WHAT is dignity?

Dignity is the fundamental right of all human beings to basic right to life, liberty, and access to basic human needs. In fact, the same is guaranteed by the UN Universal Human Rights principles as our right to life.

In any space or place in life, as long as we are living, and as long as we breathe and have life in our souls or spirits, all human beings and nations must treat one another with dignity for the sake of destiny. Of course, faith is needed for such.

Having studied the subject of “dignity in the workplace,” and now seeking to apply it to “dignity of our lived spaces;” my explicit issue and concern today is the Rohingya peoples of Myanmar. Why should we allow them to live in such abject fear and bullying by any UN-based and so-called democratising country?

We are now in the immediate period after the two World Wars, and as per the Palestinian-Israeli history, our concern cannot agree to any artificial resolution. We live in the 21st century when the same lady who received the Noble Peace Prize oversees the country and its military accused of such wrong-doing. Even the Pope appears to have not addressed the issue publicly in Myanmar.

Force as misapplied power

We are today witnessing two dramatic but opposite brands of “a newer democratic culture”. One is what others have labelled “a flawed democracy”. Both Malaysia and the United States are classified therein. But, the other is what we witnessed as a peaceful transfer of power in Zimbabwe, as is always the case in Thailand; only to overthrow a corrupted despot and his wife.

An alternate can be true but which explains the actions of “the unnamed military force in the Rakhine state of Myanmar”. Such an obvious and globally visible abuse of force and authority is credited to another kind of military abuse in Myanmar. Now, finally the Lady has spoken and hopefully begins to intervene.

This past week the two neighbours, Myanmar and Bangladesh, have signed an agreement for rights of the displaced people of Myanmar. It is my view that ASEAN as a legal entity must hold a strong and effective view about the same, in terms of the rights of Myanmar, and transcend the narrow view that the Rohingya peoples and their human rights are not our larger concern.

In any nation-state, when fear is the operative paradigm for ordinary people, there is surely the lack of human dignity. Fear must always remain and exist only for the person of God as our creator-being. Therefore, if fear is the operative paradigm of the Rohingya people as highlighted by all media channels, then it is time for UN to send a moderating White Helmet force to adjudicate this bilateral initiative of the two nation-states.

To that extend, I think the Zimbabwe experience and the role of the African Union and their component sub-groups is laudable. Most of them attended the inauguration of the Interim President of Zimbabwe.

I think ASEAN can learn from the African experience, since, we too have a military “authority and power–driven agency” in our part of the world. All true democracies must moderate true maturity of any kind of dictatorships, regardless of how power is misused and abused, according to democratic standards of right and wrong.

Fear denies dignity of humanity

My dignity definition begins with the overlapping jurisdiction of places and spaces. In places, like the Rakhine State, the Myanmar authorities ignored their mushrooming problem of the last 60 years and ignored the core UN human rights principles until now; and it may appear too little too late!

In all places, human beings have their need for a very human identity and choose to define that human but sovereign need for a geography they call home. All of us own and share such identities.

Therefore, if in our places and spaces we have no personal freedoms, then dignity cannot be attained in any lived sense. That is the very human problem of the Rohingya peoples. The UN and the rest of the world owes them a resolution; and we really have no choice, unless we lack personal integrity.

On the Rohingya issue; the problem must be adopted by ASEAN; even if Myanmar refuses any honourable resolutions which do not reduce these people group to the same abuse of the Palestinians. If ASEAN is a family, as we claim we are, and if ASEAN-plus-three is a reality, as we pretend it is, then this ASEAN family matter of human dignity of one of our people groups must be fully honoured and respected as our problem.

It is no more just Bangladesh’s or Myanmar’s problem; since we do host and give shelter so many  Bangladeshi and Myamarese citizens and/or former residents. When Malaysians born in Malaysia are called “pendatang by the ignorant others, the very denial of human dignity of citizenship cries against equality of rule of law under the same Federal Constitution.

Can ASEAN therefore create a Commission of Inquiry into the Myanmar mistreatment of Rohingya at the ASEAN level so that human dignity of all peoples is not compromised?

My appeal, therefore, to the ASEAN Secretariat is that we use the Rohingya peoples as a case study to address cross-border migration or anti-drug warfare, but fundamentally and essentially we as an entity must recognise that “the non-interference principle” must not violate the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Human dignity must be preserved in both; places or spaces because they define faces. – December 4, 2017.

* KJ John worked in public service for 32 years, retired, and started a civil group for which he is chairman of the board. He writes to inform and educate, arguing for integration with integrity in Malaysia. He believes such a transformation has to start with the mind before it sinks into the heart!

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.