Book-loving blind activist fights for the disabled
1 comments Geraldine Tong Published 5 Jun 2016, 12:01 pm Updated 5 Jun 2016, 4:20 pm
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Mohd Rosli Ibrahim spent his childhood in a small village in Kelantan playing with elastic bands and climbing trees, just like all the other children in his village.
Yet the other children often teased and derided him, because Rosli was born blind.
But Rosli gave as good as he got, he admitted to Malaysiakini, as he usually got into fights with the other children when they teased him.
"When I was young, I was teased all the time. I got into fights, until our noses bled, and I won," he recalled with a laugh at the interview at his house.
Of course, this did not earn him many friends, and he was quite lonely as a child, even after he started school at Pasir Mas, Kelantan.
The loneliness and boredom were part of what set him down the path of a lifelong love for books, he said.
Huge collection
The 43-year-old father of four now lives in Wangsa Maju, where he keeps his huge collection of books.
In one of the rooms, there are stacks upon stacks of books pushed up against the wall, some of them as high as chest-level.
Most of the books are on philosophy, theology and history, and he said he begun collecting books since the 80s.
"My favourite is probably ‘Tahafut Al-Falasifah' (‘The Incoherence of the Philosophers’) by Al-Ghazali.
"I first read it when I was in Form 2, but I didn't understand it at all then. Now I understand it more.
"If people want to borrow it, I won't let them, but you can take pictures," he said.
Against another wall, there are shelves filled with more books and an entire row of bound Quran in Braille.
Across from that, there are more shelves with neat stacks of newspapers, filled all the way to the top of each shelf.
It is evident that Rosli is a voracious reader.
With the help of his very limited sight, Rosli can read what he calls 'sighted' books, by holding the book very close to his eyes.
Though he is now an extremely avid reader, he could not read at all his first two years at school in Pasir Mas, he said.
Coming from a poor family with an illiterate father, it wasn't until the whole village chipped in financially that the family managed to send him to a special needs school in Johor Baru.
That opened up a whole new world for him, he said, as it was the first time in his life he met others who were also blind.
Back in school in Kelantan, he had no friends and nothing to do, but at the new school, he began to enjoy it a lot, learning both the Braille alphabet and sighted alphabet.
Browsing at roadside stalls
His love for books followed him into secondary school, when he entered St John's Institution in Bukit Nanas.
He said he used to browse the books longingly at roadside stalls by Masjid Jamek then.
"(Back then) if my family gave me RM20 (allowance), I would spend all RM20 on books," he said.
In an effort to spread his love for books, Rosli started a blog called The Reading Group Malaysia and a Facebook group called Bacaan Liar (Wild Readings).
The Reading Group is an effort by him to archive his books as he doesn't want them, especially the older books, to be lost to history.
Meanwhile, in Bacaan Liar, the group gathers pdf versions of any book they can find and share it with the group so anyone can download them.
"I want to incite people to read the books. We want to make people fear books less.
"I want to espouse the idea that anyone can read whatever books they want," he explained.
This includes banned books, which he owns a number of.
When asked what his favourite banned book is, he almost immediately cited the Indonesian translation of Karen Armstrong's ‘A History of God’.
Two books published
But disseminating books to the masses wasn't enough for Rosli, who has now published two books with a third one coming soon.
His first book titled ‘OKU Bangkit’ was more academic in nature, and discussed things like disability studies in Malaysia, which he said is still almost non-existent.
‘Gelap Mata’, his second book, was more autobiographical, he said, and it also discussed the experiences of disabled people in Malaysia.
"It is a statement, a rebellion, a call for society to listen to us and our dissatisfaction about what we have to experience. (I wrote the book because) I wanted to express my feelings.
"Why does society treat the disabled like animals sometimes, like non-humans, like we are not given the right to life," he said.
His third book, which he hopes will come out after this Hari Raya, will be called ‘Masyarakat Cantik’ and he said in it, he criticises hudud.
"When someone has their hand cut off, after they becomes disabled, how do we provide social advocacy for them? If their property is confiscated, what will their family eat?
"Is religion for God or for the people?" he questioned.
Avid activist
Aside from books, Rosli is also a vocal activist for the disabled, being a part of the activist group OKU Bangkit.
His first foray into activism came on 17 March 2012, the day OKU Bangkit submitted a memorandum to human rights commission Suhakam, following a campaign by Jabatan Kebajikan Malaysia (JKM) called 'Berhenti Memberi, kami prihatin'.
The campaign was supposedly to fight against a syndicate which used the disabled to ask for alms and those targeted included the blind who would go up to people to sell tissues.
That whole incident caused a commotion within the disabled community, he said, and on that day, he began writing about issue regarding the disabled on Facebook and his blog.
"I became aware about the rights of the disabled after the Suhakam memorandum of 17 March 2012," he said.
The two main things that OKU Bangkit fights for, he said, is for the government to come up with clearer and more thorough policies regarding the disabled and for society to become more aware about the rights of the disabled.
"Why do we have the Braille alphabet? It is a form of social advocacy for the disabled.
"So they can also get an education which is the most important thing," he explained.
'Mandatory to fall'
The way society views the disabled is extremely problematic, he said, because there is a tendency to assume if someone is disabled, they cannot do anything.
"When we see someone is blind, we just think, 'okay, you don't have to do anything, just sit here'.
"That does not help the disabled. That is not the way to help - that ruins them. Let them be independent.
"It is mandatory for a blind person to fall into a drain and hit a pole," he said, adding that he has fallen into drains and hit poles before.
Rosli himself is incredibly independent, walking around without a cane and taking public transport by himself.
He used to work office jobs, including a stint at the law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co but before that, he said, he mostly worked in canteens.
It was torture to look for jobs, he said, adding that his first job was as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Klang in 1993.
"I was paid RM350 (a month) and we got RM50 deducted from our pay for each day we didn't show up to work," he said.
At one point, he also sold tissues, which is why he can confidently say this activity is not run by a syndicate.
Another grouse he has is the perspective of society towards the disabled, he said, as if all disabled are only looking for alms.
"When the disabled want to sell things, people just give them money, because they think we're asking for alms.
"Such as myself, I sell books, but people look at me like I just want handouts," he lamented.
Unfortunately, he said, the way society looks at the disabled shapes the way the disabled try to survive.
He explained that since people usually just give the disabled money, regardless of whether they were trying to sell things or not, the disabled have learned to just forgo trying to sell and just ask for handouts.
"The image of the disabled asking for handouts have become widespread, mandatory, must and should," he said.
This is an issue of contention and debate within the disabled community, but he questioned what other avenues were open.
"We can criticise it (this practice) but what is the alternative?
"How do we get to the disabled, the wages they can live on?" he asked.
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