OKU

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FINDING HARMONY: The blind musician leads the passer-by in a song.

THE above acronym in our national language stands for Orang Kurang Upaya, members of the community who are visibly or physically or mentally impaired from birth or after it, due to some accident.

They are in our midst, their survival depending on the assistance from their relatives whose love and affection means a lot to them. Any government worth its salt must ensure that these less fortunate members of the community will be looked after for as long as possible by providing funds and facilities while the charitable organisations (NGOs) chip in with aid from time to time.

Other than those who are looked after at home by their relatives, they are accommodated in some institutions run by the government or funded by it. For instance, the blind have their centre – there is one in Kuching. The Cheshire Home accommodates the physically impaired and the old and infirm are accommodated in the Home for the Aged or institutions run by concerned individuals and organisations such as the Lions International, the Blue Cross and the Hun Nam Siang Tng and several others.

Many of these people have families of their own including school-going children. Like you and me they possess human emotions – to love and be loved. They are proud people and would not wish to be dependent on others if they could help it.

While sparing a thought for the rest of the handicapped community, I wish to mention the blind and boys from the Cheshire Home as they are more visible than the others.

Although some of the blind are trained masseurs, yet their services are not in great demand. People with money who need a massage after a hard day at work prefer the foreign masseurs – masseuses, usually – in dimly lit rooms. Many of the blind people resort to busking as an alternative source of income. I was informed by one of them that they do not wish to be classified as beggars because they don’t beg when they sing.

My favourite shopping centres are the wet markets in Kuching, Sibu or Kapit. I like the variety of goods there: dry goods, fresh goods, and not so fresh in the case of fish in the afternoon. The people from all walks of life are found there, mainly housewives, fussy ones included, who would bargain for hours over the price of sprats.

On Sunday mornings there is a bonus for me: the blind singers at Petanak and Batu Tujuh, Batu Sepuluh markets.

They are earning a living the very way professional singers do on stage. The former earn a few hundred ringgit per week while the latter earn a few thousand per engagement. The songs are the same songs but the singers are obviously not. Dress-wise, performers on the stage wear bizarre clothes, but our side walk singers cannot afford expensive attire, nor do they normally prance around half-naked …

Generous shoppers drop a couple of coins into the little tin boxes tied to the musical kit, others pass by with nose high on something else in the world. If one cares to stop and listen, as I often do, their songs are nicely sung. Obviously they have been practising at home. In 1970, I lived in a government quarters at Jalan Bisaya, where down Jalan Ong Tiang Swee is the Blind Centre. On Saturday afternoons, the boys at the centre had jamming sessions. This wasn’t noise – the sounds were sweet and pleasant to the ear. Some of the buskers in town today must be graduates of the centre.

A fortnight ago, by the side of the Electra House, I witnessed a blind musician coaching a passer-by how to sing an old song. He played a keyboard, and the man standing repeated after him the lyrics of a song called ‘Setahun Tak Jumpa Sesaat Tak Lupa’ (by Zam Zam).

The song is translated roughly as “a year of absence, not a second forgotten.”

It is such a sweet and melodious tune that the song followed me home. I downloaded the lyrics with the help of Google.

Readers who are not familiar with the Malay language may wonder what the song is all about. It’s about expressing one’s desire to meet a lover through the medium of a song – most appropriate for a visibly impaired artiste.

I thought the man who stopped by and chipped in a couple of dollars was a really generous soul. I must add that he has a good voice too. Other than the blind singers, those handicapped people who are ‘able’ to move about station themselves in the shopping complexes. With paper tissues to offer for a shilling, they don’t sing; these could be inmates of the Cheshire Home. They are also earning a living and rely on your generosity.

You don’t see many beggars nowadays. I thought they were a dying group until I saw three along the Masjid India Lane. Now some are back; I wonder why?

All these less fortunate people are part and parcel of the make-up of our community. It is the responsibility of those who are able to help those who aren’t so lucky.

Money problem?

Many Malaysians are generous and charitable people but to rely entirely on them for funds for welfare purposes would not be fair. The Sarawak government, before and after Malaysia, has been dishing out help to the handicapped. At the formation of Malaysia, the founding fathers of the federation made sure that adequate funds would be provided to the Welfare Department for those in need.

We should have no problems with funds for the purpose we are talking about. I remember reading about the deal struck between the federal government and the governments of the Borneo states (North Borneo and Sarawak) to the effect that a sum of money corresponding to the amount spent by the federal government in funding religious education in West Malaysia should be sent over to both states in Borneo for welfare purposes.

Work out the amount spent by the federal government on religious education in the peninsula and the corresponding sum sent over here for welfare purposes all this while. Up to 1976 anyway.

What’s the significance of 1976?

The Constitution (Amendment) Act 1976 repealed Articles 161C and Article 161D of the Federal Constitution and thus affected or altered the above arrangements ever since. I have no doubt that money from the federal sources have been sent over for welfare purposes despite the amendment to the constitution.

Therefore the proposal to raise the quantum of aid to those who are registered as recipients of welfare assistance is good and timely, if not long over due, as far as the OKU are concerned.