An article from Daily News and Sri Lanka Guardian forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission
Save Rizana
By Malinda Senevitane
It is the nature of the engagement that makes enemies and friends and therefore some circumspection is called for when one reacts to or grapples with things ‘foreign’, especially in matters that are clearly located, politically and geographically on ‘foreign soil’
There is a thing called cultural specificity. Different people in different places and different time, made of different sensibilities and values, have different preferences. There’s been a lot of intercourse among cultures; enough to know that there are commonalities just as there are differences; but still cultural specificities do have hard colours and are wont to paint rules and regulations and even laws in starkly different hues. This is why the adage ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’ still has currency, so many centuries after that empire collapsed.
We have to respect the laws of other countries, even when they seem ridiculous and inhuman. This is basic. This does not mean of course that we are required to remain silent about the way others go about their business, especially if their ‘laws’ and ‘cultural preferences’ impact us in some way. It is the nature of the engagement that makes enemies and friends and therefore some circumspection is called for when one reacts to or grapples with things ‘foreign’, especially in matters that are clearly located, politically and geographically (if not ethically) on ‘foreign soil’.
Domestic worker
I am thinking of Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan domestic worker who has been sentenced to death by the Saudi Arabian courts for the crime of murdering an infant. Rizana, at the time, was a minor, although this is not indicated in her passport for it was forged in order to secure employment. For some that would be a technicality whose worth is assessed in terms of the impact of this in securing a possible pardon for the girl. In a broader sense, the issue of Rizana’s age serves to indict a number of State institutions that are mandated to streamline things pertaining to foreign employment and identification.
There are cracks in the system allowing minors to get passports. We can play blame-someone-else, but we must at some point come to terms with the fact that there is a huge systemic flaw that forces parents to send their underage children abroad for employment in high-risk situations and encourage them to engage in all manner of wrongdoing in the process. We must admit that for all the efficiency we see at Immigration and Emigration Department in processing passport applications, there are thousands of people who have more than one passport.
Employment agencies
We must acknowledge that many employment agencies are not just run by racketeers but crooks enjoying political patronage and therefore protection. We know that the system is full of loopholes where a crack down on errant agencies just results in the same crooks setting up office elsewhere under a different name for a paltry sum of money so they can carry on from where they stopped.
None of this helps Rizana of course. I am and have always been a strong opponent of the death penalty but that doesn’t help Rizana either. We have our laws, the Saudis have theirs. There is crime and there is punishment and we can argue and argue about absence of a sense of proportion and the need to take cognizance of all factors including the age of the accused/guilty. It won’t help Rizana. There are moves, I am told, at the top end of political life, the highest in the land and big names in the international community. These might bear fruit. I hope.
Islamic faith
I am thinking of Rumi. I am thinking of the Sufi mystics. I am thinking of Hafiz of Shiraz, of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Khayyam and other poets all inspired one way or another by the Islamic faith.
I am thinking of human frailty and the error of assuming interpretive perfection of things considered divine or God-written.
I am remembering a debate on whether or not people should be judged by their peers, a debate that took place in the early eighties at a venue I cannot recall at this time. I remember going to that debate convinced that judgment should come from those who are well versed in the law and legal procedures. I remember listening to two teams of three persons each debating the matter. I remember only two names, Colvin R De Silva and Sarath Muttetuwegama, the first and third speakers respectively from the team insisting that people should be judged by their peers.
I am thinking of Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan domestic worker who has been sentenced to death by the Saudi Arabian courts for the crime of murdering an infant. Rizana, at the time, was a minor, although this is not indicated in her passport for it was forged in order to secure employment. For some that would be a technicality whose worth is assessed in terms of the impact of this in securing a possible pardon for the girl. In a broader sense, the issue of Rizana’s age serves to indict a number of State institutions that are mandated to streamline things pertaining to foreign employment and identification.
There are cracks in the system allowing minors to get passports. We can play blame-someone-else, but we must at some point come to terms with the fact that there is a huge systemic flaw that forces parents to send their underage children abroad for employment in high-risk situations and encourage them to engage in all manner of wrongdoing in the process. We must admit that for all the efficiency we see at Immigration and Emigration Department in processing passport applications, there are thousands of people who have more than one passport.
Incomplete creatures
It won’t help Rizana, I know. I hope, though, that a culture which produced Rumi, Hafiz, Ghalib and which provoked the stoning of death of Mansur Al Hallaj and yet revere him as saint would have the few drops of pity and empathy to consider the possibility that this judgment is wrong.
I hope that those who have the power will step back and recognize that while laws there should be, the one sentence that cannot be revoked or compensated for if error is ascertained at a later date should perhaps be taken out of human hand, if only because we are incomplete creatures, morally and in every other way possible.
I am thinking of Rizana. She’s died many deaths already. Punished enough. Taking her eye for the eye she’s said to have taken doesn’t give sight to anyone. It blinds us all, those of us who execute, who cheer, who object, protest, plead and remain silent. We don’t end up richer.
We need not impoverish ourselves.
I am on my knees, before a dead infant and one who might be gone tomorrow; both never to return. I plead to those who have the power. There is nothing else I can do.
Please see following Urgent Appeals: AHRC-UAU-042-2010; AHRC-UAU-041-2010; UA-207-2007, UP-097-2007, UP-093-2007; Statements STM-003-2009 and STM-258-2008; and Press Release: PL-023-2007issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission regarding this matter.
