Tuesday 26 May 2015

Maybe Anifah is more humane than Aung San Suu Kyi

I doubt that many Malaysians knew about Wang Kelian until a few days ago.

Well, I have been to the place, which is located at the Thai-border in Perlis.

I was at the minor border crossing many years ago to check on its weekend bazaar.


On weekends, Malaysians were allowed to cross into the Thai side of the border there without their passport or border pass for several hundred meters to the bazaar which the locals called "Nat".

It's a nice place to be.

The greeneries of the Nakawan range which made up the back drop of the place was picturesque.

I enjoyed my afternoon at that place.

However, I also got to know that the place was a smugglers' heaven.

I'm not so sure about now, but back then I observed that the smuggling activities there were rampant.

The small time smugglers whom I saw were actually Thai villagers who carried mainly packets of high grade Siamese rice through the border check point to be sold in Malaysia.

I noticed the same thing happening at the main border check-point of nearby Padang Besar.

The smugglers went about their business right under the nose of the border guards of both sides, who seemed to tolerate the whole thing.

I did ask a friendly member of the Unit Pencegahan Penyeludupan (UPP) stationed there as to why he and his colleagues didn't take any action against the smugglers.

"Mereka tu orang kampung cari makan je dik. Bukannya penyeludup betul. Lagi pun tu semua Siam Islam. Kesian dia orang susah cari makan kat sebelah sana tu," he replied.

Nonetheless, I was told by my friends among the locals that the border guards were given some "incentives" by the smugglers to turn a blind eye.

I was also made to understand that the goods being smuggled were also not all entirely as harmless as just the beras Siam. There were cases of firearms and drugs being smuggled across the border too.

A few years ago, there was even a tremendous uproar over the smuggling of Malaysian subsidized diesel through those border checkpoints.

As we now know it, these breaches of our border had actually turned into something even more sinister.

Who would have ever thought that there were mass graves to be found in this country.

But that's the hottest news about Malaysia now,

Here is the news by UK's The Guardian,
Mass graves of suspected trafficking victims found in Malaysia 

And here is a feature by The New York Times
Migrants Flooding Into Malaysia and Indonesia Trade One Nightmare with Another

In light of these developments of the migrant/refugee issue, I think it was a good thing that our government had decided to provide humanitarian assistance and temporary refuge for the boat people, especially the Rohingya refugees who were forced to flee Myanmar after being prosecuted in that country.

Kudos to Foreign Minister DS Anifah Aman whom I was made to understand as being the man who single handedly pushed the government to make that decision.



As I had previously wrote, not all of those in the administration of PM DS Najib Razak are bad.

Not only it was the right thing to do, the move may had actually saved the country from being labeled as being inhumane when faced with such a human tragedy.

Just imagine the kind of bad Press that our country would have to suffer if the mass graves in Wang Kelian were found while we were still hesitating to decide whether to assist the Rohingya refugees who may be dying on those boats.

As the authorities continue to comb the forested area in Wang Kelian for possibly more graves of victims of the human trafficking syndicates, it is hopeful that they could also devise a strategy to prevent such a human tragedy from happening again.

The authorities also need to tighten security at the border.

Maybe they should spend more on high-tech surveillance equipments such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) while at the same time enforcing stricter discipline among security personnel guarding the country's border.

Cooperation on security with neighboring countries should also be enhanced.

Last but not least, I am also of the opinion that countries such as Myanmar should be chastised by the international community for being irresponsible in letting its domestic problems, such as the ethnic prosecution of the Rohingya to cause incidences of human tragedy such as now being discovered in Wang Kelian.

I do wonder what happened to that Nobel laureate democracy heroine Aung San Su Kyi as her country washed its hands over the Rohingya refugees issue.

Here is a report on her by Al Jazeera,
Aung San Suu Kyi's inexcusable silence

After reading that article, I can't help but to have a fleeting thought that maybe Anifah Aman is a better humanitarian than her.

28 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    6. Sorry commenters. I have decided that starting with this post, I'm not allowing anymore comments about my blogging sister Helen.

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    8. Dear Anak Buluh Betong. I am not really intimidated or threatened by the truth. It's just that Helen had expressed her unhappiness about me letting through "fitnah" comments about her in my blog and requested for me to stop doing that. Since she is my dear blogging sister, I decided not to make her unhappy anymore. If you and the others are strongly against what Helen stands for, I suggest for you all to take the fight at her blog or other blogs which owner doesn't regard her as a dear blogging sister like I do. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. Cheers.

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    10. Really sorry Anak Buluh Betong. No more comments about Helen allowed in this blog. If you want, you can whack me instead and I will let your comments through. Just don't mention Helen, okay.

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    12. Sorry Anak Buluh Betong. Can't let go that one too. Whatever your unhappiness with Helen, I simply can't help you.

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  2. Have you been to Bengkok? O la la. I am the one you're looking for.

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  3. Never been impressed with Aung San Suu Kyi. To me dia sama standard je dengan Anwar Ibrahim. Only know how to play for sympathy. Both are not good leaders. They only care for themselves.

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    1. Is Ms Aung San a chronic lesbian playing for your sympathy? How is she same as Deep Penetration Manouver Anwar?

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  4. It is still a good idea, a guarded commercial border canal just like the Panama Canal. East meet West.

    May Thailand, China / Japan and Malaysia ( Asean ) will make it happen.

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  5. i dont understand why they are killing the rohingya....

    they say that these people are not their citizen...so they are killing them...so whoever is not their citizen shall not be there...

    but what i cannot understand is this....why cant they use their same logic to the tourists....

    why are they not killing any tourist that goes there...or is it that tourists have this $$$ so it is okey or what....

    some of these monk and their followers looks more like a money worshiping satan than dalai lama....

    >james bond

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  6. Annie i love you!

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  7. Aung San Suu Ki?
    Siapa sahaja yang menentang mereka yang tidak disukai oleh barat akan dipuji dan dipuja oleh barat.

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  8. Both the CEO of 1MDB arrogantly snubbed the hearing called by PAC. It is either they have been instructed by main culprit(you know who lah) or they are saying to Najib(since Najib called for PAC)-we don't give a f*ck about you as we do not want to be made scapegoat for others who stole the money. This is another example of something is really dead wrong with 1MDB and we the rakyat is being fooled by Jibby Kangkung antics.If they plead innocent,don't you think they will rush to PAC even before being called to clear their name? Just like Atlantuya case,Najib has all the opportunity and power to find out who ordered the killing,but he chose not to. So we all know the answer from here who is the main culprit.


    Zack

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    1. Jibby Kangkung, he dont care anymore ?
      but we dont heck care bout the perpetual liar

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNC4FHR4XLA

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  9. What they are doing in Myanmar is actually ethnic cleansing , hear in Malaysia they say it's happened too ,but I don't see how it's go about.
    Myanmar claim that this Rohingas are not their Citizen ,since it's happened during British time ,where other people are free to to come in, and settling there .
    We have similar setting ,hear in Malaysia .

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  10. annie,

    1. some said not all of those in the administration of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe are bad too.
    2. UAV nak suluh apa kat hutan belantara nun, bolehlah jadi satu lagi projek masyuk kroni macam project trafic camera dulu.
    3. the problem is corruption right! lol

    ./mkh

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  11. Kudos to Malaysia for giving temporary refuge to the Rohingya boat people but more needs to be done to get Burma to end their persecution and try to reconcile whatever antagonisms exist between Buddhist Burmese and the Muslim Rohingya due to the past.

    As for Aung San Su Kyi, it will be interesting to see whether she will do anything to resolve these antagonisms if she ever becomes president.

    It will also be interesting to see what she will do to solve the economic problems afflicting the Burmese people, since people cannot eat democracy and human rights. It is lack of opportunities in Burma which is driving many Burmese to see opportunities as menial workers in countries like Malaysia and elsewhere.

    What are Aung San Su Kyi's economic plans for Burma?

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