social issues in malaysia 2021

In June human rights organizations protested an illustration posted on social media by the National Task Force, a government unit charged with tightening border controls, that showed armed security officials and navy ships surrounding a boat, captioned, Rohingya migrants, your arrival is not welcome. In response to complaints, Minister of Home Affairs Hamzah Zainudin declared he believed most Malaysians were concerned that the huge number of refugees who made Malaysia their destination of choice might lead to various social ills. In turn migrant rights activist Adrian Pereira of the NGO North South Initiative expressed fear of what the governments portrayal of the Rohingya could lead to, especially after the surge of online hate against that community in 2020. Despite strong objections by opposition political parties and civil society, in 2018 the former Barisan Nasional coalition government approved redrawn parliamentary districts that critics contended unfairly advantaged Barisan Nasional through gerrymandering and malapportionment. Ibu Yatis court date was set for January 25, 2022. Headspace on 1800 650 890. The erosion of support for Muhyiddin's government is tied to four issues. Due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to -3.5% in 2020 and -6.5% in 2021 of the country's Gross Domestic Product (Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2022). Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law bans child pornography and states that a child is considered a victim of sexual abuse if he or she has taken part as a participant or an observer in any activity that is sexual in nature for the purposes of a photograph, recording, film, videotape, or performance. A social problem is a condition that at least some people in a community view as being undesirable and morally wrong. Activists and government critics were often subjected to late-night arrests, long hours of questioning, and lengthy remand periods, even if they were not ultimately charged with an offense. The legislation expanded this authority to include housing and local government agencies, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs in order to enforce fines and penalties up to 200,000 ringgit ($48,000), three years jail time, or both, against employers that failed to adhere to regulations. Department of Labor officials reported they sought to conduct labor inspections as frequently as possible. Rape and Domestic Violence: Rape of women or men is a criminal offense, as are most forms of domestic violence. Subtance abuse. Passport confiscation by employers increased migrant workers vulnerability to forced labor; the practice was illegal but widespread and generally went unpunished. Anti-Semitism was a serious problem across the political spectrum and attracted wide support among segments of the population. Sexual Harassment: The law prohibits a person in authority from using his or her position to intimidate a subordinate by any conduct that is sexual in nature. The NGO EDICT called for an inquiry, adding that for police to abuse tactics to force suspects to confess is inappropriate. In September, Home Affairs Minister Hamzah announced police had started an inquest into the death. This included any enterprise not registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia or other professional body and included more than one million self-employed or micro businesses, such as in-home workers, street vendors, and small workshops. There are no specific regulations, laws, or guidelines to protect the welfare of gig workers, except for the provisions under the Self-Employment Social Security Act 2017 that require self-employed individuals to register and contribute. Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights, Section 6. Several UN experts expressed concern that the crackdown was severely undermining efforts to fight the pandemic and immigration detention centers subsequently reported an increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19. The government also had the right to compel arbitration in the case of failed collective bargaining negotiations. Parents must register a child within 14 days of birth. Domestic and international human rights groups operated subject to varying levels of government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases; however, the government was not always cooperative or responsive to their views. Administration: The law allows for investigations into allegations of mistreatment; however, this provision did not always function. Police arrested Vinaiyagar on September 8 for alleged gangsterism, and he died five days later due to a ruptured stomach ulcer, per police reports. The number detained in these centers was not publicly available. Police justified this practice as necessary to prevent interference in investigations in progress, and the courts generally upheld the practice. Rural versus Urban Social Issues. Some NGOs asserted that a police approach of arrest first, investigate later was prevalent, particularly in cases involving allegations of terrorism. In April two members of parliament accused then deputy inspector general of police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, since promoted to inspector general, of trivializing a rape threat made against a teenage girl. It has a parliamentary system of government selected through regular, multiparty elections and is headed by a prime minister. The Ministry of Home Affairs maintained a list of more than 1,700 banned publications as of November 2020. . Five agencies, including the Department of Labor of the Ministry of Human Resources, have enforcement powers under the law, but their officers performed a variety of functions and did not always actively search for indications of forced labor. Authorities often charged transgender persons with indecent behavior and importuning for immoral purposes in public. Those convicted of a first offense face a token fine and a maximum sentence of 14 days in jail. The law imposes limitations on student associations and on student and faculty political activity. During the year several medical glove manufacturers announced repayments to workers based on forced labor practices. Global AIDS Coordinator and Global Health Diplomacy, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Special Representative for Syria Engagement, U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Office of the U.S. The government on several occasions forcibly expelled boats with refugees and asylum seekers who had come from a country where their lives or freedom could be threatened due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The nationwide January-August state of emergency restricted freedom of assembly and prohibited worker strikes and protests. Human Rights Watch called on the government to investigate the deportations and to provide UNHCR with access to all detainees, refugees, and asylum seekers in the country, stressing the risk they faced of a return to persecution. Anti social behavior /crime. The law does not prohibit discrimination with respect to race, religion, national origin, color, sex, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, HIV or AIDS status, or refugee status in employment and hiring; the director general of labor may investigate discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment for both foreign and local employees. 8. Penalties included fines but were seldom assessed and were not commensurate with those under other laws involving denials of civil rights, such as discrimination. In June the government expanded social security coverage to local and migrant domestic workers. The law provides for limited freedom of association and for certain categories of workers to form and join trade unions, subject to a variety of legal and practical restrictions. Labor union representatives noted that recruiting agents in the countries of origin and locally sometimes imposed high fees, making migrant workers vulnerable to debt bondage. Under national security laws, police may enter and search the homes of persons suspected of threatening national security without a warrant. Nationwide Emergency. Share this via Reddit 1 Liew Chin Tong, Middle Malaysia: Centre Ground Is Battle Ground (Kuala Lumpur: Genta Media . Share this via Telegram The law prohibits women from working underground, such as in mines, and restricts employers from requiring female employees to work in industrial or agricultural work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. or to commence work for the day without having 11 consecutive hours of rest since the end of the last work period. Indigenous persons in peninsular Malaysia, known as Orang Asli, who number approximately 200,000, constituted the poorest group in the country and had very little ability to participate in decisions that affected them. This makes up 51% of the 1,708 . Human rights defenders, journalists, opposition leaders and others were investigated, arrested and prosecuted for criticizing the government. In separate statements Batu Kawan member Kasthuri Patto and Petaling Jaya member Maria Chin Abdullah criticized Acryl Sani for his remarks about a police report made by a student, age 17, that a classmate had threatened to rape her after she called out her teacher for making jokes about rape. Government regulations and policies provided extensive preferential programs to boost the economic position of bumiputra, a majority of the population. Many companies hired foreign workers using recruiting or outsourcing companies, creating uncertainty about the legal relationship between the worker, the outsourcing company, and the owner of the workplace, making workers more vulnerable to exploitation and complicating dispute resolution. Noting that Malaysiakini, Astro Awani, Free Malaysia Today, and the China Press had been subjected to police investigations, the foregoing media groups declared that the press should not be summoned by the government or threatened with action based on articles they publish in their capacity as the media, and termed harassment of journalists for doing their jobs a tactic to stifle press freedom.. In June a court ordered Goodyear Malaysia Berhad to provide 185 migrant workers more than 5 million ringgit ($1.2 million) in unpaid wages, shift allowances, annual bonuses, and pay increases. Malaysia continues to permit child marriage under both civil and Islamic law, in violation of its obligations under international law. #3. Ahmad Marzuk also announced a special multiagency government task force, including the government multimedia agency and police, to monitor posts related to LGBTQI+ issues. Like in much of the world, social isolation, economic insecurity and the loss of loved ones have become major drivers of anxiety, depression, stress and other challenges. Kossan completed repaying more than 5,500 workers a total 54 million ringgit ($13 million) with a final transfer of 24 million ringgit ($5.8 million) at the end of June. Penang police chief Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain observed that factors driving the rise in domestic violence were pressure and stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government claimed these policies were necessary to attain ethnic harmony and political stability. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum two years imprisonment, a fine, or both. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining, b. Our findings reveal that the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and perpetrator is 13.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Sati was not deemed a social issue until Raja Ram Mohan Roy criticized the practice and a considerable number of people started supporting him (Ahuja 2014). Sarawak maintained its ban on Zakir Naik, an Islamic preacher; Mandeep Karpal Singh, formerly of the fair-election NGO coalition Bersih; sitting Bersih chair Thomas Fann; former chair Ambiga Sreenevasan; Wong Chin Huat, an academic and Bersih resource chair; Jerald Joseph, a SUHAKAM commissioner; and activists Colin Nicholas and Jannie Lasimbang, among others. Students with disabilities attended mainstream schools, but accessibility remained a serious problem. 2021. It prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for legal union activities and requires reinstatement of workers fired for union activity. Journalist Tashny Sukumaran was questioned over her report on a round-up of migrant workers, and in June, police opened an investigation of Boo Su-Lyn, editor of the health news portal CodeBlue, under the Official Official Secrets Act and the penal code for a series of articles about the findings of an independent investigation into an October 2016 hospital fire that killed six patients. More than 60 offenses are subject to caning, sometimes in conjunction with imprisonment, and judges routinely mandated caning as punishment for crimes, including kidnapping, rape, and robbery, and nonviolent offenses, such as narcotics possession, criminal breach of trust, migrant smuggling, immigration offenses, and others. In May police reported an increase in cases involving child pornography during the movement control order period from March 2020 to April 2021, including child grooming without physical contact using words or showing obscene sexual acts to children. He said social media, while being an effective communication platform, can be abused and trigger discord when issues concerning race, income or religion are . Migrant workers without access to their passports were more vulnerable to harsh working conditions, lower wages than promised, unexpected wage deductions, and poor housing. Refugees did not have access to the public education system. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Ministry of Health guidelines allow the practice in general but only at government health-care facilities, which was not always the case. According to the Home Affairs Ministry, 20 of the countrys 37 prisons were overcrowded. They subsequently charged her with defamation of Islam, punishable by a fine, up to three years imprisonment, or both, and released her on bail. Also in August, police barricaded the main route to parliament to prevent opposition members of parliament from entering the building after Speaker of the Lower House Azhar Harun suspended a special parliamentary session citing COVID-19 concerns. They should have proficiency in English. Numerous state Sharia laws prohibit both same-sex relations and non-normative gender expression, resulting in frequent arrests of transgender people. On May 1, hours after the easing of some restrictions, authorities raided one such area and rounded up hundreds of migrants. Moreover, those graduates with essential skills are more preferable compared to them who does not have any skills. Rape. The Barisan Nasional (BN) political coalition ruled Malaysia from independence in 1957 until 2018, maintaining power by manipulating electoral districts, appealing to ethnic nationalism, and suppressing criticism through restrictive speech laws and politicized prosecutions of opposition leaders. The religious NGO Ikram warned that some residents rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, believing it to be part of the Jewish agenda, that it contained nonhalal ingredients and tracking chips, and that it could cause death.

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