Malaysian way of justice
A disturbing video posted on Internet shows that a prison official in Malaysia lashing a Rohingya refugee on charge of possessing drug. However, while the drug charge against the victim is very flimsy, the brutal lashing has exposed the way prisoners are treated in Malaysia's crammed detention centres. Most of these detention centres house the 'illegal immigrant workers'. It is reported that whipping the immigrant workers is ubiquitous in Malaysian detention camps and it has become a standard procedure of punishing those who work in Malaysia without legal documents. Many of the prisoners in those detention camps are citizens of Bangladesh, who were lured into Malaysia for jobs in the plantation and construction sectors. These gullible workers are duped by the unscrupulous manpower agents to come to Malaysia and then leave them with no documents, only to be at the mercy of vindictive Malaysian prison officials. But often, the news goes unreported as the detention camps are inaccessible to media and human rights organisations.
While most of the countries in the world have done away with this brutal act of lashing as a form of punishment, the Malaysian government continues with this and the prison officials claim: “This is a Malaysian style of justice for staying in the country without permit”.
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