Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus
|
Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus |
| FTA A CAMPAIGN WAS LAUNCHED against the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. when talks started in 2006, the activists claiming it could undermine job and food security. Dr Mahathir Mohammed too added his voice to the opposition saying that the FTA may harm the economy and constrain government policy. In the latest development, a stark reminder that we live in a police state, pamphlets of the Parti Socialis against the FTA were confiscated and a probe started. Is the police state pro-US? It seems so for we remember the Coalition Against War Malaysia demonstration against the war in Iraq in 2005, which was assaulted by water cannon. The Parti Keadilan of Anwar Ibrahim it seems does not oppose the FTA with the USA. This appears from what the president in her presidential address said on the subject " Whilst we march forward, full steam ahead, into an open or market economy, it would be odd if we did not first really ascertain exactly how far we are able to compete on a global stage. The Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated with the United States should not be used as a political agreement, i.e. manipulated for the interests of the Barisan Nasional government. Even though this agreement is an agreement between two nations, but the government is seemingly placing its own interests higher than those of the people, and the nation. "This agreement should have been seen as an opportunity to widen the opportunities for our products and services sectors to penetrate new markets. It is also an opportunity to guarantee the rights of workers and the common interest, including a refusal to give in to any demands regarding the health sector." Keadilan ignores opposition opinion in the world. Here is an extract from the Joint Statement submitted by the Europe Centre – Third World, non-governmental organization with general consultative status and the American Association of Jurists. Commission on Human Rights, 56th period of sessions – July 26 to August 13, 2004. "It is generally recognized that bilateral agreements, especially between a developing and a developed country, are not the best option and that multilateral negotiations and agreements are preferable as they are less discriminatory and allow a better bargaining position for the developing countries. |
|
"Additionally, there is a fear that in
bilateral agreements formed outside the WTO, developing countries do
not have the power of collective bargaining to negotiate in their best
interest. For example, Chile concluded an agreement with the US in
which it committed to lowering tariffs on agriculture products and
deregulating investment, but could not gain any concessions from the US
regarding farm subsidies. ... "... as a consequence of the application of "the most favourable treatment" "national treatment" and "most favoured nation" clauses, that appear in almost every treaty, works as communicating glasses system, that allows neo-liberal policies circulate freely on a planetary scale and get into States, where they disintegrate national economies and provoke grave social harms. "All this involves the primacy of capital rights over democratic and human rights of peoples. Liberalisation and privatisation policies are consolidating – as a legally binding legal system. It is a matter of making these policies non reverted through international agreements. It is the regression to a sort of feudal or corporative law, opposed to national and international public law, that works in the exclusive interest of the big transnational capital and those of rich states and to the detriment of fundamental rights of the so-called peripheral states and their peoples." Examples do not make cheerful news. Oxfam says that the FTA between the USA and Thailand threatens access to HIV/AIDS treatment. The incorporation of similar ‘TRIPS-plus' standards into the US-Thai FTA could seriously hamper Thailand's HIV/AIDS programmes, depriving thousands of people of effective treatment. Martin Khor of the Third World Network wrote that in February 2006 ten thousand people protested in Chiengmai recently as talks took place on a Thai-US free trade agreement. AIDS patients, NGOs, senators and the World Health Organisation voiced concerns that the agreement would prevent Thais from having cheaper medicines. Bilateral FTAs have become a matter of life and death. The US-Morocco FTA of 2004 saw the opening of Morocco's market to US wheat, rules of origin in the US on Morocco's textile-related exports, drug prices and so on. The EU-Mexico FTA after seven years. Instead of the promised economic and social benefits, the treaty has left the Mexican state unable to implement policies to promote local small and medium size companies. Mexico's finance sector is now at the mercy of EU capital, while across various economic sectors the FTA has worked to the benefit of European transnational corporations and to the detriment of Mexican industries. (Transnational Institute) Martin Khor of the Third World Network writes that more countries are now engaging in bilateral free trade agreements with developed countries. Often, these FTAs contain issues that the developing countries have rejected in the World Trade Organisation, and oblige developing countries to cut their tariffs more steeply and open up their service sectors. The effects can be devastating, |
| as the case of
Mexican agriculture shows.. I end with a note on South Korea which in 2006 exported 700,000 cars to the US while its was only 5,000 the other way. You can be sure the US negoitatiors in any FTA talks will not be happy with that inferiority. Rape From time to time we read in the papers of assertions by men of prominence that the way women dress invites rape and the reaction of the women leaders is just a negative denial. Personal knowledge and police friends would have told them that rape has little to do with dress, most are committed by father, or family friend or friend of neighbour. I have been doing some referencing on the subject because I find the response of the women poor and I present my findings as not conclusive but in the hope that they will provoke some real research by the women. Take the USA. According to the U.S. Department of Justice : College women are more at risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women the same age but not in college Rape and sexual assault are not crimes that usually occur in dark alleys or in deserted areas at night. 6 out of 10 sexual assaults occur in the home of the victim or the home of a friend, neighbour or relative. In 1997, 68.3% were perpetrated by someone who knew the victim. (Bureau of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, 1997) In the UK, the R.C.F. - Rape Crisis Federation Wales & England April 2, 2005 statistics show that the most common rapists are current and ex-husbands or partners. 1 in 7 married women said they had been forced to have sex compared to 1 in 3 divorced or separated women. 97% of rape crisis callers knew their assailant 78% of women raped or physically assaulted since they turned 18 were assaulted by a current or former husband, live-in partner or date. 17%* were victimized by an acquaintance, 9% by a relative other than a husband and only 14% were assaulted by a stranger. (National Violence Against Women Survey, 1998) Having these figures I did a daily count of court cases on the subject and this is what I found in the Star newspaper for 2005. By known persons:- Rape or attempted rape of daughter (Including child who called man "papa") (12); attempt on niece, of daughter; sister of friend, neighbour (3), rape by boy friend, colleague (2), by medium, trainer (2); rape of maid (4) By strangers: 7 Few court cases were reported in 2006 and none in 2007. Did someone tell the editors not to report such cases? For what they are worth, I offer my amateur findings to women organisations |
| RELA We see that the head of RELA which is a force of 450,000 men talk about their success in discovering 20,000 illegals in this country, except for white man of course whom they presume to be tourists he says. The poor man hasn't heard of conmen and those going door to door trying to recruit new sheep for their born again christian flock. This country should be generous to those who come in search of work and scrap RELA. Remember those thousands who flooded into Sabah from the Phillipines and Indonesia and opened up the oil palm estates and put up buildings late into the night in Kota Kinabalu? No RELA hunted them down then. PESSOC PESSOC the state orchestra has transfomed itself into an organisation which not only entertains but trains young musicians. This transformation from lifeless organisation which often played out of tune and time was strikingly demonstrated when 7 year old Koay Zhi Tong played the violin like an old pro at the Training Chorus Concert. All this is due to the new conductor Shimano and it's enthusiastic master of the chorus Khoo Hooi Lay. There were more surprises in store. Shortly after that concert we were treated to a concert by the choirs of The Penang Free School, the Methodist Boys School, the Methodist Girls School and the Penang Chinese Girls High School and the PESSOC Chorus. The Chorus tackled Vaughan Williams and Faure and other classical songs; the shool choirs did lighter pieces like "Old MacDonald had a Farm" and "When I Fall in Love." helped. We were particularly struck by "Take the A Train" by the Penang Chinese Girls High School. A successful evening thanks to the coaching by Francesca Buttle, Lisa Ho and Dr Chan Cheong-jan. What we did not like was the prgramme producers failure to mention the accompanying pianists whose virtuosity was surely a telling contribution. Woolmer The case of Woolmer is yet another example of how colour prejudice is still poweful in the UK. Just because the Pakistan cricket team lost the world cup it was presumed that they killed Woolmer, their coach . The players were fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA before being allowed to go home, their presumed guilt splashed all over the papers. It was even spread around that Woolmer had a broken bone in his neck, a sure sign that he was strangled. It proved to be complete nonsense in the end of course but no one has apologised to those "Paki natives." Cheating husbands The MCA women are worried that their husbands will go astray if Chinese maids are allowed into this super country. What faithless and double crossing husbands these poor women have! The joke is that Boleh-land, awash with money, is going to hire a "consultant" "to conduct a nation wide study on the psyhcological and sociological impact of foreign maids on Malaysian families." A bit of stupid pomposity, one would think. |
| Uniform The MCA has been informed that one of its members will not be punished after all for not wearing the prescribed uniform. Have you noticed that all political parties attend their meetings wearing a prescribed type of clothing? Reminds you once more that this is a police state, does it not? Justice Strange things are happening in our courts. The AG's department requesting a lower court to review an amended charge of manslaughhter in view of the "public interest, seriousness of the alleged offence and involving a foreigner and the country's image being at stake." Those lawyers in the Attorney-General's chambers have a strange concept of justice, dont they? Then there is that magistrate who told a lawyer to take off his tie because she did not like the colour. This marks graphically the deterioration in our courts; - instead of an atmosphere of equals co-conducting a trial, judges and even magistrates behave as if they are presiding over a classroom of naughty boys and girls. Then there is the series of interruptions and interventions by a lawyer holding a watching brief when all lawyers know that a lawyer for a person not a party to the proceedings is only permitted to "watch" and not to take part in the case at all. There was more to come: Supporters of the accused in a notorious case unashamedly carried posters around the court house while inside the lawyers were shouting at one another. A rare bird Dr Toh Kim Woon gave a remarkable interview to the Sun newspaper last June. He planned to retire from government politics next election. He had served enough. What was remarkable was a government (state) minister talking about civil rights and the right to dissent; that leaders should not talk down to the people. It was a breath of fresh air. Egrets and mangrove North Beach or Coast Road, now Gurney Drive, attracts me for two reasons. One is the annual visit of the Siberian egrets on their way to Indonesia for the winter. The other is the strange emergence of the mangrove out of the rising tide.# K L Chai |
| |
|
LESTARI HERITAGE NETWORK
www.lestariheritage.net for urban conservation |
| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page Acting amok Baba words Book review Cricket in Penang (2) Food guide( (22) The jungle war (13)Koay Jetty Koay Soo Kau Letter from Pulau Tikus Rubber estriction (Part 3) |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 54 |