Disabled people and politics

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C_PC0012604WITH the impending state election, now is as good as any time to look at the right to participate in political and public life of disabled people in the country. It is important for more of us to be involved in policy and decision-making to ensure that our interests are properly looked after. After all, who else understands the needs of disabled people other than disabled people?

Despite the introduction of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008, we are largely left out in all levels of decision-making save for one senatorship position in the Dewan Negara and a handful of seats in the National Council for Persons with Disabilities. Evidently, this limited number of representatives is grossly insufficient seeing that we are still facing never-ending problems with access to education, buildings, public transport, employment and many more.

Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Malaysia had signed and ratified, emphasises that “state parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others”. It further states that “voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use”.

With that in mind, the Election Commission should work with the relevant authorities and disabled people in ensuring the entire process is accessible from the registration of voters right up to the casting of ballots. Most importantly, voting centres should be manned by staff properly trained to support disabled people. These centres should be audited for accessibility beforehand and remedial measures taken so that disabled voters are not unnecessarily inconvenienced.

In the previous two elections I voted in, there were various obstacles in the voting centres. I had difficulty manoeuvring the uneven pathways from the registration counters to the voting rooms. The voting rooms converted from classrooms had one step which necessitated my wheelchair to be lifted and carried into the rooms. The few senior citizens in wheelchairs who were there with me faced similar problems.

This problem would not have happened if the buildings had complied with building by-laws on access for disabled persons. In Sarawak, this is a requirement in By-law 110A of the Building Ordinance 1994, while in the peninsula, it is By-Law 34A of the Uniform Building By-Law of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.

Accessible transport should be made available to disabled voters who require it to get to our respective voting centres. Failure to provide this crucial service will deny us the opportunity to exercise our rights to the election process as a citizen. In circumstances where those who cannot be physically present at the voting centres, the Election Commission should look into alternative methods for us to cast our ballots.

Our participation should neither end after casting our ballots nor a right we exercise only once every five years. We should continuously engage the elected representatives on issues that affect us. Disabled people with good understanding of disability rights should be recruited to work with the government, be they at the federal, state or local levels. This is to guarantee that our interests and rights are safeguarded in the making and implementation of policies.

Having said that, our participation in the process of policy-making should not be mere tokenism. We must be fully involved from conception to completion where our feedback and comments are taken seriously and acted upon. Otherwise, we will continue to be marginalised because the needs of disabled people are often delegated to the bottom in the list of priorities.

To put the situation of representation into perspective, there are 149 local governments in Malaysia. How many of them have disabled persons sitting as councillors currently? As far as I know, there are only two disabled councillors in the local governments in the whole of Malaysia. I may not be aware of others but the point here is that we are grossly under-represented, which has resulted in many new buildings being allowed to be constructed without proper accessible facilities and public facilities such as sidewalks and bus stops not in compliance with accessibility standards.

This is the best time for disabled people in Sarawak to come together to present a common stand on long-standing issues that are affecting us and demand for a speedy resolution to them. Drawing up a memorandum on all outstanding issues and presenting them to candidates is a good start. Asking them what their stand is on disability issues during their campaigns is another good way to make them aware of our existence and our problems, and of course, demand for effective representation in the state and local governments.

This being the crucial state election which the entire nation is watching intently for political direction, what better chance do we have to voice out our aspirations to politicians who will promise anything and everything to get our votes. Should they win, we can then actively engage them and hold them to their word. Until a time when we have one or many of our own elected into state assemblies and Parliament, see this as a symbiosis between the politicians and us. They need our votes and we need them to act on our behalf.

Whether we like to be involved in politics or not, we have to be involved in some ways, somehow. This is how the system works. We should use it to our advantage by being involved in any way we possibly can. Remember, our participation in political and public life is a right, not a privilege. And we should capitalise on it at every available opportunity.