The government considers peaceful assemblies to be dishonourable and has responded flippantly to the coming workers' picket against the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), said a non-governmental organisation representative in Penang.

Ong Boon Keong of Save Ourselves Committee said the government's response to the Malaysian Trades Union Congress' decision - Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn had said the picket would dishonour the government - has revealed two truths about the government.

"Here it is obvious that workers' interests have been taken less seriously compared to something ambiguous such as the honour of government leaders," said Ong at DAP's Labour Day Forum on 'Political and economic crisis and its impact on workers' last Friday.

"This also indicates that the government does not take pride when workers exercise their basic human rights on freedom of expression," he told the 100-odd participants who attended the forum at the Penang Chinese Assembly Hall.

Ong said his suggestion was simple and that workers have to join forces with others who were facing similar problems, such as political and NGO activists who were fighting for the right to peaceful assembly in order to voice their grouses against the government.

He said the workers' movement is not a new obsession as the struggle began with the Americans way back in 1886, who fought for eight-hour work per day.

He urged MTUC not to be daunted by 'threats' from the authorities and to stand firm on its decision to picket on May 12.

"Even though many had to be sacrificed and lives would suffer but the struggle (in the US) was a historical achievement and the protest was for a good cause," said Ong, who is a social activist.

Asean meeting

The Human Resources Ministry had tried to persuade MTUC to call off the picket as Asean labour ministers would meet in Kuala Lumpur on the same day.

MTUC, however, refused to budge because it claimed the EPF was not forthcoming in trying to resolve issues, such as poor dividend rates and alleged bad investment bids, which had led to the decision to picket in the first place.

The congress also denied knowing anything about the Asean Labour Ministers Meeting.

Ong said the government would discourage citizens from holding peaceful assembly by concocting episodes of violence about such gatherings. However, theoretically, he said, there was no need for people to create violence as the purpose of the assembly was to express an opinion collectively.

"Violence would only dilute the message of the peaceful assembly. Because when there is violence in a big assembly, the media would pick an incident selectively and portray the event on prime-time television," said Ong.

"But what about the rest of the masses who were peaceful and did not carry weapons?

"I guess we have to give some allowances to the media because their job is to highlight such violence," he added.

Selective media

Ong said the government would try to frighten the nation by portraying episodes of violence in big assemblies in neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where people are killed.

"How are you going to rationalise that kind of thing? How are you going to tell yourself that peaceful assemblies will remain peaceful when all you see is violence?

"In a lot of cases, the media are selective and manipulative and the violence was manufactured," said Ong.

"Although the media had portrayed many incidences of violence during last year's Black 14 gathering, no one has been arrested. Why was this so, when it was very clear who caused the violence as shown in the media?" he queried.

He said violence was created by those who wished to hold on to the reigns of power and not by the people who merely want to express their opinions against an 'authoritarian' regime.

The presence of violence would also benefit the authorities, he said, in that the FRU personnel, water cannons, tear gas and riot gears would be put to use instead of being left idle otherwise.

Ong lambasted the authorities for disregarding the duties of the Human Rights Commission as investigation on the last Black 14 incident was still pending when the 10 reformasi activists were arrested under the Internal Security Act.

Dividend rates

Meanwhile, MTUC Penang branch president Abdul Razak Hamid confirmed that the picket will be held as scheduled at 10am at Taman Inderawasih, Butterworth this Saturday.

"Many have queried ... does MTUC mean 'empty-you-see' or is MTUC still in a slumber?" he jested.

He lamented that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's announcement to reduce employees' EPF contribution by two percent was an arbitrary decision, although Mahathir had said the reduction was now optional.

Abdul Razak compared EPF's all-time-low six percent dividend rate last year with those of other funds such as Tabung Haji, Tabung Perwira and Amanah Saham Nasional.

In 1991, he said, contributors of the EPF and Tabung Haji enjoyed the same dividend rate of eight percent while Tabung Perwira contributors were enjoying dividends as much as 10 percent.

In 1995, he added, EPF's dividend had gone down to 7.5 percent while Tabung Haji's increased to 9.5 percent and Tabung Perwira's was at 13 percent.

"Something is wrong with EPF. This has led to people worrying and asking whether EPF dividends would one day slide as low as 2.5 percent as stated in the 1951 EPF Act," said Abdul Razak.

On the issue of minimum wage, Abdul Razak said the concept was not a privilege but a basic human right provided for in the Wages Council Act of 1947.

"Even though the country has gained independence in 1957, its workers are not free yet." His statement received much applause from the audience that night.

Viagra injections

Another speaker, DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang amused the crowd when he said the country had been given three 'viagra' injections last month yet share markets prices have been sliding downwards compared to those of other countries in the region.

He said the three jabs were the RM3 billion stimulus package to revive the economy announced by Mahathir in March, the 10-year Third Outline Perspective Plan and the five-year Eighth Malaysia Plan presented last month.

"However, the economy is still bad as share prices have dropped 13.8 percent since those three viagra injections while those of other countries in Asia have risen. Indeed, we celebrate May Day this year in one of the most turbulent period in the nation's history," said Lim.

"Are we prepared to face the challenges of globalisation, liberalisation, and information and communication technology?" he queried.

Echoing his concerns about globalisation, DAP wanita chief and member of parliament for Bukit Mertajam Chong Eng said that globalisation would bring upon a specific impact on women workers and their families.

She proposed minimum wages for workers to help overcome the financial burden of 34,000 households still under the poverty line, stating that money problems in the family would eventually cause problems to the society.

Chong supported organising of workers' unions, especially in the electronics sector, to ensure women workers' rights to a safe working environment free from accidents and sexual harassment.

She proposed that the flexi-time mooted in the 8MP for women to work at home in order to take care of their babies, to be applied to men, too, as housework has to be shared by both husband and wife.