social issues in malaysia 2021

In modern times, people often migrate for security, work and even for education opportunities. Malaysiakini reported that the practice of period spot checks dated as far back as 20 years. Rape is punishable by a maximum 20 years imprisonment and caning. By law only registered organizations of seven or more persons may legally function. The police questioned six Al Jazeera staff members and raided the organizations offices in Kuala Lumpur. In May the National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia, the Centre for Independent Journalism, and Gerakan Media Merdeka issued a statement in response to five incidents where authorities questioned and investigated journalists early in the year. The police had opened 262 investigations into the spread of false and seditious news as of May 11, and 264 investigations into false news on Covid-19. . Police released him on bail. In August that coalition lost its majority in the lower house of parliament, resulting in a transfer of power to a Barisan Nasional-led coalition headed by the new prime minister, Ismail Sabri. An auditor general is responsible, per the constitution, for auditing the accounts of the federal and state governments, government agencies, and other public authorities. World Report 2021: Malaysia | Human Rights Watch Migrants, refugees, and stateless persons receive no government support. The law states that sodomy and oral sex acts are carnal intercourse against the order of nature. In February the Federal Court nullified a Selangor State law on same-sex sexual conduct. The director general may issue necessary directives to an employer to resolve allegations of discrimination in employment, although there were no penalties under the law for such discrimination and thus penalties were not commensurate with laws related to civil rights, such as election interference. Workers who strike without the consent of the director general of trade unions are liable to a fine of 2,000 ringgit ($480), imprisonment for up to one year, or both. The involvement in making or producing child pornography carries a penalty of up to 30 years imprisonment and not fewer than six strokes of a cane; conviction for accessing or possessing child pornography carries a punishment of five years imprisonment or a fine; conviction for trafficking in persons involving a child for the purposes of sexual exploitation carries a punishment of three to 20 years imprisonment and a fine. A special committee set up to consider alternative sentences to mandatory death penalty submitted its report to the government in July 2020. The plan outlined policies to increase access to education and attendance in schools, increase access to health education, address stigma and social norms on child marriage, and specify laws and guidelines on child marriages that are in line with government . In August, Alladin Lanim was arrested for online child exploitation and sentenced to 48 years and six months in prison and 15 strokes of the cane after joint investigations by the Royal Malaysian Police and Australian Federal Police revealed he was sexually abusing children at a plantation in Sarawak State and sharing the material online. The Striking Mental Health Statistics in Malaysia This included any enterprise not registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia or other professional body and included more than one million self-employed or micro businesses, such as in-home workers, street vendors, and small workshops. The religious department then issued a warrant for her arrest without bail and sent department officers looking for her, with police support. They performed hazardous duties and had no meaningful access to legal counsel in cases of contract violations and abuse. The stay followed a hearing on a joint filing against the government by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia, alleging that among the deportees there were documented refugees, asylum seekers, and minors separated from parents residing in Malaysia. During investigations police may hold a suspect for 24 hours, which may be extended for a maximum of 14 days by court order under general criminal law provisions. In August 2020, the Federal Court upheld the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty. Sarawak maintained its ban on Zakir Naik, an Islamic preacher; Mandeep Karpal Singh, formerly of the fair-election NGO coalition Bersih; sitting Bersih chair Thomas Fann; former chair Ambiga Sreenevasan; Wong Chin Huat, an academic and Bersih resource chair; Jerald Joseph, a SUHAKAM commissioner; and activists Colin Nicholas and Jannie Lasimbang, among others. Japan's births set to fall below 800,000 in 2022, hitting a new all-time low. According to Abdul Rahman Hamid (2015), drug abuse issues in Malaysia is still trouble matter even though it is . The legislation expanded this authority to include housing and local government agencies, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs in order to enforce fines and penalties up to 200,000 ringgit ($48,000), three years jail time, or both, against employers that failed to adhere to regulations. Such programs limited opportunities for non-bumiputra (primarily ethnic Chinese and Indians) in higher education and government employment. The constitution provides indigenous and nonindigenous persons with the same civil and political rights, but the government did not effectively protect these rights. (PDF) A Review On Water Issues in Malaysia - ResearchGate 13 Comments. Union officials expressed frustration about delays. The judiciary frequently deferred to police or executive authority in cases those parties deemed as affecting their interests. These groups also expressed concern that some deportees might not have had their UN-issued cards with them when they were picked up and pointed out that others had applied for asylum but were awaiting assessment of their claims. The government used Covid-19 measures to restrict the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. There is a special court for sexual crimes against children, established to speed up trials that often took years to conclude. Each of these groups has its own set of traditions, religions, and challenges. Supermax had repaid nearly 1,750 workers by June and stated it had allocated 23 million ringgit ($5.5 million), including remediation payment to contract workers. Top Social Causes That Singaporeans Cared About in 2020 According to the Director of Enforcement of the Immigration Department met by the mission, there are reportedly 1,9 million foreign workers in Malaysia and 5 to 600 000 people would be there illegally. A consortium of NGOs released a formal report in 2018 detailing irregularities in the election, including vote buying, the use of public funds for partisan activity, and allegations of biased behavior by public officials. Pretrial Detention: The International Center for Prison Studies reported that pretrial detainees comprised approximately 27 percent of the prison population in 2018. Nonetheless, the ships departed later that day despite the court ruling. There were four non-Muslim judges serving on the Federal Court. Member of parliament Saifuddin Nasution Ismail stated on July 28, the doctors were questioned from midnight till 4 a.m., this is a form of intimidation and added that the physicians lawyer had been prevented from representing his clients. Malaysia did little to stop a vicious online hate speech campaign against Rohingya refugees in the country in April. Human rights organizations expressed serious concerns about the lack of access to fair legal process and adequate representation during immigration court hearings. State-level Islamic religious enforcement officers have authority to enforce some criminal aspects of sharia. Under national security laws, police may enter and search the homes of persons suspected of threatening national security without a warrant. Malaysia has to identify which global issues are in its interest and engage the Americans actively in the bilateral relationship, as well as in multilateral forums. Shortest response: "Tol". According to Department of Occupational Safety and Health statistics, as of July, 111 workers died, 3,668 acquired a nonpermanent disability, and 140 acquired permanent disability in work-related incidents. UNHCR reported the government brought charges in a few cases against employers for hiring refugees. Although the government and NGOs maintained shelters and offered other assistance to victims of domestic violence, activists asserted that support mechanisms remained inadequate. The notice warned residents they could be fined up to 500,000 ringgit ($120,000), serve a five-year jail term, or both, if found guilty of the offense of building structures on government land. Human rights defenders, journalists, opposition leaders and others were investigated, arrested and prosecuted for criticizing the government. Although the codes five offenses infringing the rights of LGBTQI+ persons sodomy, homosexual activities involving women, changing gender, crossdressing as a female, and crossdressing as a male were not among the newly added crimes, observers expressed concern about the implications for the LGBTQI+ community. Ethnic Tensions in Malaysia - Radical 6 Major Social Issues in India: Causes and Measures Private-sector strikes were severely restricted. The government restricted access to the internet. Opposition lawmakers slammed then minister of health Adham Baba for breaking his promise that no action would be taken against doctors who participated in the strike. Share this via Reddit Administration: The law allows for investigations into allegations of mistreatment; however, this provision did not always function. Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia - Wikipedia Viewed as illegal immigrants, refugees and others were subject to deportation at any time. The government's national five-year roadmap for 2021-25 targets child marriage. In April, Reporters Without Borders, referring to the March emergency ordinance, cited the countrys restoration of more authoritarian rule as the government imposed a fake news decree enabling authorities to impose their own version of the truth.. NGOs and members of the public criticized the law, noting it could cause self-censorship due to liability concerns. Social issues news. Local advocates contended that imprisoned transgender women served their sentences in prisons designated for men and that police and inmates often abused them verbally and sexually. Most private-sector workers have the right to bargain collectively, although these negotiations may not include matters of transfer, promotion, appointments, dismissal, or reinstatement. March 11, 2021 End Poverty, Equality, . Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. The Judges Ethics Committee suspended Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer from February through August because of an affidavit he filed in 2019 as part of a lawsuit against then chief justice Richard Malanjum. Over 175,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom come from Myanmar, are registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office but have no legal status and remain unable to work or enroll in government schools. UNHCR affirmed that authorities continued to disallow visits by its staff to detention centers to meet refugees and asylum seekers, determine those in need of international protection, and advocate for their release. UPDATED: Check out what Singaporeans cared about in 2021. In October the minister of home affairs reported that 374 individuals were detained under security legislation from January 1 through September 30. Malaysia's worsening Covid-19 situation exposes serious economic Police abuse of suspects in custody and a lack of accountability for such offenses remained a serious problem. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is responsible for investigating corruption in both private and public bodies but does not have prosecutorial authority. The law requires two-thirds of the members of a registered trade union to vote for a strike through a secret ballot, and a report must be submitted to the director general of trade unions to approve the strike as legal. Defendants have the right to communicate with an attorney of their choice or to have counsel appointed at public expense if they face charges that carry the death penalty. The 12 police officers initially charged in the case were released in March 2017. Advocates and the international medical community remained concerned that the Health Ministry endorsement legitimizes the harmful practice and contributes to the medicalization of FGM. In September Minister of Human Resources Saravanan announced that the government had found 49 workers hostels unfit for human habitation and ordered them closed, causing the relocation of 2,942 workers. Estimates of the street-child population ranged from a few thousand to 15,000, many of whom were born in the country to illegal immigrant parents. - STR/MIKAIL ONG. It finds that about 64.5 percent of jobs in Malaysia cannot be performed from home, after . Malaysia's GDP in 2019 was $364,684 million. Employers did not respect laws on wages and working hours. They subsequently charged her with defamation of Islam, punishable by a fine, up to three years imprisonment, or both, and released her on bail. The Newcastle research found that 85 percent of workers reported paying recruitment fees and 43 percent reported taking out loans averaging more than $2,000 to cover the costs, which took nearly a year on average to repay. COVID-19 recovery. Employers routinely asked women their marital status during job interviews. The 'new normal' comes with its fair share of added stresses and worries for everyone to handle. Passport confiscation by employers increased migrant workers vulnerability to forced labor; the practice was illegal but widespread and generally went unpunished. Womens groups asserted the courts were inconsistent in punishing rapists. We understand that pulling together the top most common and popular issue prevailing in 2021 is not simple. There is no minimum age for engaging in light work. The director general of trade unions and the minister of human resources may refuse to register or withdraw registration from some unions without judicial oversight. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. In July police opened investigations into a protest by contract doctors demanding better job security. NGOs continued to criticize the lack of resources dedicated to enforcement of the law. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Section 1. Human Rights Watch called on the government to investigate the deportations and to provide UNHCR with access to all detainees, refugees, and asylum seekers in the country, stressing the risk they faced of a return to persecution. The legal system is based on British common law, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. I N KUALA LUMPUR, the chief city, as elsewhere in Malaysia, white flags hang from windowscries of help from . Malaysia: Freedom on the Net 2021 Country Report | Freedom House List of 150 Social Issues Topics and Ideas for 2023 - EduBirdie Respect for the Integrity of the Person, a. On 20 February 2021, Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin announced that school pupils will be returning to school in stages between 1 March and 4 April. The law classifies some types of workplace sexual harassment as criminal offenses (see section 7.d.). There is a greater need for the transformation of rural . Don't sweat over picking a decent topic dealing with social problems. The law prohibits defense and police officials and retired or dismissed workers from joining a union. The law prohibits general strikes, and trade unions may not strike over disputes related to trade-union registration or illegal dismissals. 25 Major Social Problems (Examples) - helpfulprofessor.com Migrant workers without access to their passports were more vulnerable to harsh working conditions, lower wages than promised, unexpected wage deductions, and poor housing. Since then, authorities have opened investigations into numerous activists and opposition politicians for speech critical of the government. Part of a mini series of Focus books on COVID-19 in Malaysia, the chapters in this book address the pandemic's impacts on education and literacy. The government warned internet users to avoid offensive or indecent content and sensitive matters such as religion and race, and it aggressively pursued charges against those criticizing Islam, the countrys royalty, or its political leaders. Employers of domestic workers sometimes failed to honor the terms of employment and subjected workers to abuse. The BN lost to an opposition alliance . Unless trends change this year, the annual total of newborns in the world's third-largest economy is on track to hit . Due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to -3.5% in 2020 and -6.5% in 2021 of the country's Gross Domestic Product (Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2022). The government may seize this land if it provides compensation. Authorities deported some of these parents, leaving their children without guardians. Subtance abuse. Yet, as the realities of the coronavirus pandemic set in, shocking the system as the 1MDB scandal did, the opportunities for new political arrangements and thinking are real. In 2018 parliamentary elections, the Pakatan Harapan coalition defeated the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, resulting in the first transfer of power between coalitions since independence in 1957. The erosion of support for Muhyiddin's government is tied to four issues. (i) High Rate Of Unemployment Among Graduates. 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Malaysia, An official website of the United States Government, https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html, https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods. In another case a refugee said police on patrol stopped him, became aggressive, and despite his UNHCR card, threatened him with arrest, claiming he had broken the law. Her lawyer presented a medical leave certificate to the court the next day, but the judge rejected it. Migrant workers also faced employment discrimination (see sections 7.b. When mothers did not have valid proof of citizenship, authorities entered the childs citizenship as unknown on the birth certificate. Nonetheless, NGOs reported continued discrimination against women in the workplace in terms of promotion and salary (see section 7.d.). SPEAKERS. No judicial review is permitted for these measures. A regulation reserves 1 percent of public-sector jobs for persons with disabilities. The government allowed UNHCR and NGOs to work with these populations, but government cooperation with UNHCR was inconsistent. Significant human rights issues included: reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government or its agents; reports of torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention; problems with the independence .