2006 - The Malaysian Disability Movement In Review

2006 has been a year of interesting development for the disability movement in Malaysia. There is a greater awareness regarding the social model of disability. This concept sees society as the disabling factor instead of impairments. In short, it is the attitude and built barriers that disable people. The environment is built for the majority when it should have been made to be usable by all. This essentially marginalises and segregates pockets of society that are deemed to be different from the rest.

There is also a general understanding among the disabled community now that living with impairment does not necessarily mean having to live a less fulfilling life. As long as disabled persons can make informed decisions regarding issues that affect them, they are able to lead a reasonably rewarding life. This is due largely to the effort of the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (JKMM) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) effort in supporting Independent Living Programmes for People with Disability.

Dr. Kenji Kuno, Chief Advisor of JICA, must be credited for this initiative and his effort in empowering the disability movement in Malaysia. Through JKMM and JICA, he organised various trainings for disabled persons and welfare officers, and provided valuable technical expertise in this field to the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on disability-related issues. His insight and experience makes him a valuable resource person and injects a fresh breath to the movement in Malaysia.

The most prominent event in 2006 where disability issues are concerned was not the FESPIC Games but the campaign for accessible public transport organised by the Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT). FESPIC Games displayed the painful reality of the infrastructure and non-existent accessible public transport in Malaysia, especially for wheelchair users. At a national conference on accessibility organised by the Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat, a speaker likened athletes that needed assistance to board non-accessible buses on steep makeshift ramps to cattle being herded into trucks.

BEAT, an informal coalition comprising sixteen major NGOs in the Klang Valley, were concerned that none of the public buses catered to the needs of the mobility impaired. The group held a campaign in September to demonstrate the dire situation of public transport for wheelchair users and a rally at Brickfields on the International Day of Disabled Persons to highlight the matter again. The event was widely covered by the print and electronic media and caught the attention of politicians who assured the group that they would look into the matter.

Going forward, I can foresee that through awareness campaigns and a better understanding of their rights, more disabled persons will come out and advocate for a fair and equitable society where they can participate fully in nation building. Given the opportunity, disabled persons would prefer not to be at the receiving end of charity and welfare but be productive citizens contributing to the development of Malaysia. They can only do that when they are included in all aspects of mainstream society through the removal of attitudinal and environmental barriers. Let’s hope that 2007 will herald in a better year when the Disabled Persons Act is tabled at Parliament to unequivocally protect the rights of people who have been marginalised and discriminated against for far too long. Here is a toast to a brighter future.

Conference on Transportation and Education for Disabled Persons

The BAKTI-MIND Project organised a conference on education and transport at Bangunan Siti Hasmah from December 17 to 20, 2006. The theme of the BAKTI-MIND 2nd Annual Conference is “Empowering Persons with Disabilities (PWD) through Information Provision” which aimed at “Bridging the Critical Gaps in Transportation and Education for PWD in Malaysia.”

The current hot issue is accessible public transportation. This is the line that connects all the dots for disabled persons living in the community. Public transport is crucial to the lives of disabled persons. It allows them to go to school to get an education. It allows them to get to work and be gainful employed. It allows them to lead an active social life. It allows them to fulfil their cultural, political and religious aspirations. In short, being able to move around freely is, among others, the key to a gratifying life for disabled persons.

The three foreign speakers on transport spoke at length about alternative transportation for disabled persons. This mode of transportation is mainly door-to-door or point-to-point service using modified taxis or vans with lifts to ferry specifically wheelchair users, generally people with mobility impairments and other forms of disability. At the same time, Malaysian speakers shared about the state of public and alternative transportation in the country in relation to disabled persons, and also the infrastructure needed to make the entire system effective and practical.

Persatuan Mobiliti Selangor dan Kuala Lumpur is one of the only two groups providing door-to-door transport service for disabled persons in Malaysia currently. At RM3 per trip to anywhere within the Klang Valley, one can see that this service is heavily subsidised. Undeniably, they are doing an impressively good job in providing the transportation needs of disabled persons. Nevertheless their service is limited from nine to five on weekdays only. What happens to those who need transport after-hours and on weekends?

Public transport for the mobility-impaired such as buses and urban rails should be the main mode of transportation because of their vast network and resources. Alternative transport such as accessible taxis and lift vans can play a supplementary role by working on routes not served by public transport and for specific needs that cannot be fulfilled by public buses and trains.

The burden to provide accessible transport to disabled persons should not be left solely on the shoulders of Non-Governmental Organisations and a few private entities. Instead, the government should be proactive in drawing up a sustainable public transportation policy to ensure that no one community is marginalised or inadvertently left out.

Of Idiot Box And Thinking Out Of The Box

To disabled persons, two of the more useful inventions of the last century were the personal computer (PC) and the Internet. Before the advent of these two technologies, those with severe physical impairments mostly spend time watching television, listening to the radio or idle their time away. Reading a book or the newspaper is a chore because they needed someone to turn the pages for them.

The PC and the Internet changed all that. Assistive and adaptive technologies such as voice recognition software, head-mounted pointing devices and mouth-sticks allowed them to use a word processor, browse the Internet and communicate. For someone who does not have control of his limbs and bodily functions and needs to depend on others most of the time, being able to be in control in this sense is very liberating and empowering.

As the built environment and public transport do not favour people with severe impairments, they have no choice but be grounded at home, going out rarely for medical appointments and other important occasions. Humans being social creatures desire to reach out and interact with other humans. The advent of Internet Messaging (IM) has tremendously improved their social life, although not in traditional ways.

Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Skype are blessings for them. Now, they not only can communicate with friends locally but are able to get acquainted with strangers from the other side of the globe. This has opened up a world of endless possibilities for socialising, networking and other fruitful opportunities, education being one of them.

Nevertheless, these technologies can never replace the inherent need to do certain things the conventional way. There is a real need to live and intermingle with people in the community that they live in. They can only get to accomplish this if there is a concerted effort to remove the barriers that are preventing them from getting out from their homes. All it takes is a change of mindset from doing things in the commonly accepted ways to one that takes into account the various needs of different people. All that is needed is for planners to think out of the box. Unfortunately, there are very few of them who can do that here in Malaysia.

Dude, Where’s My Bus?

After being taken for a ride by Rapid KL for more than two months, members from Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) staged a rally at the Jalan Tun Sambanthan bus stop opposite the KL Monorail Station to demand for accessible public transport on December 3. The rally was organised in conjunction with the International Day of Disabled Persons that fell on the same day.

The New Straits Times had reported on September 25, 2006 that a “RapidKL spokesperson said the transport company had bought 100 disabled-friendly buses with ramps. These would be delivered next month.”

Following the rally, a news report quoted Katherine Chew, Senior Manager Corporate Communications of Rapid KL, as saying that “the 100 units of disabled-friendly buses would be delivered in batches from Europe soon” and that Rapid KL hoped the buses will arrive by January. She also urged disabled persons to be patient as “changes cannot be made overnight.”

If waiting for twelve years is not patient enough, what is? Christine Lee and V. Murugeswaran should know better. They are veterans in advocating for accessible public transport in 1994 when STAR LRT was built without such facilities. A dozen years down the road, they are still waiting. Listening to them recount the campaign back then made me realise how little Malaysia has progressed where rights of disabled persons are concerned.

Moreover, can the promised 100 buses serve the needs of the mobility-impaired who live in different places all over the Klang Valley? BEAT foresees that the limited frequency and insufficient interconnectivity of these buses will render it ineffective. The decision to acquire only 100 accessible buses out of the 1000 that was ordered defies logic. It looks like Rapid KL never seriously considered the mobility-impaired when the decision was made for the purchase. Why limit it to only 100 when an entire fleet of accessible buses will benefit everyone?

This oversight, either deliberate or inadvertent, has led Christine and Murugeswaran to the forefront again to campaign for accessible public buses. This is another uphill battle as there is a strong reluctance to make all Rapid KL buses fully accessible. Do wheelchair users have to wait another twelve years only to be disappointed again? We certainly are not asking for things to change overnight. Public transport is a basic right for everyone, disabled or otherwise. What we want is a firm commitment and a reasonable timeframe from Rapid KL to make their entire fleet of buses accessible. Is that too much to ask for?

Rights-Based Approach To Disability

Official speeches do not interest me normally. I have heard one too many to know that they are usually rehashed and rephrased versions of feel-good stories to suit the occasion. However, the speech by Cik Norani Mohd. Hashim, Pengarah Bahagian OKU of the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat during the conclusion of a training that I attended at Bandar Baru Sentul recently perked my attention. The four keyphrases in her speech that grabbed my interest were rights-based approach, Independent Living, Disability Equality Training and Biwako Millenium Framework (BMF).

According to Cik Norani, the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (JKMM) is moving away from the welfare-based approach to a rights-based one. This is encouraging news especially coming straight from the section director in a government department. A rights-based approach looks at the disabled person as a citizen with full rights equal to that of non-disabled citizens. They are involved in all decision-making processes that affect them. Every effort is made to ensure that they can participate in the activities of the society without hindrances. These include equal access to health care, education, employment, political, cultural and social activities that most people take for granted.

This approach recognises that each and every human being is unique and has varying degrees of ability. Irrespective of that, each is treated fairly by means of a social support system that takes into account the different needs and make up for it accordingly. Good examples are elevators that incorporate audio, visual and sensory devices to cater to the needs of wheelchair users, blind, deaf and non-disabled passengers. These include the appropriate positioning of the control panel for the convenience of wheelchair users, announcement and Braille buttons for the blind and visual display for the deaf.

The Biwako Millenium Framework (BMF) further reaffirms rights of disabled persons by outlining issues, targets and strategies in creating an inclusive barrier-free and rights-based society for people with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. BMF is an inter-governmental resolution spearheaded by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). According to the website, Asia and the Pacific have 400 million disabled persons, “by far the largest number of people with disabilities in the world. Most of them are poor, their concerns unknown and their rights overlooked.”

While I see the commitment by the JKMM, a department under the Kementerian Wanita, Keluarga dan Pembangunan Masyarakat, in implementing non-handicapping policies and striving to fulfil the issues raised in BMF , I have yet to see the same firm commitment from other relevant ministries and government agencies in supporting this initiative. In this sense, the JKMM and the ministry that it is under should work more proactively in garnering commitment from other ministries and see to it that objectives of the BMF are met within the timeframe agreed upon.

Going into 2007, the JKMM will be supporting Independent Living programmes run by NGOs with personnel trained in this field - an ongoing project initiated in 2005. At the same time, the second series of Disability Equality Training will be conducted for leaders in the disability movement so that they will be able to push the concept of equality for disabled persons to members of their respective organisations and the community. These all are organised with technical support and together with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Malaysia.

The road to attaining equality for disabled persons is still a long one lined with innumerable obstacles. The largest of those obstacles is attitudinal barrier. It is not easy to change deep-rooted perceptions and misconceptions about disability. Society can play its part and help hasten the process of mainstreaming disability by discarding patronizing and paternalistic ways of thinking and replacing them with a rights-based approach.