The Star: Ku Li ponders invite to head oil royalty caucus
TENGKU Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang) is a politician whose popularity never really wanes, whether he’s in the Opposition or in the ruling coalition.
Archive for November, 2009
2 Disember 1989 adalah ulangtahun ke 20, Perjanjian Hatyai yang ditandatangani oleh Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM), Kerajaan Malaysia dan Kerajaan Thailand. Seluruh dunia menyaksikan upacara menandatangani pendamaian ini dan sejak perdamaian tersebut, memang tidak ada persengketaan bersenjata antara dua puak ini.
Namun demikian, sehingga hari ini, para pejuang dari Parti Komunis Malaya dilarang menjejakkan kaki ketanahair mereka, iaitu tempat mereka bertempur dengan penjajah Jepun dan British sehingga akhirnya kemerdekaan diberikan pada 31 Ogos 1957. Ahli sejarawan, ahli akademik dan pemerintah Malaysia sendiri telah mengakui bahawa PKM telah memainkan peranan penting dan sumbangan dalam mempercepatkan kemerdekaan negara kita. ARTIKEL PENUH (MORE) »
Source: Hafidz Baharom, The Malaysian Insider
NOV 25— I think by now I’ve dispelled the myth posted by Malaysia Today comments which label me as an Umno supporter. Heck, some of them actually leaked into my past articles, much to the laughter of fellow writer Zaidel Baharuddin.
If there’s one thing for sure to label me with, you could call me a lalang. I don’t guarantee nor swear my loyalty to any political party particularly since they themselves can’t even keep to their charters and memorandums, sans DAP of course.
I would support the PSM, but there’s something about me being a royalist and pro-ISA amendment in the past (now anti-ISA after the bungling Home Ministry online poll scandal) that irks them.
Anyway, let us move on.
Source: Malaysiakini
Sungai Siput parlimanetarian Dr D Jeyakumar did not budge from his stand that Plantation and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok lied about the minimum wage of plantation workers.
Jeyakumar, the MP from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), said the minister mislead and misrepresented facts when he told Parliament on Oct 19 that the net income of an oil palm harvester was about RM1,700 and a rubber tapper’s around RM870 a month.
With reference to the statement “Dompok didn’t lie about the workers’ wages” (Malaysiakini, 23 Nov 2009) , JERIT would like to refute the statement by the Deputy Minister Yb Hamzah Zainuddin. We stand by our initial statement that the Minister’s statement is indeed misleading and the current clarification done by the Deputy Minister does not help either.
Why do we say the minister is misleading is because, the question in the parliament was how many Malaysians are dependent on the plantation industry and how much are they earning. The Minister’s answer was 600,000 plus workers are dependent on the plantation industry and a tapper earns around RM 870 and a harvester earns around 1700. So the plantation worker’s income is more than the rural poverty line which is RM 720 (Hansard Oct 19, 2009).. This is definitely misleading because, rubber estates have reduced and definitely a rubber tapper does not earn RM 870. Secondly harvesters earning up to 1700 are mainly subcontractors. Harvesting workers in plantation industry earn around RM 13.70 per day plus other allowances such as world market price, height of tree , a harvesting worker earns only around RM 500-RM 600.
ARTIKEL PENUH (MORE) »
This year socialism was attended by a broad range of people from students, leftists, activists, liberals, progressives as well as the hardcore. The seats were always packed, the discussions were always hot and the environment was red. Maybe the topic chosen by the organisers and its timing was the pulling factor – 2 Party System in Malaysia, A Critical Analysis.
The first panel who discussed on the theory of 2 party system and the experiences of other countries basically did not have anything good to say about the 2 party systems. For example Harris was quite critical about the existing situation in Malaysia where we have both Barisan Nasional & Pakatan coalitions as ruling party for the first time in history. He was off the view that rhetoric alone is not going to save Pakatan and they need to work hard to bring reforms, otherwise a third force driven by ‘rakyat’ is the solution to bring real changes desired by people in the 2008 election.
Source: Malaysiakini
Oil palm plantation and rubber estate workers today gathered in Parliament angry at Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok’s statement that they were above the poverty line.
"It is a blatant lie and it has been going on for a long time… the fact is misleading and confusing," slammed M Sugumaran, a coordinator for the Plantation Workers Support Group, a subsidiary to labour rights NGO, Jerit.
He said Dompok’s statement was in bad faith as it will provide a reason for plantation sector workers to lose the benefits allocated by the government to those earning below official proverty line.
Some 10 plantation workers accompanied by coordinators from Jerit and the support group were present along with Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar who is from the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
The plantation workers were angry with Dompok’s response in Parliament to a question from Mas Gading BN MP Dr Tiki Lafe on Oct 19.
He had said the net income of an oil palm harvester was about RM1,700 and a rubber tapper’s around RM870 a month.
"This means that the income level of the workers are higher than the rural poverty line of RM720 a month," Dompok had said.
Apart from their monthly income, the workers also enjoy free facilities provided by their employers, he had added.
"These include homes, medical facilities such as clinics and pre-school education for their children," he said.
Sugumaran said that the minister’s reply prompted them to immediately arrange meetings with workers from various oil palm plantations and rubber estates in Selangor and Perak.
"The workers were furious that minister said that they are getting more than RM1,000, they said he should have just said we are getting RM3,000 and more," he said.
"Our immediate study has shown that the average wage of a rubber tapper, oil palm fruit cutter and common labourer is lower than RM700 which is well below the poverty line.
Hiding unpleasant reality
"Today we have have clearly shown that the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities is committing a big fraud and they are trying to hide the real problems of the workers living from hand to mouth," said Sugumaran.
Jeyakumar said that most of the rubber estates have been converted to oil palm estates and the fruit cutting activity has been contracted out and those employed are foreign workers.
Therefore, there is high competition between locals and foreigners, as the latter are paid much less, he pointed out.
According to him, the monthly wage of a ‘weeder’ in oil palm plantations is more or less RM500 a month including an advance of RM80 a month.
"So the nett salary of the worker is only about RM420 and not RM1,700," he said.
He warned the ministry to stop twisting the facts, even if they cannot help relieve the workers of their predicament.
Furthermore, the workers demanded that the minister visit the estates and see for himself evidence of their wealth and the availability of the said facilities.
"He should come down and see the people who have lived in this condition for the past three to four generations," Sugumaran told reporters.
Convert housing policies to law
Moreover, he said that not even five percent of the housing policy introduced by former premier Abdul Razak Hussein had been implemented in the plantations.
"Even the clinics are not manned by qualified doctors… the clinics are run by dressers. And almost all Tamil-medium schools are only partially aided because the government does not have the will to convert the schools into fully aided schools," said Sugumaran.
Also responding to the recent appeal by Human Resource Minister S Subramaniam to the Malaysian Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa) to create housing funds for estate workers, Sugumaran said:
"The problems of the estate workers can be solved if the employers and the government implement the existing policies.
"Since the Second Malaysia Plan, employers have been asked to implement housing schemes when the plantation sector was to be developed but most employers have not implement the policy. Until now fewer than 59 plantations have implemented the policy," he said.
"It is clear here that employers are not committed to the implementation of housing schemes for their own workers. Then what is the use of the minister asking Mapa to invest these funds?
"Mapa will not execute it. Is it not better for plantation workers that a housing policy be enacted as law that requires companies to implement the practice?" Sugumaran suggested.
Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM)’s Deputy Chairperson, M. Sarasvathy will be representing PSM to attend Summit of International Political Parties, which will be held at Caracas between 19-20 November 2009.
The Summit of International Political Parties is organised by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), prior to its Extraordinary Congress that will take place on 21 November 2009.
