The Right To Be Human

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose

theSun, Malaysia

May 26, 2010

Off the tram and straight into a protest in front of a giant three-legged chair was my first introduction to the Palais des Nations in Geneva earlier this year. No, I was not there to protest. I was just walking through the protest to get to the United Nations building.

Why the protest and what’s with the chair I wondered as guards checked every inch of my bag and being. Iran was due to present its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and there were some who were not impressed by Iran’s human rights record.

The UPR was set in place as a check and balance in an attempt to make all 192 UN member countries accountable in upholding the rights of every human being within their sovereign boundary. Every country had its turn at the podium. Malaysia’s was last year and the report was made public on the website of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As I sat marvelling at the stalactites that Miquel Barcelo the artist who used 100 tons of paint from all over the world and Spain’s €20 million donation to decorate the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilisation Room, I thought about the comfort the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) brought and how honoured I felt to be automatically given these rights because I was, yes, you guessed it human – I was young and idealistic to say the least. I found out later that Malaysia is party to the declaration but only if it’s consistent with the Federal Constitution.

For some reason as I sat observing, I remembered an incident a few months earlier when in the Masjid Jamek area on a Sunday afternoon looking for textiles when a group of official volunteers were in full force. I wondered what happened to the migrants that were humiliated in front of my eyes and taken away in large trucks. I wondered how Malaysia would answer in the very room that represented the exact opposite of what I witnessed when asked about such human rights violations.

Where was our spirit of brotherhood as members of the human family? Could we not be more humane? My heart broke. Sadly, we are not all born free and equal and don’t do enough to rectify this.

In her book The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright makes the familiar connection that we are all created in the image of God and by default, we have a responsibility to our neighbours. Perhaps we need to take this familiar belief more seriously and literally.

As I read Malaysia’s Human Rights report at last year’s Periodical Review, I see on paper many positive mechanisms and institutions in place that should translate as positive efforts towards being aligned with principles of being a UN member. However what we say we have in place fails when other mechanisms such as the ISA, capital punishment, the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers go against the good work presented in the report.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the UPR “has great potential to promote and protect human rights in the darkest corners of the world”. Sometimes, human rights violations don’t just happen in the darkest corners in the world, they happen in bright tropical countries too.

Natalie wonders if being included in the UNHRC means that we scored an A+ on our human rights report card.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Private Life & Public Office

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose

theSun, Malaysia
May 6, 2010

We are capable doing a lot of things when we think no one is looking – it’s human nature. It can be little things from stealing food when we’re on a diet, to digging for gold in your nose when the coast is clear or even sipping some tipsy juice when you’re not allowed to.


Sometimes people think because they can get away with lots more, the deeds become bigger, like cooking the books or other criminal activities.


Then there are some who do things that they’ll regret later in life and I suspect we are all a little guilty of having a closet full of silliness when we were younger – if not then life would be pretty boring I’d say.


Of course there are some things we’d like to forget and well no one is really exempted from bad behaviour at some point in our lives – even politicians.


Perhaps the difference is that my secrets have a lower commodity value than say a politician or a celebrity or role model. I’m quite grateful for that.


But no one is really exempted from secrets being revealed not even the invincible Goldman Sachs or the great Shashi Tharoor.


Sometimes though, the past can haunt you when you least expect it to like in the case of British politician John Bercow who when in university wrote a sex tips guide. The now Speaker of the House of Commons must be pretty embarrassed to have his guide on understanding women which he wrote when he was 23 come back to haunt him all these years later.


Though his publicist says that this clearly does not reflect the Speaker’s views today – it sure hasn’t helped his now dented reputation.


We might laugh at this looking at it from an Asian perspective but as the saying goes, when you point at something, there are three fingers pointing back at you and rightly so, Malaysia has its share of scandals.


Details of sexcapades of politicians, nude photos and other skeletons and secrets are reported in detail. Sometimes I wonder how schools using newspapers as teaching material explain such sordid details and character assassinations of politicians to young impressionable minds. It is quite worrying.

Looking at the campaign tactics of Hulu Selangor you’d think there are those who have been saints all their lives. What makes me most appalled is that our Asian morals are being paraded and misrepresented by unsavoury tactics. There was a time when more liberal countries didn’t hold anyone or anything in respect but we have far superseded this kind of un-gentlemanly behaviour.

We keep stooping even lower than imaginable with political groups tearing down opposing candidates while sitting perched on the illusive moral high horse.


Compare the debates and election strategy of the British candidates as they head to elections this weekend (should read: today) to the recent by-elections in Malaysia. If anything, the British candidates themselves are putting their own foot in the mouth without the help of rivals.


At the end of the day, it’s their policies and vision that takes priority, not who drank what and how much at lunch.


Hulu Selangor was just another one of the many constituencies that will be forgotten after the elections. Two weeks ago, Hulu Selangor was abuzz and all that the candidates were worried about was winning.


In the days and months following these elections, what the so-called winner does for the people of Hulu Selangor is what will matter most.


The marginalised don’t care about politicians' private lives, they want to know how their hardships will be alleviated.


The reality is that we all have secrets. We all have done things that perhaps have not yet come to light and when they do, we’ll be hoping that instead of our mistakes and past being aired so publicly, only the ones who have not yet sinned will cast the first stone.


Natalie wonders how long before Malaysian politicians think more about the people and less about winning.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com