Wednesday, December 10, 2008

PopTEEVee

Hi gang,

This week, we speak with Balinese activist Termana Ngurah about the reformasi of the late 1990s, and its continued effects on the student and civil society movements in Indonesia. Check out the episode at: http://popteevee.popfolio.net/default.aspx?e=50

Termana took part in the recent REFORMASI'LAH! - Membincangkan (lagi) 10 Tahun Reformasi Malaysia dan Indonesia forum, comparing the different trajectories of the Reformasi in both countries. He shares with us how Indonesians became quickly disillusioned after the initial euphoria of ousting President Suharto, and decided to focus on building local communities and fighting against the State's interference in their personal lives and local politics. Lots of interesting parallels to consider for Malaysians.

Termana Ngurah is an activist with the Taman 65 collective in Bali, Indonesia. He is in KL for 2 months with the Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD).

Download, forward, embed!

Mark Teh (producer of Fahmi Reza's Revolusi 48)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE DEC 2008

People,

Bar Council is organizing its inaugural HR Debate for participants next week!!!! FREE to watch and to see the fireworks!! This should be verrrrrrrrry EXCITING! So, do make time to go.

Unfortunately, no public transport to KDU College--you will need car or cab to get there--but can take LRT to Central Market or Masjid Jamek and walk to Bar Council Office, no problem. Very near both LRT stations.

For full info, please go check out: http://hrdebate08.wordpress.com/

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (Topics will be given on the day itself so it will be a surprise!)

a) Day one (9 December 2008):
At Bar Council, 13, 15 & 17 Leboh Pasar Besar, KL
8 - 11 a.m. Opening ceremony

b) Day two (10 December 2008):
All events at KDU College , PJ Campus

10 - 11 a.m. Round one
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. Round two
2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Round three

c) Day three (11 December 2008):
All events at KDU College , PJ Campus
10 - 11 a.m. Round four
11:30 - 12:30 p.m. Round five
2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Quarterfinals

d) Day four (12 December 2008): Venue as specified below
10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Semifinals (Debate Category) @ KDU College
2 - 3 p.m. Public Speaking Preliminary/ Semi-Final round @ KDU College
8 - 11 p.m. Grand Finals & Closing @ Bar Council, 13, 15 & 17 Leboh Pasar Besar, KL

Monday, December 1, 2008

Bicycle Campaign

1.0 Introduction
Oppressed People’s Network (JERIT) has initiated a nationwide cycling campaign that carries the theme of ’Rakyat Pengayuh Perubahan’ which explains the rakyat drives the change. The participants for this campaign comes from various background such as from plantation workers support comittee, industrial workers’ coalition, farmers, urban pioneers, students and youth groups.

Other NGOs, trade unions, human right groups and political partys also will be a part in this campaign. The idea of this campaign is to reach the public by cycling to city and main town in Malaysia whilst spreading awareness on the issue that affects them extremely such as oil price hike, draconian laws against people, global issues i.e. food crisis and dying planet.

This core issues has been overshadowed by the twisted political scenario and economical that takes away rakyat’s mind and focus from the real problem their are facing daily.

Therefore, the cycling campaign would be a great move to empower the rakyat to focus on their real life issues and demand for change.

Main Objectives
  1. To increase awareness to rakyat on their real problems and solutions.
  2. To increase awareness among rakyat to be enviroment friendly to save our dying earth.
  3. To popularise JERIT’s main demands amongst the people
  • Enact Minimum wage Act
  • Abolish draconian laws
  • Adequate housing for all
  • Controllled and affordable goods’ price
  • Revive local municipal council’s election.
  • Stop privitisation of public services such air water, hospitals and education.

Campaign Duration
The campaign will be tentatively launched on the 22nd of November 2008 and continues for three weeks.

Work Plan
  1. 150 cyclist will cycle through at least to 50 state’s main town and city whistl distributing pamphlets.
  2. Programmes like speeches, street dramas or carnival will be arranged and participated by the local people at the each stop in states.
  3. A memorandum will be handed over to the Menteri Besar of each state during the cyclist tour in the respective state in order to get their support and endorsement on the JERIT demands.
  4. The campaign will kicks of from three points of the country as mentioned in the route below :
  • Northern Malaysia: Perlis-Penang-Perak-Selangor-Kuala Lumpur
  • Southern Malaysia: Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur
  • Eastern Malaysia: Kelantan , Terengganu, Pahang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur

Highlight of the Campaign
The cyclist will be arriving in Kuala Lumpur and the highligh event will be the handing over memorandum to the Prime Minister at the parliament. This event will be witnessed by approximately 1000 people from the Coalition and partners in this campaign.

Expenditure
The total cost of the campaign is estimated to be around RM270,000.