Bring Bibi to Thailand

The release of Asia Bibi from prison in Pakistan, and the extreme danger to her life, her family, and others involved in her case, is being followed in the press worldwide, but coverage of the ongoing drama is lacking in Thailand. Yet, the issues at stake have great relevance in Asean and the Asian region, where religious intolerance remains a lurking threat and where the execution of women continues.

The complete absence of interest from Asean and its atrophied human rights organs in the case of Ms Bibi is symptomatic. Human rights are the affairs of others in the West who sometimes intrude on our supposed lack of compliance. It is essential that Ms Bibi and her family find asylum outside Pakistan. The assumption is that it is the duty of the rich world to provide. But Ms Bibi and her husband are middle-aged illiterate subsistence farmers. Are they to survive by searching the garbage cans of the wealthy in the US, as other uneducated people of colour?

Consider Thailand, in underdeveloped Isan, or in areas of the South; there exist communities which would not be very different from their home village in Pakistan. Climate and living environment would be familiar to them, unlike that of an urban slum in the West.

True, adapting to language and local way of life remains a problem, but simple people can adapt faster to such a challenge with greater ease than the already “educated”. I am also sure that our local Muslims will not take up the frantic hatred of the Pakistani mullahs who are currently searching from house to house with photographs of the fugitives to wreak vengeance.

Thailand can act discreetly, without boasting or making a showcase of action to save an innocent person, while learning the lesson of acting “towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” (Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

DANTHONG BREEN