COMMENT | Paul Sinnappan: A reservoir of knowledge
COMMENT | When I heard about brother Paul Sinnappan’s death, my memories were focused on a song, with the words "Vellakara aatciyile, rubber maram thotathile, kooliyaga vanthavane, un nelama enna, un melasma enna, adimai vailkai vaalathe, neeyum sernthu poradu" (What is the fate of the plantation worker, stop living this oppressed life and join in the struggle).
This song was introduced by Sinnappan (1950-2021). We used to teach the young plantation children this song. A song converted from the lyric of the great movie Nayakan.
Like this song, I am sure Sinnappan would have influenced the lives of many people through his services as a teacher, as a trainer, as an activist and through his talks, speeches, plays and writings. He was a full package. A reservoir of knowledge.
My activism is influenced by many people. I had Nasir and Selvam who taught me about confrontational politics. Another big influence was on grassroots work, collective and participatory decision making and the use of art. There were many people who taught me as a student the kind of society we need to build.
Among them were people like Rani, Saras, Dr Kumar, Arumugam and others. Rani has this to say about Sinnappan:
"Sinnappan was like ‘essential reading’ for aspiring community organisers, especially at a time, in the 80s when the social activism landscape was muted and quite barren of social movements and resistance activity, unlike now.
"Sinnappan opened up the world of organising to novices like us then, stressing the importance of leadership - not the leader - and leadership values such as humility, and respect for the people we were organising. He taught us about enabling and empowering oppressed people.
"He introduced us to blu tack and mahjong paper, and group dynamics and sessions that were fun, yet meant to inspire an alternative to the culture of poverty. We learnt from his humaneness. He spoke of and practiced gender equality, and not just in
COMMENT | When I heard about brother Paul Sinnappan’s death, my memories were focused on a song, with the words "Vellakara aatciyile, rubber maram thotathile, kooliyaga vanthavane, un nelama enna, un melasma enna, adimai vailkai vaalathe, neeyum sernthu poradu" (What is the fate of the plantation worker, stop living this oppressed life and join in the struggle).
This song was introduced by Sinnappan (1950-2021). We used to teach the young plantation children this song. A song converted from the lyric of the great movie Nayakan.
Like this song, I am sure Sinnappan would have influenced the lives of many people through his services as a teacher, as a trainer, as an activist and through his talks, speeches, plays and writings. He was a full package. A reservoir of knowledge.
My activism is influenced by many people. I had Nasir and Selvam who taught me about confrontational politics. Another big influence was on grassroots work, collective and participatory decision making and the use of art. There were many people who taught me, as a student, the kind of society we need to build.
Among them were people like Rani, Saras, Dr Kumar, Arumugam and others. Rani has this to say about Sinnappan:
"Sinnappan was like ‘essential reading’ for aspiring community organisers, especially at a time in the 80s, when the social activism landscape was muted and quite barren of social movements and resistance activity, unlike now.
"Sinnappan opened up the world of organising to novices like us then, stressing the importance of leadership - not the leader - and leadership values such as humility, and respect for the people we were organising. He taught us about enabling and empowering oppressed people.
"He introduced us to Blu-Tack and mahjong paper, and group dynamics and sessions that were fun, yet meant to inspire an alternative to the culture of poverty. We learnt from his humaneness. He spoke of and practised gender equality, and not just in sessions but at home.
"In his sessions, he smashed myths we had grown up with, like caste, giving the historical perspective to it, and showing how the ruling classes used religion and the mass media to perpetuate such beliefs."
In my interaction with them and him, I started to understand many things. About the progressive element in religion – about liberation theology, I understood the importance of art and culture in building perspectives; gender perspectives as well as working with the migrants and the marginalised. Sinnappan was always consistent with his analysis of class struggle. I think that is how our paths crossed.
It was because of him and his ideas that we started to organise makkal ponggal in Kajang and the surrounding areas. We imported his ideas on cooking the ponggal together with the estate workers and did it as our annual event.
Sinnappan was such a resourceful activist. He was an excellent and brilliant trainer. He could do a session without boring you with facts and convincing arguments. He could sing, give examples and relate many stories and much of this was based on his own experiences. He travelled a lot and he used to share his experiences. He had always something to share.
He was also a very pleasant person. Always calm and composed. Never declining time for a discussion and always full of interesting stories. I know him as a great advocate for credit unions, cooperatives and we worked together on the plight of the plantation workers. It was reported that his community-based credit co-operatives helped 64,000 families, assisting people on issues such as housing, health and education. That is a mega contribution.
He also started an organisation called People Service Organisation (PSO) which did tremendous grassroots work among the plantation workers in Kuala Selangor running kindergartens, fighting for better working conditions and better wages for plantation workers.
PSO was part of the Plantation Workers Support Committee (JSML) where together we took on many struggles such as the monthly wage struggle, the demand to include plantations in the government’s rural development programme and housing for plantation workers.
He created a pool of activists such as Jalal, Rayappan, Susie, late Krishnan, Rajasekaran, Arumugam, Francis and many others with who we are still working.
My early recollection of him was when he was doing a session using old newspapers. Asking us to express ourselves. There was a small boy with him then and that boy was drawing an oil palm tree. He told us that the boy was his youngest son. That boy is the Arul Prakash we know, an activist with Komas and Bersih.
Arul wrote on his Facebook: “He’s my inspiration to work for the poor, marginalised and fight oppression. I believe he touched and inspired many others too. Appa, rest in peace. I will continue your fight.”
Yes, Sinnappan did touch and inspire many, and had a role in the formation of many activists. Our deepest condolences to his wife Pappathi, twin brother Rayappan and family members.
PSM has lost a good comrade, a community organiser and a great resource person.
Rest in peace comrade.
S ARUTCHELVAN is PSM deputy chairperson.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
