FIVE DISABLED PERSONS PICKED AS COUNCILLORS FOR SELANGOR - NAMES TBA SOON

PETPOSITIVE BREAKING NEWS!

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TO BE TOWN COUNCILLORS SOON.

StarMetro reports today that five handicapped individuals are scheduled to be picked as town councillors for Selangor Darul Ehsan state.

The move to offer the posts to disabled Malaysians is a tremendous history-making effort for the Government of Selangor as disabled rights advocates - who are disabled themselves - have always be championing for their rights to be represented in decision-making bodies.

"Nothing about us without us!" is the internationally popular clarion call by disabled communities the world over.

It was reported in The Star on June 3 that a representative from Malaysians Against the Discrimination of the Disabled (MADD) and the Independent Living and Training Centre (ILTC) were tipped by the newspaper as a couple of the names that are on the list to become town councillors.

However we in PETPOSITIVE or the ILTC have not heard anything about being selected to date.

The next few days will be interesting to watch. It has been reported that the list is scheduled to be known by Friday.

Fingers crossed, one and all!

aNt
PET+BLOGSPOT

Here now is today's story in The Star:

Tuesday June 17, 2008

Final background checks being done on councillors

By JADE CHAN

THE new local council line-up in Selangor will see PKR having the majority in terms of party representation.

Sources said PKR members would make up the majority of councillors in 10 out of the 12 local councils.

The party representation in the Selangor councillors line-up would be as follows: PKR 28.5% (82 councillors), DAP 26.4% (76 councillors) and PAS 17.0% (49 councillors), while the remaining 28.1% (81 councillors) would comprise representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), residents’ associations and professional groups.

The breakdown list, made available to StarMetro, showed the Petaling Jaya City Council, Subang Jaya Municpal Council and Ampang Jaya Municipal Council having the largest representation of non-political councillors.

Out of the 288 councillors, five would comprise those from the disabled group (orang kurang upaya or OKU).

The party representatives encompass senior division committee members who have strong leadership qualities as well as adequate experience and qualifications while those from NGO and professional groups comprise those who specialise in fields like urban planning, law, health and environment.

“None of the wakil rakyat’s assistants are on the councillors list. Nominated party members also cannot be involved in the construction business to avoid conflicts of interest,” a source said.

“On PKR’s side, we try to emphasise that each council has at least one Chinese and one Indian representative to reflect a multi-racial line-up.”

The source added that all the councillors’ performances would be reviewed after a year and those who had not performed would be replaced.

One of the reasons for the delay in announcing the new councillors line-up, the source said, was the early resignation of the previous batch of councillors.

“It was irresponsible of the Barisan Nasional side to have their councillors resign. The previous councillors should have completed their contracts and left once the new councillors were sworn in.”

Sources said final background checks are being conducted on the candidates and that the new line-up would be announced at the end of this week , during a celebration to mark the 100 days of the Pakatan Rakyat coming into power in Selangor.

It was also revealed that the mayors and presidents heading the present local councils would be retained, unless they resign, are unable to perform their jobs or if their contracts expired.

End

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

"APOLOGISE MR MP!" say readers of PET+BLOGSPOT POLL

"THERE ARE NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT: HE SHOULD APOLOGISE!"

This was the majority view of almost 100 people who participated in PET+BLOGSPOT poll recently.

Member of Parliament for Pasir Mas Datuk Ibrahim Ali incurred the wrath of disabled Malaysians throughout the country on April 30 last month when he wanted Karpal Singh to stand up before the DAP strongman made his address in Parliament.

The Independent MP Ali's view was also supported by another MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar at the same proceeding.

Fifty-nine votes supported that the MP make an apology to the DAP strongman after he flatly refused to when about 30 disabled persons confronted him to do so.

The handicapped, mostly in wheelchairs and walking sticks represented Malaysians Against the Discrimination of the Disabled (MADD) which comprised seven disabled nongovernmental organisations.

Thirty-two percent of voters said that Datuk Ali's refusal to admit that he had wronged handicapped Malaysians by his remark was to be just as insensitive as committing the first offense.

Twenty-two percent said that his avoidance was lame. Only four percent thought that the MP was not at fault based on his claim that he regularly contributed to charitable causes.

The memorandum handing over exercise was jointly organised by the Independent Living and Training Centre in Rawang, Selangor, Society of Chinese Disabled Persons, Malaysia in Puchong Selangor and the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive) in Kuala Lumpur.

Petpositive was represented by the Society's legal adviser N Surendran, Assistant Secretary Shenaaz Khan and President Anthony Thanasayan.

PET+BLOGSPOT

Weekend View 8: Karpal Thanks MADD for support. (2nd Half of Video)