Tuesday December 20, 2005
Potential tourists turned off by ear-squat incident
IN JUNE, I met a wonderful couple in Troy, New York, who were thrilled to hear about my country, Malaysia. They had plans to visit and were intent on coming next year.
On Sunday, I received a call from the husband. After the cursory greetings, he told me Malaysia was now famous but for all the wrong reasons.
They had seen a BBC segment on the stripping and ear-squatting incident.
They were having second thoughts about visiting. He said he did not want to risk putting his wife through that.
I tried to allay his fears by saying I did not think the authorities would do that to Caucasians (which speaks a lot for the racial undertones that underpin so much of what goes on in this country) but he did not sound convinced.
Now, in explaining the incident to us Malaysians and to the world at large, we are told the stripping of an individual and coercing her to do ear squats is just “standard operating procedure.”
Well, I suppose if you could justify humiliation, degradation and systematic fuelling of fear by alluding to standard operating procedures, democracy ought to pack its bags in this country and return to whence it came.
I am horrified that the powers that be think that we will swallow such pathetic excuses and treat this as another “over-reaction”.
More than that, I am absolutely appalled at the talk that action ought to be taken against MP Teresa Kok for exposing such abuse.
I am a citizen of this country. I have a right to know what is being done by the police who have been tasked with protecting me.
So I thank her for having the courage to highlight and expose this. Talk and words are cheap but pictures speak a thousand words.
Wake up, Malaysia!
Can’t we see that this is not about “spoiling relations between Malaysia and China”?
This is about the way the world views our respect for fundamental human rights and our treating as sacrosanct another fellow human being’s worth.
MICHELLE LEE SU-LIN,
Petaling Jaya.
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