The Railwaymen's Union of Malaya (RUM) will picket at the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 12 to oppose the plan to privatise the railway system.

The union rejects MMC Corp Bhd's plan to takeover the company because KTMB's 5,000-strong workforce will suffer as a result, RUM president Abdul Razak Md Hassan told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

NONE Abdul Razak ( seated on the right ) said it was likely that KTMB staff would be retrenched, lose their benefits and suffer abuses at the hands of the new owners who would be profit-orientated.

"Right now, KTMB allocates 60 to 65 percent of its total revenue to the workforce. We feel that if MMC takes over KTMB, it will reduce the percentage to only 30 percent," he said.

He said KTMB had suffered a bad privatisation experience before, when the company was under Marak Unggul Sdn Bhd from 1997 to 2002.

"Trained workers who were supposed to handle the ticket counters were forced to clean toilets and collect rubbish. The same thing happened to the technical workers," Abdul Razak said.

‘A hidden agenda at play'

MMC Corp Bhd, controlled by powerful Umno-linked tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, has expressed interest in buying up loss-making KTMB from the government.

It is supposed to hand over its proposal and an operation plan to the government this month.

Abdul Razak said RUM was of the opinion that MMC Corp had a hidden agenda because no right-thinking company would want to takeover an ailing, loss-making entity such as KTMB.

"Anybody will say that it is not logical for MMC to takeover KTMB. There must be some hidden agenda, because no company will want to take over a loss-making company," he said.

Abdul Razak said the picket would involve 1,000 union members and would be held between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. He gave his assurance that the railway service would not be disrupted.

The picket is to be held in conjunction with International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITWF) global campaign, called ‘Transport Workers Fighting Back', which will run from Oct 7 to 13.