Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

‘Dirty List’ Names 49 Firms Doing Business with Military

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 05:36 AM PST

CHIANG MAI, Thailand—A total of 49 companies worldwide are named and shamed in Burma Campaign UK's latest "Dirty List" of firms that do business with the Myanmar Military. The list released on Tuesday comprises companies whose operations have been linked to human rights violations or environmental destruction in Myanmar.

The companies work in sectors including energy, telecommunications, Internet services, and arms and military equipment, and come from countries including China, Russia, India, Japan, the U.K., France, Norway, Ukraine, the U.S., Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore.

Myanmar's military, or Tatmadaw, operates its wide-ranging business interests through two conglomerates—Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEH) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC)—both of which lack transparency, BCUK said.

Facebook is on the list, as is the money transfer service Western Union, which contracts with military-owned Myawaddy Bank. Energy companies from China and Thailand involved in constructing the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam in Kachin State and a number of other high-profile dam projects along the Salween River in Shan State are also on The Dirty List.

BCUK director Mark Farmaner said the group's aim in compiling the list is to focus international attention on the need to put more pressure on the military, which he said was "guilty of genocide" for its activities in northern Rakhine State in the last two years, which prompted a mass exodus of Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh. He added that the Tatmadaw was responsible for the vast majority of human-rights violations in the country. According to BCUK, the Tatmadaw is also blocking democratic reforms, waging war against ethnic groups and obstructing the peace process.

Farmaner told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that, "There is no single measure that will pressure the military to change, but every small form of pressure will add up to stronger pressure. Everything that can put pressure on the military should be tried," he said, because it currently enjoys impunity for committing human rights violations, sabotaging the peace process and blocking constitutional change.

He added, "[State Counselor Daw] Aung San Suu Kyi receives far more international criticism than [Army chief Senior General] Min Aung Hlaing, but Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for a lot more human rights violations than she is. There needs to be a lot more pressure on the military, and targeting their businesses is one way to do that."

The group is not saying that companies like Western Union should not be in Myanmar, he said, but they should not be doing business with the military.

"Western Union doesn't have to be in business with a military bank, VISA doesn't have to promote a military golf course. We are not asking companies to pull out of Burma; we are asking them to change the way they do business in Burma, making sure they don't help the military or get involved in projects linked to human rights violations," Farmaner said.

BCUK said the European Union and governments around the world have decided not to impose targeted sanctions against military-owned and controlled companies, instead allowing companies to continue to do business with them. "To date," the group said, "the main response of the international community to genocide in Burma has been to impose a ban on a small number of military personnel going on holiday to certain countries."

Farmaner added that BCUK had notified the companies in advance to give them an opportunity to cut their ties to the military in order to avoid being named on the list. As a result, two companies that had previously supplied equipment to the military stopped doing so and were removed from the list, he said. Another company whose equipment was being sold to the military by a distributor without its knowledge intervened to end the practice.

The group has received complaints and legal threats. "The Belgian company NEWTEC threatened to sue us if we put them on the list, and Posco said it's not fair to put them on the list even though they are in a joint business venture with the military," Farmaner added.

BCUK said the list would be regularly updated and welcomed information about new companies with potential for inclusion.

The Irrawaddy tried to contact the Defense Ministry for comment on Tuesday, but was unable to reach any of the spokespersons on a list provided by the government.

The post 'Dirty List' Names 49 Firms Doing Business with Military appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Central Bank Denies Huge Dollar Purchase Made to Benefit Local Banks

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 02:56 AM PST

YANGON—The Central Bank of Myanmar has denied claims that its purchase of more than US$30 million from local private banks last week, at a time when the currency was weak, was made specifically in order to benefit the lenders.

"The greenback weakened steeply that day [Dec. 4]. Media reports claimed that the central bank bought U.S. dollars fearing that it would weaken. That is wrong. Secondly, the accusation that we intentionally bought U.S. dollars to benefit banks is totally inaccurate," Central Bank of Myanmar vice governor U Soe Thein said on Monday at the Myanmar Banks Association in Yangon.

The exchange rate was 1 dollar to 1,545 kyats on the morning of Dec. 4, but the dollar had weakened to 1,490 kyats by that evening.

The central bank then bought dollars from private banks, causing the kyat to slump against the dollar again.

At that time, private banks bought U.S. dollars for between 1,500 and 1,515 kyats per dollar from outside dealers and sold them to the central bank for 1,570 kyats.

Local private banks made billions of kyats in a single day thanks to the Central Bank's decision to buy millions of US dollars from them, critics said.

U Soe Thein said it was normal procedure for the central bank to intervene in the market to cushion the blow.

"Not every decision can be right. It depends on one's point of view," he said about the bank's move.

"We have to try to make a better decision, and make the market more transparent. We also have to bear in mind that our objective is to make a profit," he said.

On Monday, the central bank's reference exchange rate was 1,561 kyats to the dollar, while the buying and selling prices in the market were 1,552 kyats and 1,542 kyats respectively.

The post Central Bank Denies Huge Dollar Purchase Made to Benefit Local Banks appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Free Speech Activist Wins Dutch Human Rights Award

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 02:20 AM PST

YANGON — Myanmar free speech activist Maung Saung Kha has won the Human Rights Tulip award from the Netherlands, becoming the first person bestowed with the honor in the country.

The Human Rights Tulip is an annual prize awarded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a person or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to defending human rights worldwide. This year, Dutch embassies across the world bestowed country-specific Tulip awards to local human rights defenders.

The Dutch Embassy in Yangon says the award is intended to encourage and inspire a new generation of human rights advocates.

Maung Saung Kha, the founder and executive director of Yangon-based freedom of expression advocacy group Athan, will receive the Human Rights Tulip Myanmar 2018 in Yangon on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old said he welcomed the award an international recognition for his group.

"I was awarded not just because of me but me and Athan. Plus, were it not for the support of democracy and human rights activists, we wouldn't have kept our freedom of expression movement alive," he told The Irrawaddy.

Founded in January, Athan is one of only a few advocacy groups focusing on freedom of expression in Myanmar.

From the beginning, the group has put a spotlight on issues challenging freedom of expression in Myanmar, such as the controversial Telecommunication Law and Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law. It also carefully documents cases posing a threat to freedom of expression in the country while lobbying lawmakers and educating the public about the importance of free speech.

Freedom of expression and assembly in Myanmar are currently perceived by many as on the decline. As of Tuesday, according to Athan, the country has two journalists in jail, 164 cases in the courts under Article 66 (d) of the Telecommunication Law, and 51 peace activists on trial.

Maung Saung Kha said he used to believe that there would be more freedom of expression under a government led by the National League for Democracy.

"Seeing people brought to trial for criticizing government activities shows that it hasn’t lived up to our hope," he said.

The poet-cum-activist was arrested himself under Article 66 (d) in 2015 for posting a verse on social media with a risqué rhyme about an unnamed president.

"I felt very bad because I was arrested for writing a poem,” he said. “It's partly because I am now seriously involved in promoting freedom of expression as I don't want others to see a fate like mine."

The post Myanmar Free Speech Activist Wins Dutch Human Rights Award appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Election Commission Rejects Name of Proposed Mon Political Party

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 02:10 AM PST

The Union Election Commission (UEC) has rejected organizers' application to register a new ethnic Mon political party on grounds that its name is unacceptable, according to a Mon leader.

A group of ethnic Mon politicians met UEC members on Tuesday in Naypyitaw after the commission rejected their application to register the new organization as the "Mon Party", Nai Layae Tama said.

"They told us at the meeting that our proposed name implied the new party was the only one representing ethnic Mon people. They said this could cause a problem if another Mon party was set up in the future, and told us to choose another name," Nai Layae Tama said.

"We told them that the name was chosen by the Mon people, not us. That's why we wanted this name," he said. However, the party founders agreed to rename it the Mon Unity Party. This name was also chosen by the Mon people, though it was the second-most-popular choice, he said.

"We told [the UEC] the new name at the meeting, but we haven't officially adopted it yet, as we need authorization from our leaders," Nai Layae Tama said.

The new party is the result of a merger of the Mon National Party (MNP) and All Mon Regional for Democracy Party (AMRDP). They agreed to join forces in September. In 2015, they won a combined total of four seats in the state legislature, where the National League for Democracy holds a majority.

The new party has a central committee of 100 members and a central executive committee of 44 members, with former MNP and AMRDP members each holding 50 percent of the posts. The new party plans to run in the 2020 election.

The post Election Commission Rejects Name of Proposed Mon Political Party appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Gov’t Says Most Locals Support Ex-Dictator’s Son’s Inle Lake Hotel Project

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 01:38 AM PST

NAYPYITAW — The President’s Office claims that most residents of a township along Shan State’s famed Inle Lake are in favor of a hotel project by the son of former dictator Than Shwe.

In September, the President’s Office received a petition signed by more than 4,000 lakeside residents opposing plans by the Myanmar Naing Group, owned by U Tun Naing Shwe, to build a hotel on 90 acres of land by the lake in Mai Thaut Village, Yawnghwe Township.

The following month, on orders from the President's Office, a team of local government officials and lawmakers launched an inspection of the project.

"When the team made a field inspection, they found that the majority supported [the project] and only a minority opposed it," the director-general of the President's Office, U Zaw Htay, told reporters in Naypyitaw on Saturday.

He added that the team had not yet submitted its final report, however.

The team conducted a petition drive for the project and collected more than 15,000 signatures in the 12 villages of Yawnghwe Township.

But according to project opponents, people only signed the government’s petition on the condition that the hotel does not have any negative environmental impacts on the lake.

One of the opponents, U Htein Lwin, of Mongthawk Village, accused those who signed the government’s petition of doing so out of personal interests.

The company acquired the 90 acres on a former wildlife sanctuary along the lakeshore while Senior General Than Shwe was still in office but did not move forward on the hotel project for five years. It submitted a building permit request in 2016 but soon met resistance from local residents. When the company resubmitted the request in June of this year, opponent organized their petition and submitted it to several government offices.

In October, the Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ministry said the 90 acres should be turned back into a wildlife sanctuary, as opponents want.

Opponents say there are already 14 hotels along or near Inle Lake and that the hotel zone covers some 600 acres.

In June 2015, Inle Lake was added to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and became the first ever biosphere reserve in Myanmar. In September it was designated the fifth of Myanmar’s Wetlands of International Importance as defined by the Ramsar Convention.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Gov’t Says Most Locals Support Ex-Dictator’s Son’s Inle Lake Hotel Project appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Fake Monk Suspected of Burglarizing Naypyitaw Homes Arrested in Bago

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 12:42 AM PST

BAGO REGION, Prome — Police have arrested a man who allegedly posed as a Buddhist monk to scope out the homes of people he would burglarize in Naypyitaw.

On Saturday the suspect allegedly went a step further and robbed Central Bank of Myanmar Director Daw Lei Lei Nu of more than 300,000 kyats ($193) in her apartment in Khaye Housing in Naypyitaw's Zabuthiri Township.

Major Than Tun Aung, head of Bago Region’s Prome Township police force, said he was arrested Monday in Prome’s Wat Hti Kan Village.

"He doesn't have a religious ID card. His name is Maung Maung and he is a native of Wat Hti Kan," he told The Irrawaddy.

Sub-Lieutenant Than Min Soe of the Wat Hti Kan police station said local police made the arrest on instructions from Naypyitaw police.

Maung Maung allegedly scoped out his targets by visiting the homes of Buddhist devotees while dressed as a monk.

Responding to a complaint from the bank director. Naypyitaw police visited multiple monasteries and identified the suspect as Maung Maung, who had been squatting near some government staff quarters in Bawgatheikdi Ward.

Police say they learned that he had been burglarizing homes in Naypyitaw for some time and that he had already returned to Prome, where local police were asked to make the arrest.

Zabuthiri Township police have opened a case against Maung Maung under Article 386 of the Penal Code for extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Fake Monk Suspected of Burglarizing Naypyitaw Homes Arrested in Bago appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Thailand to Hold Long-Delayed Election on Feb. 24

Posted: 11 Dec 2018 12:38 AM PST

BANGKOK—Thailand will hold a much-delayed general election on Feb. 24, 2019, the Election Commission said on Tuesday, after the junta lifted a ban on political activity it imposed after taking power in a coup in 2014.

The junta imposed the strict ban on political activity citing the need for order after months of street protests against the democratically elected government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The election, which many hope will restore democracy in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, will likely pit the populist political movement backed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and supported by many in rural areas against the military and royalist establishment.

The Bangkok-based establishment seized power in successive coups in 2006 and 2014 and now has its own proxy political parties.

The junta began easing the ban in September, when it allowed political parties to resume organizing.

It still retains sweeping powers to maintain law and order despite lifting the ban, including conducting searches, freezing assets and making arrests.

The Election Commission confirmed the Feb. 24 election date on Tuesday, just before a statement announcing the end of the ban on political activity was published in the Royal Gazette.

"The people and political parties will be able to take part in political activities during this period leading up to the election in accordance with the Constitution," the statement said.

Thailand last held a successful election in 2011, but the Election Commission said it was ready to go ahead with the Feb. 24 poll.

"The lifting of the ban means political activities can resume, including political campaigning, but this has to be done under the law," Deputy Election Commission Secretary-General Sawang Boonmee said.

The post Thailand to Hold Long-Delayed Election on Feb. 24 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week

Posted: 10 Dec 2018 09:10 PM PST

One to Nine Tone

This is a group art exhibition featuring the work of 11 artists.

Dec. 8-12, 9 am to 5 pm. 43 Art Gallery, No. 101, 43rd Street, Botataung Township.

Jazz under the Stars

Bamboo Trio play jazz music in a picturesque setting.

Dec. 12, 8 pm to 11 pm. Atlas Rooftop Bar & Lounge, No. 84 Pan Hlaing Street, Sanchaung Township. Reservations at 09-9784151250.

The Place of the Silex Sick

This is the 6th solo art exhibition of Ohn Khine Zin.

Dec.12-16, Moon Art Gallery, 35th Street (Middle), Kyauktada Township.

Blind Pony: Electronic Music Night

International and student DJs will perform at a famous rooftop venue.

Dec. 13, 5 pm to 12 am. Yangon Yangon Bar, Sakura Tower. Entry is 5,000 kyats including a drink.

Beethoven in My Dream

Khin Than Phyu celebrates the 248th anniversary of the German musician through her artwork.

Dec. 14-16, 10 am to 6 pm. Pansuriya Gallery, No. 100, Bogalayzay Street, Botataung Township.

808 Festival

Various musicians will hit the stage.

Dec. 15, 4 pm.  Thuwunnabhumi Event Park. Tickets start from 35,000 kyats at H-Life Ticket Counter, Myanmar Plaza.

Christmas Bazaar

The first-ever Christmas Bazaar at Pegu Club displays a wide variety of handicrafts to give as presents for your loved ones.

Dec. 15, 3 pm to 9 pm. Pegu Club, Pyay Road, Dagon Township. Tickets $55 (adults) and $25 (kids) at 01-388398.

Kaung Set Music Event

Kaung Set and other guest singers will perform at the famous rooftop venue.

Dec. 15, 8 pm till late. Yangon Yangon Bar, Sakura Tower. Entry is 10,000 kyats including a beer.

The Burma Cartel

This is the night for House/Techno music lovers.

Dec. 15, 10 pm. Level 2 Bar, Pyay Road. Tel: 09-254 272 460. Entry is 10,000 kyats including a beer.

Two Friends

Artists Tun Tun Oo and Thein Tun Oo showcase their works.

Dec. 15-17, 10 am to 6 pm. 65 Gallery, No. 65, Yawmingyi Road, Dagon Township.

The post Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

US Returns Bells Looted After Philippine Wartime Massacre

Posted: 10 Dec 2018 08:47 PM PST

MANILA—Church bells taken as war trophies by US forces more than a century ago arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday, ending Manila’s decades-long quest for the return of some of the most famous symbols of resistance to US colonialism.

The “Bells of Balangiga” landed in a military cargo plane at a Manila air base ahead of their return on Saturday to a church in Samar, the central island where US troops in 1901 massacred hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Filipinos to avenge an ambush that killed 48 of their comrades.

“I’m a little bit excited and a little bit emotional. At last we have seen the bells,” Father Lentoy Tybaco, the parish priest of Balangiga, told domestic television as the bells were lifted from boxes and displayed on a runway.

Two of the bells had been on display at an air force base in Wyoming, the other at a US army museum in South Korea.

Their return follows years of lobbying by former presidents, priests and historians, and challenges from Wyoming veterans and lawmakers opposed to dismantling a war memorial, resulting in legislation that barred their removal.

The battles in Balangiga that took place towards the end of the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War marked one of the darkest chapters of US colonialism.

Historians say the bells were rung to signal the start of the surprise attack on American forces, who retaliated with a massacre in which women and children were killed.

Last year US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis promised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that he would push hard for their return, which Duterte had demanded during his annual state of the nation address.

The move could help to appease Duterte, who has made a point of lashing out regularly at Washington, despite a tight US-Philippines defense alliance.

He has condemned what he sees as the United States’ history of hypocrisy, arrogance and political interference.

Dueterte has yet to visit the United States as president, calling it “lousy”, although his foreign minister last month hinted the bells’ return might prompt a change of heart.

Giving the bells back was “overwhelmingly viewed as the right thing to do”, said Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines.

“Our militaries have fought together, bled together, at times died together,” he wrote in the Philippine Star newspaper. “As your ally and friend, we will forever honor and respect this shared history.”

The post US Returns Bells Looted After Philippine Wartime Massacre appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Monkeys Run Amok in India’s Corridors of Power

Posted: 10 Dec 2018 08:29 PM PST

NEW DELHI—India’s government faces a tough re-election battle next year but first it must deal with an opponent as wily as any political rival, troops of monkeys that have become a big threat around its offices in New Delhi.

Red-faced rhesus macaques have spread havoc, snatching food and mobile telephones, breaking into homes and terrorizing people in and around the Indian capital.

They have colonized areas around parliament and the sites of key ministries, from the prime minister’s office to the finance and defense ministries, frightening both civil servants and the public.

“Very often they snatch food from people as they are walking, and sometimes they even tear files and documents by climbing in through the windows,” said Ragini Sharma, a home ministry employee.

Ahead of Tuesday’s start of parliament’s winter session, an advisory to members of parliament last month detailed ways they could keep simian attacks at bay. Don’t tease or make direct eye contact with a monkey, the advisory said, and definitely don’t get between a mother and her infant.

The rapid growth of cities has displaced macaques, geographically the most widely distributed primates in the world after humans, driving them into human habitats to hunt for food.

Many in Hindu-majority India revere and feed the animals they consider to be connected to the demigod Hanuman, who takes the form of a monkey.

“This socio-religious tradition of feeding has created a vicious cycle,” said ecology researcher Asmita Sengupta.

“They become used to being fed by humans and lose their sense of fear,” said Sengupta, of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

“They start actively seeking supplementary food and if we don’t feed them, they turn aggressive.”

"Ape repellers”

The monkeys have hardly proved an ally for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hundreds of macaques feasting on fiber optic cables strung along the banks of the river Ganges derailed his plan to roll out wifi in his constituency, the crowded 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanasi, in 2015.

Men were hired to swat the monkeys away with broomsticks and slingshots, when then US President Barack Obama toured New Delhi that year, media said.

Some monkey-human encounters have turned tragic.

In 2007, monkeys pushed the deputy mayor of Delhi, S.S. Bajwa, off his balcony to his death. Last month, one of the animals snatched a 12-day-old boy from his mother and killed him in Agra, home to the famed monument to love, the Taj Mahal.

Monkeys have bred rapidly in Delhi and neighboring states as they have protected status, but there is no official estimate of their numbers.

India has tried several strategies to fight the menace.

Several years ago, it brought in larger, black-faced langurs, feared by the macaques, to patrol key areas but that stopped after it became illegal to keep langurs in captivity.

Authorities stumbled on a partially successful solution four years ago, after hiring 40 men to disguise themselves as langurs and squeal monkey-like to try and terrify the macaques away.

“We call them ‘ape repellers’ and they are contract employees,” said a government official, who asked not to be identified. The stratagem works temporarily as the monkeys flee on hearing the calls, but they return once the men depart.

Primatologist S.M. Mohnot recommends sterilization and moving the animals to forests, as well as lifting a ban on their capture for biomedical research and resuming exports of the macaques, as components of a solution.

“The monkey menace can be checked only by a multi-pronged approach,” said Mohnot, the chairman of the Primate Research Centre, a federal institute in the western city of Jodhpur.

The post Monkeys Run Amok in India’s Corridors of Power appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Malaysia Vows Action Against World’s Top Glove Maker over Migrants’ Illegal Overtime

Posted: 10 Dec 2018 08:06 PM PST

KLANG, Malaysia/LONDON—Malaysia said on Monday it would take action against Top Glove Corp. Bhd, the world’s top medical glove maker, which admitted breaching labor laws after a Thomson Reuters Foundation expose found some migrants working illegal overtime.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed that migrant workers at the Malaysian company often worked long hours to help clear debts to recruitment agents back home who found them jobs—and in some cases exceed the legal overtime limit.

The expose has prompted investigations by the British government, after finding some Top Glove supplies were used in UK hospitals, and by Australian rubber giant Ansell. It was also raised as a concern by a European parliamentarian.

Top Glove’s share price fell about 5.9 percent on Monday to 5.55 Malaysian ringgit ($1.33).

Speaking at a press conference in Malaysia, Top Glove’s Executive Chairman and Founder Lim Wee Chai said “a small number” of workers had done excessive overtime and the company would “continue to improve” its labor standards.

“We do our part, we do it correctly, we have no pressure, we still can sleep very well tonight,” he told reporters at a Top Glove factory in Klang, an industrial area outside Kuala Lumpur.

“We will continue to do good, if there is any feedback, anything no good, we will continue to improve.”

Lim denied workers were forced to do overtime.

Top Glove earlier said it introduced changes this year to ensure adequate rest for workers, with about 11,000 coming from Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India to work for Top Glove in Malaysia, the world’s glove manufacturing capital.

“They got options, you cannot force them. Some workers said they don’t want to do overtime, that’s ok. But most of them come here to make a living, so they want overtime,” said Lim.

Workers at Top Glove factories often work a 12-hour shift and clock 90 to 120 hours of overtime a month, according to documents seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Under Malaysian laws, workers should be given one rest day each week and work no more than 104 hours of overtime a month.

Gloves to British hospitals

Top Glove, which produces one in every four pairs of rubber gloves used globally, said last week it would cut ties with unethical recruitment agents, and that action had been taken over the issue of excessive overtime.

Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said action will be taken against Top Glove for breaching labor laws on overtime hours.

“[The company] themselves admitted [to this] so we will take the necessary action,” Kulasegaran told reporters, after visiting one of Top Glove’s 35 Malaysian factories on Monday.

“We will strictly enforce [the labor law] and we will prevent them from bringing in foreign workers if they breach this regulation,” he said, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

Malaysia’s labor ministry said Top Glove could face a fine of up to 10,000 Malaysian ringgit ($2,400) if found guilty of breaching labor laws on excessive overtime.

The matter was raised by one European parliamentarian as an example of a human rights violation on a day marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“We urgently need corporate responsibility and public procurement free of human rights violations; allegations against Top Glove one more alarming example,” tweeted Finnish politician and Vice-President of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala.

Since Malaysia’s new government came to power in May, ousting a corruption-mired coalition, officials have vowed to improve conditions for migrant workers, with about two million registered migrant workers in the country.

Britain’s health ministry said it would investigate standards at Top Glove—which makes rubber gloves sold to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)—after being presented with the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s findings.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation discovered that at least one Top Glove product is supplied to the NHS via a British firm.

Lim said Top Glove had not received any inquiries or complaint from the British authorities.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday asked 17 companies listed on the NHS Supply Chain’s online catalogue as glove suppliers whether they sourced their goods from Top Glove.

Fourteen of them said they did not.

Ansell said it buys six base gloves from Top Glove and none were supplied to the NHS but it was investigating.

“We have initiated further inquiries on the details of claims made to … media outlets in recent days,” an Ansell spokesman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

US-based medical products company Medline said the company sources a handful of items from Top Glove for markets outside of Europe, but it had begun to end its links several months ago after internal audits yielded “findings which concerned us.”

“We concluded that termination was the most prudent course of action,” said Fadzai Munyaradzi, Medline’s corporate social responsibility manager for Europe.

Britain-based medical goods supplier Bunzl Healthcare said it sourced some goods from Top Glove, but did not supply to NHS Supply Chain.

Kulasegaran, the Malaysian human resources minister, denied a media report that linked Top Glove to unlawful wage deductions and forced labor saying checks found the deductions—including for food and workers’ insurance—were in line with the law.

The labor ministry also said workers had access to lockers in which their passports were kept, denying confiscations.

The post Malaysia Vows Action Against World’s Top Glove Maker over Migrants’ Illegal Overtime appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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