Looking Forward as To Who The Next New Councillors

All of us at the Independent Living and Training Centre are eagerly looking forward as to who the next new councillors will be, especially those representing people with disabilities.

The names are scheduled to be announced at any time now. All councillors lose their post on Tuesday, next week, and the new ones will be sworn-in on Wednesday.

We strongly support Anthony SB Thanasayan, the president of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and the Elderly Association (PETPOSITIVE) to be reinstated for the third time as councillor for the city of Petaling Jaya in Selangor.

We support his candidacy because in two short years he has succeeded to bring about remarkable changes for the disabled in PJ. In fact, he has achieved much, much more than all the disabled groups in PJ have managed to do in years.

Meanwhile, we at ILTC have learnt that there is a very desperate attempt by a disabled woman to try and get his place as councillor. Also a resident of PJ, she apparently has been eyeing Thanasayan's seat since last year.

Sources told us that she tried her best to lobby all of Pakatan's politicians and even the Datuk Bandar and the Chief Minister to try and get Thanasayan out. However, she failed miserably in her attempts.

This year, she is trying to do the same through very low down and unscrupulous means. Professing to be a champion for women with disabilities, she has been promoting the "disabled woman" ticket to try and get Thanasayan out.

In her blog, she has suggested that Thanasayan is moving to Klang instead of staying put in MBPJ. Her latest lie is a clear demonstration of how low this woman will stoop and to what extent just to destroy a good councillor's reputation.

However, the fact is the woman concerned is a failure herself. Despite being in the disability field for nearly two decades, she has done squat to help disabled Malaysians in all that time.

Instead, using the "disabled cause" she shamefully only bettered herself rather than the people she was meant to help. She traveled around the world to disability conferences (so that she can visit countries) and never did anything to help the disabled in Malaysia.

In addition to enjoying free overseas travels, she has also won several awards with cash prize money for herself instead of disqualifying herself from such privileges and allowing the ordinary members to take part in the benefits.

In fact, disabled groups have protested against her for denying memberships in an organisation in which she was in for many years. She has done nothing to change the plight of the disabled in all that time.

She is loathed by many disability groups and many of them want to have nothing to do with her. She is an utter disappointment and disgrace to the disabled struggle and community.

It is for these reasons why we at the ILTC are strongly opposed of her ever becoming a councillor for the Pakatan Government.

The disabled community have waited too long for changes and we will not sit idly by as hypocrites like these are allowed to be appointed and disrupt any chances for the disabled community to come up in life.

We are quite prepared to hold a public demonstration against her and the people who put her there if she is selected as a councillor. There are enough hypocrites already holding high positions without an extra one being added on the list, especially a disabled one.

On another note, we are anxiously looking at Selayang to see if a disabled councillor will be appointed there since a disabled councillor was replaced by an able-bodied representative a year ago.

Many of the projects proposed by the then disabled councillor have not been followed up and thus it is crucial that a handicapped councillor be put into Selayang to carry out the disabled-friendly plans in the municipality.

From,

Mr. Francis Siva

President of ILTC, Malaysia

FLASHBACK - A TRIBUTE TO LATE MOORTHY MANIAM

FLASHBACK - A TRIBUTE TO LATE MOORTHY MANIAM

Late Moorthy Maniam is a national hero. He had been a member of the Independent Living & Training Centre (ILTC) and also Malaysian team that had climbed Mount Everest.

Moorthy became quadriplegic (paralysed from the neck down) in1998 as a result of an accident in the Sungai Udang Military Camp.

On 11th November 2005, Moorthy fell from his wheelchair, injured his head and went into a coma. He did not recover and passed away on 20th December 2005.

In January 2005, Moorthy took part in the Thaipusam festival in Batu Caves by carrying a ‘paalkudam’ (or milk pot) and shaving his hair. He was apparently carried up the 256 steps of the Sri Subramaniar Temple at Batu Caves in his wheelchair by RELA volunteers.

Long way to go for the disabled

Monday June 28, 2010

Long way to go for the disabled
By PRIYA MENON
priya@thestar.com.my

TO an able-bodied person, the so-called toilets for the disabled in Malaysian buildings may seem appropriate for the elderly and the disabled. The truth is most of the facilities are actually far from adequate.

For many years, the disabled community have had to put up with the lack of tolerance the society has shown them. They live in the shadows and come out only when necessary wearing adult diapers to cope throughout the day.

All this because the toilets have not been built to accommodate their needs, forcing them to rush home every time.

Easy does it: Guards helping Francis down the stairs after a futile attempt to check toilets for the disabled at the MBPJ swimming pool.

“Most buildings have toilets for the disabled on only one floor in the entire building compared with the other toilets.

“It is ironic actually, they ensure that disabled visitors look all over the place for the toilet while the able-bodied are able to walk into any toilet at their convenience,” Malaysian Animal Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association president Anthony Thanayasan said.

According to Anthony, many of the disabled have weak bladders and bowels, forcing them to visit the toilets more often than others.

He added that wearing diapers for too long could also lead to urinary tract infections, one of the top killers for the disabled.

Independent Living and Training Centre presidnt Francis Silva said many of the disabled were ashamed to leave their homes due to the lack of toilet facilities.

“We have been put in embarrassing situations many times. I was invited to a function where no toilets for the disabled were provided. After searching for more than an hour, I found one and had to lie down on the floor to proceed with my task,” he said.

For both Anthony, who is paralysed from the waist down, and Francis, who is paralysed from neck down, some of the most horrible toilets for the disabled are in government buildings.

Aghast: Anthony (right) and Francis were livid to find a shower curtain being used as the ‘door’ for a toilet for the disabled at the Social Welfare Department.

“They build toilets with outdated specifications from the Public Works Department. None of them can be used in this day and age,” Anthony said during a spot check to several locations in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur.

The first stop was the Petaling Jaya City Council’s (MBPJ) Civic Centre where the toilets were not up to par, but proved to be better than the rest of the toilets seen that day.

The next stop was the MBPJ Swimming Pool in Kelana Jaya. His first step into the centre proved to be difficult as there were no ramps to assist the wheelchair-bound Francis. The guards and officers had to carry him into the lobby but Francis had to give up on his check after coming to a second set of stairs leading to the pools and the toilets.

“There are no ramps for us to move freely into this building. Swimming is a great therapy for the disabled and yet they have deprived us of this facility,” Francis said.

The team then headed to the Pusat Bandar Damansara National Registration and Immi-gration departments and were shocked to note that no toilet facilities for the disabled could be found. When asked, a cleaner said the disabled toilet was located several blocks away.

Tight squeeze: Francis faced difficulty getting into the toilets at the Civic Centre in PJ.

From there, they moved on to the KL Social Welfare Department at the Grand Seasons Avenue in Jalan Pahang.

Anthony and Francis were livid to find a shower curtain being used as the door of toilet for the disabled. According to an official from the department who declined to be named, they could not renovate the toilets because they were only tenants and proper toilets were available on the ground floor. While this was true, Francis argued that the older generation and the disabled were forced to come down nine floors to use the toilet.

“Toilets for the disabled in Malaysia should have several things, including a sliding door, space, a toilet bowl with the right height, a siren, an emergency bell pull, the mirror at a lower angle and proper flush handles,” added Anthony, who is also an MBPJ councillor.

He added that the toilets should be built after consulting a disabled person who is knowledgeable and the toilets should be built for those with profound disabilities in mind.

Over the years, they have been fed with many excuses and both believe the excuses can no longer be accepted.

“Anyone can become disabled one day. They think it is only a small community but according to research by the United Nations, by the year 2035, 10% of the world population will be the elderly and, by 2040, there will be more elderly than children,” Anthony said.

Francis added that the government needed to look into these facilities, especially in key government offices and areas like hospitals and police stations.

“The planning should be done now for the future in order to accommodate the growing number of disabled and the elderly,” he said.