Cartoons the laughable state of human rights in Malaysia.
This year’s International Human Rights Day is dedicated to the human rights defenders. Who are actually human rights defenders?
According to the International Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (the name of the declaration is longer than that but I am not bother to write the full name, so Google, people!) they can be anyone who uphold and protect human rights in the course of their work and daily life.
Hence, it can be activists who risked being detained by the State for challenging acts of human rights violation, a journalist who exposed corruption or even a teacher who protect his or her students from harm as evident in Nepal.
A week ago, the Malaysian public rise again to challenge the decision by the State to privatize and increase the price of water, a necessity to all and a human right under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some were arrested, chased and injured in the peaceful assembly.
It was in support of such spirit and passion, that I drew the following cartoons. My artwork is of course nowhere near Zunar or Banksy, but I hope to stand in solidarity with all human rights defenders in Malaysia through these pieces that expressed how I feel about the state of human rights in Malaysia.
To everyone, Happy Human Rights Day! :-)
Hi AgreetoDisagree,
Thanks for stopping by. I agree that electoral process would be another way of exercising our opinion or more precisely, our choice of leadership but it is not without its own set of risks as well. In Malaysia, I am of the view, there are challenges and risks of exercising almost any of your right. Even in elections, things can get intense and physical too. Remember the clashes that took place in the last election in some parts of the countries like, if i can remember well, in Kota Raja, Kuala Terengganu and perhaps the biggest example, the Perak crisis.But perhaps, the reality we saw on how peaceful demonstrations are being handled in Malaysia would deter or frustrate us sometimes and I understand that completely. But it also makes us wonder how come government in other countries can handled it better than us. I saw how the students's protest in UK recently took place in a controlled manner and the police that were present, were actually maintaining the crowd as oppose to dispersing or battling the crowd. Perhaps, we need to draw lessons from these examples too.
Happy Human Rights Day everyone!
These demos are useless. Coordinate the voters or stand for election as candidates instead. I believe demonstartions are coordinated to allow the government (rather than the people) to exercise power and that NGOs could be counterproductive or manipulated into these illegal rallies that allow anyone involved to be arrested. Stand for candidacy or coordinate the voters. Set up your own CONSTITUENCY BASED political parties. 1 MP? So what? If 222 independent MPs with the right minds arise, the end of being beholden to any coalition immediately is granted.
And at no risk to self at all! Think about it! Kill your enemies with the voting slip!
pls do not bring children to a demo… do not risk the children life when u anticipate there'll violence…