I had just read Peter Tan's blog entry that also included the Ministry of Family, Women and Community Development's reply to his letter. I had commented on the blog and presented my comments as such:
Hi Peter,
Thanks for sharing with us the letter.
This letter gives us the following facts:
1. MFWCD can only do so much. Write letters to other ministries and state ministers, as they do not have in their power to do more than that. Hence, the suggestion to push for the Disabled Persons Act even more to be passed in Parliament and the demand to have a Commission set-up to enforce the Act. The Welfare Department exists to only facilitate issues concerning disabled people.
2. The letter indicate that MFWCD interestingly enough does know of the three by-laws and the knowledge required to understand accessibility in the country. They even had the minister undergone a simulation awareness exercise. This means, we can lobby further for accessibility.
3. The Director General is the administrative mouth-piece of any ministry and it is common that they write on the behalf of the minister. This means that your matter is purely administrative and not personal. What I am trying to say is that, the minister is telling you that she cannot do more than what she had told you, and that administration means that the jurisdiction of this matter lies with others.
The important lesson here is, we cannot wait any longer. We have to get the Act or a discrimination bill push through Parliament. There's no other way, but to get a STATUTORY BODY WITH TEETH to fight for disability issues.
2 comments:
This was my reply to your comments in my blog:
Thank you for those enlightening points. As you must have noticed, I have copied that letter to the Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan but have not received a reply from them. As far as I can see, the Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat is under this ministry and rightfully they should have done something.
These three by-laws as you have told me has been in existence for a while now. Sadly, enforcement is lacking. Before I left Penang recently, one of the places that I go to on a monthly basis for banking built a flight of stairs over the ramp that I used to access into the building. That I will deal with later when I get back to Penang. This is my example of lack of enforcement.
As for the Disabled Persons Act, I wonder what the organisations for the disabled are doing to get it pushed through Parliament faster.
All said, I appreciate you taking the time to share with me all these. We need more knowledgeable people like you to get things moving. As it is, I see very few disabled persons fighthing for what they truly deserve.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for reading my blog and posting your comment. I replied in your blog. Take care.
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