Weekend View: DISABILITY MUCH CLOSER THAN WE THINK

THOSE who have always assumed that people in wheelchairs have no excitement in their lives must surely have second thoughts by now.

Especially if they had been watching TV lately or reading the newspapers last week.

The attention we got was more than anyone could ask for!

Every media was there. The flashlight popping frenzy not only temporarily blinded us but also made us dizzy.

I’m, of course, referring to the memorandum that we handed over to Members of Parliament last Thursday.

About 30 of us – mostly in wheelchairs but all with physical disabilities – from seven NGOs under the name Malaysians Against Discrimination of the Disabled (MADD) were there.

We demanded that insults with reference to the people with disabilities (PWDs) made by our MPs to be stopped at once. Those failing to do so should be promptly disciplined, we added.

“We do not care what the arguments are between each political party,” we told everyone.

“Just respect our conditions and leave us out of your personal fights.

“We are not ‘toys’ or ‘weapons’ to be used for your own ends,” we stressed.

Our frustrations over the matter were based on the fact that as it is our issues and needs rarely get the attention it deserves in Parliament.

“So if you can’t be positive; we rather that you don’t say anything about us,” we told our lawmakers.

The victim over the latest incident was our famed “Tiger of Bukit Gelugor” Karpal Singh. This was not the first time that the wheelchair-using MP was unkindly teased about his disability.

Last year an able-bodied MP said that God had put him in a wheelchair, meaning that his disability was a punishment by God.

A fortnight ago, two other non disabled MPs during a Parliamentary session ridiculed the DAP leader for not being able to stand up like the rest of them to deliver his speech.

When confronted by the media later, they continued to make other hurtful remarks. One of them was that they did not know that Karpal is a PWD or that he represents them.

How could anyone expect Karpal to stand up with his paralysis?

Our purpose to go to Parliament was not to support Karpal Singh as a politician. It was also not because he was a DAP-member.

We went there to do our duty. That is, to be in solidarity with a man who was suddenly struck – almost overnight, it seems, - by a condition that had changed his life forever.

In fact, disability is much closer to all of us than we think. It can strike anyone at any time – especially when you are older.

I wonder if our honourable MPs realise this?

Karpal was not around when we handed over our memorandum.

However, we did get the chance to see him when he came to Parliament later in the afternoon.

It took at least three persons to coordinate and carry him into his wheelchair because he could not do it himself.

However, it truly inspired us all to see this man, fully dressed in his suit and carrying on his duties as usual for his constituents and his country.

This is exactly the kind of role models we so badly need in our country not only for the disabled but also for the non-handicapped.

Most people in such a condition would be tempted to give up in life.

I know quite a few once strong able-bodied persons crumble when confronted with such a situation.

It is particularly extra hard for such robustly independent individuals to suddenly have to switch roles and lead a life when they have to be dependent on others for assistance.

Do our MPs know this?

As disabled NGOs it is also incredibly frustrating when it comes to breaking stigmas attached to disabilities.

The perception of PWDs so-called “inabilities” is the reason why many of them can’t go to schools, get jobs, get married and do normal things that others do.

The design of Parliament House itself was unbelievably hostile to us. The entrance ramp is amateurishly built. There are no disabled-friendly toilets anywhere.

As a result, we were forced to stay away from any liquids for the almost six hours that we were there. By doing so, we also risked developing urine infections from not drinking water – a potential killer for PWDs in wheelchairs.

Able-bodied people rushed into lifts ahead of us. They had no courtesy to take the stairs instead. We ended up waiting for more than half an hour to get upstairs.

There was not a single disabled-friendly car park outside. We were made to park quite a distance away from the entrance. No one offered to help push our wheelchairs as we breathlessly struggled to wheel up steep slopes under the unforgiving sun.

And yet, we were just right there: the most important and highest house in our blessed land where our hopes for a better future lay!

End