These priority issues are: 1. The Royal Malaysian Police maintain internal security and report to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Digital 2022: Malaysia DataReportal - Global Digital Insights Informal Sector: As of 2019 more than one million workers were considered to be in the nonagricultural informal sector. Malaysia's political news continued to be a key agenda in the media last year, following a series of continuous and rapid political developments that took place in 2020. Back to Malaysia MALAYSIA 2021. Due to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to -3.5% in 2020 and -6.5% in 2021 of the country's Gross Domestic Product (Ministry of Finance Malaysia, 2022). Representatives of SUHAKAM asserted that the government was reluctant to engage with them, making implementation of reforms impossible. SUHAKAM urged the government to reconsider its decision to impose heavier punishments for offenses associated with the LGBTQI+ community. State religious authorities reportedly forced LGBTQI+ persons to participate in conversion therapy, treatment, or rehabilitation programs to cure them of their sexuality. Malaysia's polarizing divides remain dominant and seem entrenched. Access to those in detention centers was often significantly limited. Child labor occurred in some family businesses. Television stations censored programming to follow government guidelines. Environmental Issues in Malaysia: Suggestion to Impose Carbon Tax Of the total, 30 percent were physical and sexual abuse. In October the minister of home affairs reported that 374 individuals were detained under security legislation from January 1 through September 30. In September the High Court ruled that mothers who are citizens have the right to confer citizenship to their children born overseas on an equal basis with men who are citizens, but the government appealed the decision. As there is no legal framework for dealing with refugees and asylum seekers in the country, UNHCR conducted all activities related to protection, including registration and status determination. There were scattered reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, mostly in the prison system. Top Social Causes That Singaporeans Cared About in 2020 The Malaysian Bar Council strongly criticized the immigration courts in detention centers as facilitating a legal process where migrant workers were not provided with a clear understanding of the charges against them in their own language and were effectively denied the right to legal counsel. The law does not prohibit discrimination with respect to race, religion, national origin, color, sex, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, HIV or AIDS status, or refugee status in employment and hiring; the director general of labor may investigate discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment for both foreign and local employees. SUHAKAM continued its public inquiry, suspended for six months in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, into the 2016 disappearance of Christian converts Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife, Ruth Sitepu. National Security: Authorities often cited national security laws to restrict media distribution of material critical of government policies and public officials. Top social issues people in Singapore cared about in 2021 In May the National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia, the Centre for Independent Journalism, and Gerakan Media Merdeka issued a statement in response to five incidents where authorities questioned and investigated journalists early in the year. 5 Social Issues In Malaysia. There were no reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities. The government has yet to release the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) set up in 2019 to investigate mass graves found in remote jungle camps on the Thai-Malaysian border in 2015. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, a. On November 1, Kelantans Sharia Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019 came into force, criminalizing 24 new offenses applying to Muslims. The law permits police to arrest and detain individuals for some offenses without a warrant, even outside situations of a crime in progress or other urgent circumstances. Employers did not respect laws on wages and working hours. It has been identified that the leading causes for homelessness are unemployment, poverty, old age and abandonment, . A consortium of NGOs released a formal report in 2018 detailing irregularities in the election, including vote buying, the use of public funds for partisan activity, and allegations of biased behavior by public officials. In 2020 the NGO Womens Aid Organization reported that 9 percent of women who had ever been in a relationship experienced domestic violence and such violence was symptomatic of a deeper problem: gender inequality. A November report by the organization found that 53 percent of respondents believed domestic violence was a normal reaction to stress or frustration, and 43 percent believed a woman could so anger a man that he hit her without meaning to, suggesting a culture deeming such violence acceptable when perceived as an emotional gesture, or in the event the victim has behaved in a way that triggers the abuse. In Penang State, police as of July recorded a 35 percent increase in domestic-violence cases compared to 2020. Authorities do not register children born to illegal immigrants or asylum seekers. The government, however, also acted against some human rights defenders and NGOs. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum two years imprisonment, a fine, or both. The government confirmed in September 2020 that Malaysia will not entertain requests from China to extradite Uyghur refugees and will allow them safe passage to third countries. The sentences for subsequent convictions are fines and up to three months in jail. Our findings reveal that the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and perpetrator is 13.7% and 3.8%, respectively. The law does not recognize marital rape as a crime. Community of Ethical Hackers Needed to Prevent AI's Looming 'crisis of Trust . Vinaiyagars death in police custody was the tenth since January. According to various statistics, the unemployment peak in April 2021 reached over 12.7% in the United States. A group of civil society organizations later reported that on the day of the protest, roadblocks, closure of the public square where protesters were gathering, police crowding, and ostentatious surveillance, including by drones and a helicopter, obstructed the publics freedom of expression and assembly.. If a unions recognition request was approved, the employer sometimes challenged the decision in court, leading to multiyear delays in recognizing unions. According to the International Press Institute, the nationwide state of emergency declared in January to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, postponing parliamentary sittings and elections while banning interstate travel and imposing restrictions on media, posed a grave threat to press freedom and freedom of expression. In March the government enacted an emergency ordinance prohibiting the spread of fake news related to COVID-19 and the state of emergency declaration with heavy fines, three years in prison, or both for violations. On June 3, Umar Faruq Abdullah, a truck driver, died at the Southern Klang District police headquarters in Selangor State, a day after police arrested him for stealing a gas cylinder. According to Abdul Rahman Hamid (2015), drug abuse issues in Malaysia is still trouble matter even though it is . In September Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin announced that everyone in the country was eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine regardless of documentation status, but many remained skeptical. A March 2021 ASEAN Today article revealed that Malaysia is experiencing an increase in mental health problems, which the existence of COVID-19 may be exacerbating. Sedition and criminal defamation laws led to self-censorship by local internet content sources, including bloggers, news providers, and activists. The law provides citizens the ability to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on universal and equal suffrage. I appreciated the structure and the various pcs of information, Student ID:0303558T. Despite strong objections by opposition political parties and civil society, in 2018 the former Barisan Nasional coalition government approved redrawn parliamentary districts that critics contended unfairly advantaged Barisan Nasional through gerrymandering and malapportionment. Estimates were as high as 30 percent of the workforce. The old saying "the rich keep getting rich" rings true in the United States. In June human rights organizations protested an illustration posted on social media by the National Task Force, a government unit charged with tightening border controls, that showed armed security officials and navy ships surrounding a boat, captioned, Rohingya migrants, your arrival is not welcome. In response to complaints, Minister of Home Affairs Hamzah Zainudin declared he believed most Malaysians were concerned that the huge number of refugees who made Malaysia their destination of choice might lead to various social ills. In turn migrant rights activist Adrian Pereira of the NGO North South Initiative expressed fear of what the governments portrayal of the Rohingya could lead to, especially after the surge of online hate against that community in 2020. Malaysia has since experienced other economic fallouts, such as the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, but its effects were comparatively small, with only a drop of 1.5 per cent in GDP. Police may use certain preventive detention laws to detain persons suspected of terrorism, organized crime, gang activity, and trafficking in drugs or persons without a warrant or judicial review for two-year terms, renewable indefinitely. Laws prohibit such actions; nevertheless, authorities sometimes infringed on citizens privacy. Labor union representatives noted that recruiting agents in the countries of origin and locally sometimes imposed high fees, making migrant workers vulnerable to debt bondage.