LETTER | An inclusive, accessible post-Covid-19 Malaysia

LETTER | As countries all over the world are struggling to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak right now, it is also imperative for all of us to think about the future; how the post-Covid-19 world looks like.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposes many of the structural failures in societies, particularly with regard to the economy, thus the status quo is no longer acceptable.

It also challenges us to rethink and reconfigure the design of many aspects of our life such as education, social protection, housing, employment, and democratic processes.

Hence, this year’s theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, “Building back better: Toward a disability-inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post-Covid-19 world”, is rightly on point.

Admittedly, I am both sceptical and hopeful in this regard.

I felt hopeful because, as of now, the discussion about the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic to the disabled community is mostly reactive, and does not pay much attention to the future.

I believe we need to be more proactive in this matter, presently and for the future. At the same time, I am sceptical because there remain a few issues concerning disabled people in Malaysia lingering on without satisfying outcomes.

I list below three major issues that expressly need the government's expedient actions:

• The removal of the Department of Development for Persons with Disabilities from the Department of Social Welfare to become a full-fledged central agency.
  
  
• The amendment of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 as advocated by disabled persons and their allies.
  
  
• The update on the progress of the implementation of the Action Plan for Persons with Disabilities 2016-2022 and other government commitments at the international and regional levels.

As to the future, I hold firm to my previous propositions. For the next five years, the Malaysian government must plan and allocate appropriate resources to achieve the following goals:

• Strengthening the human rights protection of Malaysians with impairment and/or chronic illness in their personal and communal lives.
  
  
• Ensuring transformative equality through meaningful systemic and structural changes, which among others, guaranteeing direct participation of Malaysians with impairment and/or chronic illness in the decision-making process.
  
  
• Harnessing usable, affordable, safe, and sustainable technologies for decent and meaningful living among Malaysians with impairment and/or chronic illness.

The work for the future must start now. Everyone has a role to play in materialising this agenda.

The Malaysian government must have a clear goal as well as a robust and comprehensive national framework to establish inclusive, accessible, and sustainable post-Covid-19 Malaysia for all citizens, including for Malaysians with impairment and/or chronic illness.

We must be critical of our status quo mindsets concerning disability. The government and the society at large must break away from the neo-liberalisation of disablement/inclusion, which then reflected in the national strategies and consequently translated into actionable solutions in current and future policies, laws, programs, and assistance schemes.

One possible course of action is to utilise the fund allocated to the MySDG Trust Fund proposed in 2021’s budget recently.

The Malaysian government must ensure that there is an inclusive and accessible mechanism for the disabled community and their representative organisations as well as other civil society organisations to benefit from such funding.

The projects by the Cross-Party Parliamentarian Group concerning Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) must also be inclusive of and accessible for Malaysians with impairment and/or chronic illnesses.

Through these approaches, hopefully, we can enjoy an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable Malaysia in the post-Covid-19 world.

Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities to all my fellow disabled brothers and sisters.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.