A number of women lawmakers in Malaysia have taken to social media to voice their disgust over the lack of action taken by local authorities towards the morally vile practice of baby-trafficking.
This is Al Jazeera's documentary. Not some UMNO owned media channel kind of reporting. Face it & change it. Not deny it. https://t.co/pNumqdN8L4
— Hannah Yeoh (@hannahyeoh) November 29, 2016
In April this year, I have already raised up this issue in Parliament. Sex workers are used as "baby factories",… https://t.co/OEsMLsd1YU
— Nie Ching Teo (@TeoNieChing) November 26, 2016
The head of police, Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar, insisted that it was “not that easy” to buy and sell babies as depicted in the documentary, and denied that Malaysia was a “hub” for selling babies.
Malaysia is one of the most prominent nations for human trafficking in Asia, for which it had earned a place on the U.S State Department’s Trafficking in Person report.
IGP can’t be idle about baby-selling syndicates https://t.co/siZEMBMwB0 pic.twitter.com/4qjw6xZ3QN
— FMT News (@fmtoday) November 26, 2016
Investigate all the involved parties too. This has been going on for over 15 years in Malaysia.
No need to be defensive. Admit and rectify https://t.co/QSzXKaUGiV— Kasthuri Patto (@KasthuriPatto) November 30, 2016
Critically, this issue has not surfaced on international media, but has instead been the subject of debate in local media as well as in Parliament. The Al-Jazeera documentary it appears, has managed to trigger a reaction, albeit a defensive one, from the government.
Malaysia not baby-selling hub – IGP @KBAB51 https://t.co/4pUsSk73bZ pic.twitter.com/9b0DRxxsGT
— BERNAMA (@bernamadotcom) November 27, 2016
Even members of the government called on the police to take (long overdue) action:
Women's Ministry calls for meeting, says baby-selling syndicate allegation is a wake-up call for all @hjhrohanikarimhttps://t.co/DYSemY3OaK pic.twitter.com/MpLoig0fzS
— New Straits Times (@NST_Online) November 27, 2016
UPDATE: The police have reacted to the documentary’s release by questioning the Al-Jazeera journalists, and has conducted raids on facilities in the video (see below). But as the documentary shows, the deeply entrenched network of corruption does not end with a few police raids.
See original al-Jazeera documentary here
