COMMENT | Malaysiakini recently published an interview with Senator Isaiah Jacob entitled “Senator: Community deserves better, ditch ‘kurang upaya’ term”. Despite the opportunity, I find the written article frustratingly lacking in depth.

Equally worrisome, some statements made by Isaiah were problematic, while others were contradictory.

As a person who engages in disabled people’s advocacy in Malaysia, I am afraid some of his statements may negatively affect the advocacy work done so far and the likelihood of his ideas becoming the “new model” without a deeper understanding and critical interrogation.

First, a couple of important disclaimers. In this article...