RELA, or Ikatan Relawan Rakyat, is the People’s Volunteer Corps that operates under Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry. It was created in 1972. It’s members are Malaysian citizens who volunteer to serve, and they have the power to carry firearms, arrest individuals, and enter premises without permits.
What is the role of Rela?
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Rela’s role is to
- Act as a ‘home guard’, to maintain security and peace before take over by security forces.
- Safeguard defense targets, transfer and protect civilian to a safe place.
- Act as the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of the government, to collect information for enforcement units, and patrolrespective districts for crime prevention.
Rela has been empowered to catch undocumented migrants since 2005.
Currently, there are 480,023 members of Rela. Any Malaysian citizen can join – there are no educational or physical requirements, and there are no background or criminal checks on those who join. New members attend 3 – 14 days of training.
Which acts & regulations empower Rela?*
• Emergency (Essential Powers) Act, 1964
• Essential (Pasokan Kawalan) Regulations, 1966
• Essential (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat)(Amendment) Regulation 2005
Excerpts from Essential (Pasokan Kawalan) Regulations, 1966
Regulation 10. Powers of members of Pasokan Kawalan. A member of the Pasokan Kawalan shall have the following powers-
(a) when authorised to do so by the competent authority, to carry arms, including firearms, and use the same for the performance of his duties;
(b) without derogating from his powers and duties under any other written law, to arrest without a warrant a terrorist or any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be a terrorist and to immediately conduct such terrorist or person to the nearest police station or police officicer or a member of the security forces.
Excerpts from Essential (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat)(Amendment) Regulations, 2005
4A. (1) The competent authority shall have the powers provided under these
Regulations and shall include the following powers:
(a) to carry arms, including firearms and ammunition for use, and use the same for the performance of its duties;
(b) where it has reasonable belief that any person is a terrorist, undesirable person, illegal immigrant or an occupier, to stop the person in order to make all such inquiries or to require the production of all such documents or other things as the competent authority may consider necessary;
(c) may arrest without warrant any person who when stopped under paragraph (b): (i) refuses or fails to comply with any reasonable requirement made to him by the competent authority; (ii) refuses to answer any question that may be lawfully put to him by the competent authority in the exerciseof its power; (iii) makes any statement or produces any identification document which the competent authority knows or has reason to believe to be false; or (iv) refuses or fails to produce identification documents or things that may lawfully be required by the competent authority.
(2) Any terrorist, undesirable person, illegal immigrant or occupier arrested by the competent authority under this regulation shall, unless there is a submission to the custody by word or action, be handcuffed by the competent authority and shall be handed over to the nearest police
4B. (1) The competent authority may without a warrant and with or without assistance:
(a) enter and search any premises; or
(b) stop and search any vessel, vehicle or person, whether in a public place or not, if it has reason to believe that any evidence of the commission of an offence against these Regulations is likely to be found on such premises or person or in such vessel or vehicle, and may seize any evidence so found.
4C. The powers vested in the competent authority under regulations 4A and 4B may, subject to such limitations as may be imposed by the competent authority, be exercised by any member of the Ikatan Relawan Rakyat as may be authorised in writing in that behalf by the competent authority.
Reported RELA Incidents*
4 August, 2007 Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia
During the Ops Tegas in Selayang and Gombak, about 100 Myanmar refugees who are registered with UNHCR, consisting of men, women, pregnant women and children were arrested by Immigration department and Rela
30 May, 2007 Malaysiakini
Food court operator Chen Yau Choy sued Rela for alleged abuse of power and corruption. Chen claimed that he was illegally detained during the ordeal
14 May, 2007 Malaysiakini
7 plain clothed Rela personnel ‘kidnapped’ an Indian film producer attached to a German firm for not having valid documents. The Rela personnel allegedly uttered the derogatory remarks “Come, come Bangla”.
22 April, 2007 Malaysiakini
10 Rela personnel allegedly robbed 20 Indonesians of their cash and valuables in Ipoh. Accoding to police, two of the 10 had previous convictions.
31 March, 2007 Malaysiakini
Mechanic Tan Keng Sneah from Penang lodged a police report claiming that he was assaulted with a walkie-talkie by a Rela personnel.
22 January, 2007 Malaysiakini
Police revealed that a Rela personnel involved in relief work in flood stricken Johor allegedly molested a girl, 18, while escorting her to a hospital.
28 December, 2006 Malaysiakini
6 foreign workers with valid documents were detained by Rela personnel and brought to a police station by Rela personnel who broke into their chalet.
4 December, 2006 The Star
Management staff of the five factories from klang alleged that a team of 30 to 40 Rela members had detained 64 foreign workers, assaulted others and stole their cash and valuables during raids.
14 October, 2006 China press
Group of rela carried raids at Tmn Orkid, cheras at 4am, they broke the padlock and kick door in, residents claimed “their attitude is worser than rogue.” One of the residents lodged a police report for loss of RM3756.30 which kept in bookshelf after the raid.
30 July, 2006 Komas, NOHD
The Aceh Refugee village of Kampung Tengah, Sepang was raided and torched by about 100 Rela personal. Rela members were taking away the villagers belongings, bags, TVs, DVD players, hand phone, rice and two generators.
13 May, 2006 Suaram
1000 RELA members were present without the company of police force or immigration officers in Selayang. RELA members charged into the migrant workers’ houses by breaking their padlocks and wooden doors. Some of them even entered the migrants’ houses by breaking the ceilings. People were assaulted to severe injury. Migrant workers with proper document, asylum seekers with UNHCR letters and heavily pregnant ladies were arrested.
28 February, 2006 Suaram
RELA personnel brutalizing 61 Indian nationals who were seeking help from the Indian High Commission. According to a news report (Malay Mail, 7 March 2006), victims claimed that the RELA started kicking and punching them when they arrived. One man claimed that he was badly beaten by RELA members, resulting bone fractures in both his arms.
11 February, 2006 Suaram
RELA carried out a raid in the open market at Selayang. According to eye-witnesses, those migrant workers caught were beaten up by the RELA personnel and treated like cattle. According to the BBC report, five died while trying to flee the raid. Five bodies were found in a small lake near the open market in Selayang Baru.
To me, the number of abuses is very small compared to the number of operations. I have found the walloping of illegal workers is actually in response to something that happened. If they give full co-operation when we go into a rumah kongsi, I don’t think the Rela members will start hitting them “for fun”.
Does Rela check the background of members?
We don’t do that now because we want to encourage people to join us. If a person has a bad record, then we won’t take him and may send his name to the police. If we send in 475,000 names for the police to check, it would be too time-consuming. They have other more pressing priorities.
Here are some responses to story:
Wrong to give Rela power to detain illegals
“Anyone, whether employer or worker, has a right to challenge or question Rela members – especially if they come around without uniforms. If such questioning makes them angry, then I must point out that professional law enforcement involves accountability and responsibility.
It is a mistake to give Rela arbitrary powers to detain illegal immigrants. The amendment must be rescinded as it has no mechanism of accountability, disciplinary action and does not accommodate professional training catering to the new set of responsibilities.
It was a response to past and current populist, alarmist and xenophobic beliefs that illegal immigrants are flooding the country and taking away local jobs.”
Rela really needs to address public concerns
“It is unfortunate that Rela, which has and continues to be a tremendous asset involved in social development programmes and humanitarian operations from the individual village up to the national level, has been dragged into the issue of illegal immigrants.
Razali implies in his letter that illegal immigrants are exclusively responsible for the spread of social ills and diseases in this country, and that Rela needs to help the Government in dealing with this problem. I content that Rela has no role in this and should not be involved.”
Rela members just a bunch of “little Napoleans”
Ever Rela to help
With powers to crack down on illegal foreign workers, Rela, the People’s Voluntary Corp, is enjoying a new lease of life. But it has found itself in the news for the wrong reasons with its members being accused of beating up illegal workers, stealing from them and detaining legitimate foreign tourists. Rela director-general Datuk Zaidon Asmuni speaks to Sunday Star on the role of the voluntary body.
Rela was formed on Jan 11, 1972 after the May 13, 1969, incident. The Government felt Rela was one way to unite the rakyat alongside Rukun Tetangga and the National Unity Ministry. People of all races, both male and female, can be members of Rela.
What is Rela’s strength?
We have 475,000 members. One hundred thousand are very active, which means that if we just call, 100,000 will easily turn up.
As volunteers, do they get paid?
As of April 1, the Government approved a token sum of RM4 an hour for ordinary members while officers and platoon heads get RM5.80. This will be implemented only next year. Rela members work a minimum of eight hours a day with no overtime.
Even if we don’t pay them, it’s okay. People join out of a sense of satisfaction and pride. They volunteer because they want to be good, useful citizens, and assist the Government. Most volunteers have regular daytime jobs. We have teachers, clerks, businessmen, lawyers, even a doctor or two. Normally we conduct our operations on weekends and at night after office hours.
How does one join Rela?
It’s simple. Any citizen aged 16 can apply to become a Rela member.
Do Rela officers have to be in uniform for their operations?
The police have their uniform but they seldom wear it in a (covert) operation. It’s the same with Rela. In a group of 100 Rela volunteers, maybe 10 will be in plain clothes. If we all go in wearing the Rela uniform, the foreign illegal workers will run away.
So normally we ask 10 or 15 in plain clothes to go in first. Then, within half an hour, we cordon off the place. In an operation of 100 men, only one or two are officers and carry guns. The rest are armed with a chota. We give them a stick or two to protect themselves against attacks from immigrants. There have been a few incidents but not very serious ones.
If you cordon off a rumah kongsi with 100 people staying there, maybe only 20 are illegal and the others are legal workers. Normally it is the legal ones who protest as they feel that they are legal and get angry and ask why Rela is coming there to cordon and arrest them.
Normally when we cordon the area, our officers will tell them not to worry as this is a normal operation and ask for their full support. We have to do that or they will start struggling and quarrelling.
I don’t have a problem with my officers (not volunteers) carrying guns because they are all ex-army men with knowledge on how to handle weapons.
There have been a number of cases of abuse and Rela members stealing and hitting detainees.
To me, the number of abuses is very small compared to the number of operations. I have found the walloping of illegal workers is actually in response to something that happened. If they give full co-operation when we go into a rumah kongsi, I don’t think the Rela members will start hitting them “for fun”.
But the tendency is for the illegal workers to start climbing out the windows and up the roof to escape. This makes Rela members angry. Sometimes it is the legal foreign workers or employers who get angry. They scold us, question the Rela powers and threaten to call the police.
The Rela members are just ordinary people. Threatening them with the police and questioning their powers make them angry.
When we tell them Rela has powers, they don’t believe us. The first six months after we were given the new powers were very challenging. Even the employers challenged us and thought our operations were illegal because we were not accompanied by the police. But now, with the media reports, there is more awareness and people appreciate our powers.
Is Rela allowed to hit the illegal workers?
Of course not! Even the police under the law cannot hit suspects. But some of the illegals climb up the roof and fall in their attempt to get away. They get injured. And they claim that Rela members beat them up. We never train our people to hit. Never!
Before any operation, we line up the Rela members and tell everyone not to use force, not to hit people, not to take their money or handphones. And after an operation, we line up members and check their pockets at random. We also tell them not to bring a lot of money to prevent them from being accused of stealing.
Aren’t Rela members supposed to identify themselves?
Usually we say we are Rela. But normally the guards won’t open the gates and let us enter. You don’t expect us to wait until morning! We can’t keep pleading with the guards for an hour or two to open up.
We have powers given in this Act. We can enter with or without a warrant. Our alternative is to enter without a warrant, that’s why we resort to climbing fences. If we have full co-operation from the guards, we don’t have to do that.
There have been people misusing the Rela uniform to rob?
Previously, nobody wore the Rela uniform to impersonate officers or members; they used police or Immigration uniforms. But nowadays, they use the Rela uniform and I would say this is a recognition of Rela and its powers – although in a negative sense.
As for the robbery in Batu Maung by the 10 to 15 people in Rela uniform, I can assure you that they are not Rela members. If they were, do you think they would wear the Rela uniform? That’s a dead giveaway.
What kind of training is provided for Rela members?
First they have to be registered members. We have a 10-day basic training course. We want to make it compulsory but with 475,000 members, we can only cater for 150 or 200 at one time. So they learn from the operations.
Does Rela check the background of members?
We don’t do that now because we want to encourage people to join us. If a person has a bad record, then we won’t take him and may send his name to the police. If we send in 475,000 names for the police to check, it would be too time-consuming. They have other more pressing priorities.
What is the illegal workers’ count?
Last year, our target was 20,000 but we detained 25,000. For this year, up to May 21, we have caught 16,767.
We sent them to the depots. It is Immigration that prosecutes and deports them.
This year, we checked out 89,720 workers. People, especially the taukehs, claim that their 1,000 workers are all legal. But when people start complaining to Rela that they see so many foreign workers lingering around in an area, we cannot determine if they are legal or illegal until we check them one by one.
This gets the taukeh angry if his workers are legal. But if we don’t check an area after receiving public complaints, they will ask if we have been bribed not to. It’s a case of buat pun salah, tak buat pun salah (damned if you do, damned if you don’t).
What about the case of the Indian film crew member Rela detained that got the Tourism Minister all riled up?
The Indian crew member was walking through Petaling Street at 9.30pm. If it’s a Mat Salleh (Caucasian), it would be easy because we would know he is a tourist for sure. But for others, we have to check. Under the law, all foreigners have to carry their passport or travel document with them all the time.
We are not against tourism; we encourage it but this is a matter of security. When we check and a person has no passport on him, we keep him in a holding centre. If somebody brings the passport, we will let him go.
The Tourism Minister complained that we detained the Indian crew member for three hours but that was because the passport was produced only three hours later. If he can produce the passport in 10 minutes, then he will be released in 10 minutes. If it is produced only after three days, then he has to be detained for three days.
Rela has been criticised for being insensitive to human rights. There was even a call for it to be disbanded.
No way! Just because of one or two naughty members, surely we are not going to disband Rela. If a policeman robs, you charge him. You do not disband the police force for one person’s abuse. For Rela, if a member abuses his power, I will sack him. But the others can carry on.
Since late last year, we have been working very closely with Suhakam and they have held talks with Rela members and officers. It’s good because at least we have knowledge on basic human rights. But which one do you want? Security or human rights? If we can, of course we want both.
What do you think is the general public perception of Rela?
They praise us because we have managed to overcome a lot of problems related to illegal foreign workers, squatters, and illegal bikers. Four years ago, nobody knew us but today the whole world knows about Rela.
Pregnant refugee woman seeks protection in Malaysia:
According to Piung Chan, a social worker from Mon Refugee Organization (MRO) based in Kuala Lumpur , 33 Burmese nationals were arrested in the early morning hours on August 17, 2007. Those arrested included a group of 9 Mon nationals and Chin and Burmese asylum seekers as well.
Among those arrested is an eight-month pregnant woman, Ms. Mei Korn Thaw, who is recognized by the UNHCR office as a refugee and who is reportedly unwell. “Her unborn baby and the girl both are in poor health, she has an appointment to see the doctor on August 23,” said Piung Chan.
As with all forced migrants who have left due to extreme poverty and refugees fleeing human rights abuses in Burma, 24-year-old Ms. Mei Korn Thaw and her husband fled from Sam Hlea village in Karen State to escape military suppression.
The Malaysian authorities and RELA (Peoples’ Volunteer Corps or Ikatan Relawan Rakyat) armed with sticks and batons raided their makeshift shelters in the morning about 6:30 a.m. The refugees were arrested for illegal entry or for lacking proper documentation papers. After the raids, they were sent to Semenyih Detention Camp, an hour and a half east of KL. They are not allowed visitors and most will spend from one to six months in jail or a camp with the men being lashed or caned.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office recently registered about 90 Mon refugees after an officer paid a rare visit to the MRO office earlier this month on August 14.
Only a handful of Mon asylum seekers have been recognized as refugees in Malaysia despite increasing numbers there. Over 9000 Mon asylum seekers have registered with the MRO offices in KL and Penang and about 250 people have been able to register with the UNHCR in the past two years. According to unofficial estimates there are approximately 100,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia with most working in the construction and restaurant industries.
Since human rights violations continue in southern Burma , many Mon have fled to Malaysia where they are classified as illegal immigrants by the government and are labeled as criminals by Malaysian society and who live under miserable conditions.
A recent report by Project Maje titled “We Built This City” documents the terrible working and living conditions of the Burmese people and the violations committed against them by the Malaysian authorities, while the refugees have contributed significantly to the development of the country. Burmese labour has built the many luxury hotels, condos and roads, which has brought prosperity for the Malaysian people.
Burmese refugees, even those with work permits or who have been recognized as refugees by the UNHCR, have been arrested, caned, and tortured by the RELA. The Malaysian NGOs have condemned the actions of RELA and called on the Malaysian government to abolish it because it reportedly commits brutal and violent acts by attacking, assaulting, kicking and beating refugees, including woman and children, with batons and sticks while conducting their search and seizure raids.
For more information on Burmese workers in Malaysia , visit the Project Maje’s report http://www.projectmaje.org/malaysia.htm
Published: August 6, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Some 150 U.N.-certified Myanmar refugees have been detained during weekend raids on illegal immigrants in Malaysia, a rights group said Monday, as it called for a a halt to the indiscriminate arrest of refugees.
The Myanmar refugees were among 550 immigrants hauled up in separate crackdowns by immigration officials and the volunteer security corps RELA in central Selangor state, said the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization in Malaysia.
Children and pregnant women were among the 150 detained, all of whom were recognized by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the group’s president, Zafar Ahmad, said in a statement.
He said an increasing number of Myanmar refugees have been detained in raids this year.
“We urge the Malaysian government to immediately stop the crackdown on refugees and give us a chance to live. Every moment we live in fear. We had gone through enough pain and suffering in our life and we had nobody to turn to,” Zafar said.
Malaysia is not a member to a U.N. convention on refugees, and classifies refugees as illegal immigrants who can be detained and deported. However, the government lets the UNHCR operate in the country.
Khairi Mohamad Alwee, RELA director in Selangor, confirmed the raids but couldn’t say whether Myanmar refugees were among those detained. All of them have been handed over to the immigration department, which will decide whether to release or deport them, he said.
Immigration officials could not be reached for comments.
Yante Ismail, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said the agency is trying to verify the number of Myanmar refugees being detained but could not give further details.
Some 36,000 mostly Myanmar refugees, who are registered with the UNHCR, are currently living in Malaysia, according to the U.N. agency. This included 12,000 ethnic Rohingyas from Myanmar, it said.
The UNHCR earlier this year voiced concerns over the arrests of asylum-seekers and refugees, in particular women and children, saying it marked a “departure from normal practice” and has urged Malaysia to uphold its humanitarian commitment to refugees.
Chin Human Right Organization
In an ardent appeal to the Malaysian government, the Chin Human Right Organization has urged it to call a halt to the crackdown on Myanmar refugees. Instead it has asked Malaysia to cooperate with the office of The United Nation High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to protect the inherent rights of refugees and asylum seekers.
The Malaysian government is violating basic human rights by its relentless raids targeting the refugee community. To make matters worse there are reports of torture and abuse of hapless refugees in detention camps and consequent deportation, said CHRO’s urgent letter of appeal.
By John Burton in Kuala Lumpur
In the early hours of a recent Monday morning, trucks belonging to Malaysia’s People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) suddenly surrounded a neighbourhood in the shadow of Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang area, home to some of the city’s glitziest hotels and shopping malls.
The Rela members, dressed in green uniforms and tan berets, banged on doors and ordered the occupants outside, many of them foreigners working in menial jobs at nearby hotels and restaurants.
Report on Burmese Refugees in Malaysia
A new report, “We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia” has been released by Project Maje. The report reveals the plight of refugees from Burma who have worked on Malaysia’s massive infrastructure projects but gained no gratitude for their labor. “We Built this City” highlights the persecution currently being inflicted on the refugees by a highly controversial government-sanctioned anti-immigrant vigilante force called Rela, which has been hunting down, beating, robbing and imprisoning foreigners in Malaysia. “We Built this City” includes background on the refugees in Malaysia, interviews with refugee construction workers from Burma’s Chin State, and links to articles on the Rela raids, as well as a letter writing action campaign.
“We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia” can be found at www.projectmaje.org
Project Maje is an independent information project which has distributed information on Burma’s human rights and environmental issues since 1986.
Comment on Rela by Judge
I think from now on malaysian should aware. This government supported militia (RELA) is intended to become government spies in the future. The main aim is to watch people activities. Quiet similiar with what Fidel Castro or other leaders of communist/dictator country do to take full control of their citizen and foreigners within their country.
This militia is the heritage of the former malaysian PM=Mahathir Mohamad. He was very paranoia, he was very affraid if his throne would be shake by his political opponents.
RELA = ROBBER / RAPIST EMBRYO LAUNCHER AGENCY
Comment on Rela by Mr. Mark
I just came back from Kuala Lumpur today. I was there for a holiday and witnessed a RELA raid at the Bukit Bintang area last night. The officers were basically using racial profiling in their search for illegal immigrants. While it may be true that there is a higher tendency for illegal immigrants in Malaysia to be Indians, I wonder what is the basis for their specific targetting of individuals to question.
The blitz was certainly a sight that left many, of which a majority were tourists, wondering what exactly was going on. I was fortunate enough to understand Mandarin and Malay (being Singaporean) to know what exactly was going on.
I saw an entire truckload of ‘illegal immigrants’ being loaded onto a caged bus, like those used by riot police. the RELA officers basically combed the entire street of Jalan Bukit Batang, looking for people without the necessary identification papers. People without such proof of legal entry were then led by officers onto the bus.
While illegal immigrants do indeed pose a threat to the security of a nation, I am sure there are more humane and definite measures that can be taken to identify illegal immigrants. While the blitz yesterday might have shown that even in a tourist area, there are many supposed illegal immigrants, I am sure out of those caught yesterday, a handful were legitimate tourists who just happened to not have their identification papers with them. There have been reports of foreign nationals as shown on your website and others who have been detained despite having the necessary clearance. It is disturbing to know that such heavy-handedness and arbitrary form of policing is done in a neighbouring country. I would have though twice about going to KL had I been aware of such a thing.
Published March 15th, 2006 at Malaysia Media Monitors’ Diary
The senseless attack by RELA personnel on defenceless Indian migrant labourers waiting outside their own embassy for their problems to be sorted out by representatives of their home country is something that should be deeply embarrassing to Malaysians and the Malaysian government. It says so much about Malaysian attitudes towards foreigners, even those legally in the country. This is an announcement to the international community that we are ‘anti-foreigners’ – especially if they are not rich, professional, economically sound or from a G7 nation.
These downtrodden people had already been cheated out of their life-savings by unscrupulous conmen posing as employment agents, exploited by similarly conscienceless profiteering employers who feel no tinge of guilt at using what is little more than slave labour. And now, these honest but helpless workers have been further victimised by the authorities. Why have they been put into detention? What wrong have they done in seeking help from their High Commission officials?
At least, the Good Samaritans in our society (and there were a few of them) had earlier shown compassion and care for these foreigners, who were camping on the pavement outside the High Commission. This reflects well on the ability of the person-in-the-street to appreciate and empathise with the suffering of the poor, unconditionally. The press was happy to publicise these good works, but when it came to the even more serious issue of government-backed violence, all fell silent.
It was not a widely publicised incident, given some coverage in The Malay Mail on 8 March 2006. But the report was predictably one-sided. The paper made the migrants and Tenaganita, which helps migrant workers, out to be rumour mongers making a mountain out of a molehill over the claim by one of the Indian nationals that he had been beaten by RELA personnel. Mohd Aminuddin Mohd Yusoff, director of Federal Territory RELA, claimed “none of the officers had carried a baton, contrary to the claim by the Indian national Chandiran Adaikalam”. He added that Chandiran had given two different versions of how he had sustained his injuries when RELA rounded the migrants up on the night of 7 March. The Malay Mail made much of the FT RELA director’s version of the incident in which he stated amongst other things, “my men are human beings with compassion”.
Fished out
A similar unpublicised and disturbing incident in the early hours of 11 February at the Selayang market, also in the Federal Territory, contradicts the FT RELA director’s claim. In that incident, referred to by Ong Ju Lin in her excellent article in The Sun of 9 March, the bodies of five migrant workers were “fished out” of a disused mining pond after a RELA raid in the market. An eyewitness alleged that all the entrances to the market were blocked off before RELA personnel, armed with sticks, moved in to club the workers.
This sort of strong-arm tactics is reminiscent of the “brown-shirt” tactics used against unarmed civilians in fascist states. Such brutality knows no compassion nor has it any respect for international authority, in this case the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which had given refugee status to one of the migrant workers found dead in the mining pool.
The government predictably denied responsibility for these killings, saying that a post-mortem showed that this refugee and another migrant worker had been dead two or three days before the raid. The public cannot gauge the truth of this as there was no proof given. What is more believable is the eye-witness account (in Ong’s article) that this refugee was alive on the night before the raid, having dinner with his wife and a friend before going off to work the night shift as usual.
Mainstream media silent
There has been no hint of an inquiry into these alleged RELA killings. The Home Ministry remains silent. The mainstream media, who frequently allow themselves to become government mouth-pieces, are predictably silent as well. Where is the outrage?
If the Malaysian government was genuinely concerned with the problems of maltreatment, discrimination against and the deaths of foreign workers who are invited here to alleviate labour shortages, then it would, of its own volition, ensure that remedial measures are put in place. It would not only act when a foreign government decides that enough is enough. At present, it appears that the government will only act when its interests are ‘threatened’, thus turning basic human rights norms and fundamental freedoms into economic bargaining tools.
The viciousness exhibited by these RELA personnel, armed at the very least with truncheons, towards unarmed civilians does not speak of bravery or courage. These RELA personnel were not defending, king, country or even their fellow citizens; they were indulging in gratuitous violence. Is this what our government encourages? Its silence is deafening.
The public cannot be blamed for their ignorance of RELA’s brutality and their continued delusion that RELA are there to protect them. For equally deafening has been the silence from the mainstream media, which continue to shirk their responsibility of reporting the unvarnished truth to the public.
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