“There was no accountability during the Wang Kelian (Perlis) incident. There is still no accountability now,” said Dr Joseph Paul, labour and migrant rights advocate for Tenaganita.
He said there were fewer graves found in Thailand, but hundreds of people were convicted, including a 3-star general, and some were given stiff sentences.
“Yet no Malaysian was held accountable. Only four foreigners were extradited from Thailand,” he said during the launch of the book Mass Graves, Uncovering the Killing Fields of Wang Kelian, by Arulldas Sinnappan at Gerakbudaya here today.
In the current context, Paul referred to home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s recent comments about deaths in custody.
“According to the minister, none of them died due to abuse or suicide,” he said, adding that, again, there is no accountability.
Meanwhile, lawyer Andrew Khoo said another issue was that Malaysians in general do not care enough about the issue of human trafficking.
“We tend to mind our own business and not concern ourselves with other people’s problems,” he said.
Khoo said human trafficking is still prevalent in Malaysia because there is still a demand for cheap labour.
“People come because they know there is a grey economy and it is possible to eke out some kind of existence, even if it is temporary,” he said.
He said there are also legislative issues to address, adding that the Whistleblower Protection Act introduced in 2010 was “weak”.
“If you read it, the frightening thing is that even if they were to give you protection, they can decide one day to remove that protection.
“So people will say ‘why should I take that risk when the law does not protect me?’” he said.
Khoo also pointed to problems with official investigations, which are often held behind closed doors.
He spoke about the RCI into the Wang Kelian incident.
“When we (the Bar) went there, we were told, ‘A lot of the evidence will be of confidential nature, so you have to get out of the room’,” he said.
He said the Bar pulled out because it just was not going to be practical to take part.
“If you want accountability, the (government must) remove this cloak of immunity,” he said.