Is the Human Rights Situation in Malaysia Deteriorating?

 

Today is Sunday and with the cold weather after the rain I suppose everyone would love to sleep until 8a.m. or even 9 a.m. That was what I used to do. But at 6.38 a.m., when there was pindrop silence everywhere in the neighbourhood, I was already waken up by Yarl Restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise. What I mean by 'pindrop' silence is that the entire neighbourhood was so quiet that you could even hear a pin drop but this quietness was destroyed suddenly by yarl restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise. The loud and deafening kitchen hood noise that you hear so suddenly at the moment the kitchen hood is turned on can really make anyone jump and if I were suffering from a heart attack, I could have died. I find it totally useless to cover my ears with two big pillows because the kitchen hood noise can still be heard extremely loudly even with two big pillows on my ear. Maybe it's because noise can travel easily through solid materials. Since yesterday was Saturday, I took my kids out to have some fun and returned home at 10.30 p.m. I suppose there is nothing wrong returning home at 10.30 p.m. on a Saturday night. But with yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise waking everyone up early in the morning, there is something terrible wrong. The first thing we did was to quickly get ready for bed knowing that we will not get enough sleep if we sleep late because yarl restaurant will wake everyone up early every morning with its loud and deafening kitchen hood to celebrate the beginning of each new day! And just because we returned home at 10.30 p.m. last night and only managed to go to bed at 11.30 p.m., we have to endure sleepiness and tiredness for the whole day today because yarl restaurant started operation at 6.38 a.m today. And here I am writing another article about my rights as an ordinary citizen in Malaysia.

Why am I writing this article? I am grieving because I am feeling sleepy and can't sleep and the luxury of sleeping until 8 a.m. on Sundays (something I used to look forward to last time) is no more. For yarl restaurant's victims, to wake up at 8.00 a.m. is indeed a great luxury - something which we can never have and something which all the treasure on earth cannot buy. Is the human rights situation in Malaysia deteriorating? How should I answer this question? Well, all I can say here is I don't have the right to sleep 8 hours a day and can't even decide when to sleep and when to wake up. I can't even enter my own bedroom during my waking hours and if I were adamant to stay in the room, I will end up with brain tremors.  Yarl restaurant's noisy and deafening kitchen hood is also interfering with my prayers. If you were given 7 hours (or less) to sleep, who will think of spending some of this precious time to pray? And of course, taking an afternoon nap is no longer possible now. For those of you who enjoy watching football till the wee hours of the morning, you'll know how painful it is to be prevented from doing so because you must wake up early and must sleep as soon as yarl restaurant turns of its kitchen hood. All these restrictions imposed on me by yarl restaurant is a gross violation of human rights!

Here I would like to share an article about a professional pianist facing seven years in jail after noise complaint from former neighbor. This pianist only played the piano 8 hours a day and music from the piano is not disturbing but she is facing seven years in jail. If what I hear is just piano music that goes on for 8 hours a day I wouldn't mind because music sounds good and it doesn't cause brain tremors. 8 hours of piano music a day is nothing compared to yarl restaurant's loud and deafening motor noise from the kitchen hood that goes on for about 17 hours a day. The kitchen hood noise is definitely more disturbing and much. much louder than the piano. If  the pianist can be jailed for 7 years, then yarl restaurant's boss should be jailed twice that number of years because his noise pollution activities are much more serious than the pianist's. Apart from polluting the entire neighbourhood with deafening noise, he also pollutes the air with curry particles. My bedroom is filled with curry smell from yarl restaurant's kitchen and so is my living room. How come yarl restaurant can operate 17 hours a day with its noisy and deafening kitchen hood intruding into everyone's sleep and its curry particles going into people's bedrooms and living rooms but no action is taken by the Malaysian government to stop this nuisance? Does it mean that it is alright for the Malaysian citizens to suffer the consequences of noise pollution such as lack of sleep, health deterioration and even death?

Many complaints have been made to the City Council (Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, DBKL) and the Department of Environment (DOE). But what action has been taken by them so far? Nothing. It seems that the DBKL and the DOE are playing a football game. DBKL kicked the case to DOE and DOE kicked it back to them and until today nothing is done. So it seems that Yarl restaurant's boss has become the king of this area and is doing whatever he wants without constraints. It's indeed a shame to have a big bully here and no one can do anything to him. This is obviously a clear indication of the failure of the Malaysian Legal System. Is this what we call Malaysian integrity?

Professional pianist faces seven years in jail after noise complaint from former neighbour

12 Nov 2013 11:12

Laia Martin could be locked up and banned from playing piano if found guilty of noise pollution and causing "psychiatric injury"

Jail threat: Pianist Laia Martin

EL Pais TV

A professional pianist is facing the threat of JAIL following a noise complaint by a former neighbour.
Laia Martin, 28, is standing trial charged with noise pollution and causing "psychiatric injury" by practicing for up to eight hours a day for four years.
If found guilty, the Spaniard could be jailed for up to seven-and-a-half years as well as being banned from playing her favourite instrument for four years.
Miss Martin, currently studying a masters degree in Italy, went on trial  yesterday at a court in Girona, north east Spain, along with her plumber dad Luis and mum Isabel.
The unnamed neighbour claims she had to take time off work because of the noise and ended up moving.
State prosecutors say a ban on Miss Martin playing piano would be fair because in her case it can be considered "an instrument of crime."