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Help support the fund for families of Perak 13

The non-governmental organisation Engage launched the Friends of Perak 13 Fund on March 19, 2015, a day after 13 protesters from Perak were sentenced to a 10-month jail sentence and fined RM5,000 each. They were convicted of protesting the dubious manner in which a duly elected Perak state government was overthrown.

We were not only concerned with the grounds of their conviction and the severity of their sentence but also the welfare of their families during their 10-month incarceration. This is especially so since it was reported that many of the convicted are sole breadwinners for their families, some with handicapped children and young toddlers to support.

As such, we launched the ‘Friends of Perak 13 Fund’ to provide financial assistance to the families of the 13 for the duration of their imprisonment. The goal is to raise a total of RM260,000 so that we can give RM2,000 per month for each of the affected families. This requires 520 fellow Malaysians to pledge RM50 monthly for 10 months. We hope to start disbursing the raised funds from April 2015 till January 2016.

Since we launched the fund with a press statement and a Facebook page , Malaysians have responded quickly and generously. The total raised to date is RM79,965.92 with around 180 donors. Some gave RM50 and pledged to give that amount for the next nine months. However, many gave one-off donations of RM500 or more.

While the response from the public so far is very encouraging, we are still short of our target. With the amount collected so far, we can only give RM615 each month to the 13 families for 10 months.

To ensure absolute integrity and transparency for the Fund, we have set up a Board of Overseers consisting of Ambiga Sreenevasan, Maria Chin Abdullah, Dr Toh Kin Woon and Prof Azmi Sharom to scrutinise the accounts and to ensure that 100 percent of the funds collected would go to the rightful family members. Engage has put together a team of volunteers to manage the collection, accounting and disbursement of the fund.

This Friends of Perak 13 Fund is a prelude to the Freedom Fund that we are planning to launch in the near future, after all necessary structures are in place. The aim of the Freedom Fund is to provide financial assistance to all whose freedom as guaranteed under Article 10 were denied and they are either fined, jailed, sacked or had privileges withdrawn.  

Should the actual amount raised in the Friends of Perak 13 Fund surpass our target, the surplus will be carried over to the to-be-setup Freedom Fund. However, should we fall short of the target, the amount will be divided equally between the 13 families.

The Perak 13, also known as OKZ13 (Orang Kena Zalim) are Bad Latif Mansor, Suhana Abdullah, Mohd Faiz Mohd Arshad, Zulhaizam Zulkifli, Isha Riduan Ishak, Adi Hilmee Mohd Nasir, Mohamad Nazeer Hameed, Khairul Azmi Hassan Basri, Mohd Hasri Ismail, Mohamed Ismail S M Abdul Kadir, Idris Mohd Thaib, Meor Safizal Meor Mohamed Amin and Yusuf Jaafar.

Please deposit into our bank account or do online transfer, and after each deposit, notify us at [email protected] .

- Name: Engage Network

- Bank: Maybank

- Account number: 501271441377

After each deposit or transfer, go to this link and create a username. With each donation, use the same username to record your donation. You can view the record of donations at this link .

Be one of the 520 to contribute RM50 each month for 10 months! Together we can make a difference for our nation and these families.

For more information and to be updated, please go to our Facebook page and ‘Like’ us here .

Fund for jailed Perak 13 hits only 30 percent


THOMAS FANN is chairperson of Engage a non-govermental organisation dedicated to empowering citizens and encouraging them to engage in nation-building. For more information about Engage and to be updated on our other activities for citizens, go here .

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