Malaysian Approach On Human Rights

Malaysia takes a holistic approach on human rights that it's views all rights as indivisible and interdependent. All Malaysian were protected by laws under the Fedaral Constitution that chartered from the freedom of religious to the rights of justice for everyone. But these rights are not absolute and subjest to public order, morality and national security, among others which is consistent with Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2009). Malaysia took the 'Asian Value' which means the laws and rules were set up according to our values and norms to suit the people. This is to make sure the equality and fairness for everyone and to keep the harmony among our multiracial people. We are definitely cannot follow the Western's way thoroughly because of the differences on our cultural and social. Futhermore not everything that came out from the West is right. As Tun Mahathir Mohamed once said,

'We believe that human rights always applies to the majority, who should have its rights protected. When people demonstrate and go to the streets, they deprive the majority from earning the living'.

In years, Malaysia has been supporting the development of human rights in this region and internationally. Malaysia is part of the Asian Human Rights Commission which is one of the main organization that working on promoting human rights in Asia. This cooperation is one platform for us to get involve in international arena. In Africa specifically, we have been helping them through investments and developments in few of the countries there, as been stated in the earlier posts by other members of my group. Besides that, a few Malaysian NGOs are working independently in helping these dire nations such as Mercy.

Eventhough we have been critized by others (mainly by the West) for our 'bold' movements on this issue but so far we had managed to uphold the justice for the people. Human rights is not an 'easy' issue as it involves many aspects and the fact that it is hard to please everyone.