Through Su Zane and Carol Chew’s website, we’d heard that Carol was going to be at a pasar malam in Taman Oversea Union at 8pm. In two cars we left from Empower to catch her on her pasar malam walk. When we had all assembled at a kopitiam near the pasar, we headed into the pasar malam, leafleting along the way to usually quite interested shoppers, eaters and on-lookers. Before long, one gentleman asked Julian what this was about and he explained. This gentlemen then pointed out that there was another group coming our way. Moments later, Carol Chew and her entourage came face to face with the Mak Bedahs.
One of the sexist billboards about Theresa Kok
Instantly, one Mak Bedah expressed her concerns regarding the notorious billboards to Carol Chew, who seemed relatively happy to engage. Carol explained at some length that she had already expressed her regrets at a press conference in the afternoon – her regrets to people who were offended by the billboards, which she had not intended to be sexist. She also added that the opposition had blown the issue out of proportion.
Realising that the two entourages (Mak Bedah’s and Carol’s) were causing congestion, we both moved to a larger space, where Mak Bedah went on to ask Carol about whether there is freedom of religion in Malaysia and would she stand up for it. In short, while Carol suggested there was freedom of religion for non-Muslims, for Muslims it was a matter for them. She also seemed to say that the MCA and UMNO had come to some closed-door agreement about which she was unable to say anything. When asked then, as a calon, what her stand was, she was non-committal.
At this point, Carol’s entourage attempted to extricate Carol from the Bedah-crew. However, Mak Bedah was able to press her on local council elections. Again, Carol was evasive, saying largely that it there were various things to consider, but in the end, making no stand on the issue, and smiling awkwardly, while being ushered hastily away by her minders.
After this, Mak Bedah-Mak Bedah and her crew continued to leaflet the pasar malam to educate voters. One heart warming moment occurred when a stall holder recognised Mak Bedah and was pleased to actually come face to face with her. He gave us a few supportive words and a few broad smiles. At last, Mak Bedah-Mak Bedah had to take her dinner-dinner and we had satay-satay, fried carrot cake-carrot cake and soya-soya bean-bean.
March 6th, 2008
We had initially heard that Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, former Minister of Women, Family & Community Development, was going to be coming to her Bilik Gerakan at what was formerly Devi’s corner in Bangsar at 5pm. Mak Bedahs gathered at a nearby kopi place. We heard at one point that Sharizat was due at 5.30pm and this turned out to be the case.
When Sharizat arrived, Mak Bedahs were already waiting for her at her Bilik Gerakan, with placards a-waving. Two Mak Bedahs - Meera and Jac, with Julian in tow - made our presence felt and each received high-society kisses (Meera and Jac) or a handshake (Julian L ). One Mak Bedah spoke briefly with Shahrizat who assured us that she (Shahrizat) would make time for questions during her ceramah. In view of this, the Mak Bedahs found their way into her Bilik Gerakan and took seats to the side and listened to Shahrizat’s 40 or so minute long monologue. It is worth noting a few of her points and comments (not necessarily in chronological order):
- It seems Shahrizat’s passion is for helping the disabled, and for disadvantaged people’s welfare and pension security.
- She said that she did not want to beg for people’s votes, but that people should vote for her because they believe in the Barisan Nasional
- She said that her/BN’s slogan – SAM: Selamat, Aman & Makmur – was indeed boring, but after fifty years of rule, boring was great, because boring meant stability. She then went on to point out how there were various perang (wars) in various places in the world, but that Malaysia, thanks to the BN, was a stable country.
- She recognized the presence of the Mak Bedah/WCI team a few times, and also pointed out that she advocates for women’s rights, and that (naming Meera and WAO, also one of the Mak Bedahs) she respects the work of Meera and WAO, but that she is torn between their advocacy for Western-influenced perspectives and what others demand – namely, non-Western/Asian perspectives on women’s rights. (Incidentally, she did not elaborate on precisely what differences there were but left it ambiguous and for the audience to fill-in in their minds). She went on to note that in Asia, “we respect our men”. She said that what kampong people want is gender equality between men and women, and that we should not forget our traditional values (which, by implication, would take place if too much emphasis was placed on WAO/Western- style women’s rights).
- She said that she realizes that she’s spoken so long, and that this was what happens when you are not only a lawyer and a politician, but also a woman (!)
After she finished speaking and handed the mic to her second speaker, Shahrizat sat down. One Mak Bedah, puzzled by the lack of space for Q&A, went up and sat next to her to talk to her about this. Shahrizat told Mak Bedahs to come back tomorrow and she would be able to ask her publicly her views. But this was not convenient for Mak Bedah of course. The Mak Bedah came back to rest of the Mak Bedahs and consulted, and the general view was go to now and kacau her as she was leaving (which she began to do at this point).
We filed out and found Shahrizat as she was reading a press statement to the press and all Mak Bedah-Mak Bedah waited politely til she’d finished. At which point one Mak Bedah asked about the 30% issue (how Badawi said 20% was enough). Shahrizat’s response to this, as well as other questions, was largely evasive. Sharizat said that they had CEDAW in view but were moving towards 30% slowly. Mak Bedah asked “How slow?”. Shahrizat apologized for contradicting Mak Bedah, and went on to say that “Actually Malaysia is doing very well”. Mak Bedah asked why there weren’t more women candidates, and Shahrizat said that they werent’ standing up. Sharizat asked Meera (who was one of the Mak Bedahs, who incidentally is known by Shahrizat) why she wasn’t standing , and Meera replied that she didn’t have the energy, and that she was addressing the question to Shahrizat because she was standing. Meera noted that they were going to field Toni but she had to pull out. Shahrizat said she was sorry to hear that Toni had to pull out.
The same Mak Bedah asked about making marital rape a crime and Shahrizat, in short, said that she’d look into it.
Mak Bedah then asked about local council elections, and again being evasive, Shahrizat said that that was to be decided by whichever government came into office. She would not reveal what her own views on the issue were.
Another Mak Bedah took note of the fact that there was a group supporting Shahrizat called “Youth for Shahrizat”. Mak Bedah noted that having young people in politics was good, but there was the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) which constrained this badly. Would she push for getting rid of it? Shahrizat answered that she would be happy for that to happen “if the time was right”.
Mak Bedah then asked about the sexist remarks in parliament and whether Shahrizat would push for a sexual harassment legislation (rather than just the code of conduct) and she said she would.
Meera, finally, asked, as a constituent of Lembah Pantai, and given the importance of education, would you build a library here? “Yes, Meera. What else do you want?” Sharizat bade her farewell then by lightly touching Meera’s face.
The Mak Bedah crew then posed for photos with various press – in particular THE EDGE and Bernama.
Afterwards, at the debriefing in the kopi place, a The Edge journalist (not Grace Chin, who was also in attendance) whose name is Kevin, asked Mak Bedahs a few questions about what had happened. We pointed out to him her general evasiveness.
A relatively early night was called and tentative plans were made to go see Carol Chew the following night (Thursday).
March 5th, 2008
Mak Bedahs decided to attend a PAS ceramah on Tuesday evening and visit Siti Maria, the Parliamentary Candidate for Kota-Raja. All our fears regarding the Sungai Siput episode repeating were unfounded. In the beginning, we got so lost and missed Dr. Siti Maria at the first ceramah (I was told by other Mak Bedahs that getting lost is a MUST in the hunt for a calon).
The people who were there were very helpful. They tracked down where she was going to be and even took us to the next ceramah location. The Al-Jazeera crew were waiting for us at the first location. Together with the people from The Edge, we all took off and dashed to the next location.
We arrived before Dr. Siti Maria so we had time to make ourselves known to the people of Bandar Putera who were very hospitable and invited us to the khemah. When Dr. Siti Maria arrived, she was all smiles. She took one look at our shopping list and said that she agreed to all of them.
Dr Siti Hasmah all smiles with Mak Bedah
Then one Mak Bedah began her interview starting with the issue of sexist MPs and whether she regards the remarks as sexual harassment. Dr. Siti Maria replied that she had made a statement before about one of the PAS MPs who had made a similar kind of remark and yes, she would push for sexual harassment legislation.
Mak Bedah then asked about marital rape. Here is where it all went haywire because the answer was so focused on what marriage in Islam is supposed to be like and therefore, instead of getting to the point on whether she agreed or disagreed, she said if rape happened it was because the marriage was already breaking down. There was no mutual respect between the spouses, so we need to properly define what it means by marital rape. However, she did say that, “I am all for making it an offence BUT we must also educate the public simultaneously why this should not be done “. She also said, “I am educated and so I understand but the poor and uneducated do not , so must raise awareness on this whilst making this a law “.
When we had this discussion, all the local people started gathering around. Then she had to go and do her ceramah, but just after she walked off, she turned around and said that violence also happens to the husband and we must also protect the interest of the men! By that time, I was very disheartened - I felt she had the persona to be a good MP but the ideology and principles are all koyak lah (yes, we already know this but somehow I still couldn’t help feeling kecewa).
When she started her ceramah, she then explained to the people what we were asking her and she said that dalam perhubungan suami isteri sekarang ni, things are very different and all kinds of things happen. It’s like as if marital rape never took place before zaman moden ini. For the rest of the ceramah, she spoke about narrowing the gap between the salaries of the private and public sectors e.g. doctors, that she is an MP for all races as well as the marginalised and minorities (I think she only refers to races too in this case and not other groups of minorities, I don’t know but we can challenge her on this in future e.g. LGBTs?). She urged the Malay community to show “syaksiah yang baik” in relation to understanding that she is an MP yang berkhidmat untuk semua and not only for Melayus.
She went on about let’s deny BN 2/3 majority, send me to Parliament and talked about perangai orang Melayu bila sebut InsyaAllah - they say it but they are not sincere and mean something else. In this context, she’s saying that when she asked people to vote for her, then people say InsyaAllah and then take money from BN and vote BN. So she said it’s not good to do that and that the money given by BN is rasuah.
After that another Mak Bedah spoke to her while she was waiting for her car and asked the following:
Mak Bedah: Can women become PM?
Dr Siti Maria: Why not? There are many capable women out there
Mak Bedah: So why then is PAS not fulfilling 30% quota? What about fielding women in Terengganu? Where PAS is concerned she said that they want to calonkan candidates who are win-able in win-able seats.
Dr Siti Maria: There are 2 extremes in calons a) the very intelligent and educated but have not done any groundwork with the rakyat and b) the people who have good rapport and profile with rakyat but may not necessarily have what it takes to make decisions at the higher level i.e. law-making. They don’t want helicopter candidates. Where Terengganu is concerned, it is a unique situation because even with UMNO, it’s the first time they are fielding a woman candidate there.
Mak bedah: What is PAS or her views on house-husbands?
Dr Siti Maria was quite progressive here. She talked about the Qawammuna verse in the Quran where (it is commonly interpreted that) a man is one degree higher than a woman because he is the breadwinner but in this day and age, it’s all 50-50 if the wife too goes out to work. She said it’s a question of ridha (accept willingly what is given), that if the husband does not mind being at home while the wife goes out to work, then it’s not a problem.
Then she had to go.
So there, you go. I think the response to the last question is her own personal view and not of PAS. There’s a lot of twists in “dalam Islam…” and I think another Mak Bedah is right when she said that we really should expose as much as we can what their (PAS) agenda is.
March 4th, 2008
On 2nd March 2008 , the JAG (Joint Action Group for Gender Equality) group had planned a press conference to be held at Sungai Siput , to highlight to the Malaysian public , the Members of Parliaments (MPs) who had made sexist remarks in Parliment . WCI was also invited to attend - so the Mak Bedahs were ready, armed with questions . The JAG group had invited all the candidates for Sungai Siput , including Samy Vellu . Only PSM Dr. Jeyakumar was present .
Before the JAG press conference , the WCI group was informed by the Ipohnites that Samy Vellu was also having a press conference at the same time, at 11am. A quick decision was made - three Mak Bedahs were to attend the Samy Vellu’s press conference whilst three other remain to initiate questions at the JAG press conference as either supporters of Mak Bedah or as Mak Bedah themselves .
Before we entered the compound, a small group of MIC supporters, some wearing BN shirts, asked who we were . We walked in, ignoring their questions . When we were in the compound, a group of approximately 50 MIC supporters (male) crowded around us , speaking in loud and intimidating voices, wanting to know what we were doing here. One Mak Bedah explained that we were there to ask Samy Vellu a few questions about women’s concerns.
MIC supporters getting aggressive and behaving like thugs towards Mak Bedah
We were then told that this was a private function and were told to leave. The men behaved like thugs and tried to come near us . One man just stood in front of a Mak Bedah and she kept saying loudly and firmly, “Don’t touch me!”, “Do not come near me.”
Mak Bedahs stood our ground saying we had a right to be there to put forward our questions to Samy . Then the men immediately turned hostile, surrounding us and shouting saying we had no right to be here, that we were outsiders coming there to cause a scene. Mak Bedahs retorted that we were representatives of women and all we wanted was to ask him about issues of concern to women. At this point, one Mak Bedah was manhandled (she screamed at them to back away), and one man in BN shirt grabbed another Mak Bedah’s placard and snapped it in half.
Mak Bedahs standing ground and asserting our space
Mak Bedah immediately turned to the press (TV3, NST, Chinese papers) and said “We are here to ask Samy Vellu just 3 questions: 1. Whether sexist remarks made in parliament constitute a form of sexual harassment, and if so, would he push for a sexual harassment legislation? 2. In the 9th M’sia plan , the Govt had committed to push for 30% of women in decision making but last year the PM made an announcement that 20% was sufficient . Why have we regressed? 3. Women do not have many opportunities and have limited access to partake in politics - so we would like to lobby for local government elections - would he push for it? Why can’t we ask him these questions as he is a candidate, and as voters, we had every right to shop for the right candidate.”
All the while, the men continued to shout and harrass us .
Samy then arrived, looking angry and walked past us in a huff and a puff without looking at us . He refused to engage and walked past shouting, “I do not want to talk to you . Go away! You all can do what you want!”
As we were leaving, the men continued to be verbally abusive. One of the men said in Tamil, “Go back home “. While they were shooing us off and closing the gate behind us, one Mak Bedah proficient in Tamil retorted, “Ask your wives to come here and I will explain to them and let’s see what they have to say”.
Mak Bedahs outside of Samy Vellu’s closed gates
We distributed our leaflets to people passing by outside including a couple of cops. We then walked across the street to have a drink at a restaurant. A group of 6 men came later and sat directly at the next table and used crude and obscene language in clear attempt to intimidate us further. One of the things they said was “Ini saya punya lanchao, saya boleh kongkek siapa saja.” (this is my dick, I can fuck whomever I want). We ignored them and continued to sip our tea. We then immediately texted everyone at the JAG press conference as to what had transpired . The announcement of haressment and intimidation was made . We left shortly after that .
The Chinese press who were not at Samy ’s press conference, called us and we spoke to them as to what transpired.
March 2nd, 2008
According to our sources, we had heard that Nurul was going to be at two ceramahs this evening – one “Flat Sri Manja” (near Sri Sentosa), and later at Brickfields, near Nagas restaurant. At about 8.30pm, the seven of us piled into one of the Mak Bedah’s car and went in search of the ceramah in Sri Manja. We’d given up after quite a long and hopeless-seeming search. However, as we were heading out of Sri Manja, we saw Nurul’s Matt Rempit cavalcade going the other way. Mak Bedahs turned the car around and followed them. We saw at last where the ceramah was and parked the car some way up. However, by the time we all piled out of the car and sorted ourselves out, Nurul had given her lightning ceramah and was getting back into her car to be driven to Brickfields. Dismayed, we all went back to the car and headed with some speed to Brickfields.
Upon reaching Brickfields and finding a park near the huge ceramah site, we piled out again and started making our way through the crowd of 700-1,000. We slipped through crowd as they made way for us and were encouraged to head up the front. As we arrived Karpal Singh’s son (Gobind Singh) was addressing the crowd, speaking in support of the Hindraf detainees and against Samy Vellu. His distaste for Samy went on and on. We had a quick discussion and decided that the mood of the crowd and the sentiments raised by Gobind was not the best time nor with the best person to raise question questions on our issues. Our agenda may have been off-key with the prevailing sentiment at that point and perhaps generally so.
A member of the public checking out WCI’s shopping list during the ceramah
After some time, Gobind finished up and Nurul’s arrival was hailed by her Matt Rempit cavalcade and a small squad which lead her to the stage. One unfazable Mak Bedah managed to work he way up toward Nurul’s path and get her attention. Mak Bedah shouted across to her, and asked her views on whether sexual harassment in her opinion has a serious issue and if so, would you push for this. She gave us encouraging words of “Yes, yes, yes”.
Nurul addressed the crowd. She touched on several issues. When she started to look towards our direction, we raised our placards to catch her attention. On sight of us, she then started addressing the crowd on the importance of women’s issues but in a very broad way.
After she finished her speech, Mak Bedahs made our way to the side of the stage and, whilst another speaker was addressing the crowd, one of the Mak Bedahs waved at Nurul who then encouraged encouraged her to come up on stage. She immediately jumped up on the rear of the stage and Nurul went to the Mak Bedah’s side to talk to her. She was able to interview Nurul for about ten minutes. Nurul asked this particular Mak Bedah who she was and she replied, “Mak Bedah”. Nurul threw her head back and laughed. Nurul persisted and persisted and then Meera confessed to being Meera.
Mak Bedah and Nurul Izzah deep in conversation
Mak Bedah discussed with Nurul, with Malaysia’s international commitment to having 30% women in decision-making, as per Beijing Platform For Action and CEDAW (Nurul shrieked and said, “Yes! CEDAW!”). She brought Nurul’s attention to Badawi’s statement made last year that 20% is adequate and that Shahrizat never queried the matter. Nurul was taken aback and asked, “They said that?!” Mak Bedah confirmed this and asked, “Will you push for women to have more than 30% decision-making roles in parliament?” “Yes”, said Nurul.
Second, Mak Bedah asked her if she thought sexist remarks in parliament were a form of sexual harassment. Nurul firmly agreed. Mak Bedah asked if she would push for Sexual Harassment legislation to protect all women, not just parliamentarians - as all that we had now was a code of practice which was a “toothless tiger”. “Yes!” said Nurul.
Third, Mak Bedah pressed Nurul on freedom of religion. Nurul noted that it was a “difficult and sensitive issue” and that “Actually, we have to look at the syariah courts”. Mak Bedah pointed out to her and said, “My question to you is not about the syariah court, but on the constitutional issue”, and went on to describe scenarios like Lina Joy (Muslim women who no longer profess the Muslim faith) and that there are also some situations where non-Muslim women in general are affected. Mak Bedah pointed out to her on how some non-Muslim men threaten their wives of converting to Islam especially in cases of disputes on custody of the children, matrimonial problems etc. Nurul understand.
Mak Bedah persevered on the issue and queried about those who are forced to be Muslims even if they don’t believe in Islam. Nurul affirmed that they ought to have freedom of religion – the freedom to profess what they want to.
Mak Bedah: “Do men and women have the right to choose another religion when they do not profess the faith of Islam?”
Nurul affirmed this. Mak Bedah clarified, asking if she could take her affirmation of freedom of religion and freedom of choice back to her groups, and Nurul said yes.
Mak Bedah finally asked, “Do you endorse the principles of WCI?” And Nurul said, “Yes.” (The press secretary nervously asked Nurul if she’d read them and Nurul assured him that she had).
After a quick debriefing, we headed out of the area, leafleting along the way, and had a late dinner. We finished up at 11.30pm.
February 29th, 2008
have i told you lately how much i love mak bedah? i was so inspired by her that i hopped on board the bedah bandwagon and rode it last night … from one end of KL to the other hunting for Nurul Izzah (PKR Lembah Pantai). from somewhere in old klang road, dodging pasar malam shoppers and a major jam, we finally chased her down to Brickfields (note to her assistants: please la bagi info yang betul on her whereabouts ok? and please put her ceramah schedule on her website or something. otherwise how are ordinary citizens like me supposed to be able to cari our calon and find out more about them? )
anyways, we found her, caught her, elbowed her, nudged her, and she said she agreed with many things i agree with too like the need for a sexual harassment bill, and for more women in politics, all the stuff that WCI2 stands for. she even gave a nod to us (after all, it can be hard to ignore a bunch of mak bedah fans, kan?) during her ceramah where she spoke of prudent spending especially on the needy, good governance, and even, yes women’s issues. not bad la her ceramah-ing skills also.
oh and her tudung colour sama dengan mak bedah punye! hmmm… maybe she’s a mak bedah fan too. i’ll ask her that the next time i see her, if only i knew where the hell she was gonna be ahead of time.
sorry gotta go. will upload photos later.
signing off,
a mak bedah groupie
February 29th, 2008
Abby , Suzanne , Wai Leng , Yin San and I - all of us dressed up as Mak Bedah (except for Julian, would have looked odd!) - took a trip to SS2. It was wonderful working with this bunch as we all gained strength from each other and that made me bold and daring to raise questions ( as Mak Bedah ) during their ceramah.
We all walked all over and made such an impact whilst leafletting . It was good to have 3 chinese speakers . Students from UTAR kept taking photos and had their little notebooks out and they were doing something on politics for their project . Passers -by who willing took our phamplets were mainly men and many were happy with what we were doing . No hostility at all .
There were 2 ceramah’s last night, DAP and BN , and it was all conducted in open air .
Democratic Action Party (DAP):
We first went to the DAP forum -we made a splash there with our visible shopping list , selendangs and posters . Spoke to Tony Pua privately as apparently during these ceramahs, there are no opportunity to ask questions. Tony Pua immediately said he endorses WCI and would release a press statement this week to the effect.
We waited some time for the BN candidates to arrive . There were SBs (special branch officers) all over and started asking us questions , pretending to be ordinary citizens . We teased them that they looked so obvious and stand out in the crowd . They were quite dumbfounded and did not know how to reply . Told one of them to research about us - showed the website - his reply was ” no internet ” . That got us into stitches.
Barisan Nasional (BN):
1. Donald Lim :
Donald Lim snubs Mak Bedah’s questions
Initially ignored Yin San and Julian. Then I tried to ask him about his stand on WCI’s issues - he shushed me and so we both had a spat of words as he became a bit rude . He tried to silence me , so I informed him that Mak Bedah speaks for the ordinary citizen and if she is unable to speak to you, how do you expect people to vote for you?
With our voices slightly raised, the SB who accompanied Donald told me to keep quiet. I told him off and said I came to see the candidate. In the midst of all this, Donald’s press secretary or assistant immediately apologised about the SB and said so very sweetly that Donald made a big mistake by speaking to me in that tone of voice.
I informed him that if Donald carries on like this, no one is going to vote for him and the news will spread .
2.Chew Mei Fun
Mak Bedah has a chat with Chew Mei Fun
No time to ask questions also, spoke in Chinese. Managed to read up her booklet that she distributed. Again spoke privately to her. Her responses:
a) Said always spoke out against MPs who make sexiset remarks.
Informed her that she cannot rely on cerita dulu since she is no longer an MP but now just another candidate running again - so would she make a public stand now against these MPs, BN and Opposition . She smiled and said yes .
b) Spoke to her about the 30% women in decision making ( big write up on that in her booklet). Asked her why then BN (her boss Sharizat now talks about 20% - are we regressing and this is now what you are pushing for as stated in you booklet). She smiled and said I would have to ask Sharizat, but she will look in to it . She herself was quite embarrassed about the 20 %.
c) SH Legislation - she spoke about amendment of the Employment Act . Immediately said that JAG had written to Ministry that we were unhappy with the amendment but wanted a specific legislation. Looked puzzled and did not seem to know about JAG’s disappointment ( not sure pretending or not ).
d) Will she push for Local Council Elections . Chided her that Edward Lee is going tp push for that and make a big issue - so are you going to also push for that ( if not you would look bad ) as this is the only avenue that women can be involved in decision-making etc etc . Her reply: will look into it.
e) Will read WCI Manifesto and look into it .
Since Mei Fun and I were laughing and smiling, Donald immediately came over and shook my hands and started making conversation - for photo opp. He must have been briefed that he bungled big time with NGOs and said sorry to me - said very busy, will get in contact. I just smiled and walked away.
The journalist met with us immediately and briefed them on the Questions that Mak Bedah had asked Donald, Mei Fun and Tony . We stuck to our guns and did not give our names as we wanted Mak Bedah’s adventure to carry on . However, Pauline from The Sun and few other journalist were there and recognized us. NST as usual wanted to know who wrote the Bring Democracy Back video - we replied, Justin Timeforchange.
DAP:
The group returned to the DAP forum and we tried to go to the front of the crowd . Did not have to push at all as the crowd just moved and gave us the space to go in front. Whilst Tony was speaking , I started asking questions in the midst of this huge crowd. Had Dutch courage from the group. Many in the crowd knew who we were .
a) Will you stand up against sexist MPs, whether BN or Opp?
Response: Yes I will ,ask them to resign
Crowd roared and clapped .
b)Would you vote against privatisation of health and education
Response: Yes
Crowd clapped
c) Would you push for 30% of women’s participation ?
Response: Yes
d) Would you push for local council elections ?
Response: Yes
e) Would you endorse WCI manifesto
Response: 100% (!)
Response: Crowd roared and clapped
f) If you are voted in, WCI will monitor that you deliver and hold you accountable as to what you have promised
Response: Please do that.
He and us had great publicity. We then reconvened together and agreed that we should leaflet at Sharizat’s and Nurul’s ceramahs, and of course at PAS. Now that this has got us going, we are more gung ho about it.
Mak Bedah tells an SB about WCI
I also realized that if SB stops us or intimidate us - we should make a fuss and put it to the crowd as to whether SB has the right to stop Mak Bedah from asking our candidates questions. Sort of embarrass the SB.
- Meera
February 28th, 2008
We are fans of Mak Bedah and have set up this blog dedicated to her energy and commitment to engage in this year’s general elections.
Yesterday, 24 Feb, we woke up early and joined Mak Bedah in her trip to shop for a real candidate. Armed with a large shopping list that spelled out Women’s Candidacy Initiative’s 10 point Manifesto, we marched, sang and chanted for equality and democracy all the way to the MPPJ Civic Centre for the Petaling Jaya Selatan candidate nominations.
The space was split up into two: Barisan Nasional on one side, and the rest on the other. We wanted to go into the Civic Centre from the front, which basically meant standing smack bang in between, but were politely and firmly told by the uniformed police officers present to enter from the side.
Which side? The ‘opposition’ side of course! Maybe it’s our trolleys and chants. But I guess we were not immediately tagged as pro-Government 
On both sides, flags flew high. The keris of UMNO, the blue of BN, the star of PPP, the sky blue & red of PKR and the red rocket of DAP.
Mak Bedah wanted to have a chance to ask the candidates some questions. So we decided to hang around and wait. Meanwhile, the PKR supporters were very welcoming to us, sharing their hailer, calling for Mak Bedah, giving us a box of water. Could be because one of our chants went:
Satu dua tiga empat, siapa adil dia dapat
Oops! In this heated party politics space, any words that alluded to the name of a party can be easily co-opted. Luckily we didn’t also go:
Pocket, rocket, barisan, garisan,
Undikan yang adil untuk warisan
That would have really confused everyone! Heh.
Anyway, some kind soul informed us that the nominees had to submit their nomination papers, then there will be some time for bantahan, then only the official announcement of the candidates. Which means we had about 2 hours before any ‘action’.
The two sections were shouting each other silly. Throwing random insults at each other in rhymes (such creativity!) over loud-hailers. Occasionally cheering their own chants just to keep the spirits up.
We tried hard to show that we are non-partisan, but in such set-ups, it can be hard. Our boom box also didn’t work, so we didn’t manage to have a sing and dance. Ah well.
Eventually, the nominations were read out, and the candidates emerged after about half a hour with the press. We got really excited! It’s almost noon, the sun is out, we want to speak to our candidates!
We called for Edward Lee (DAP) when he was approaching his supporters (DAP members kindly carved a space for us near the fence earlier), and he stopped to have a chat. After asking him about his position on gender equality and women’s rights, Edward Lee promised to do his best if he is voted, and push for issues through a private members bill. He also asked for WCI to send him our Manifesto so he can further study it. Very good to not just say “I sokong” for the sake of looking people-friendly.
We wanted to speak to a BN candidate, and tried first with Donald Lim. He wasn’t quite as accessible and asked us to go to his press conference the next day at 2pm instead. Some of us were wondering how he expected Mak Bedah, a single mother of three, to have the time and hang out at his press conference in the middle of the afternoon on a school day. Anyway…
We also tried to get the attention of two women candidates, Munaliza Hamzah (BN) and Haniza Mohd Talha (PKR) - both contesting for the Taman Medan State Assembly seat - by calling out their names as they were coming out from the post-nomination press conference. But were pretty much firmly ignored as both walked with big smiles to their their cheering party supporters.
It’s tough business trying to shop for a candidate! Even when you hang out with their team, wait for hours, armed with serious questions and bravado, it’s still not easy to get to have an actual conversation with them.
We did however manage a brief conversation with Hee Loy Sian (PKR), contender of Donald Lim for the Petaling Jaya Selatan Parliamentary seat, before the nomination process. He approached us with a small group of curious PKR supporters as we ended our march near the Civic Centre. When we asked him about some questions related to the WCI Manifesto, he said yes, of course he agreed with the points. One of his supporters even went as far as to say that the PKR manifesto shared many similar principles. You decide for yourself:
All in all, a tiring but exciting day for us to start our engagement with the 2008 General Elections. Looking forward to Mak Bedah’s next “Shopping for a Real Candidate” action!
February 26th, 2008