Networking is King

The way I see it, in Malaysia, when it comes to disability issues and the work needed to highlight and campaign for disabled people's rights, progress at moment will only come from volunteer and charitable organisations. For example, please read on the recent establishment of MIND, funded by BAKTI. Peter Tan had also highlighted this in his blog.

Being realistic, we are far away from the progress achieved by people in the UK, for example. For the last 10 years, significant progress had been made whereby the UK Government had taken the initiative to promote the rights of disabled people, by introducing the DDA and the Disability Discrimination Bill, as shown on the DRC website.

When will the Malaysian Government do the same?

People would argue that in Malaysia, we do things differently than in the UK. The sooner that we realise that this is not the case and never should be, the better. The fact remains that we are 20 to 30 years behind the UK in terms of work effort and results. We need to realise this so that the clearer we see the problems now and ahead of us, the better we are to plan ahead and prepare for the things that we need to be done. We should be in a position to forge ahead with our goals but we need to realise what they are first.

Disabled people have to start doing things for themselves, because that was what happened in the UK, US and all those countries that managed to get the results needed. Disabled people in the UK started to do those things in the 70s and by 1979 the first Building Regulation in the UK incorporating Access for Disabled People was enacted and established. In Malaysia, we had a similar building regulation done in the time period of 1991-1994. But the push for the rights of disabled people in the UK continued until 20 years later. So many achievements have been made that disabled people are now being sought after to be consultants and advisors to many projects throughout the country. I know so, because I had problems getting disabled people to be interviewed for my research as they are so busy being consulted upon. But never take it for granted that disabled people in the UK had it so easy. They had to fight for it. And in Malaysia, we are only starting to do it.

It is fine to quarrel about the accessible toilets and get caught with it all, but we need to get a bigger view of things. That is not to say to lay down low and not get our hands dirty with the arguments. But more importantly, to educate and learn about how to go about doing things, so that our arguments become sharper and filled with facts, ideas and solutions to problems.

One way is to be skillful in putting our arguments across. Another is knowing how to work together.

When I see MIND being organised and established, I know that it was not easy. I know personally the project leader and how she had to utilise whatever resources that she has at hand to create this project. There is only one full time staff, like in many other charitable and volunteer organisations in Malaysia, because that is the basic thing that this type of organisation need to have in order to sustain itself, but in order for it to move, the volunteer system is the crux of it all.

Another organisation that I salute in having it established and up and running is the SDPP.
Again I also know the leader personally and how hard he had worked at sustaining this organisation, despite being ill and set with a many adversities. The volunteer work in the SDPP is also excellent and had gotten many results. I had highlighted their work in my earlier blog postings.

Often the leader needs someone to push them with their efforts. All the talent and hardwork should never be under-estimated.

These volunteer and charitable organisations and many others in Malaysia, need to be stronger and get excellent networking opportunities for everyone concern with issues on disability. Through this network, we will be able to gain more knowledge and understanding of what is needed to be done, how to do it and most of all, we will not be alone in doing our work.

Networking is king!

We should start somewhere and move on.