We need each other now

IN her column, Mangai Balasegaram wrote that the system is stacked against the poor (“People don’t choose poverty”, Human Writes, June 24; online at tinyurl.com/star2-poverty). Very true! The elite political class makes the rules to benefit themselves and the powerful, and they always fear losing their privileged position.

Migrant workers are important in Malaysia where the 3D – dangerous, difficult and dirty – jobs are shunned by the locals. Only foreign workers are willing to do such jobs. There probably wouldn’t be any skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur without foreign workers.

Now the government is suggesting that foreigners should not be allowed to work as cooks in restaurants. But how many Malaysians will want to work 12 hours cooking many types of food for a low salary? They would rather work in fast food outlets where they wouldn’t get dirty and food prep is largely automated.

Regarding America’s withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council that Jason Godfrey wrote about (“Human Rights Really, Really Matter”, Big Smile, No Teeth, June 24), the Trump administration is only concerned about US interests and those of its allies. Trump certainly doesn’t have a good record in human rights – look at how he began the policy of separating children from their parents at border checkpoints and caging them!

And the Israelis, who should know what it feels like to be persecuted after the Jewish experience at the hands of the Nazis in WWII, are now persecuting Palestinians, “caging” them up in the Gaza where living conditions are deplorable.

Let us all pray that human rights organisations survive in this world! Whatever our differences are, we are all human. We have to care about each other.

With global warming promising future doom, and natural calamities happening more often now, our comfortable position could change at any instant. We need each other now more than ever.

Mohamed Kuala Lumpur