Thank God for the Internet

A friend remarked the other day that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would never have survived 22 years in power had the Internet been widely used in Malaysia during the time of his administration.

With the draconian Printing Presses and Publications Act looming large like the eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, the local media were cowed into toeing the line.

Today, whenever the government tries to spin something in its favour, the Internet pops up like a thorn in the side exposing another set of facts or viewpoints for the public to consider.

Last week, Bernama came out with a news report titled Malaysian detainees treated eell — UN human rights group.

The Bernama report was about the working group on arbitrary detention of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s country mission to Malaysia between 7 and 18 June.

If a person had only read the Bernama report, the impression he would have got was that the five-member group had spent a remarkably happy week in the country, inspected five detention centres, and found that the detainees in good condition.

Based on the Bernama report, one would have also gotten the impression that the group had also very gently urged the Malaysian government to repeal or amend four preventive laws, including the ISA, to conform to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Group leader El Hadji Malick Sow was quoted as saying that “the fact that the government is invited us here indicates its willingness for improvements.”

That would have been the end of story 20 years ago.

The government spin would have worked and the public would sit comfortable in their homes ever so pleased that Malaysia had come out of the inspection unscathed, and maybe even smelling like roses.

Not anymore.

A quick online search would reveal the Associated Press version of events, which tells an entirely different story.

The wire report with the headline “UN delegation accuses Malaysian police of torturing, abusing suspects to obtain confessions” was picked up by The Guardian newspaper of Canada.

In fact, the first line of the Associated Press report goes like this “A United Nations delegation accused Malaysian police officers Friday of torturing and abusing detainees to obtain confessions, saying suspects prefer prison rather than police custody and immigrant detention centres.”

It also quotes a member of the UN group as having said that “in Malaysia, there is no human rights culture.”
Confusion sets in.

Are the evil Western imperialist news agencies out to get Malaysia?

Are they bending the facts and painting Malaysia to be something that it is not?

Perhaps, it is best to check online and see if it could throw more light on the issue.

Another quick online search would find the UN Working Group’s official statement on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

So we now have the words from the horse’s mouth as it were.

The group states that they were in the country at the invitation of the government and that they thanked the government for extending its full cooperation in the conduct of the mission.

It also highlight “the good conditions in all the prisons visited, including the recent construction and renovation, as well as the good rapport between the detainees and the guards” and reveal that they were “pleased to learn that the number of detainees under the Internal Security Act has decreased in recent times.”

So far so good. Reminds me of when I spring cleaned my dorm room in university just before my mother’s visit.

The Associated Press report, on the other hand, is not looking too good for now.

Further down the statement however, things change.

After calling on Malaysia to ratify the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the UN working group stated that it is “seriously concerned about the Preventive Laws in force in Malaysia”.

It further said that “many detainees, especially those detained under the preventive laws ….. indicated that they had been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in order to obtain confessions or evidence in police detention”.

The group also highlighted the fact that the situation of detention in Malaysia would improve if “the judiciary were fully independent, based on the principle of separation of powers, and composed of independent and impartial judges and magistrates.”

The UN working group had hit the nail on the head.

The country’s laws, police force and judiciary needs serious overhaul. Words like torture and preventive detention do not belong in modern Malaysia and should be consigned to history.

The UN working group will present its preliminary report to the government in September. A final report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2011.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Malaysia cannot afford to take human rights lightly anymore. Should the country lose its seat in the council, no amount of spin can help redeem its image.

Back to where I began. Thank God for the Internet.

Without the Internet, we may all still be comfortably numb and living in an unreal world tailored by the hand of the government of the day.