive further instructions from the migrant workers.
Members of the Bar who are willing to assist in this matter may contact Mr. Anthony Chua for further information.
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Talk on Labour Law
- By AdminL
- July 8, 2008
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A talk with the topic of “Labour Law: Breach of Confidentiality & Trade Secrets in Employment Contracts” will be organised by the Professional Practice & Development Sub-Committee of the Malacca Bar on 11.7.2008 (Friday) at 4pm in King’s Hotel, Malacca. The speaker for the talk is Mr Steven Thiruneelakandan from Kuala Lumpur. For further information, kindly contact Mr. Lawrence at Malacca Bar office.
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Law Awareness Talk at Stamford College Malacca
- By AdminL
- July 4, 2008
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A Law Awareness Talk was held jointly by the Legal Aid Sub-Committee of Malacca Bar and Stamford College Malacca on 3.7.2008 in the lecture theatre at Stamford College Malacca.
A team of Malaccan lawyers led by chairman of the Legal Aid Sub-Committee, Mr. Nizam Bashir Bin Abdul Kariem Bashir had taken time out of their busy schedules to share their knowledge and experience on various topics concerning laws with about 150 students at the talk.
Besides Mr. Nizam Bashir, the speakers at the talk were Puan Fatima Binti Tahir Ali, Mr. Jason Kay, Ms. Loong Meng Si and Mr. Kiang Jau Sang. The topics that were shared with the students included Immigration Laws and Rights of Foreign Students, Police, Arrest and Lock-up, Road Safety as well as Sexual Abuse, Mental Abuse and Physical Abuse.
Students at young age are always troubled with problems that are interwoven with their young attitude and lack of experience in life. Thus, the speakers also took the opportunity to give their advice to the students on the right attitude and ways in handling those problems.
A session on the founding of Befrienders Malacca and the services provided by it was also conducted by the person in charge of Befrienders Malacca, Mr. Jeffrey Lee.
At the conclusion of the two-hour talk, Mr. K. Narayanasamy, Head of Centre of Stamford College Malacca, thanked all the speakers for their efforts and encouraged the students to be good and law-abiding citizens.
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Ludu Daw Amar: A Burmese Literary Figure of Conviction and Courage
- By AdminL
- July 4, 2008
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By Myint Zan
Died
Ludu (‘The People’) Daw Amar a revered and eminent Burmese author died in
Starting from the early 1950s both Hla and Amar were known by the honorific Ludu (the People). For that was the name of the journal –and later a separate daily newspaper was also established-that U Hla and Daw Amar co-founded in 1945 soon after the war ended. Ludu has been translated into English as ‘The People’ but the usual term that used was (and is) Pyithu retranslatable as ‘citizens of the country’. The term Ludu has a more colloquial and in some sense more militant term roughly meaning ‘masses of the people’. In 1946 the couple founded the Ludu daily newspaper which as its terms suggest took a left-wing editorial stance concerning both national and international affairs. It was the premier –later sole- private newspaper in
Ludu Daw Amar had borne out with courage and fortitude more than her fair share of the slings and arrows of (mis)fortune. In the mid-1950s her husband U Hla was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for sedition. During the period she mainly ran the Ludu daily newspaper as well as looking after her children who were growing up.
It would seem that the firm leftist views of the Ludu couple passed down to at least two of their offspring in an even more radical way. Daw Amar’s eldest son Soe Win while studying at
Daw Amar’s literary contributions extended far beyond political matters. In 1964 she won the national literary prize for her book Artistes Loved by the People– a meticulous and informative study of Burmese musicians and artistes, mainly those from
In the past quarter century or so before her death hundreds of persons from all over the country gathered on November 29 each year in a monastery near Mandalay to pay tribute to Daw Amar. (Her last -92nd– birthday though was held in her eldest daughter’s house in Mandalay due to the fact that the authorities were imposing difficulties in the birthday arrangements at the particular public place so it has to be done at a private home). In her later years Daw Amar was affectionately and reverentially known simply known as Amei: The Mother. Notwithstanding the adulation or -perhaps at times and at least by a few- of what she probably would have considered to be over-adulation she can be disarming and self-effacing. I read over ten years ago a probably apocryphal story that after the then Secretary- 1 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council of Burma in one of her birthday ceremonies presented her (through a proxy and not in person) with an expensive pen she threw it away. When I met her – after not seeing her for about fifteen years- in early 2004 I mentioned that comment to her. She stated unselfconsciously and disarmingly that it was not true and that she ‘dared not do it’. But dared she did in many other areas: always speaking her mind on a variety of matters through print-media (she continued to write into her nineties by dictating) and in broadcast interviews with foreign radio stations up until virtually the last few weeks of her life.
Living as long as she did Amei Daw Amar had had many of her friends, contemporaries and even (considerably) much younger colleagues passed away during her long, productive and inspiring life. Throughout the years she had written various obituary-tributes about many of her elders, contemporaries including well-known international figures as well as about those who were junior to her in age. Among the world-figures she had written obituary-tributes were those of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) and Italo Calvino (1923-1985) Around 2003 her friends and colleagues collected and published her obituaries-tributes under the title roughly translatable as ‘Essays in Memories of (and nostalgia for) those (who have departed)’ (lun-thu-sar).
When the late Burmese poet Tin Moe (1933-2007) died in exile in Los Angeles on 22 January 2007 Daw Amar expressed –in an interview with the Burmese language service of either Voice of America or the British Broadcasting Cooperation- her regrets and sorrow that Tin Moe –who according to her was ‘in his prime’- ‘had to die at the age of 73’ when she (according to her own description) ‘useless old woman’ that she was ‘did not die’. She implied that she is now ‘useless’ because she could not write any more. (Even though in the last few years of her life she continued to ‘write’ by dictating to her granddaughters perhaps in the last several months of her life she might have some difficulty doing even that.)
At what can be considered at the start of Daw Amar’s literary and political career more than seventy years ago during the February 1936 Rangoon University student’s strike another prominent Burmese literary figure the late Minthuwun (1909-2004) gave her a poem, in his own hand writing, part of which read, in my adapted translation, as follows.: (The poem used her name ‘Amar’ firmness as a starting point and as an exhortation)
The crooked (way) is not the ‘straight’ (up right) way
Supine-ness is not firmness
Don’t let the crookedness prevail over that of uprightness
Don’t let firmness become supine-ness
Amei Daw Amar’s life is an ample testament that the Mother lived up to her name of principled firmness: a life indeed of kindness as well as conviction which can only be a source of inspiration and a well-spring for courage for all those who mourn her passing.
Address
Dr. Myint Zan
Senior Lecturer,
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