Tag: Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2009

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I would rather that it be called International Day of Disabled Persons. There is a difference between the two. The former puts the onus of disablement on the person. The person has a disability which is the main cause of the problems that he faces in society. The latter describes the situation of the person who is disabled by attitudinal and physical barriers in society. Read more about what I have written regarding this topic under “Social Model of Disability“.

The theme for this year is “Making the MDGs Inclusive: Empowerment of persons with disabilities and their communities around the world”. MDGs means Millennium Development Goals. The following is a brief on the MDGs with regards to disabled people according to United Nations Enable:

MDGs and persons with disabilities

The United Nations and the global community continue to work for the mainstreaming of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development. Although many commitments have been made to include disability and persons with disabilities in development, the gap between policy and practice continues.

Ensuring that persons with disabilities are integrated into all development activities is essential in order to achieve internationally agreed development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs can only be achieved if persons with disabilities and their family members are included. This in turn will ensure that people with disabilities and their family members benefit from international development initiatives. Efforts to achieve the MDGs and implement the Convention are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

More information on the MDGs and persons with disabilities [http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1470]

So, today is a day dedicated to people like me – people on wheelchairs, people who are blind, people who are deaf and people who are living with other forms of impairment. Thank you so much for remembering us and honouring us and recognising us. All these have no meaning if no affirmative action is taken to reduce the socioeconomic gap between disabled people and non-disabled people.

This can only be achieved by making infrastructure and services accessible to all, first and foremost public transport and the built environment. Without access to these two, there is no way for disabled people to come into mainstream society. The federal government, state governments and local authorities, have the means and resources to do this. Sad to say, most of them do not take the initiative to make the infrastructure inclusive.

The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat), through the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (Department of Social Welfare Malaysia) is holding a celebration in conjunction with this day on December 5 at Komplex MAB in Brickfields. The Ministry has chosen not to follow the theme promoted by United Nations and instead use “Pendayaupayaan OKU Ke Arah Pembangunan Potensi Diri” (Empowering Disabled People Towards Developing Self Potential).

Talk is cheap. I have heard ministers, wives of ministers and government officials talk about making life easier for disabled people. Many of these “positive announcements” are archived in this blog. As far as I am concerned, nothing has changed. 1Malaysia kah or Rakyat Didahulukan kah, disabled people are still marginalised in every way through ommission, ignorance and discrimination. The people in government should stop talking and start working towards achieving equalisation of opportunities for disabled people. Just resolve our issues. It is as simple as that. We do not need the government spending money celebrating this day but not doing anything afterwards. No thank you!

Persons With Disabilities Act According To The Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia

Screenshot of Jabatan kebajikan Masyarakat website

According to the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia (Social Welfare Department of Malaysia) website, the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 (Akta OKU 2008) was passed in Parliament on December 24, 2007, was gazetted on January 24, 2008 and came into force on July 7, 2008.

Disabled people have been complaining that the PWD Act 2008 is purely an administrative act and toothless as there are no punitive measures for non-compliance or acts of discrimination. The JKM has a very interesting twist to these complaints that was published in the second paragraph of the same page in the website.

Akta ini memberikan pengiktirafan hak OKU dan menukar konsep OKU daripada konsep kebajikan kepada konsep ringt-based(sic). Tiada peruntukan penalti kerana bukan tujuan Akta ini untuk mengenakan hukuman kepada OKU. Walaubagaimanapun, ketidakpatuhan pihak-pihak kepada peruntukan Akta ini dan penaltinya akan dinyatakan di akta-akta, peraturan-peraturan dan undang-undang kecil lain yang berkenaan.

My translation of the above paragraph:

This act acknowledges the rights of disabled people and moves away from a welfare-based concept to the rights-based concept. There is no provision for penalties because it is not the purpose of this Act to punish disabled people. However, the penalties for parties not in compliance to this Act will be stated in other Acts, regulations and by-laws.

Wow! I am so relieved that disabled people will not be penalised under this Act. Penalised for what I do not know. Never mind that disabled people in Malaysia have been facing discrimination in society for as long as anyone cares to remember. Anyway, I have sent an email to the JKM to highlight this matter as I believe it is an error in phrasing the sentence. Hopefully, they will be more careful the next time they publish a commentary for something as important as the PWD Act in their website.

Rights of disabled people to be taken care of: The Star – August 18, 2008

There was a time when I would get all upbeat over such news in the mainstream media. Now, whenever I read about the government’s plans to alleviate the problems faced by disabled people, I get all skeptical. I have heard one too many empty promises made by politicians on such matters. I have also seen one too many leaders of disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) who sit in high-powered committees but do nothing to advocate for the rights of disabled people.

Nevertheless, I applaud Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Dr. Ng Yen Yen for realising that Malaysia needs to shift from the charity-based model to a rights-based one where the issues of disabled people are concerned. The charity-based model demeans the dignity of disabled people by reducing them to positions of passive recipients whose fate are dependent on the generosity of the benefactors.

Given a choice, disabled people do not want to be given fishes all the time. We want to learn to fish to be self sufficient. We want to be the master of our destiny. No man should decide how another person should live his life. Disabled people must be allowed to decide for themselves how they want to live their lives.

Disabled people must be given the same opportunities as everyone else to live life as independently as possible. Such independence is impossible at the moment because of all the physical barriers in the environment as well as the prejudices against disabled people.

Although I may have my skepticisms, I really hope am wrong and that with the formation of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities the government and the representatives of disabled people will work towards restoring the rights of disabled people in Malaysia. The members of the council, especially disabled persons, should speak out without fear or favour on all issues affecting the community.

I see some familiar faces of wheelchair users in the council, namely, Sia Siew Chin of Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled, Anthony Arokia of the Persatuan Mobiliti Selangor dan Kuala Lumpur. They must always remember that they are not representing themselves, their organizations or people with disabilities such as theirs only but all disabled people and especially people with very severe disabilities.

They must put the interests of all disabled people in Malaysia above that of their own. They must not abuse their positions for self-benefit and the benefit of their respective organizations only. Most of all, they must understand what rights are as opposed to privileges and advocate accordingly.

Disabled people in Malaysia have been marginalized for so long that many have come to see charity as God-sent. Many disabled people’s organizations are also charity-based because it is easier to appeal to the goodwill of society to provide for their members than to get the government to play their part by supporting the needs of their members.

The government has a duty to ensure that disabled people have equalization in opportunities in all aspects and provide the necessary social support to achieve such means. By that I do not mean the various allowances given out by the government to disabled people. Money is not everything. The built environment and the public transport system must cater to the needs of disabled people so that they will have opportunities participate in activities of society.

Those two are areas that the government has failed to deliver despite numerous promises by different ministers during the past two years. Without an accessible built environment and public transport system, disabled people will continue to be trapped in our own homes. Therefore, my yardstick to judge the effectiveness of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities is whether they can resolve the two long outstanding issues in the immediate future. Five years is a reasonable timeframe to ensure that the government deliver the most basic of those facilities. Can the council uplift disabled people from the pathetic situations that they are in now? Time will tell.

Metro
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Monday August 18, 2008
Rights of disabled people to be taken care of
BY LOONG MENG YEE,

THE Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 has been gazetted and came into force on July 7. This is the first rights-based legislation for people with disabilities (PWD).

“With the enforcement of the Act, PWDs will be able to enjoy better public transport facilities, amenities and services.

“They will also have equal opportunities to health, education, information, communication and technology, habilitation and re-habilitation, improved employment opportunities as well as sports, leisure and cultural life,” said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen.

“At this point, it is too early for us to assess the effectiveness of the Act.

“Issues affecting the development and well-being of PWDs are cross- cutting, from rehabilitation to housing and social safety.

“Therefore, the responsibility to ensure the PWDs enjoy the rights enshrined in the Act has to be shared by all.


Fight for our rights: Dr Ng (fourth from right) and the rest of the team in the National Council for the People with Disabilities.

“The ministry and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities established under this Act will have to play a crucial role to address and bring foward issues affecting PWDs,” said Dr Ng at the first council meeting recently.

She added the council would oversee, co-ordinate and evaluate the implementation of the National Policy and National Plan for Action relating to PWDs.

Dr Ng said Malaysia had moved from charity-based to rights-based to address the issues affecting PWDs. The Department of Social Welfare was committed to the cause of ensuring full participation of PWDs into society.

“The department had introduced rights-based programmes such as Disability Equality Training and Independent Living to PWDs.

“Community-based rehabilitation is promoted and further strengthened to provide early intervention, rehabilitation and training for PWDs in their own community.

“So far, the welfare department supports 379 community-based rehabilitation centres, benefiting 12,000 PWDs,” said Dr Ng.

Until May, there were 229,325 PWDs registered with the Welfare Department.

This figure was way too low for the World Health Organisation estimate of between 5% and 10% of the population.

Going by that estimate, Malaysia should be registering 1.3 to 2.6 million PWDs. Dr Ng urged those who had not registered to do so.