GE13: RULING BARISAN NASIONAL’S WIDESPREAD FRAUD ENRAGES OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE

THE OPPOSITION ALLIANCE, PAKATAN RAKYAT (PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE), GAINED THE MOST VOTES AND PLANS TO EXPOSE THE ELECTION FRAUD AND CLAIM VICTORY. A NEW WAVE OF STRUGGLES FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS COULD EMERGE.

Barisan Nasional - the ‘National Front’ coalition - has governed Malaysia for all of the 56 years since independence from British rule. Once again in the 13th general election, held on 5th May, it claims to have won outright the federal power. This is partly due to the first-past-the-post voting system but also to blatant gerrymandering and vote-rigging as well as an Election Commission that favours the ruling coalition.

The day after the election, share prices of government-linked companies and others closed at ‘historic highs’. This showed that the capitalist class was relieved that the BN had retained power rather than an untested government of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coming in. The pro-capitalist policies that have all this while been favouring big businesses would continue. The malpractices and irregularities in the elections showed the desperate attempts by BN to safeguard its crony capitalism as well as to prevent many of its scandals and corruptions being investigated by a new government of PR.

Regardless of the rigging and election ‘goodies’ worth billions of ringgits being distributed by the ruling government, PR still managed to do better than at the last general election in 2008. The ‘political Tsunami’ of that year dramatically changed the political climate in Malaysia; for the first time since 1969, the opposition denied the BN a two-thirds majority in parliament. It also won power in some states including the richest two - Selangor and Penang.

PILIHAN RAYA KE 13: PILIHAN RAYA YANG PALING SENGIT UNTUK BARISAN NASIONAL

PAKATAN RAKYAT MUNGKIN MENANG UNTUK PERTAMA KALI...TETAPI TANPA ALTERNATIF TULEN, KEPERLUAN RAKYAT BIASA DAN ANAK MUDA TIDAK AKAN TERJAMIN.

Pilihan raya umum ke-13 akan berlangsung pada 5 Mei ini. Pilihanraya ini dianggap pilihanraya umum yang paling sukar untuk BN setakat ini. Kepimpinan BN di bawah Najib amat terdesak untuk meningkatkan bilangan kerusi daripada apa yang dimenangi pada pilihan raya umum lalu, dan ini telah memaksa Najib untuk tunggu sehingga tempoh kerajaan lima tahun tamat.

Pada awal Januari tahun ini, 100,000 penyokong Pakatan Rakyat dengan berbagai-bagai isu seperti FELDA, royalti, pendidikan, Lynas, BERSIH membanjiri Stadium Merdeka untuk menyeru perubahan kerajaan dalam pilihan raya umum ke-13 ini. Semangat sangat tinggi di kalangan penyokong-penyokong yang meningkatkan lagi keyakinan Pakatan Rakyat di bawah kepimpinan Anwar Ibrahim untuk menawan Putrajaya.

‘Habuan Pilihan raya’ lawan ‘Agenda Populis’

RIBUAN PEKERJA-PEKERJA BANK MEMBANTAH PENINDASAN MAJIKAN-MAJIKAN BANK DAN MENUNTUT PENGAGIHAN KEUNTUNGAN YANG ADIL

GAJI PENGURUS BESAR CIMB, NAZIR RAZAK SEHARI: RM 27,000 DENGAN KENAIKAN GAJI TAHUNAN 53 PERATUS…GAJI PURATA PEKERJA BANK SEHARI: RM 30, TETAPI TUNTUTAN KESATUAN UNTUK 51 PERATUS KENAIKAN GAJI TIGA TAHUN SEKALI DITOLAK ! 

Pada 6 April, ribuan pekerja-pekerja bank yang bekerja di pelbagai bank daripada cawangan-cawangan di seluruh Malaysia telah berhimpun dalam ‘Piket Daulat’ di Kuala Lumpur untuk membantah penindasan majikan-majikan bank terhadap pekerja. Kesatuan Kebangsaan Pekerja-Pekerja Bank (NUBE) yang mempunyai lebih 30,000 ahli telah memimpin bantahan tersebut. Sebelum Piket Daulat tersebut, NUBE juga telah menjelajah dan mengadakan piket di beberapa cawangan CIMB di seluruh semenanjung Malaysia untuk mengutuk penindasan berterusan daripada majikan-majikan bank terhadap pekerja.

Di Piket Daulat, pekerja dengan berpakaian merah membawa berbagai-bagai kain rentang dan sepanduk untuk menyuarakan ketidakpuasan mereka, di antaranya : ‘CIMB hina pekerja miskin’, ‘Darah Pekerja diperah, belanja golf RM18.7 juta’, ‘Abang sulung janji ditepati, adik bongsu janji dimungkiri’, ‘Maybank zalimi pekerja’, ‘Ahli tipu dipecat, pengurus tipu naik pangkat’, ‘Hentikan serangan terhadap kesatuan’,  ‘Pengurus hina pekerja wanita yang hamil’ .

ELECTRONIC WORKERS AND UNIONS FIGHT AGAINST THE UNION BUSTING ACTIVITIES OF THE EMPLOYERS

14^th March 2013, about 85 workers and electronic union members representing various factories across Malaysia have staged a protest in front of the Human Resource Ministry building at Putrajaya. These workers came with banners and pickets to urge the Ministry to punish the employers who are involved in union busting and are failing to comply with the labour law of Malaysia.

8 MAC: HARI MEMPERINGATI PERJUANGAN WANITA UNTUK HAK YANG SAKSAMA

2013 – sudah masuk tahun yang ke-102 kita meraikan Hari Wanita Sedunia tetapi penindasan terhadap wanita terutamanya daripada kelas pekerja terus berleluasa. Keraian ini adalah satu penghormatan dan dukungan terhadap kaum wanita yang tidak pernah berhenti berjuang untuk persamaan hak, keadilan dan peluang yang lebih baik dalam kehidupan mereka. Tarikh 8 Mac diambil kerana sebetulnya 156 tahun yang lalu pada tanggal ini, satu mogok besar-besaran telah diadakan oleh ratusan wanita yang menjadi buruh di kilang kain dan pakaian di bandar New York. Mereka bermogok untuk menentang kezaliman dan penganiayaan yang dilakukan oleh golongan kapitalis yang mengeksploitasi mereka dengan cara masa kerja yang panjang namun diberi upah yang amat rendah serta terpaksa pula bekerja dalam kondisi yang tidak berperikemanusiaan. 

MARCH 8TH: THE DAY OF INTERNATIONAL WORKING WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY

Beware the anger of women against the bosses’ system!

For over a hundred years, March 8th has been the day on which to commemorate the great struggles of working women for a better deal at work and in society. It is also the day to celebrate the contribution of women – some famous, many unknown - in the fight against oppression and for socialism.

It is traditional on this day to remember the early strikes of textile workers in America, of ’match-girls’ in England and of the working women of St Petersburg whose strike on International Women’s Day, 1917, set off the revolution that overthrew Tsarist dictatorship in Russia. There are also the great socialist fighters to remember – Rosa Luxembourg, murdered on the orders of Social Democrat leaders in Germany, Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai. There are workers’ leaders like Mother Jones in the US who inspired mineworkers and their wives to fight the bosses without stint. This year is the centenary of the birth of Rosa Parks - the black woman in the racially segregated south of the US, whose courage in refusing to give up her seat in a Montgomery bus to a white person inspired a generation of civil rights activists.

HUGO CHAVEZ DIES...THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Millions of Venezuelan workers, the poor and youth will mourn the death of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez

In an era when the gap between establishment politicians, who defend big business and the super-rich, and the masses seems to widen inexorably Chavez stood out. In fact in the age of austerity the measures he took to alleviate poverty stood out like a beacon. The workers and youth in Venezuela will be joined by many around the globe who have been inspired to support Hugo Chavez’s regime as offering an alternative to imperialism, neoliberalism and capitalism.

Meanwhile the most pernicious right-wing capitalist commentators have wasted neither time nor ink in their outpourings of hatred of his regime.The mourning of his passing and anger at these attacks must be channelled into a new stage of working class struggle for socialism in Venezuela and internationally.

PENINGKATAN UMUR PERSARAAN: BERAPA LAMA PEKERJA PERLU MENJUAL KUASA BURUH ?

 

Kerajaan mengumumkan bahawa umur persaraan untuk pekerja-pekerja swasta akan dinaikkan kepada umur 60 tahun pada pertengahan tahun ini. Persatuan Majikan-majikan Malaysia menyambut baik cadangan kerajaan kerana ‘kemahiran dan pengalaman pekerja senior boleh terus dipergunakan untuk pembangunan syarikat memandangkan purata jangka hayat rakyat Malaysia semakin meningkat’. Tetapi alasan sebenar majikan adalah untuk mengurangkan kos pengambilan pekerja baru yang sekali gus akan mengurangkan kos operasi syarikat untuk meningkatkan keuntungan. Ini bermakna selagi pekerja bertenaga dan mampu, sebahagian besar kehidupan pekerja akan terus dipergunakan untuk menjual ‘kuasa buruh’ kepada majikan untuk menjana keuntungan. 

BN GOVERNMENT FACES TOUGHEST ELECTIONS EVER

Opposition victory possible for first time but workers and youth without genuine alternative

The government is soon expected to call Malaysia’s 13th general elections - considered to be the toughest general elections for them so far - either in March or April, following much speculation on the election date since 2011. The BN leadership under Najib Razak, desperate to improve its outcome, since the last general elections has been pressured to wait until the end of its five years term. The last general elections, called in 2008, were the worst for BN since independence from Britain in 1957. It lost its two-thirds majority as well as losing power in wealthy states, such as Selangor and Penang.

Early in January this year, 100,000 supporters of Pakatan Rakyat, the coalition of opposition parties, thronged to Kuala Lumpur to advocate a change of government in the coming general elections. The mood is very high among its supporters, which boosts further the confidence of Pakatan Rakyat, under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim, to capture federal power for the first time.

PILIHAN RAYA KE 13: PARTI-PARTI PRO-KAPITALIS TIDAK AKAN MENJAMIN HAK DAN KEBAJIKAN PEKERJA

PAKATAN RAKYAT MENOLAK TUNTUTAN GAJI MINIMUM RM1500...PERLU PEMBINAAN PARTI UNTUK MEMPERJUANGKAN HAK KELAS PEKERJA DAN RAKYAT BIASA.

Pada awal bulan Januari, Jaringan Pekerja Malaysia yang merangkumi kesatuan-kesatuan sekerja seperti Kesatuan Pekerja-Pekerja Bank (NUBE) telah menggariskan tuntutan-tuntutan pekerja untuk pilihan raya ke -13 yang akan berlangsung tidak lama lagi. Salah satu tuntutan utama tersebut adalah Jaminan Gaji Minimum RM1500.  Tuntutan-tuntutan lain ialah: Jaminan Pengiktirafan Hak-Hak Asasi Pekerja; Jaminan Perlindungan Sekuriti Sosial; Jaminan Kesihatan dan Keselamatan Pekerja ; Jaminan Kebajikan dan Kesejahteraan Pekerja.

Kerajaan BN telah mengumumkan RM900 sebagai gaji minimum, manakala Pakatan Rakyat pula menjanjikan gaji minimum RM1100 jika berjaya menawan Putra Jaya.  Kedua-duanya menjustifikasikan bahawa angka masing-masing amat berpatutan berlandaskan kepada keadaan ‘pasaran bebas’.