Photo_journ’s newsblog by John Le Fevre

March 23, 2009

“Sadistic” Malaysian employer sentenced to 18-years jail for abusing maid: Released on bail

Yim Pek Ha

Yim Pek Ha sentenced to 18-years jail for sadistically abusing Nirmala Bonat. Photo courtesy AP/BBC.

A recent photo of Nirmala Bonat

A recent photo of Nirmala Bonat.

In August 2007 I wrote death of maid in Malaysia highlights endemic foreign worker abuse which chronicled the widespread abuse of domestic foreign workers (commonly referred to as maids) by Malaysian employers.

The original article focused on the murder of 24-year-old Indonesian domestic worker Kunarsih, who used just one name like many Indonesians, from Demak in Central Java by Goo Eng Keng and his wife Chen Pei Ee, while another incident referred to the horrific injuries received by 19-year-old Nirmala Bonat from Kupang, West Timor, from her employer Yim Pek Ha.

Yim was accused of pouring boiling water on Ms Bonat, beating her, and pressing a hot iron on her breasts and back as punishment for mistakes in ironing clothes. Following her rescue Ms Bonat was treated for second and third-degree burns.

As is often the case in Malaysia, one day after the arrest of his wife, Ms Bonat’s employer filed a police complaint against her alleging the injuries were self-inflicted, and also accused her of stealing RM10,000 ($US2,870.00).

Yim Pek Ha being lead away from court in Malaysia where she was sentenced to 18-years for abusing her Indonesian maid

Yim Pek Ha being lead away from court in Malaysia where she was sentenced to 18-years for abusing her Indonesian maid. Photo courtesy Xinhua/Reuters

Yim, a 35-year old mother of four, was released on RM85,000 ($US24,300) bail, while Ms Bonat was confined to an over crowded shelter at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur and not permitted to leave the compound until the trial and not permitted to return home until January 2008.

The Malaysian legal system moves at a snails pace ordinarily and coupled with delays by Yim, the trial didn’t finish until November 27, 2008 when Sessions Court Judge Akhtar Tahir found Yim guilty of using dangerous weapons to inflict injury and causing grievous hurt to Ms Bonat with a hot iron and hot water at Villa Putera, Jalan Tun Ismail in January, March, and April of 2004.

In his sentencing remarks Judge Akhtar said he wanted to impose a “deterrent sentence” to show that “sadistic behaviour… cannot be tolerated in a civil society” and sentenced Yim to 18-years imprisonment on each charge, with the terms to run concurrently.

While human rights advocates might have applauded the courts ruling, the former flight attendant was not destined to spend any long period of time behind bars and the next day was released after her husband, Hii Ik Ting, posted a RM200,000 ($US54,850) bail pending an appeal to the Malysian High Court.

Nirmala Bonat when she was rescued in 2004

Nirmala Bonat when she was rescued in 2004 and the injuries she received from her sadistic Malaysian employer, Yim Pek Ha

In additon to the bail surety, Yim was ordered to surrender her travel documents and ordered to inform the court whenever she traveled outside of Kuala Lumpur.

According to Yim’s lawyer, Jagjit Singh, the sentence is “excessive because there was no loss of life, no disfigurement, and no scars”. At this stage no date has been set for the appeal, but Yim and her husband Hii have already demonstrated they are prepared to drag the matter out for as long possible.

In August 2007, 29-year-old Cheng Pei Ee was charged with the murder of Kunarsih and is currently being held without bail and faces the death penalty, while her husband, 34-year-old Goo Eng Keng is free on RM9,000 ($US2,468) bail and has been charged with destroying evidence and providing a false statement about a crime with the intention to help the accused evade punishment.

It is estimated there are more than 300,000 Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia who typically work 16 to 18 hour days, seven days a week, and earn around $US3.30 a day More than 1,500 Indonesian domestic workers seek help from Indonesian diplomatic offices and NGOs specialising in migrant worker rights across Malaysia each month.

ENDS:
© John Le Fevre, 2009

My original article can be found here: Death of maid in Malaysia highlights endemic foreign worker abuse

The BBC report on Yim Pek Ha’s trial can be found here: Malaysian jailed for maid attacks

A report by Al Jazeera News agency on the sentencing can be read here: Maid abuse draws 18-year sentence

The Bernama News Agency report on Yim Peng Ha being bailed can be read here: Housewife Yim Pek Ha out on RM200,000 bail

Details of Yim Pek Ha’s trial and judgment can be found here: Public Prosecutor Vs Yim Pek Ha

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Foreign worker abuse; Foreign workers in Malaysia; Human rights; Human rights abuse; Indonesian workers; Malaysia; Crime; Malaysian legal system; Migrant workers; Murder; Kunarsih; Yim Pek Ha; Cheng Pei Ee; Goo Eng Keng; Hii Ik Ting; Nirmala Bonat

August 23, 2007

Death of maid in Malaysia highlights endemic foreign worker abuse

Nirmala Bonat after her rescue in 2004

Nirmala Bonat after her rescue in 2004 shows the bruises, burns and scalds she said were inflicted on her by her Malaysian employer Yim Pek Ha.

The torture-murder of a 24-year-old Indonesian maid in her employers house in Malaysia last week is just the tip of the iceberg of a litany of human rights abuses foreign workers there are subjected to.

Abuses that regularly result in workers who arrive in Malaysia full of dreams of improving their life and sending money home for the education of their children, returning home with broken bodies, shattered spirits or as in this case, dead.

While Malaysian officials have attempted to play down this latest killing, claiming abuse of foreign workers is a rare occurrence, the facts belie this.

In commenting on the this latest incident, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, pressed for Kuala Lumpur’s firmness in handling the case, and said “this kind of incident has happened frequently.”

Nirmala Bonat  after receiving medical treatment in May 2004

Nirmala Bonat after receiving medical treatment in May 2004

“Stern prosecution actions are needed to give a shock therapy to other Malaysian employers so that they would not abuse, but treat Indonesian workers based on their rights.”

This view is echoed by Irene Fernandez, director of Malaysian NGO Tenaganita, a non-profit organisation focusing on migrant advocacy, who said incidents such as this are “happening too often.”

According to Ms Fernandez, 45 Indonesian workers have died in Malaysia so far this year from a variety of causes, including torture by abusive employers.

The NGO has documented more than 1,050 human rights violations ranging from rape to physical abuse over the last two years.

“An average of six to seven violations were recorded per case, but in more serious cases, there can be up to ten violations. The most common violations are non-payment of wages and physical abuse.

As long as the Malaysian government does not address this fundamental issue, such incidents will continue to happen. We should feel ashamed of such incidents,” she added.

In this latest incident the body of a 24-year old woman named Kunarsih, who like many Indonesians used only one name, from Demak in Central Java, who had only been working in Malaysia for four months, was found bludgeoned to death in the home of her employer in Pucong Perdana, Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian police have detained the employer, Goo Eng Keng, but are still looking for his 29-year-old wife, Chen Pei Ee, who went missing after the incident.

According to reports, the young woman had bruises all over body and died from blunt force injuries to her chest and abdomen.

This has lead to claims that the woman had been tortured prior to her death. A view was supported by Tatang B Razak, Head of the Task Force for the Protection and Service of Indonesian citizens at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, who said “her whole body was swollen . . . it’s very clear that it’s because of torture.”

In 2004 Indonesian’s and Malaysian’s alike were outraged and repulsed when a 19-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, Nirmala Bonat from Kupang in West Timor, was found by a security guard at Villa Putra Apartments in Jalan Tun Ismail, an upscale condominium complex, crying, severely bruised and bleeding from the head and mouth.

Ms Bonat said that she was abused for the first time when she accidentally broke a mug while washing it, and for the previous five months, her employer’s wife would abuse her everyday with a hot iron, pouring hot water on her, and using other objects to hit her.

Photo’s of the woman’s burned and scalded body that appeared in the media created such an outcry due to their horrific nature that the Malaysian government was forced into issuing a public apology over the incident, expressing disgust and shame.

Yim Pek Ha

Former flight attendant and mother of four Yim Pek Ha, accused of beating, burning and scaling Indonesian domestic worker Nirmala Bonat. Photo courtesy AP/BBC.

The wife of Ms Bonat’s employer, 35-year-old mother of four, Yim Pek Ha, was accused of poured boiling water on her, beating her, and pressing a hot iron on her breasts and back as punishment for mistakes in ironing clothes. Following her rescue she was treated for second and third-degree burns.

As is typical in such cases in Malaysia, a day after the arrest of his wife, Ms Bonat’s employer filed a complaint against the maid, saying that the wounds on her body were self-inflicted and accused her of stealing RM10, 000 ($US2,870.00) from his home.

Despite being charged with four counts of causing hurt with dangerous weapons and facing a maximum of 80-years imprisonment, and in spite of promises by senior Malaysian politicians, including Prime Minister Dato Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, that maximum penalties would be applied, the case is still ongoing.

While Yim is free to continue her life unimpeded, released on RM85,000 ($US24,300) bail, due to immigration rules Ms Bonat is confined to a shelter at the Indonesian embassy.

The problem is that foreign workers, especially those employed as domestic workers, have very few rights as Malaysia specifically excludes domestic workers from most standard labour protection laws that cover other workers.

Malaysia is second only to Saudi Arabia in the number of Indonesian’s working as domestic workers, and Indonesians are the lowest paid of all who work in this field.

Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia typically work 16 to 18 hour days, seven days a week, and earn around $US3.30 (Rp31,000) a day. This is half the amount of a Filipina domestic worker who only has to work six days a week is paid.

This salary discrepancy, according to Indonesia’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Drs H Rushdihardjo, is because, “Indonesian maids don’t have the same level of skills as Filipina maids. The primary difference is that Filipina maids speak English, whereas Indonesian maids can just do cooking and cleaning.”

The majority of employers hold foreign workers passports and Indonesian domestic staff are not permitted to carry cash for the first two years of employment. In addition, it is not uncommon for employers to refuse to allow Indonesian domestic workers to write or telephone their families back home, and the majority are confined to their work premises.

Most are forced to ‘live in’ with employers, though many are not even provided with a room of their own – sleeping with the children they look after, or even on the kitchen floor. Many do not receive their salary until the end of the standard two-year contract.

Ms Fernandez, said many domestic workers suffer psychological, physical, and sexual assault by labour agents and employers, and “at the end of the day, we consider such practices bonded labour.”

Over the years NGO’s and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur have received thousands of complaints from domestic workers about working conditions, wages or abuse and each month more than 1,500 Indonesian maids run away from their employers, citing abuse, dissatisfaction with long working hours, lack of freedom of movement, or unpaid salaries as the reason.

The number of Indonesian workers running away from employers and seeking refuge at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur reached such a magnitude, that a few years ago it was forced to build a two storey compound inside the embassy grounds to accommodate them.

Even now more than 100 Indonesian domestic workers were being sheltered at the embassy after complaining about abusive employers.

Eka Suripto, an official at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, said the lack of enforcement and prosecution of abusive employers was compounding the problem.

“Once we finish with the relevant processes, we have to negotiate with the employers for a settlement, such as unpaid wages, and then send the women back to Indonesia.”

Commenting on the death of Kunarsih, Mr Suripto said, “certainly this matter will be further investigated. But the lack of law enforcement is leading to an increasing number of maid abuse cases.”

According to Drs Rushdihardjo, there is a pattern to the abuses reported against Indonesian domestic workers. “If its sexual it’s the Indians, if it’s physical it’s the Chinese – and the Malays don’t pay,” he said.

In a double whammy situation, many foreign workers who flee their abusive employers find themselves being prosecuted under Malaysia’s immigration laws and jailed instead of receiving assistance.

Because most employers keep the employee’s passports, it’s difficult for the foreign workers to prove they are in the country legitimately, while others who have demanded unpaid wages often end up being reported for threatening or assaulting their employers.

In the rare cases where a domestic worker does lodge a complaint against an employer, inevitably the employer lays a counter charge that the worker has stolen from them, and/or inflicted the injuries herself. Malaysian police are more disposed towards proceeding against the foreign worker than against their fellow citizens.

While each time the case of an abused worker is highlighted the Malaysian government mutters it’s regret and makes statements it will come down hard on abusive employers, the abuses continue to occur.

Ms Fernandez says, “each time there is a reaction that something must be done but there has been no political commitment to see it through.”

This lack of political commitment was amply demonstrated earlier this month when the Malaysian government refused to sign a declaration aimed at improving the levels of protection provided to foreign migrant workers at the 40th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting (AMM).

Titled, ‘The Statement on the Establishment of the ASEAN Committee on the Declaration of the Protection and Promotion of the Migrant Workers’, the declaration was supposed to show a forward movement in protecting and guaranteeing the rights and status of foreign workers.

While ASEAN heads of state had signed the declaration during the leaders’ summit hosted by the Philippines in Cebu last January, the signing of the declaration at the AMM would have elevated it to a more legally binding arrangement.

The declaration particularly called for stronger protection and improved conditions for migrant workers in the region, and assigned “obligations” on both the “sending” and “receiving” states. However, despite all prior indications it would sign the document, Malaysia withheld it’s signature at the last minute.

Malaysia’s stubborn resistance to providing levels of protection to domestic workers is as well documented as the cases of abuse it allows to happen.

It was only last year, after more than four years of intense diplomatic lobbying and pressure by Indonesia, that Malaysia finally passed a law that salaries of Indonesian domestic workers had to be paid into a bank account in their name, and that salaries needed to be banked each month.

However the new law, which came into effect in June of last year, gives employers a period of up to two years to comply with it. and will not affect Indonesian domestic workers already working in Malaysia. Employers will only need to abide by the new arrangements when renewing their employee’s two-year contracts.

Under the agreement employers will also be required to sign personal contracts with their domestic workers stipulating the wages agreed upon by both parties, and the domestic worker must sign a letter of acceptance before they can start work.

Employers are also barred from withholding pay for the first five months of a contract as is often the practice now.

Prior to this agreement the first five months of an Indonesian domestic workers salary was paid to Indonesian agents who claimed it was to cover the costs incurred in sending the domestic worker from Indonesia.

While a step in the right direction, the new arrangements only apply to Indonesian domestic workers and are not applicable to those from other countries.

A major hurdle in the two countries not reaching agreement earlier was Indonesia’s attempt to secure a minimum monthly wage of RM500 ($US143.00) per month, a demand that the Malaysian’s refuse to succumb to.

Tan Sri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister, said the reason why Filipina maids get paid more is that, “The Philippines have set the rate in their law.

“Indonesia has asked but we’ve said no because we’ve got 320,000 Indonesian maids in Malaysia and if we say there is a fixed wage our employers – Malaysian’s – will say ‘no, no, no I can’t afford to pay that.”

He also doesn’t think Indonesian domestic workers should be given a day off. He claims, “you work in the house. You are part of the family. That’s how Malaysian’s accept maids here. There are so many of them here. If they went out it would create a lot of problems.”

In response to the high number of maids who flee their employer each month, a labour law introduced in 2006 allows domestic workers to change their employer twice during the two-year contract of employment.

However, the domestic worker “must reimburse the first employer based on the period of actual service rendered and then charge the new employer fees and levies proportional to the remaining period of the worker’s contract.”

In spite of the publicity generated over Kunarsih’s death, it was only a matter of days before another Indonesian domestic worker, identified as Parsiti, made headlines as she attempted to flee from her abusive employer.

According to press reports, Parsiti was forced to climb out the window of a 17th-floor apartment to escape her employer, who she claimed strangled her and beat her with a rattan stick. This was the second incident in two months where an Indonesian domestic worker had been forced to seek escape from abusive employers by exiting through high-rise apartment windows.

Just days later Tenaganita and Malaysian police rescued 148 abused Indonesian maids in the Klang Valley after receiving over 200 calls through its domestic workers action line.

Malaysia remains one of the largest importers of foreign labour in Asia. Approximately 25 per cent, or between 2.5 to 3 million people out of its 11 million workforce is comprised of foreign migrants, primarily employed in manufacturing (33 per cent), palm oil plantations (23 per cent), domestic service (26 per cent) and construction (18 per cent).

Of this figure only some 1.8 million are legal and have valid work permits and according to official Malaysian government figures, 1.2 million of the foreign workers come from neighbouring Indonesia.

While Malaysia has made headlines over the brutal sweeping campaigns it conducts to find illegal workers, along with mandatory caning of those who overstay their visa, the country seems to have an insatiable appetite for imported labour.

Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) executive director, Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff, claims the number of foreign workers in Malaysia is expected to exceed five million by 2010.

Much of this growth will be in the construction industry, with the current ninth Malaysian Plan (9MP) setting a growth target of 3.5 per cent in this sector alone.

The majority of modern Malaysia’s towering skyscrapers, as well as the administrative capital of Putrajaya, was built by foreign labour.  In fact the first person buried in the Putrajaya cemetery was an Indonesian construction worker killed on the job.

Shamsuddin Bardin, Malaysian Employers Federation Director, says foreign workers are employed in the “three D jobs that Malaysians don’t want – dirty, dangerous and difficult.”

The country also has the largest number of domestic workers in Asia. More than 400,000 domestic workers are currently registered with approximately 90 per cent, or 360,000, from poor rural areas of Indonesia.

In addition, it is estimated there is up to another 20,000 undocumented Indonesian woman employed as domestic help.

Human rights groups and NGO’s have long tried to highlight the litany of human rights abuses taking place against foreign workers in Malaysia, but often these reports and abuses go unreported, even in the local media.

However conditions are unlikely to improve in the near future. Just as Malaysia depends on its cheap workforce, Indonesia relies heavily on the many billions of dollars sent home by its citizens working abroad. Money that is spent on educating their children and building homes in their villages.

Indonesia needs to do much more to protect the rights of it foreign workers if incidences such as this are not to be repeated over and over again.

In March 2003 Indonesia temporarily suspended issuing visas for those wanting to work as maids overseas. Officially the ban was implemented so the maids could be better trained, but Indonesian MPs had complained that they faced abuse abroad.

Perhaps its time to impose such a ban again. As well as time to crack down heavily on the unlicensed labour traders who prowl the nations villages and send uneducated, untrained and ill-prepared young women off to the abusive households of Malaysia in exchange for a handful of Rupiah.

The only way to reduce incidences of abuse and violence against domestic workers is to ensure that their rights are protected. This is the role of Indonesia’s lawmakers. The only way to ensure Indonesian domestic workers receive a more realistic reward for the labour is to establish skills training centers that at the very least put Indonesian workers on an equal footing with their counterparts from the Philippines.

In the meantime, Malaysian politicians need to stop giving lip service only to the problem, and set minimum punishment laws for abusive bosses to show that they truly value the contribution these workers make to their economy

ENDS:
© John Le Fevre, 2007

An excellent documentary on the problem of Indonesian domestic worker abuse, including the Nirmala Bonat incident, by ABC Australia journalist Helen Vatsikopoulos and the Foreign Correspondent team is available online: Maid in Malaysia

News footage of the abuse inflicted on Nirmala Bonat can be viewed at OnLine TiViWarning: This vision is extremely graphic and may (should) disturb some (all) people.

An update to this story can be found here: Sadistic Malaysian employer sentenced: released on bail

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Foreign worker abuse; Foreign workers in Malaysia; Human rights; Human rights abuse; Indonesian workers; Malaysia; Crime; Malaysian legal system; Migrant workers; Murder; Kunarsih; Yim Pek Ha; Cheng Pei Ee; Goo Eng Keng; Hii Ik Ting; Nirmala Bonat

August 7, 2007

Foreigners flogged most in Malaysia

A freeze frame from the smuggled video showing a prisoner being caned in Malaysia.

A freeze frame from the smuggled video showing a prisoner being caned in Malaysia.

When video of a drug trafficker being caned in Malaysia was leaked onto the Internet last week it resulted in headlines and still images from the video appearing in leading newspapers around the world.

It wasn’t that people being caned in Malaysia was something the world hadn’t heard of before, but rather the first time that actual footage or photographs of the barbaric act had been seen publicly outside of Malaysia.

The video was rapidly copied from the original posting site, Liveleak.com to video hosting sites around the world.

Caning in Malaysia dates back to British colonial times and involves using a wet rattan stick to whip the prisoner on his buttocks, often splitting the skin and leaving scars that can last up to ten years.

Human rights groups globally condemned the practice, labeling it as “barbaric” and “inhumane,” while The Bar Council of Malaysia, which represents 8,000 lawyers, called for such punishment to be abolished and stepped up its campaign against it.

“We are against the death penalty and corporal punishment,” said council president Ambiga Sreenevasan.

“It’s against all international human rights norms and the various conventions on torture. It’s inhumane and degrading.”

However, Malaysia’s Internal Security Minister, Datuk Fu Ah Kiow defended the punishment claiming it was, “no big deal.”

“The video is used in drug prevention and other anti-crime campaigns. It is deterrence for drug traffickers and drug addicts.

“Let’s not be hypocritical about this. Look at the harm done to victims of drug pushers and drug users, and the increase in violent crime,” he said. “We must show more concern to the victims than to the convicts.”

In Malaysia individuals arrested in possession of more than 15 grams of heroin, 1,000 grams of raw or prepared opium, 40 grams of cocaine, 200 grams of marijuana or 50 grams of amphetamine, methamphetamine or MDMA are presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs and subject to the death penalty.

Those detected with as little as 2 grams of heroin, 5 grams of cocaine, 100 grams of raw or prepared opium, 20 grams of marijuana or 5 grams of amphetamine, methamphetamine or MDMA are liable to a prison sentence of between two and five years, and between three and nine strokes of the Rotan.

While Datuk Kiow would like to have the world believe that caning is reserved only for those who commit serious crimes, this is being somewhat economical with the truth.

Flogging can be used to punish more than 40 crimes in Malaysia, including certain white-collar crimes such as criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and cheating.

In fact the most often application of the Rotan is to the posterior of illegal migrants, asylum seekers and those who overstay their visit or work visa’s.

According to P. Ramasamy, formerly a professor at the Center for History, Political Science and Strategic Studies at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, an estimated quarter of the work force – 2.5 to 3 million workers out of a working population of 9 million – is foreign.

Of this a little less than two million are legal, with the rest living in fear of being stopped on the street and asked for their papers, or midnight raids on their homes or workplaces by Malaysian police, immigration officials or police reserve volunteers.

Much of modern Malaysia was built by foreign labor, including the administrative capital of Putrajaya. In fact the first person buried in the cemetery there was an Indonesian construction worker killed on the job.

Shamsuddin Bardin, Malaysian Employers Federation Director, says foreign workers are employed in the “three D jobs that Malaysians don’t want – dirty, dangerous and difficult.”

The exploitation and abuse of the migrant workers both by the employers and immigration agents are well-documented and include non-payment of wages, beatings and having their travel documents stolen and then reported to officials as being illegal.

During an illegal worker amnesty in February 2005 more than 100,000 illegal Indonesian workers refused to return home despite a looming crackdown by Malaysian officials claiming they had not been paid wages due to them.

The Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur reportedly hired five lawyers to sue the employers who were taking advantage of the amnesty to withhold the workers’ wages.  However, the action was withdrawn later after a meeting between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

On August 1, 2002, Malaysia amended its Immigration Act for those overstaying their visa’s with the new act carrying a fine of up to RM 10,000 (US$ 2,800) and/or a jail term of up to five years, as well as mandatory whipping of not more than six strokes.

Just nine days later seven Bangladeshi’s being tried in three different courts throughout Malaysia became the first foreigners ordered caned for entering the country illegally.

According to figures released by Malaysia’s Home Ministry in December 2004, 11,473 Indonesians, 2,786 Myanmar’s, 1,956 Filipinos, 708 Bangladeshis, 509 Indians and 1,175 other nationalities were administered 60,000 lashes of the Rotan since the laws enactment in 2002.

This is an average of 1,162 people per month and 3.3 lashes per person.

In March 2005 the Asian Centre for Human Rights estimated there were around 16,000 undocumented workers being held in Malaysia awaiting whipping.

While people around the world have constantly called on Malaysia to cease the practice, its lawmakers have instead looked at increasingly hard and humiliating punishments.

In 2002, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual leader of Malaysia’s main Islamist opposition party, Pas, called for people convicted of sex crimes to be stoned to death in public in accordance with Islam.

In 2004 the country’s Prime Minister and de facto law minister, said he would ask the cabinet to approve tougher punishments, including for rapists to be flogged in public as a deterrent.

In December 2006 Mohamed Aziz, from the ruling National Front coalition, urged parliament to extend the whipping to include foreign prostitutes, “as a deterrent to others considering coming here to work in the sex industry.

“If we can impose whipping for drug addicts, why can’t we do the same for prostitutes,” he said in a proposal that was supported by at least one other lawmaker.

While the rest of the world might find caning to be Neanderthal in nature, it is doubtful Malaysia’s lawmakers will rush to remove the penalty from the statute books.

In a country suffering skyrocketing crime and increasing Islamic conservatism, the posting of the video on the internet only serves to highlight the extreme penalties some countries mete out to those convicted of crime.

One can’t help to wonder though why Datuk Kiow only mentioned the penalty being administered to drug traffickers and rapists, and ignored the fact that those subjected the most to this punishment are guilty of little more than trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.

Other Asian countries that impose whipping penalties include Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.

ENDS:
© John Le Fevre, 2007

The complete smuggled video can be seen at: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ebe_1181569371 Be warned the video is extremely graphic in nature.

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Caning; Flogging; Foreign worker abuse; Foreign workers in Malaysia; Human rights abuse; Illegal drugs; Indonesian workers; Malaysia; Malaysian legal system

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