The Universal Declaration of Human Right; crafted after the two world wars, sought to ensure and guarantee the rights and privileges of all human beings, regardless of the state of operation and their place of being. That is why it is first of all called Universal. This means it covers the whole wide world; including the World Wide Web!

There is and can be no exceptions. It is then the responsibility of the United Nations and all her agencies to ensure the observance and insurance of the above Declaration; and especially among signatory states. The UN bodies should be prepared to declare war against states which do not adhere and respect the dignity and honor of every human person. The only problem is that their \”war cry process is limited to meetings and consensus-building among the core players of the Security Council.\”

In short they do not use power but always opt for influence first. As a result, the efficacy of the Declaration and her enforcement is also left to the whims and fancies of the respective constituent states, as it is very evident in the specific case of the Dafur crisis. The UN tries her best but I do not think God would be happy that her best attempt is even good enough to serve God’s human beings; created in His Image.

The more specific issue of concern for me in this column is the Dignity Negation Act or what is more popularly called the DNA bill being rushed through the Parliament even as I write. It has already cleared two readings in just four days; imagine that!

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That is while the whole nation was still focused on the Permatang Pauh by-election which the BN thought would be a repeat of the Ijok by-election but the rakyat ensured it was a repeat of the General Election. The Rakyat wanted to send a clear and unequivocal signal to the BN and especially Umno that enough was enough!

The day after that clear signal, the bill was tabled, as if to insult and punish the very Rakyat who dared to say \”No!\” I hear that the grapevine version of Umno is U Must Not Object! After all, was it not Dr Mahathir who dared us to dream and inspire dignity to the man on the street in Malaysia? Was it not the same Mahathir who co-authored the book with Akio Morita, the owner of Suzuki, and wrote \”The Asia that can say No?\” Now, the people of Malaysia in Permatang Pauh have dared to say No; even to the mighty Umno! The Rakyat in PP were very matang in deed. Us Malaysians Now Object!

Why then this unnecessary rush to push through the DNA bill, almost by the back-door? What is the real hurry? Does the bill define some obviously important or urgent criminal case waiting to be resolved where we already have sufficient evidence, and all we need is a sample to make the firm identification of the culprit who is already above the 99% guilt level?

Vote by conscience, not party line

If so, can the rakyat of Malaysia be allowed to make that determination vide our wakil rakyat? Can the governance of the people, by the people and for the people, or what Malaysians now call the ‘ketuanan rakyat’ begin? You see; if the government and the minister of home affairs has \”nothing to hide,\” and Pak Lah can maintain his integrity agenda, the wakil rakyat must be given the freedom to vote based on the clear reading of the bill and only their conscience.

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Only then can the \”wakil rakyat truly mewakilkan kepentingan 

rakyat.\” Voting based on party lines and the instructions of the party whip destroys the importance and urgency of the matter and reduces this into a Dignity Negation Act. Therefore, can I urge all \”political parties on either side of the divide\” to free and allow their wakil Rakyat to vote based on conscience, and not along party lines. Otherwise, as I say, the Dignity Negation Act will happen and the rakyat’s dignity will be denied.

Why do I write so? In my doctoral work I was interested to study the whole concept of \”dignity.\” I focused on dignity in the workplace. The workplace is only a subsystem of the national lived space. Therefore much of the concepts and definitions deployed in my sample case study could be reviewed for application in the world-place too. So here goes my limited but useful lesson from my dignity studies.

\”Dignity in the workplace was defined as having both a public face and a private face. The private face of dignity comprised the personal experiences of workers within the reality of an organizational culture. The public face of dignity was defined a ‘culture of excellence’ that allowed people to be treated uniquely, even in the workplace.

Three qualities of this culture of excellence included: the right to not be objectified, the freedom to make choices, and the participation in significant and meaningful work. Worker experiences of these qualities were used to positively identify a culture of dignity.\”

The study found that AES (the sample company studied) founder-owners operationally realized their ideal workplace and that 39 AES workers did experience dignity in their workplace.

Let me try to operationalize the same concepts and review whether rakyat Malaysia will experience dignity in their lived place, if the founder-owners (after all BN has been ruling since foundation, and do most of the time belief that they ‘own’ the nation-state) institute the DNA bill into law in this nation? Let me review the three qualities of \”operational dignity\” and suggest how they will be denied.

The right not to be objectified

This is a God-ordained right and no Malaysian will deny destinies’ role and resultant ordination. This right also guarantees other rights as declared in the Human Rights convention. Therefore every Malaysian has a right of identity which God has given them.

For example, in the Identity Cards of my children, they all say that we are \”not Indians\” under the so-called ‘race category’ but that we are ‘Malayalees.’ I did not want them to be cursed into a foreign nationality even though I am aware that our ethnic heritage is from the State of Kerala in India. The point is we are not \”Indians,\” as my parents were. Every citizen in Malaysia has this right not to be objectified as well.

The freedom to make choices

This is the freedom of choice given to all humans but not to animals. Depending on one’s theory of the nature of man, one can argue this until the cows come home but suffice for us that our Rukunegara declares the existence of God or Allah and therefore also the freedom of conscience already declared in all scriptures.

Participation in significant and meaningful work

Every citizen wants to contribute and be part of the nation-building process. For that is also the agenda of the National Education System; to assist all Malaysians to grow-up learning and understanding what it means to be and then become Malaysian. The system educates us to grow up having a Malaysian worldview.

Innocent until proven guilty

How then does the DNA bill become the Dignity Negation Act? First, it requires our identity to be stored somewhere other than at the Registration Department where the rest of our public identities are stored by law. Second, it forces us to give up our private identity to the Police for them to verify and ascertain criminal activity.

This denies the dignity God has given us because \”we are all innocent until otherwise proven in a Court of Law.\” This bill \”forces us to give up our private identity (because for now, only God knows my DNA)\” for the explicit purpose of proving my guilt over some \”false accusation.\”

Can they give me enough evidence to \”establish beyond any reasonable doubt that I have in fact committed a criminal act?\” If so, I am willing to give up my DNA but only for that one and sole purpose and use, but not for storage elsewhere; even with the Registration Department.

My argument is simple; only God should know my DNA and not any other human being. That DNA will also define and determine my destiny on earth and in heaven. Thirdly, all human systems are fallen and fall short of the Glory of God. Therefore, there will be errors in all systems. Therefore, I cannot trust any human system with my destiny and want to trust only God.

Finally, criminal intent and criminal purposes are not new. They have been with us since the beginning to time. In fact, Christian theology calls this the sin nature of man. But, because the same humans have choice, such intentional or unintentional choices are what also make us human.

If this choice about choice is taken away, we reduce from being human and become only animals; wherein some great dictator up there decides what is good, bad, right and wrong for me. Then it is not more worth living.

I hope I have made my case, reasonable and rationally. I pray that the government would be wise and not assume that the rakyat Malaysia is stupid and ignorant. We have shown twice that we are not stupid and we do no know what is happening and not happening in Malaysia.

Therefore, I pray that the government of Malaysia would not use the DNA as another political toy to play games with this nation, but instead allow the wakil rakyat to study, argue, review and search their consciences about this bill, and then vote based entirely on their conscience and free will that the Good Lord has given them. Then we will know the truth about this bill, as is, and then we will unite as a nation to catch real criminals.

Finally also, pardon me but, it will also be a very long, long time before I will trust any government agency with my DNA because all such systems have fallen and fall very short of the Glory of God. May God Bless Malaysia.