VZCZCXRO2188
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHKL #0934/01 3230424
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 190424Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3468
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000934 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO KCRM KTIP PGOV PHUM PREL MY
SUBJECT: MALAYSIA: TIP WORKSHOP FOR JOURNALISTS - A FIRST. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary and Comment: A November 10-11 U.S. Embassy 
sponsored "Workshop on Reporting on Trafficking in Persons" 
in Kuala Lumpur allowed an audience of 40 Malaysian 
journalists and editors to exchange views about trafficking 
in persons (TIP) issues in an off-the-record setting.  It 
also featured senior GOM officials speaking frankly about 
Malaysia's efforts, and shortcomings, in addressing the 
issue.  Each official's presentation made mention of "why 
Malaysia is on Tier 3" (of the 2009 TIP report), and praised 
USG-sponsored TIP training. The DCM opened the conference 
with introductory remarks and Poloff participated as a panel 
member and presented more detail on the U.S. approach and 
objectives on TIP.  Malaysian officials, journalists and NGO 
activists provided perspectives on addressing and reporting 
on human trafficking.  Representatives of UNICEF and the 
International Organization on Migration (IOM), delivered 
presentations on child-trafficking and an overview of human 
trafficking in the region.  The Head of Prosecutions from the 
Attorney General's Chambers, Tun Majid, headlined the opening 
panel discussion.  Media covered the closing ceremony of the 
event and reported on GOM attendance in newspapers and in 
November 11 nightly news broadcasts.  Journalists who 
attended the workshop praised the Embassy for organizing such 
an event.  It was the first time for many of the journalists 
and NGO's to have extended interactions on TIP with Malaysian 
law enforcement officials, and vice versa.  The longer term 
value of the workshop can only be measured by the quality and 
depth of future reporting on trafficking in persons issues in 
Malaysia.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On November 10-11, the U.S. Embassy sponsored a 
"Workshop on Reporting on Trafficking in Persons" in Kuala 
Lumpur to a group of 40 Malaysian journalists and editors. 
The workshop provided an off-the-record setting for 
journalists to exchange views about TIP issues.  The DCM 
opened the conference with remarks focused on the priority 
the USG places on TIP, our interest in working in partnership 
with the GOM in combating this problem, and the importance of 
the media in raising TIP public awareness. Senior GOM 
officials present spoke frankly about Malaysia's efforts, and 
shortcomings, in addressing TIP.  Officials from the Attorney 
General's Chambers, Royal Malaysian Police, and the Ministry 
of Women, Family, and Community Development joined Poloff on 
the seminar's main panel.  The Head of Prosecutions from the 
Attorney General's Chambers, Tun Majid, acknowledged that the 
GOM had trouble with victim protection, noting that victims 
were often scared and intimidated when held in prison-like 
shelters.  He explained that the GOM is considering amending 
its Anti-TIP Act so that NGOs such as Tenaganita could assist 
and shelter TIP victims.  (Note: On the margins of the 
workshop, Tenaganita TIP Coordinator Aegile Fernandez said 
she believed her NGO may soon receive the official 
"gazetting" under the law to allow sheltering TIP victims. 
End Note).  Tun Madjid also parried a journalist's question 
about whether the USG's TIP ranking system, and Malaysia's 
Tier three ranking, was unfair, given that other countries in 
the region were not low-ranked, by saying that there was no 
denying that Malaysia had a TIP problem, was not doing enough 
on enforcement, and that "we (Malaysians) are to blame." 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Deputy Director of the Royal Malaysian Police 
Criminal Investigation Department, Acryl Sani, gave a 
generally balanced presentation, although he, like many 
Malaysian officials, confused trafficking and smuggling, and 
he made no mention of labor trafficking.  Mr. Harjit Singh 
from the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development 
said Minister Shahrizat had recently visited the Indonesian 
Embassy in KL to talk to rescued maids, most of whom claimed 
never to have been paid, some for as long as three years. 
Mr. Singh also discussed the need to address labor 
trafficking and noted that the GOM is creating its first 
men's shelter which will be run by the Immigration 
Department.  He also said that the Women's Ministry was 
setting up a hotline for maids to report abuse. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The 40 journalists in attendance were initially 
reticent but began to open up when a panel of Malaysian 
journalists discussed their own difficulties in investigating 
and reporting on TIP issues.  Hariati Azizan from "The Star" 
newspaper said that she didn't want to rely on alleged 
victims' accounts of abuse only, but had trouble getting GOM 
officials to comment on trafficking allegations.  Many 
participants echoed this complaint, a common problem for 
journalists working on any story that involves getting 
information from government officials.  Muzli Mohamed Zin, 
Executive Editor at the "Malay Mail," said he became 
determined to learn more about trafficking after he 
interviewed one of 20 young Indonesian women rescued in a 
police raid after being held for months in a warehouse, let 
out only at night by their captors to "entertain" guests at a 
karaoke bar.  He agreed with Azizan that editors who lack 
personal experience investigating trafficking stories, are 
often reluctant to place trafficking stories; a common excuse 
 
KUALA LUMP 00000934  002 OF 002 
 
 
heard is that "the stories all sound the same." 
 
¶5. (SBU) During a workshop discussion focused on 
"outsourcing" (hiring laborers from abroad to work in 
Malaysia), journalists heard from two representatives of the 
Indonesian NGO Migrant Care, who said that young semi-skilled 
Indonesian workers have become unwittingly involved in 
illicit and illegal work situations.  Many migrant workers 
sign on to work in Malaysia and travel here with legal 
documents, only to find themselves victims of human 
trafficking when their legal migration turns into an illegal 
bonded- or forced-labor situation.  They are shuttled between 
factories around Malaysia, and given work subject to the 
vagaries of demand for labor tied to the number of orders 
that factories receive.  Companies (mainly small and medium 
sized factories) participate in this practice because it 
enables them to take on semi-skilled labor easily and quickly 
when they need to add manpower, and to reduce their workforce 
just as easily when orders slow down again. 
 
¶6. (SBU) On the margins of the workshop, Tenaganita's 
Fernandez voiced her frustration that there was as yet no GOM 
response to her organization's filing of three detailed labor 
trafficking cases, starting in July, alleging that 
"outsourcing" companies, some with reported links to the Home 
Affairs ministry, are systematically bringing in large 
numbers of fee-paying workers, numbering far beyond those 
needed for legitimate job placements, and then holding the 
excess workers for "sale" to various employers.  She had met 
with Tun Majid of the Attorney General's Office about this 
issue and through his assistance, later met with Home Affairs 
officials.  She said there has been no follow-up to-date by 
the GOM since those meetings. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Joshua Wong, a journalist with the local television 
station "ntv7," investigated and produced a four-part 
television story on the trafficking of Burmese Rohingya 
refugees across the Malaysia-Thai border involving the 
collusion of Malaysian immigration officials.  His story 
aired in early 2008 on the ntv7 Chinese-language program 
"Siasat Mandarin."  Mr. Wong's presentation was one of the 
most valuable sessions of the two-day event.  His 
investigation into trafficking took several months, involved 
numerous informants and sources, and presented the journalist 
with numerous dilemmas -- such as whether or not to reveal 
his sources, the degree of risk he could take in order to get 
his story, and whether or not to show the faces of his 
sources.  He did so in the case of one refugee who insisted 
that he not remain anonymous as he was fed up with his 
treatment and wanted things to change.  Wong said that an 
Immigration Department official he interviewed warned him to 
"be patriotic" by not reporting that Immigration officials 
were complicit in trafficking, hinting that the TV station's 
license could be withdrawn.  The fact that Wong's expose 
aired only in Mandarin Chinese is notable.  His presentation 
offered many valuable lessons to his fellow journalists, and 
sparked a discussion about the role of the journalist in 
fighting human trafficking, and "how close is too close" when 
working with the police and other government officials in 
researching a story. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The workshop was funded by the Public Affairs 
Section through a grant to the Malaysian Press Institute 
(MPI), a quasi-governmental organization focused on providing 
training and skills development to journalists in Malaysia 
and the Southeast Asian region.  UNICEF staff from Bangkok 
traveled to Kuala Lumpur to participate at no charge, and the 
participation of an IOM representative from Bangkok and two 
Migrant Care representatives from Jakarta came about through 
travel grants to those individuals.  IOM's interest in being 
at the workshop stemmed from their hope that they may someday 
be able to make their presence in Malaysia official.  Senior 
level police and AG Office attendance was a surprise and came 
about in large part because of effective contact work by POL 
section and Legatt over the past several months. 
KEITH