[Sewaktu editor menulis MTUC telahpun menangguhkan rancangan piketnya setelah Mahathir masuk campur. Ini menunjukkan menterinya, Fong langsung tidak boleh diharap atau mampu bertempur. MTUC seharusnya sedar inilah tektik lama Mahathir semasa menghadapi Suqui. Walaupun begitu rancangan piket ini menyerlah sesuatu - kelemahan Mahathir adalah keaibannya dan perhimpunan seluruh negara amat berkesan untuk menumbangkannya. Lebih berkesan lagi jika rakyat bangkit tanpa mempamirkan sebarang logo parti kerana ini petanda mereka datang dengan penuh kerelaan hati. Bukankah perhimpunan retusan ribu di dataran merdeka pada September 1998 dulu menyaksikan rakyat berbilang bangsa datang tanpa sebarang logo parti?

Mahathir amat takutkan aibnya kerana menteri Buruh Asean akan bersidang dengan rakan sejawatan mereka dari Jepun, Korea Selatan dan China di KL pada hari Khamis dan Jumaat ini untuk membincangkan kesan kemelesetan ekonomi A.S. Anwar mungkin cukup arif dengan kelemahan Mahathir kerana perhimpunan di dataran merdeka pada September 1998 dulu berlangsung ketika sukan komanwel dan Malaysia dipenuhi oleh wartawan luar. Sebelah malamnya polis bertopeng terus menangkap Anwar kerana Mahathir sudah hilang sabar. Tetapi wartawan dunia sudah merakam dan segala-galanya tersiar sehingga muka Mahathir tercalar. Perhatikan pemimpin keADILan seperti Ezam seperti sudah dapat mengesan tektik untuk membuat Mahathir menggeletar - dan mungkin begitu juga pemimpin MTUC. PAS seharusnya menggerakkan solat hajat besar-besaran supaya ia mencetus tindak-balas berangkai (chain-reaction) di semua masjid dan surau. - Editor]

http://www.atimes.com/se-asia/CD10Ae02.html

Asia Times
10th May 2001

DIRE STRAITS

Threat of pickets forces Mahathir's hand

By Anil Netto

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's umbrella trade union body, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), appears to have won an important psychological battle with the government over its plans to stage nation-wide pickets on May 12.

The once docile MTUC has called for the pickets - rare events in Malaysia - against the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a state-managed pension fund for private sector employees, to protest the way in which the fund is managed.

However, the government, which is keen to avoid further embarrassment following the recent arrest of 10 reformasi activists under harsh internal security laws, is expected to intervene with assurances to the MTUC that the EPF will be made more accountable in order to avert the pickets.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's administration can ill afford to open up yet another battlefront that would widen opposition to the government.

Labor ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and from Japan, South Korea and China are due to meet in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and Friday to discuss the effects of the US economic slowdown. Affiliates of the MTUC were planning to hold the peaceful picket in front of EPF offices throughout the country to express dissatisfaction over several issues.

Nation-wide strikes and pickets are rare in Malaysia. The MTUC's decision to organize pickets had thus raised eyebrows as the trade union movement had rarely ruffled feathers in recent years.

One of the major grievances of the trade union centers on the EPF's decision to lend money to Time Engineering Bhd, and subsequently settling for shares in Time dotCom in lieu of a repayment. The market price of Time dotCom shares has slumped since its controversial and undersubscribed listing recently.

Other sore points include the drastic cut in death and incapacitation benefits from 30,000 ringgit (US$7,895) to 2,000 ringgit and a controversial new EPF annuity scheme.

Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn had appealed to MTUC leaders to call off the picket and to allow the fund's new executive chairman a chance to resolve existing problems first. The ministry met MTUC officials on May 3, but failed to find a way out of the impasse. But the meeting was reportedly able to reach a compromise on several immediate issues: the EPF workers contributions, the annuity scheme, and the death/incapacitation benefit.

In a move to spur consumer spending, the government had announced a cut in the EPF monthly contribution that workers are required to pay from 11 percent to 9 percent. But the decision sparked a public outcry, forcing the government to backtrack and make the cut optional.

"Both parties [the EPF and MTUC] had agreed to simplify the procedure for workers who want to maintain the 11 percent contribution," Fong said. He added that the meeting agreed that the EPF should come up with a suitable formula for the annuity scheme and the death/incapacitation benefit.

"If the MTUC goes ahead with the picket, it will tarnish the image of the country," Fong said. He pointed out that the ministry and the government had also proposed a national-level gathering on the same day to honor and thank workers for their contributions towards the development of the country.

But MTUC president Senator Zainal Rampak said the union did not see any solution to the EPF issues during the meeting apart from the simplification of the procedures on workers' monthly EPF contributions. Zainal said the MTUC only listened to the results of the ministry's previous discussions with the EPF. "There was no solution, no settlement," he insisted.

Malaysia is starting to feel the effects of job losses as a result of the US economic slowdown. Booming electronics exports had helped to pull Malaysia out of the East Asian financial crisis. But faltering exports this year have led to 3,500 jobs being shed in the first quarter, though the official unemployment rate remains at below 4 percent.

Although strikes are legal in Malaysia, the right to strike is severely restricted and frowned upon. The Trade Unions Act gives the Director-General of Trade Unions far-reaching powers, including the right "to supervise, direct and control the trade unions".

The Director-General Izhar Harun said on Tuesday the MTUC could not stage pickets as it is registered under the Societies Act and not as a trade union. He pointed out that the MTUC is not a trade union as defined under the Trade Union Act and the Societies Act and therefore didn't have the rights of a trade union, including holding a picket as defined under the Industrial Relations Act.

Izhar said Section 40 of the Act states that a picket is valid only if it is organized by a worker or employees at the workplace or near the workplace where an industrial dispute occurs, and must be staged peacefully outside working hours. In the case of the MTUC's protest against the EPF, Izhar said there was no such industrial dispute as defined by the various acts and therefore nobody had the right to picket against the EPF.

Government policy also bars the formation of a national union for the electronics sector. Instead, the authorities have encouraged in-house unions, which lack the clout to bargain effectively for electronics firms.

The MTUC for its part has defended its right to act to protect its and its affiliates' interests. Unhappiness with the EPF has simmered in recent years as the annual dividend payable to contributors dipped from around 8 percent to the current 6 percent. There have been accusations that the fund has been less than independent in its stock market investments and loans, which have ballooned even as interest rates have fallen. Unionists want the fund's investment panel to be accountable to the EPF board.

Opposition politician Lim Kit Siang pointed out on April 16 that the EPF's asset and investment allocation for loans and debentures at the height of the financial crisis in 1997 reached 33.8 billion ringgit or 26.2 percent of total EPF funds in 1997. It then rose to 38.4 billion ringgit or 26.6 percent in 1998, 39.9 billion ringgit or 24.6 percent in 1999 before tapering off at 37.6 billion ringgit or 20.8 percent in 2000. A decade ago, pointed out Lim, loans only constituted 8.2 percent of the total allocation of EPF funds.

But at day's end, whether the picket takes place or not is immaterial. The MTUC has driven home a key point: With or without a picket it can no longer be taken for granted when workers' interests are neglected or undermined.

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/ afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010510/technology/ afp/Malaysia_unions_say_they_expect_a_deal_after_ postponing_protest.html

Thursday, May 10 4:09 PM SGT

Malaysia unions say they expect a deal after postponing protest

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (AFP) -

Malaysia's trade union movement is hopeful of settling its grievances over the management of a multi-billion-dollar state pension fund before a planned nationwide protest in August, its leader said Thursday.

"What we want is transparency and good governance so that the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) funds will be used in the best possible way and not put to any use that will affect the rate of dividends," said Zainal Rampak.

Zainal, president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), announced late Wednesday that the mass protest planned for Saturday had been postponed for three months.

It made the decision after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad intervened to promise an investigation into the unions' three main complaints.

Mahathir promised to defer transferring the management of the EPF annuity scheme to private insurance companies until a consultant can study the matter.

He also agreed to consider raising death and incapacity benefits to their previous amounts, from the current 2,000 ringgit (526 dollars) to payouts of up to 30,000 ringgit.

The premier also undertook to ensure that EPF funds were managed in a way that did not create any doubts, according to Zainal.

The MTUC, which represents some 750,000 workers, objected to the government's decision to privatise the annuity scheme and to the drastic reduction in death and incapacity benefits.

They also complain at the fund's action in allegedly bailing out politically connected companies and at the six percent dividend paid to 9.7 million contributors last year, the lowest in 26 years.

The fund manages some 180 billion ringgit (47 billion dollars). Workers and employers must contribute to it.

Zainal, quoted by Bernama news agency, said he was confident the three-month period would be long enough for the EPF to make changes in its management and for talks leading to a full settlement of grievances.

Deputy Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi welcomed the postponement of the protest, which would have come at an embarrassing time for the government.

The protest scheduled for Saturday would have coincided with an official workers' day gathering which labour ministers from the 10 ASEAN nations are due to attend.

The ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are meeting here Thursday and Friday.

MTUC officials had said some 50,000 workers would join the rare protest.

Some MTUC officials have singled out the EPF's acquisition of shares in telecoms firm Time dotCom as a politically motivated rescue mission after the firm's initial public offer was 75 percent undersubscribed.