All about they are talking about Refugees in Malaysia

Misrepresenting the Good Officers of Malaysia: Unreported World and 101 East

Posted by: samcwpen

In this interconnected WWW world of ours, more damage is done to a nation and its people by misrepresentation of facts rather than by outright lying.

This seems to be the new modus-operandi of covert "war" that is being waged around the globe , often by-proxy using "independent" news channel like Channel 4 and Al-Jazeera, against selected nations.

Last week, it was Fauziah Ibrahim and Amos Roberts with the unwitting victims of the RELA officers on night raid, the Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop and the guards of the Lenggeng Detention Center in

"Refugees on the run".

Tonight, it was Aidan Hartley on Channel 4+1 with

"Malaysia: Refugees for sale".

Again, he was allowed to film and interview the illegal immigrants in raids by RELA and again, RELA and the Malaysian Authorities were depicted as heartless entities.

In addition, Aidan obviously is trying to "out-do" Amos by the even more sensational allegations by the illegal immigrants that they were being sold to Thai gangsters for slavery, prostitution and child labour by the Malaysian immigration officers.

And just like that, the judgement has been passed by the great supreme beings, Aidan Hartley and Amos Roberts.

The illegal immigrants accuses. The reporters agrees.

The Malaysian Immigration Officers were not given a chance to refute any of these allegations so they must be true.

And it is the first time that I have been told that KL have "Ghettos".

To many Malaysians, it doesn't mean much but to Europeans, it means the concentration camps in Poland and Germany during World War 2.

Words clearly chosen to have the maximum impact in western viewers minds.

Another vicious lie designed to wreck the image of Malaysia and Malaysians alike on the International platform.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/4od#3010255 (video)

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2009/episode-19

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/articles/malaysia-reporters-log

The RELA officers, were depicted as "militia" out to hound and harass "innocent" people, the Deputy Home Minister, as ignorant and incompetent and the guards, treating the detainees "worst than animals", as described by the detained illegal immigrants in film.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2009/11/20091111899350442.html (video)

One-to-one short interviews were given to the illegal immigrants who described all kinds of abuse and professed their innocence to the end.

The documentary also went on to condemn Malaysian immigration officers for detaining immigrants who claimed that they have the UNHCR card, and conveniently omitting the fact that even in the documentary itself, you can see the immigration officers in full uniform checking the documentations of the immigrants with laptops in the back of the police vans.

The fact that false UNHCR cards have been in circulation since 2005, which has been confirmed by UNHCR in a press release, was also conveniently omitted from the report.

See:

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=search&docid=422842bf4&query=malaysia

So, if the checks with the computers shows that 6 immigrants who claims to have a "genuine" UNHCR card shows that this is not the case, then the officers are duty bound to detained them until they can prove otherwise.

Although Amos did his best to demonised our authorities, the truth is very different.

Do a search on Malaysia on the UNHCR site, sort by date and display 50 results at a time:

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/search?page=search&query=malaysia&skip=0&querysi=malaysia&searchin=title&display=50&sort=date

There is only one mention of Malaysian authorities arresting UNHCR card holders in 2007 in the last 11 years up to 1998. The UNHCR have also admitted that there are false UNHCR documentations in circulation as mentioned above.

The other unjust demonisation is of our RELA officers.

They have been pictured as "militia" trained for only 2 days and then unleashed to "give hell" to all immigrants and refugees.

Strange then that the detained illegal immigrants can still keep their handphones, make calls and be interviewed by foreign journalist without any prior screening.

The truth is that RELA and the Home Ministry have been too welcoming to reporters with hidden agendas like Amos and Aidan.

They have been too naive in expecting an impartial reporting of the good and dangerous work that the RELA and Immigration officers are doing to keep the country safe for its Citizens like you and me.

To allow them access to the detention centres, regardless of good intention was just foolish, for the centres are now portrayed as "ghettos" all over the world.

What makes me really furious and sad at the same time is that all the officers interviewed and filmed as part of the documentary clearly went out of their way to be hospitable and helpful to Amos and Aidan.

They were clearly proud and competent of carrying their duties for the good people of Malaysia.

To be depicted as the "hound-dogs" from hell for the equally unfortunate illegal immigrants is just a stab in the back on the international stage.

As such, these people should know how their hospitality has been abused by these reporters from Al-Jazeera and Channel 4.

Please let them know if you recognise anyone in the videos above.

To put things in perspective, Malaysia have to deal with over 2 million illegal immigrants. UK between 300K to 500K, Australia a measly 7,900 illegal immigrants arriving by boat in 1998-99 and Singapore police caught a paltry 35 illegal immigrants during January-March 2009 compared with 46 a year ago.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/amnesty-on-illegal-immigrants-is-worth-1636bn-to-uk-472164.html

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/singapore/2009/04/18/204752/Singapore-coast.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/899166.stm

And yes, unlike Malaysia, Australia is a signatory of the United Nations 1951 Refugees Convention.

Despite this fact, they still hold the "refugees" or "illegal immigrants" in detention centres and turn away boats carrying illegal immigrants and refugee seekers from their own shores.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/899166.stm

Why?

Simple.

The convention requires each and every country who signed the convention to provide anyone who seeks the refugee status on arrival the same rights as the citizens of that country with regards to employment, health care, social benefits and even travel documents.

Who decides who is a "refugee" ?.

The short answer is the person seeking the status of a refugee.

See Articles 17, 18, 22, 23 and 34 of the Refugee Convention at:

http://www.unhcr.org/3c0f495f4.html

The ugly truth is the Australian themselves keep their own refugees locked away on a remote island, behind razor wires, 1,650 miles away from the mainland.

A measly 1200 in number and they are already panicking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/world/asia/05island.html

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/815/41907

What Amos and the Australian government wants us to do is to take in all these refugees, who have left their own homes because of the wars that Australia and the other Western nations have created in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Middle East.

They basically want to "shame Malaysians" into cleaning after the mess that they created in the first place.

For us to take in the swarming uneducated and unemployed refugees while they themselves cherry-pick the professionals and cream of the crop for themselves.

How nice.

It really made my blood boil when in one of the scenes, the refugees were filmed crying their hearts out saying that everything would be perfect if only they could get to Australia, the promised land.

If only the Malaysian immigration officers would not arrest them for being illegal immigrants and trespassing Malaysia en-route to Australia.

They obviously have no clue what they are talking about and the wool have been pulled over their eyes by the producers of the "documentary".

Australia portrayed as the land of paradise. Malaysia, the land of hell unleashed.

By the way, Amos Roberts, the reporter is Australian.

I think it would be a good idea for the Malaysian authorities to seriously consider facilitating the passage of these people who are looking for their promised land on humanitarian grounds.

We should not "stand in their way".

Give them food, fuel and water and let them continue their journey, on humanitarian grounds, of course. This will then show to the rest of the world that we Malaysians have hearts too.

We can then make our own Astro "documentary" on how these poor souls are then treated on Christmas Island in Australia.

For we have no right to keep them from their dreams to a country who is a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention, unlike Malaysia and Singapore.

As for the good people of RELA who steps forward to the call of keeping our country safe for the good people of Malaysia, I salute you.

All of you.

If not for your sacrifice on a volunteer basis, there would have been even more snatch-thief robberies and death, armed robberies and other crimes in the country.

Below is a post from a RELA member describing their "2 day" training and duties. It is indeed a selfless act, to join RELA and make our country safe for all.


RELA Homepage

http://www.kdn.gov.my/eng/template01.asp?contentid=52
english

http://www.kdn.gov.my/eng/template01.asp?contentid=54

e-RELA

http://irela.moha.gov.my/


The People's Volunteer Corps (RELA)

"Ikatan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia (RELA) was established on 11 January 1972 with the effective of (Essential Powers) Emergency Act 1964 – Essential Rules (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat) (Amendment) 2005.

RELA's establishment enable the masses to volunteer and be a member of a volunteer force to preserve and maintain the national peace and security.

Under Section 2 of the (Essential Powers) Emergency Act 1964, the Yang Di Pertuan Agong has given the consent to approve the Essential Rules (Amendment) 2005) (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat) with effect from 01 February 2005. This rule has given certain powers to RELA Officers in tackling Illegal Immigrants (PATI)."


The RELA Reservist (A BBC article)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4329067.stm

A taxi driver by day, Peter has been in Rela, Malaysia's volunteer reserve, for almost five years.

"Usually when they need us they'll call us to go for duty," he said. "Sometimes... we go together with the immigration [officers] to pick up those illegal foreigners."

Peter sees his volunteer work as his national duty

He and the 300,000 other members of the reserve are supposed to go for weekly training sessions.

"We go marching every Saturday, and shooting with the M16 [assault rifle]," he said.

For Peter, playing his role in the reserves is his contribution to the country's safety.

With hundreds of thousands of foreigners living outside the law and widely blamed for rising crime, he sees the job of rounding them up as a social duty.

"Especially the illegal immigrants for Indonesia, they always give us a lot of trouble. They break into the house, they rob, they steal everything," he said.

"Most Malaysians worry about it."

Being a volunteer is not easy. According to Peter, encounters with illegal immigrants can often be dangerous.

"Sometimes they jump from three storeys, two storeys, they even go through the drains," he said.

"We don't carry weapons, we just carry a stick to protect ourselves in case they carry knives. Sometimes they carry a parang - a knife [machete]."

But like most Malaysians, Peter is aware that foreign labourers, legal and illegal, do jobs that he and his fellow citizens would not dirty their hands with.

He has some sympathy for genuine workers.

"Some of them they really work here, so sometimes when they work here we give them a chance because we are human beings - we let them go."

So join RELA if you are worried about the security of our country. It shows who really steps forward amongst all the people of Malaysia in this picture that Aidan took with the RELA corps, whom he criticised and unfairly depicted on the same evening on film.



Aidan with RELA Officers



Aidan with the RELA Officers

As for Aidan, he is definitely not an English Gentleman at all.

Machiavelli should be his name.

The lesson to be learnt is that Malaysians should not be so unreserved with our trust and hospitality, especially to western reporters with both a hidden agenda and dagger.

Doubt what you know. Know what you doubt.

Hidup Malaysiaku !!!

The Agong should give you a medal for all your effort! Good show man!
By victorchew46, 21-Nov-2009

All the good opinion you have of our RELA chaps spoilt by some rotten apples, eh? Sorry lah! They provide the fodder for the vultures of the foreign media!

By PatrickJB, 21-Nov-2009

Samcwpen, Kudos for highlighting the negative reporting about Malaysia by those people right behind our own back yard. You did it with great accuracy. Honestly I was thinking of writing about the same issues but I am glad you did it first. For long Al-Jazeera has this great tendency to have bias reporting when it is about regional and religious issues, and glaring misrepresentation of facts when it is about Malaysia. I have seen many programs and interviews aired by them which are not healthy for Malaysia’s image. I am amazed at their blatant disrespect to their host country.

I also watched 101 East - the documentary on raids by RELA on illegal immigrant and the interviews of UNCHR refuges. I am deeply sad at the comments made by the so called illegal, and UNCHR registered refugees. The Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop didn’t help much to straighten the point as he hardly expresses himself. He seems to be a man of very few words! To shorten my blog, I agree with you without a doubt this is a “new modus-operandi of covert "war" that is being waged against Malaysia by certain people, not only within the country but outside the country.

Malaysia is the victim of many countries… Our country resources were drained literally by housing and feeding the UNCHR registered refuges and illegal. Yet Malaysia is bad-mouthed for her goodwill. No where on earth can you find the millions of foreigners in any one country except Malaysia. P.S. I am wondering why the government of the day didn’t blink an eye even though our country is put in bad light over and over again. I wonder how much are in involve to give others the right to smear our faces with feaces! My comment: Fauziah Ibrahim is only the mouth-piece of her boss. I can’t blame her.

Hi samcwpen,

A real eye opening to everyone. I have not visited the website that you mentioned in your blog.

Why can not the illegal immigrants be sent back immediately to their mother land if they are not involved in criminal activity?

Why should they be brought to the country and prosecuted?

Let us allot an island which is nearer to Indonesia to house these illegal immigrant, instead of bringing them to the main land.

Other illegal immigrants from other countries also should be repatriated immediately, why does the govt spend for their boarding, food and other expenses, which may be more than the ticket that airasia charging for one way trip.

As you wrote that western countries in pacific ocean and Atlantic welcome the professionals, who go their as refugees, it is shame on their part to accuse a country, which helps millions of legal immigrant workers.

That photo is very disturbing. When you stand beside a white man. keep your head high, though we are short, but in any way they are superior to us to keep our head down.

Be proud of you as a human....

By Troon, 21-Nov-2009

Don't worry, samcwpen.

It's because of such lopsided reporting that the name of our country is spoilt!
But not to worry, our PM is going to spend RM20 million to engage a foreign PR firm to burnish his image.
That should be money well "spent".
By Troon, 21-Nov-2009

By pitchaiabdul, 22-Nov-2009


All this while, we have been reading only good stories about Malaysia as only BN controlled newspaper monopolised media in malaysia..when we started to have an independent newspapers or agency reporting about illegal things happening here, we started to have impression that everyone is tarnishing our country..I have been grown with only one side of malaysia..we are matured enough to justify our country's mismanagement on our own...no need al-jazeera or any other foreign media.. I happen to meet many so-called my own race which is malay staying in our area..inintially I thought they were born here but in reality they were not..they are indonesian..i can differenciate from their accent. One day I talked to them and they always talked about their country..telling me that their daughers andson still in indonesia and trying to settle in malaysia...I asked them on what visa they stay here..they showed me a malaysian birth certificate..I was shocked to see that..how could indonesian hold Malaysian birth certificate...who brought them in..could be by some party for election purposes...to add more people in one area conqured by opposition party or may be.....they would have paid for that....Many indonesian have Malaysian citizenship now..how could they come in..perhaps ilegally and settled here as citizen and perhaps would have paid for citizenship..I dont know but how could this happen..I am a real malay here and of course I could see the diffent lifestyle in them..Another story, I have freinds working as a policeman...he used to tell how they treat those illegal female indonesian. Does anyone know about it...Of couse I wont write it here..god knows what happened to this girls...there are so many things happening in malaysia nobody reported all this while..but when today some other independent media publish or dig it out,we started to have impressions that, somebody is tarnishing our name...oh yeah another story..I got saman for speeding a year ago...I went to pay at one of the Traffic police station,and you know what happened...well, one of the lady officer asked me to follow her and talked to me privately telling me that she could help me to reduce the summons if I were to accept a different amount printed in the receipt..that means i should pay 150 but they will print only 100 in the receipt...otherwise I have to pay 300-00 in full...I told her off...I warned her that I will make a report on that as she threaten me to give me a hard time after this..it seems they will simply find my mistakes on the road and wont give me any chance..what a hech is this...there are so many cases like this in malaysia...thats why we are in worst spot of corruption index in the world...I know some will argue about that and might ask me to leave malaysia for being unpatriotic but whats wrong in highlighting the wrongdoings in Malaysia..when police condemn some opposition parties for not following laws why cant we do the same...can we say malaysian police being unpatriotic for condemning or harrassing only oppositions. why condemn own malaysian la....why tangkap own malaysian..why punish own malaysian...no need lah..if we think condemning malaysia / malaysian is unpatriotic..

Burma Democratic Concern

"Dear all,

This is just to inform you all of the upcoming programme on BBC Channel 4, which will feature the situation of Burmese refugees in Malaysia at 7:30pm on 20 November 2009 (Friday).

To check details of the programme, please click: http://www.uknetgui de.co.uk/ TV/

Unreported World - Malaysia: Refugees for Sale

Malaysia: Refugees for Sale

Revealing shocking evidence that Burmese refugees fleeing the country's brutal military regime are being detained and then allegedly sold by Malaysian immigration officials to Thai human traffickers.

Reporter Aidan Hartley and Director George Waldrum travel to Kuala Lumpur to highlight how the refugees are forced to exchange one hellish existence for another.
Posted by Burma Democratic Concern at 15:23 0 comments"

http://bdc-burma.blogspot.com/


It is aimed squarely at the hearts and mind of the Indian community in Malaysia. To spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about the Malaysian government in general and the law-enforcing authorities in particular.

It is also aimed at the minds of the Malaysian politicians that if they do not co-operate with the "International" ideology of imposing sanctions against and hence isolating the current Burmese government, more of the same is to come and the country will be smeared with the same "human-rights abuse" brush.

Last but not least, these videos also serves as means to incitement of hate and anger and to inspire suspicion among the ASEAN nations, hence driving multiple wedges to prevent the creation of an ASEAN plus 3 (China, Japan and Korea) free trade zone.

This is clearly done in concert with the recent appointment of Thaksin, whom has already been convicted of corruption charges in Thailand, as the economic advisor of Cambodia.

Thaksin Extradiction Denied
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8353896.stm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/exile-thaksin-convicted-of-corruption-967956.html


For a united ASEAN region would only hinder any future efforts to divide and conquer the governments and people of this rapidly developing regional bloc.

Why is this important to anyone?

2 reasons.

A huge market for consumer goods. And perhaps even more important, a large industrious and highly intelligent pool of human capital.

Priceless, the later.

Taking the human capital away from a country will ensure stunted growth and a constant supply of human capital in the future in the form of "migrants seeking a better future" in "more developed" countries, thereby developing the developed country even further and making it even more attractive to the bright future generations of the first country that was impoverished in the first place.

A perfect cycle that can only have one eventual outcome, the complete collapse of the targeted countries.

Economically, politically and socially.

The ensuing collapse will lead to mass migration and deposition of desperate refugees in neighbouring countries, hence stunting the growth of these countries in the same manner, providing the seeds for more of the same.

A truly self-perpetuating engine of Durka or suffering for the masses to benefit a few.


ASEAN plus 3 has a total population of over 2 billion people, compared with 500 million in the European Union and 300 million in the USA.

This means almost 1 in 3 people in the world comes from the ASEAN plus 3 region.

Not to mention, ASEAN plus 3 (China, South Korea and Japan) is expected to be the engine of growth for the world economy in the next few years if the political stability of all the countries can be maintained.


China becomes world largest exporter for first time
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/26/content_11947382.htm

WTO Press Release October 2009
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2009_e/section3_e/its09_highlights3_e.pdf

China beats Germany to take world trade crown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2818273/China-beats-Germany-to-take-world-trade-crown.html

http://www.oecd.org/document/15/0,2340,en_2649_201185_35363023_1_1_1_1,00.html


The impact of a politically and economically united ASEAN plus 3 would make the work of manipulating and exploiting this region's natural resources and even more important, its' human resources so much more difficult.

So be smart.

Don't listen to the continuous whispers of the witches in your ears and proceed to burn down your own homes and destroy relationships with your own people, so that the vultures can feed on your self-induced carnage.

Without economic emancipation, there can never be true liberty and freedom for any individual in any country. The truth of this statement is plain to see.

Not even "Overwhelming Force" and "Shock and Awe" can bring true political freedom, prosperity and peace.

Iraq and Afghanistan are two very good examples.

By focusing on the development of their economy and adopting capitalistic policies, China is in danger of becoming a more successful capitalistic country than any other.

By adopting the pragmatic attitude that "Wealth is Glorious", China has reduced the level of poverty form 65% of the total population in 1981 years ago to 4% in 2007.

In less than one generation, more than 500 million people have been freed from the clutches of poverty. In human history, there has been no other comparable level of economic emancipation for the common people.

More importantly, no revolution was required.

No foreign land invaded, occupied and resources plundered.


http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/CHINAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22131856~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:318950,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China


So, condemn not the countries whom are suffering economically and politically like Burmah.

Instead of inducing revolution and imposing sanctions to further impoverish the already suffering people, they must be help to develop their own country economically first and foremost.

Once they can feed and cloth themselves, political maturity will follow, and eventually, political emancipation.

Even more important than political freedom, the Burmese people will then have "a home that they can be proud of".

Then, the Burmese people will no longer need to be refugees and endure sufferings.

The same applies to the people of Sri Lanka whom have suffered so very much.

This is something that all people who are truly concerned about the good people of Burmah and Sri Lanka should aim for.

Not more revolution and carnage, for the good people and children of Burmah and Sri Lanka have suffered enough.


Remember this:

"The answer to every complex problem is simple, straight-forward and wrong".

Anyone who seeks to convince you otherwise is just selling snake-oil...or Machiavellian politics to benefit themselves.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_China#Demographics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#Demographics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States#Demographics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population