2023 IWOC Celebration

Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi

Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi has spent most of her professional life advancing and promoting human rights, selflessly advocating for vulnerable populations and using her platforms to shed light on injustices in Malaysian society.   She was first known as a famous broadcast journalist and news presenter, television presenter, and sports commentator.  Born able bodied, she became permanently paralyzed from the waist down after a spinal injury following a car accident and then a brutal assault six years after the accident.  Since then, she has committed her life to fighting for the rights of persons with disabilities in Malaysia.  After her injuries, she continued as a journalist while also founding OKU Sentral, an NGO to empower the persons with disabilities community.  Because of her prominence and over 34 years’ experience in journalism, she has raised the conversation about rights and access for persons with disabilities to the national level and made it normal for people to see her on TV or in parliament in a wheelchair.  In May 2020, the Malaysian King appointed Ras Adiba Radzi senator as the representative for persons with disabilities.  In November 2020, Senator Ras Adiba was appointed the first female chair of the Malaysian national news agency, Bernama, significant as Malaysia lacks women, and even more so persons with disabilities, in leadership roles.  Senator Ras Adiba also became a national Paralympic sharpshooter and earned a spot in the Malaysian Book of Records for ‘wheeling’ 420km in 13 days from Johor Bharu to Putrajaya in her wheelchair.