Through the generosity of the late Professor Benedict Anderson and Ajarn Charnvit Kasetsiri, the Thammasat University Library has newly acquired an important book of interest for students of history, political science, literature, and related fields. It is part of a special bequest of over 2800 books from the personal scholarly library of Professor Benedict Anderson at Cornell University, in addition to the previous donation of books from the library of Professor Anderson at his home in Bangkok. These newly available items will be on the TU Library shelves for the benefit of our students and ajarns. This gift raises the prominence and prestige of Thammasat as a center for Asian and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) research and related subjects.
The Right To Speak Loudly: Essays on Law and Human Rights is shelved in the General Books Sections of the Charnvit Kasetsiri Room at the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus. It is by W.J. Basil Fernando and was published by the Asian Legal Resource Centre. The TU Library also owns several books about human rights in Asia and more specifically, in Sri Lanka.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) works towards reform of justice institutions in Asia, to help victims of human rights violations. As its website explains,
- The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is an NGO having General Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The ALRC was founded in 1986 by a prominent group of jurists and human rights activists in Asia. It is a body committed to the development of legal self-reliance and empowerment of people. It will place particular emphasis in its work on the areas of cultural, social and economic rights and the right of development. ALRC will work closely with and support regional, national, and local groups involved in this field, taking care, at the same time, to protect the autonomy and independence of such groups.
- The Centre will promote the development of, and support specific legal service and resource programmes promoting self-help at the local level. It will also seek to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues by the bar and other legal bodies and personnel, at local and national levels. The Centre will press, where appropriate, for the introduction and improvement of effective government legal services.
- The ALRC has done extensive work in several countries in Asia. More notable ones are: the judges’ and lawyers’ programmes conducted in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. At such meetings judges and lawyers from a particular country are brought together with other experts from the region and discussions are conducted for arriving at conclusions on what changes are to be recommended to the governments concerned…
The ALRC is the sister organization of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region, and to mobilize Asian and international public opinion to help victims of human rights violations. The ALRC is based in Hong Kong & holds general consultative status with the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations.
The AHRC and ALRC work together for structural reforms to prevent human rights abuses and promote rights. They have a community-based approach, often establishing support bases in churches and other religious groups. Democracy and the rule of law are held as ideals and founding principles. Eradicating poverty, gender equality, caste, indigenous people and minority rights are a constant concern.
Among leading ALRC programs are those educating judges and lawyers in China as well as judges, lawyers and paralegals in South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.
W.J. Basil Fernando is a Sri Lankan jurist, author, poet, and human rights activist. He was educated at St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, Sri Lanka and St. Benedict’s College, a Catholic institution located in the Kotahena area of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He earned a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Ceylon, later dissolved and replaced by four independent universities: the University of Colombo, the University of Peradeniya, University of Kelaniya (Vidyalankara University) and the University of Sri Jayawardanapura (Vidyodaya University). 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of Mr. Fernando’s work with the AHRC and ALRC.
The TU Library owns another book by Mr. Fernando, Problems Facing the Cambodian Legal System. It is shelved in the General Stacks of the Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit campus.
According to his website, his poems include a brief lyric entitled Mosquito:
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Mosquito resting on the wall
Awaiting digestion
Contemplated its own fate
Sadly.
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According to one sympathetic reader, the short life of the mosquito as mentioned in the poem has some parallels to human life.
Among his many other writings are articles for The Sri Lanka Guardian, such as this one which appeared in September 2014:
- Asia: Poverty as the Absence of Protection
The most common way is to see poverty as the absence of the most meagre of resources for living. In other words, it is the lack of a minimum income. On the basis of this perception of poverty, the solution commonly suggested is to supplement this lack of income with contributions by the state. And, the approach proffered by states, and even by the United Nations in terms of the Millennium Development Goals, in discussions on poverty alleviation, is to find ways to improve basic income needed for living.
Often missing from such poverty alleviation discourse, purely concerned with a minimum improvement of basic income, is the cost that the poor have to pay, as a result of the absence of protection. What is meant by absence of protection? This absence is the non-existence of a public justice system capable of protecting the poor from the onslaught of predators in society.
Any study that focuses on such predators of the poor is bound to produce a shocking picture of man’s inhumanity to man. There are a large number of forces that scavenge from a poor man’s income and resources for their enrichment. The role of moneylenders who extract high rates of interests from the poor is well known. What is often not discussed is the way a “bad system” of administration of justice can create an ever greater burden on the poor.
The police, in many developing countries, rely on the poor for supplementing police officers income. This is a known fact. The power of arrest is often utilized as a means to force the poor to pay bribes to law enforcement agencies. Years of work at the Asian Human Rights Commission, in 12 Asian countries, has resulted in the collation of a body of information on the ways the poor are harassed by law enforcement agencies. When poor persons are arrested, often for no good reason, their close circle of family members and friends are forced to bribe the police and security agents, in cash or kind to obtain their release and to ensure that they will not be tortured in custody. Often, the way in which the poor pay such bribes is by borrowing money on high rates of interest or by selling whatever few possessions they may own.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)