Andrew Lo
KUCHING: Sarawak MTUC secretary Andrew Lo wanted the police to explain their action in barring some 800 retrenched employees of Sanmina from presenting personal letters of appeal to their assemblymen yesterday.
“They blocked the entrance one mile away to prevent workers who have lost their jobs, who have families to feed, and prevented them from speaking to their YBs,” Lo told reporters gathered at the lobby of the State Legislative Assembly complex yesterday.
“This is a very clear and blatant attack on civil liberties of Malaysian citizens, and it is also a brutal and very insulting conduct on behalf of the police. To me, this is worse than the conduct of the American company who retrenched them.
“This is unacceptable, and we will take it up with the prime minister himself.”
Since news of the retrenchment broke three weeks ago, MTUC has been helping the retrenched employees fight for their rights for fair compensation.
Yesterday, representatives of MTUC and the affected employees made two requests to the police.
STANDBY: Police personnel on standby blocking the way to the new DUN building.
The first, which was granted on the condition that only eight people would be allowed in, was for them to present their petition of appeal to Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
The second request, for the 800 odd who had gathered outside the old DUN building to be allowed in to present their personal letters of appeal to their respective ADUN during lunch break, was rejected.
When asked which police personnel gave the order to prevent the retrenched employees from entering the complex, Lo refused to name names.
“I think they are doing their job as per instruction, and this is not a personal matter. But this is an action which the police will have to answer for. I assure you I will take it up directly with the prime minister because this is not acceptable.”
Earlier, Lo told The Borneo Post that while they were encouraged that Awang Tengah had expressed personal concern on the plight of the retrenched workers, they hoped that the state government could do more.
“We are disappointed to learn that the motion tabled by an ADUN to discuss this was not allowed by the speaker. We believe the matter should have been discussed so that all the ADUN will understand the situation better.
“However, we are hopeful with the concern shown by the state government that they will issue a very, very strong statement against the conduct of the company, and, with that, hopefully we are going to apply international and national pressure on the company that it does the decent thing.”
He added that one of the key demands which the union is pushing forward for in the long term is that the social safety net for all workers must be enhanced.