Malaysian unions asked to call off planned protest
Malaysian unions asked to call off planned protest
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Top Malaysian government officials are negotiating with union leaders to try to defuse plans for a massive picket during a meeting of Southeast Asian labor ministers.
Separately, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad issued a Labor Day address that urged workers to make common cause with his government against those who would use globalization to suppress poor countries.
Mahathir, who blamed foreign speculators for causing the 1997- 98 Asian economic crisis, said that the world had seen "how the freedom given to buy and sell currencies has caused millions of workers to be jobless and become poor again."
The negotiations and Mahathir's speech come at a time that the government is facing its biggest challenges in years from organized labor.
Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn held separate meetings Monday with union leaders and executives of Malaysia's retirement fund, which is the target of government-bailout claims.
The Malaysian Trade Union Congress, which represents more than 1 million workers, is planning a huge demonstration outside the Employees Provident Fund's offices on May 12 to protest what it alleges are bailouts of well-connected tycoons.
The union body claims it could attract 10,000 people to the rally, which would coincide with a meeting of labor ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus Japan, South Korea and China.
Fong said he would meet union officials again on Thursday, when he expected to reach an agreement which would result in the rally being called off.
"There is a strong sense of goodwill on the part of MTUC and I am sure we can work this out," Fong told a news conference.
Union congress President Zainal Rampak said Thursday's meeting would be "crucial" in deciding whether the picket would go ahead. "Yes, there is goodwill, but there must also be solutions to the problems which we have raised," he told The Associated Press.
Unions and opposition parties have slammed the retirement fund's purchase at above the market price of more than 70 million shares in the telecommunications Time dotCom Bhd. after the company tanked at its initial public offering, which was only 25 percent subscribed.
In a new development, a coalition of opposition, human rights groups and unions on Monday launched a nationwide campaign to lobby for the release of ten Malaysian anti-government activists who are being detained without trial under a tough security law.
The new group said it would organize protests and urge people to write to the United Nations asking it to pressure Mahathir to release the prisoners and repeal the law.
The ten activists, including eight prominent members of the opposition National Justice Party, were arrested during April under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows authorities to imprison people indefinitely without trial.
Authorities have accused nine of them detainees of planning militant protests to overthrow Mahathir's government. The opposition dismisses the allegations as lies and accuse Mahathir, who has ruled Malaysia for almost 20 years, of using the act to suppress political dissent.
In Bangkok, Thai human rights activists gathered outside the Malaysian embassy to Bangkok on Monday to protest the recent arrest of Badaruddin Ismail and other government critics in Malaysia over the past two weeks.
Ismail, a member of Malaysia's human rights organization Suaram, was arrested on April 26 under the ISA , a law enacted in 1960.
A dozen members of Forum-Asia, a Bangkok-based human rights groups, picketed outside the Malaysian embassy. They handed over a protest letter to the Malaysian embassy's third secretary, and waved posters saying "Abolish Internal Security Act," and "Stop the arrests of Malaysian human rights activists."