Grouses aired at 'Anything But Umno' inaugural meet

Making good its promise to be 'about the people', the inaugural meet of the Anything But Umno-BN (ABU) forum yesterday saw the ordinary citizens take the stage to air their disappointments with the ruling regime.

From rubber tappers to young executives to class F contractors, the three-hour event at Taman Melewar, Gombak, saw an array of disillusioned grassroots representatives blaming their woes on Umno and the BN.

A running theme in all their speeches was how the Umno-BN regime had sidelined ordinary Malaysians to enrich the inner circles.

Norazimah Mohd Nor, who sells head scarves at a Masjid India stall, spoke of how Malay traders without "cables to Umno" have been pushed further and further away from the prime spots, which are filled with foreigners who pay a premium to those allegedly connected to the powerful political party.

"If you don't believe me, apply for a stall and make sure you have RM50 ready... but Malays don't feel a thing, 'wa rilek, wa rilek' (I'm chilled out), we don't get angry," said Norazimah, (above) who is a familiar face at street demonstrations.

From tales of RM50 'premiums', class F contractor Yusof Tapa regaled the audience of about 700 with the story of how a one-time Umno member 'fell from grace' after Azmin Ali, who is now PKR deputy president, dropped by his home for Hari Raya.

"I once got contracts worth hundreds of thousands of ringgit a year because of the quality of my work...(but) I was blacklisted (from receiving contracts) for three years, as I was purportedly in the Opposition," he said.

Keeping faith that "God determines one's fate", Yusof said he plugged away and found some openings through his friends' companies.

"But these Umno people see me standing by the roadside supervising construction so they ask the government why is Yusof Tapa there, standing by the road? Did he get a job? But all the contracts were subbed out to me from other contractors," he said.

He concluded that this showed that Umno members did not really fight for Malays, but were "not happy" when those from the community are able to become rich, as this would mean taking away from "Umno cronies".

"In Negri Sembilan, only Umno cronies get contracts but in Selangor there is open tender, so the worthy get the job. Let us all pray that Umno-BN falls," said the Negri Sembilan resident.

Treating workers as cabbages

Workers' rights, too, got some airplay, with Malaysian Trades Union Congress exco member Jaafar Malik scathingly asking the government if they think workers were "cabbages and chilli".

"When we ask for minimum wage, they say wages must follow the market rate. What are we? Cabbage? Chilli? Cows? Minimum wage is a matter of dignity... people's wages have hardly gone up since the 1980s," Jaafar said to applause.

He also likened the amendments to the Employment Act 1955, recently passed by the Dewan Rakyat to legalise employment contractors, as a "Pimp Act" (Akta Bapa Ayam).

"The structure is similar to the sex industry, there are pimps and prostitutes. Prostitutes provide the service and pimps reap the rewards. That is what an employment contractor does, supply workers to factories for a reward.

"This is an Act devoid of dignity, which will affect us all. This Act can be called a Pimp Act... and it was passed by the Umno-BN MPs... they have not only limited our rights but raped us because the workers do not consent," Jaafar said to cheers.

Proving that the woes of workers affect not only blue collar and unskilled workers, young executive Ezmeer Razlan Mustafa said despite his "tie, briefcase and collared shirt", his wages were barely enough to make ends meet.

The foreign graduate, who is employed by a finance company, laments that the wage structure for professionals in the country lags far behind regional players like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

"We are also burdened with student loans (PTPTN) at interests as high as 11 to 15 percent... and house prices have gone up so high that we are still squatting with our parents despite being fully employed for 10 years," Ezmeer said.

Change for sake of change?

But is a movement calling for the rejection of Umno a case of calling for change merely for the sake of change? PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar disagrees.

In his winding up speech, Mahfuz said Pakatan Rakyat governments have shown that a change from Umno means better governance.

"Leadership is about trust (amanah). The people of Selangor, Kedah, Penang and Perak for 11 months (before the BN took over) felt greater trust for their government as they could feel the rewards.

"We no longer talk about what could happen if Umno is no longer in power, but we have done what Umno-BN have not done in 50 years," Mahfuz said.

Speaking to reporters later, another moderator of the ABU forum Badrul Hisham Shaharin (left) said that ABU is a movement belonging to the rakyat and aims at galvanising and channelling the frustrations of different segments into pushing for change.

Because of this, fringe political players accused of trying to 'split support' for the opposition, such as Hindraf and the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM), were also welcomed into the fold.

"It is not that Umno is strong, but the rakyat is sometimes weak. ABU is for everyone," he said.

Badrul Hisham said anybody could organise such events, and participate in spreading the word through leafleting, online campaigning and even graffiti art.

But judging from the crowd, mainly made up of opposition party stalwarts, can ABU appeal to fence-sitters and the silent majority?

"We are stressing that this is not a political platform. It is for the rakyat to rise and take part," said the prominent PKR member who goes by the moniker Chegubard.

Others who spoke last night were representatives from the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas movement, the Orang Asli community, Rela (volunteer corps), SAPP, PSM, Hindraf, MCLM, tertiary student community, a factor worker and a housewife.