THIS month, we celebrate 62 years of independence. Many people have contributed to making this country what it is today.
When we celebrate our nation’s heritage, achievements and progress, we pay tribute not only to leaders who led the way but to everyday men and women who worked, toiled and fought for our way of life today.
This week for me was a journey back to nature. It was a time to appreciate the green hills of Malaysia, the lush bounty of our forests, the cool streams that provide a lifeline to living things.
This time, the setting was a border town between Malaysia and Thailand where insurgents used to rule.
This area is now settled by Malaysian farmers and cultivators of Thai origin, whose reverence for the area has kept the forests green and the rivers clear.
Hikers and environmentalists would appreciate such a setting. But not every one who goes in thinks about keeping the place as it is. Some have more sinister motives. Every untapped resource can be an industry waiting to be exploited, every unexploited gift of the Earth can be a new patent to be registered.
Sometimes our pride in our natural heritage knows no bounds. We forget that not everyone has pure interests at heart. Some who go into the woods, so to speak, are there to see which of our traditional knowledge can be used in modern medicine or health and beauty products.
Malaysia, with its abundance of herbs and traditional knowledge, has always been a magnet for researchers and entrepreneurs.
The protection of traditional knowledge is a new subject within the ambit of the legal system.
There is no international protection for traditional knowledge (“petua orang tua-tua”), nor for genetic resources (natural resources indigenous to an area).
At the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), the organisation that governs intellectual property (IP), international guidelines on the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore have been discussed by a committee of 193 countries since 2000. Nineteen years on, it seems that this is going to be one of those committees that never ends.
The main problem in law when it comes to traditional knowledge is that IP recognises only individual rights. Communal rights are difficult to bestow because how does one divide the profits of a patent across communities in different areas, where the original proprietor or author is unknown? This is where developing countries like Malaysia and its Southeast Asian neighbours lose out.
The patent for mangosteen juice, for example, is held by a United States company, even though the fruit itself can be found only in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
This means that if we extract juice from mangosteens and commercialise it, we need to pay a fee to the patent holder.
Our product, our effort, yet it is still the feudal way of paying to titleholders because they were the first to register the product.
Similarly, the patent for the extraction process of Tongkat Ali is also held by a US company.
When the firm registered it, it also registered its use as a “method of treatment for sexual dysfunction and male infertility”, even though this use of the Tongkat Ali is one of Malays’ traditional knowledge, inherited from generation to generation.
In this way, we are still beholden to more developed countries.
When they develop or scientifically research our resources, we lose out. In losing out, we lose our independence in developing these resources for our own ends.
Which is why we need to remain vigilant about this encroachment on our rights.
Appreciation of the beauty of the country’s natural environment and its biodiversity must go beyond the superficial. We need to protect not only the environment but the rights that go with it, that is, the right to conduct research on flora and fauna, the right to develop them as a commercial enterprise, and the right to exploit them if we choose.
This is why it is important for us to continue being a member of Wipo’s intergovernmental committee on genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore.
This continued engagement applies not only to Wipo but to other multilateral organisations. Everything is at stake and no country is exempt.
Independence is not just a state of mind. It is a fight for the future of our country and ourselves as citizens.
After 62 years, the journey, my friends, is not yet over.
The writer is a foreign service officer who writes on international affairs with a particular emphasis on Africa.