Ten years ago, fresh from the Bar and newly thrown into the legal fraternity, I met Irene Fernandez. “I am the accused,” she introduced herself to us, chambering students, who were called to help in her case, to take notes on all that was said during her trial.
Meeting Irene Fernandez would be one of the biggest impressions I had had in my life. Saddled with criminal charges of ‘publishing false news’ under s.8A of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Irene was cheerful, notwithstanding the number of times her counsel’s objections were overruled or the prosecution’s objections were sustained.
In the 1990s, while conducting research into HIV/AIDS issues with migrant workers, Irene was told by migrant workers of abuses, maltreatment and the bad conditions of migrant detention camps. After interviewing more than 300 migrants, Irene and her Tenaganita team prepared a report entitled ‘Memorandum on abuses, acts of torture and inhuman treatment towards migrant workers in detention camps’ for publication.
Following international outcry of the alleged abuses, Malaysian authorities perhaps felt the best thing to do was to tell the world that what Irene had published was false. So, in 1996, she was arrested for ‘maliciously spreading false news’. Irene told News Internationalist, “All we wanted was [for] the Government to do an independent investigation into the camps… Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine they would arrest me.”
Sitting in court and looking at Irene sitting in the dock, I wondered to myself, “What if that were my mother?” I did not have the courage she has, and the days of note-taking sometimes made me despair.
This haunted my experience of the courts and Malaysian justice ever since. As a chambering student, and then a young lawyer, practising in the 1990s economic meltdown, I was tasked with making hundreds of people bankrupt every month. So I left the legal fraternity with a bitter taste of court life, always remembering Irene Fernandez, sitting in the dock.
Over the years, I read with interest the progress of Irene’s case; never on the front page, always shunted somewhere deep within the newspaper. In 2003, I learnt that Irene had been convicted and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. She is now free on bail pending appeal.
If a case study is ever needed for judicial reform in Malaysia, Irene’s case is the perfect example. According to News Internationalist, the prosecution in Irene’s case took three years to make its case. During this time, many of the original interviewees involved in the memorandum had left Malaysia. Irene was reported to have said, ‘I had to travel to Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh to search for the witnesses.’ The final defence bill was said to amount to RM1.5 million.
Irene and her team had to deal with many obstacles during these ten years. But she soldiers on.
Ten years on, I recently met her again at a workshop, entitled “Plight of Migrant Domestic Workers”, organised by CCM Women’s Work Committee and Tenaganita.
Is she still as much of an inspiration? More so now than ever.
A recipient of the Right Livelihood Award in 2005, she told us at the workshop that she thinks she felt what Jesus felt when he was arrested, “What more could they do to me?”
So while I think I might not be as brave as I perceive her to be, I take baby steps. And as I write this, her words, “If something is wrong, how can you sit back and pretend you don’t know?” plays in my mind.
I don’t pretend I don’t know what is wrong anymore. And so I write this as an ode to her and as an indictment on our legal system.
Editor’s note: The Irene Fernandez Appeal hearing will begin from October 28- 30, 2008, followed by next hearing dates from 24-28 November 2008 where submissions will be made by the defence lawyers and the prosecution. Read her daughters’ appeal to all for prayer and support here.
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
