E Contrario

A public talk was held in the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on the toll hike. This was part of the anti-toll hike coalition campaign. The coalition was formed on 18 December. This morning 27 December, a delegation of parties and NGOs under the coalition “Gabungan Protes Kenaikan Tol” went to PM office to hand over a memorandum. The public talk was part of the campaign.

The audiences were surprisingly very enthusiastic. Not only that the small hall was filled by more than 300 participants, the audience overflowed into the lobby.

I chaired the public meeting of the night.

Nazri Yunus, the representative of university, the chairperson of Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM), was invited to speak first. He mentioned the absence of student movement from the struggle of public issues such as toll, was a resulted of government repression. Campus activism had been suppressed by UUCA. He also criticize the pro-government students group which now control most of the student councils in universities for indifference when comes to people’s problems.

Syed Shahir, the chairperson of our anti-toll coalition spoke next. He gave a brief report on our protest campaign so far, including the gathering in Putrajaya this morning. He also laid out our future plan of action.

Syed was proud that unionists had the biggest presence in the mobilization in Putrajaya this morning. He stressed that working people are most heavily burdened with the inflation and low salary. Workers movement hence would be the backbone of the fight-back against these unfair economic policies.

DAP SG Lim Guan Eng arrived at the talk a bit late, as his newborn baby was hospitalized. He spoke next as he needed to rush off after the talk. Guan Eng started with calling for a short moment of silent to commemorate the dead in the flood. He pointed out the nonsensical policy of subsidizing the toll concessionaires since the total figure of compensation had overshot the construction cost of all the highways. Thus the only logical measure should be for the government to buy back the concessions.

Dr Nasir Hashim of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) who had just recovered from hospital for dengue and heart problem, described a puzzling scenario in the current state of politics. He asked why it is that government which by right should be protecting the people’s interests ended up collaborating with the capitalists.

In his view, capitalism is the source of problem. Groups and all government institutions are made to serve the corporate interest. “Unless the system is changed, the problem will keep repeating,” Dr Nasir declared.

Nasir’s speech was followed by Parti Keadilan Rakyat treasurer general Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

Khalid Ibrahim came on behalf of Dr Wan Azizah, who was just hit by flu and food poisoning today.

Khalid answer the challenge of PSM by laying down the historical origin of this fusion of interest. He traced it back to the concept of Malaysia Incorporated introduced by Dr Mahathir. Malaysia Inc. was a corporatist scheme to merge all interest groups—politicians, the government servants, businesses and different segments of society into one. Hence it undermined the basic separation of power in democracy. The functions and purview of different pillars of democracy—legislation, executive and judiciary became fuzzy when all of them must work for the same developmental goal.

This destroyed the mechanisms of check and balance inherent in a functioning democracy. All wings of power began to act the same, protecting the same interest, and the collusion bred corruption.

The construction of highways has become the devise for squeezing profits from the taxpayers (public funds and road users) and pay to a huge vested interest network that are all part of Malaysia Inc.

To break this vicious cycle, we have to do more than protesting, as our protest might stop the rise of toll rate but end up the government would pinch money elsewhere to pay to companies anyway. Khalid called for a “fundamental change”, which to fight for the right to information. Freedom of information is essential for all of us to know what goes on.

Dr Nasharuddin, the Deputy President of PAS was the last speaker. He said he did not bring along a keris. He described what he saw in the floods and the ineffectiveness of our government agencies in responding to emergency.
He repeated the demands of the coalition. He called for people to come out in support of the mobilization.

The gathering against toll hike will be held on 7 January 2007, at Sunway Pyramid. All must come!

Watch video clip on Malaysiakini TV.