A FORMER MP has called for a mindset change about forced migration as the world needs to be ready for mass migration due to climate change.

Migration will no longer be only due to conflict, famine or economic challenges, said former Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto, adding that the world will soon be seeing a climate-induced exodus.

It was reported that parts of Malaysia’s shoreline are at risk of being underwater by 2050 due to rising sea levels caused by global warming, which is part of the climate change phenomenon taking place worldwide.

Hence, Kasthuri said that the country needs to redefine what forced migration is all about.

She said this starts by doing away with the public apathy about issues related to migration, foreign workers and human rights abuse.

“One day, Malaysians can become affected, especially if we are forced to evict ourselves due to our disappearing homeland. Where do you go? Would other countries accept us and allow us to resume our lives?” said Kasthuri.

She was speaking at the book launch of veteran journalist Arulldas Sinnappan at the Gerakbudaya indie publishing house in Petaling Jaya recently.

The book is entitled “Mass Graves: Uncovering the Killing Fields of Wang Kelian”.

Besides Kasthuri, the panellists were Adrian Pereira (North-South Initiative director), Joseph Paul Maliamauv (Tenaganita director) and Bar Council member Andrew Khoo.

Kasthuri urged Malaysians to discard their negative habits of apathy, and be united in ensuring that migrants are not abused in their adopted country – this includes abuse of domestic maids and the scourge of human trafficking.

Her views were echoed by Khoo, who said that the legal aspects are useless if public apathy towards human rights abuses continue, as Malaysians are typically only concerned about matters relating to themselves, relatives and friends.

Khoo also stressed the importance of reforming the Royal Malaysian Police to be answerable to allegations of neglect and their own level of apathy.

Speaking about the newly launched book, Khoo asked why the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Wang Kelian incident did not expose any culprits on the Malaysian side whereas on the Thai side, in 2017, a former Thai army general was convicted together with other officials and dozens of Thais for human trafficking, smuggling migrants and organised crime.

This relates to the discovery of mass graves on the Thai side of the border, whereas on the Malaysian side, in May 2015, police discovered 139 graves in 28 temporary camps run by a human trafficking syndicate in the bordering jungle. 

Last year, four Thais were charged in the sessions court in Perlis in a case involving transit camps and mass graves found in Wang Kelian, Perlis, in 2015.

No plea was recorded from the four after the charges were read out to them in front of judge Musyiri Peet.

Arulldass, a career journalist, broke the story in 2015 after days of hiking and extensive investigative reporting, leading to his discovery of mass graves on the Malaysian side.

He was alerted to the case after becoming suspicious over a spate of chilling murders of Rohingya and Myanmar refugees in Penang over the same year. 

It took him a painstaking decade to realise his dream of publishing the award-winning piece about the mass murders at the Perlis border. – August 4, 2024.