Benevolence Defined - Published January 2008
Ask most Malaysians about their thoughts on Marina Mahathir and they will usually reply in glowing terms of her refreshingly fair liberalism, her intelligence, her opinionated stance and her drive to create awareness for a number of serious issues in this country. A lady who doesn't mince her words but instead is more interested in getting to the root cause of a situation and highlighting it.
A journalist with an almost 18 year old bi-weekly column in a national Malaysian newspaper, Marina compiled some of her articles into book form and released 'In Liberal Doses' in which she expressed her thoughts and opinions on things mainly related to life in Malaysia. 'In Liberal Doses' has garnered strong support internationally since it was published in 1997. Apart from that Marina has also worked in a publishing capacity by assisting in the production of several Malaysian and ASEAN coffee table photography books. Marina also worked on developing and producing an award winning television program '3 R - Respect, Relax and Respond' and she was co-producer of Malaysian film 'Gol & Gincu' (Goalposts and Lipsticks).
Taking into account that she is the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad, one would never get any inkling of this in her published writings. A mild exception to this however can be found on her personal blog, Rantings With Marina Mahathir, in which she speaks of her father in warm tones especially during Tun Mahathir's recent heart bypass surgery. Marina updated her blog regularly and ensured that readers were kept abreast on her father's recovery every step of the way. While she clearly places a high value on filial love and respect, Marina is very much her own person and it resonates loudly. It would be easy to be overwhelmed living under the shadow of a greatly respected and iconic man as well as equally revered Tun Dr Siti Hasmah, a pioneer female doctor in then Malaya, Marina carves a nice, clean niche with her brand of thinking.
Even though Marina is better known for her strong support of the AIDS awareness movement, women's rights and violence against women are also high on her list. Marina is a member of the Women's Aid Organization which is a shelter for abused and battered women and children, as well as supporting Sisters In Islam, an organization that seeks out justice for Muslim women. She is also a member of the National Women’s Advisory Council that meets with the government on topics relating to women's rights and issues. In 2006 she was featured in a Malaysian book entitled 'SHE', that focuses on women who have thrived in their various fields of work. In that same year Marina was featured on the cover of Newsweek as one of the world's eight leading women that deal with different aspects of life in truly outstanding ways.
* COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND?
I did my early schooling up to Form 3 at St Nicholas' Convent in Alor Setar, Kedah. After that I spent two years at Tunku Kurshiah College, Seremban, before going to the UK to do my A Levels. Then I did my BA (Hons) in International Relations at the University of Sussex, Brighton.
* WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME THIS COUNTRY'S BEST KNOWN AND MOST RESPECTED SOCIAL ACTIVIST?
I don't know if I'm the best-known and most respected but I really became an AIDS activist by accident. I hadn't set out to do it but when I was made Chair of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation in 1993, I realized that few people understood what AIDS was all about and they had many myths and prejudices about it. So I set about to educate myself so that I could educate them. In the course of that, becoming frustrated with the response to what is essentially a preventable epidemic, I became an activist.
* YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY PRESIDENT OF THE MALAYSIAN AIDS COUNCIL. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY POSITIVE CHANGES TOWARDS HIV IN THE LAST 10 YEARS IN MALAYSIA?
I was President from 1993-2005. I think the most positive general change is the level of awareness that AIDS is among us in Malaysia, that we are not spared. That doesn't mean that people are necessarily better educated about it because the stigma and prejudice about HIV/AIDS still exist. But at least we have gotten the Government to allocate more money towards HIV/AIDS programmes and particularly to give almost free treatment to those who need it in the Government hospitals. Also, quite incredibly, we now have methadone replacement therapy and needle exchange programmes in this country for the prevention of HIV among injecting drug users, which only a few years ago would have been unimaginable. All this wasn't just my work but also my colleagues at MAC, including Prof Dr AdeebaKamarulzaman, my successor as President.
* WHAT ARE THE REOCCURRING PROBLEMS FACED WHEN DEALING WITH HIV IN MALAYSIA?
The most recurring problem is probably denial, an unwillingness to face up to the realities of people's lives, especially from bureaucrats and other policymakers. It is no use talking about abstinence, for instance, when wives are unable to be abstinent and are extremely vulnerable to infection from their own husbands. People are unwilling to do the very tough work of thinking out strategies and programmes for different types of people, instead of a one-size-fits-all strategy. We also have so little knowledge about our epidemic, and are so unwilling to learn from others. We could have predicted years ago that the female partners and wives of HIV+ drug users will be the next lot to get infected and done something about that. But we didn't so now that's exactly where we are seeing the rise in infections.
Furthermore things can change quickly and we need to be sensitive to that and change strategies just as quickly. You need different strategies for big countries and for small countries. Right now the worst hit country, with over 2% prevalence, is Papua New Guinea, which is a small but very poor country. Indonesia is a very large country but it has pockets of the epidemic, for example in West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), which is very serious. In the last 10 years, the drug problem in Indonesia has increased and with it the HIV problem.
* THE AIDS EPIDEMIC APPEARS TO BE SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL IN ASIA. ARE THERE ASPECTS OF IT THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED URGENTLY?A journalist with an almost 18 year old bi-weekly column in a national Malaysian newspaper, Marina compiled some of her articles into book form and released 'In Liberal Doses' in which she expressed her thoughts and opinions on things mainly related to life in Malaysia. 'In Liberal Doses' has garnered strong support internationally since it was published in 1997. Apart from that Marina has also worked in a publishing capacity by assisting in the production of several Malaysian and ASEAN coffee table photography books. Marina also worked on developing and producing an award winning television program '3 R - Respect, Relax and Respond' and she was co-producer of Malaysian film 'Gol & Gincu' (Goalposts and Lipsticks).
Taking into account that she is the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad, one would never get any inkling of this in her published writings. A mild exception to this however can be found on her personal blog, Rantings With Marina Mahathir, in which she speaks of her father in warm tones especially during Tun Mahathir's recent heart bypass surgery. Marina updated her blog regularly and ensured that readers were kept abreast on her father's recovery every step of the way. While she clearly places a high value on filial love and respect, Marina is very much her own person and it resonates loudly. It would be easy to be overwhelmed living under the shadow of a greatly respected and iconic man as well as equally revered Tun Dr Siti Hasmah, a pioneer female doctor in then Malaya, Marina carves a nice, clean niche with her brand of thinking.
Even though Marina is better known for her strong support of the AIDS awareness movement, women's rights and violence against women are also high on her list. Marina is a member of the Women's Aid Organization which is a shelter for abused and battered women and children, as well as supporting Sisters In Islam, an organization that seeks out justice for Muslim women. She is also a member of the National Women’s Advisory Council that meets with the government on topics relating to women's rights and issues. In 2006 she was featured in a Malaysian book entitled 'SHE', that focuses on women who have thrived in their various fields of work. In that same year Marina was featured on the cover of Newsweek as one of the world's eight leading women that deal with different aspects of life in truly outstanding ways.
* COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND?
I did my early schooling up to Form 3 at St Nicholas' Convent in Alor Setar, Kedah. After that I spent two years at Tunku Kurshiah College, Seremban, before going to the UK to do my A Levels. Then I did my BA (Hons) in International Relations at the University of Sussex, Brighton.
* WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME THIS COUNTRY'S BEST KNOWN AND MOST RESPECTED SOCIAL ACTIVIST?
I don't know if I'm the best-known and most respected but I really became an AIDS activist by accident. I hadn't set out to do it but when I was made Chair of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation in 1993, I realized that few people understood what AIDS was all about and they had many myths and prejudices about it. So I set about to educate myself so that I could educate them. In the course of that, becoming frustrated with the response to what is essentially a preventable epidemic, I became an activist.
* YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY PRESIDENT OF THE MALAYSIAN AIDS COUNCIL. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY POSITIVE CHANGES TOWARDS HIV IN THE LAST 10 YEARS IN MALAYSIA?
I was President from 1993-2005. I think the most positive general change is the level of awareness that AIDS is among us in Malaysia, that we are not spared. That doesn't mean that people are necessarily better educated about it because the stigma and prejudice about HIV/AIDS still exist. But at least we have gotten the Government to allocate more money towards HIV/AIDS programmes and particularly to give almost free treatment to those who need it in the Government hospitals. Also, quite incredibly, we now have methadone replacement therapy and needle exchange programmes in this country for the prevention of HIV among injecting drug users, which only a few years ago would have been unimaginable. All this wasn't just my work but also my colleagues at MAC, including Prof Dr AdeebaKamarulzaman, my successor as President.
* WHAT ARE THE REOCCURRING PROBLEMS FACED WHEN DEALING WITH HIV IN MALAYSIA?
The most recurring problem is probably denial, an unwillingness to face up to the realities of people's lives, especially from bureaucrats and other policymakers. It is no use talking about abstinence, for instance, when wives are unable to be abstinent and are extremely vulnerable to infection from their own husbands. People are unwilling to do the very tough work of thinking out strategies and programmes for different types of people, instead of a one-size-fits-all strategy. We also have so little knowledge about our epidemic, and are so unwilling to learn from others. We could have predicted years ago that the female partners and wives of HIV+ drug users will be the next lot to get infected and done something about that. But we didn't so now that's exactly where we are seeing the rise in infections.
Furthermore things can change quickly and we need to be sensitive to that and change strategies just as quickly. You need different strategies for big countries and for small countries. Right now the worst hit country, with over 2% prevalence, is Papua New Guinea, which is a small but very poor country. Indonesia is a very large country but it has pockets of the epidemic, for example in West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), which is very serious. In the last 10 years, the drug problem in Indonesia has increased and with it the HIV problem.
As the numbers of people moving around Asia is very great, there needs to be tremendous cooperation between countries on HIV. It's not a matter of testing migrant workers and deporting them; that's akin to sweeping things under the market. It's a matter of ensuring that each and every person who travels to another country is aware of HIV/AIDS and what they need to do to protect themselves. That's not easy when there are so many different cultures and languages, when it is difficult to reach some workers e.g. female domestic workers and where there are also huge numbers of illegals. It really doesn't help also when politicians stoke up prejudices against foreign workers by making unfounded statements that they are walking around full of disease.
* COULD YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE NGO SISTERS IN ISLAM AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?
I have been a supporter of SIS since they were founded because I think they do excellent work in highlighting that Islam upholds justice and equality for Muslim women. For some reason, there are people who think this is wrong. Yet it is people like SIS that gives a good impression of Islam to the non-Muslim world, particularly in the West where there is so much prejudice about Muslims in general and myths about Muslim women in particular.
* DO YOU HAVE ANY INPUT OR SUGGESTIONS ON THE WORK DONE BY NGO'S IN SABAH? ARE THERE AREAS THAT COULD BE IMPROVED?
I can't say that I know a lot about what NGOs are doing in Sabah. But if they have the interests of the community and the most marginalized at heart, and they always take into account the needs of those communities, as the communities themselves see them, then they should be doing OK.
* WORK-WISE WHAT IS ON THE CALENDAR FOR 2008?
I'm still working out what I want to do this year and rationalize my travelling so that I'm not away too much, especially on work. I have some AIDS meetings to attend in New Delhi and in Barcelona in the first half of the year in my capacity as a member of the International Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV and Development (APLF), a high-level advocacy and leadership organization.
I am assisting the Indonesians in organizing the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali in 2009 so I should be travelling to Indonesia a lot. Apart from that there are several conferences on women which I hope to attend.
Marina has a lot to say. And Malaysians are clearly listening. It is evident that a large number of us could do with taking a page out of her book. Visit Marina at : http://www.rantingsbymm.blogspot.com.
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