Reprinted from FREE MALAYSIA TODAY NEWS ONLINE PORTAL

You can forget about our votes, S’gor MB told

G Vinod | June 20, 2012

About 50 residents of Kampung KTM Railway Line issue an ultimatum after their request to meet Khalid Ibrahim to resolve their woes is turned down.

SHAH ALAM: Give us the land promised two decades ago or do not expect us to vote for you in the next general election, Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim was told today.

Kampung KTM railway line residents action committee chairman S Muniandy said this outside the Selangor state secretariat today after a request to meet Khalid was rejected.

About 50 residents of the former squatter settlement arrived at the secretariat gates at about 11am, demanding a meeting with Khalid.

However, security guards prevented them from entering the premises by closing the gates.
Also present in support of the residents were Federal Territories and Selangor Community Association president Tan Jo Hann and coordinator Lena Henry.

In 1992, the 229 former residents of the squatter settlement were moved out from their homes for a development project.

They were initially promised plots of land to resettle but the then state government reneged on its promise when the land designated for them were sold off to third parties.

The residents subsequently took their case to the court but lost on a technicality.

Muniandy said that the residents had sent countless memorandums and letters to four menteris besar but received no favourable response from them.

“In April 2008, we met Khalid and he promised to resolve our woes but nothing has been done thus far. We met him again earlier this year and he bluntly told us that he cannot offer land to us because we had lost the court case,” said Muniandy.

Tan said: “Khalid should be more humane and just. He should not talk and behave like a businessman.”

After about an hour of waiting outside the gates of the state secretariat building, an aide to Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, met the residents and told them the state government is taking steps to solve their problems.
“We’ve been in power for four years. Rome was not built in a day,” said Abdul Razak, the aide.

Muniandy reminded Razak of Khalid’s promise to the residents in January and demanded the menteri besar come down and meet them.

Razak agreed to allow five representatives to meet exco for housing Iskandar Abdul Samad but he rejected a request by Muniandy for the rest of them to wait at the lobby.

“We have senior citizens here. You expect them to wait under the hot sun while we are having a meeting? It was never a problem before. Why is it an issue now?” Tan interjected.

Despite several appeals and promises from the crowd that they would behave, Razak stood by his decision and the crowd dispersed from the area.

“Pakatan leaders only want our votes but refuse to trust us,” said a frustrated Muniandy.

The community organising process

RECIPE FOR CHANGE

What does it take to make changes in the community you have been living in for the past many many years. Well to answer this question, we have to ask why the change? This will then lead us to discuss about the present reality.

All these sound heavy and complicated but yet it is not! Imagine your present community with all its imperfections and also the positive aspects. Then think about the ideal or dream image of your community.

If the the image is quite different from the present reality then its time to start thinking of how we can make the dream become a reality. Now you are planning an organising process.


It's actually like cooking...

Cooking a Dish	Organizing a community
You select a recipe	Identifying an issue
Imagine the end product	Projecting your dream
Start to make a plan based on your intended output	Analysis and strategizing for action
Then you start to identify the ingredients, and start to shop for them	Identifying strengths and weaknesses in the organising process
Finally you put all ingredients together and start to cook!	Taking action
Sometimes the final dish needs to be adjusted by adding salt, pepper or sugar or even to revise the recipe.	Reflection, evaluation and then plan action again

Recently my organisation PERMAS who has been working with urban poor communities in Malaysia for the past 20 years has been involved in a community called Kampung Railway (former railway workers housing and staff quarters). They are being evicted now to make way for commercial complex and hotel which are being constructed to give the are anew facelift!

The people have banded together (especially the younger members) and trying to negotiate for appropriate compensations especially alternative permanent housing. In the course of this struggle, they have faced many difficulties as expected, for instance a divided local community, political party interventions, an uncooperative city hall, and a desperate & powerful housing developing company with many strong connections trying to shake the community.


The key for the people to stand in this struggle is exactly that... "TO STAND TOGETHER"! They need to learn how to work together and go through a crash course on how to negotiate with the city hall, the railway department and the housing developer, all in the span of a few weeks or months.

The only thing that will hold them back is themselves. An organising process that fails is usually attributed to the disunity and unwillingness of a community to fight for their rights and seeing the process to the end.


But once the people have tasted the fruits of being organised and empowered, nothing can stop them, its like they have been given a new set of eyes, they will see and feel things differently. After all to build a new community, we have to be brave to dream and make sure it becomes our reality.



by TAN JO HANN, President, PERMAS Malaysia

SEAPCP RELIEF EFFORTS JAPAN

YELLOW UMBRELLAS TO THE RESCUE!

SEAPCP SUPPORTS JAPAN EARTHQUAKE-TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORTS



In may 2011, almost 2 months after the tragic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis hit Sendai and Fukushima City of Japan, SEAPCP contributed its support to the relief and rehabilitation efforts. Although in a small way but it was a meaningful contribution. SEAPCP network member in Japan, "SEAPCP HOKKAIDO" worked closely with SEAPCP Asia to buy 90 yellow umbrellas which was sent to Tsukitate elementary school (image below) in the disaster affected area of Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture, Northeast Japan. The City located about 300 miles northeast of Tokyo was one of the worst hit areas in the recent Japanese disaster. (see map below).




Our Hokkaido partners were wondering what small ways they could help the relief efforts and were informed by the local contacts there that the school children needed umbrellas for going to school and returning home whenever it rained. SEAPCP Hokkaido (based in Yullfuru Magazine office, Tomakomai City, Hokkaido) immediately bought the umbrellas, packed them in Hokkaido and sent them to the school children on may 24th 2011. In April and May, SEAPCP Hokkaido working together with the Asian Regional SEAPCP collected messages from almost 20 of its partner organisations in 12 countries. These were published in a local newspaper in Hokkaido and also yull furu's latest edition (Volume 28, 2011, see scanned pages below in Japanese language).



page 1-2cover

page3-4

page 5-6

Another interesting effort by SEAPCP Hokkaido and Asia was the production of a set of 20 over drawings with messages of hope by 7-12 year old children from the communities struck by the 2006 earthquake in Jogjakarta Indonesia. (see samples below). These were sent to different parts of the affected areas in Japan and they are being prepared for display and also for publishing in local newspapers and other print media. We are hoping for the local authorities to mount these into a mini exhibition in schools and even the evacuation centers to inspire the affected people.







We hope that this small effort of SEAPCP HOKKAIDO and SEAPCP Asian Network will inspire others to also do likewise, because we believe small steps like these go a long way. GAMBATE JAPAN! (MORE POWER JAPAN!).

Story by Jo Hann Tan, SEAPCP REGIONAL DIRECTOR