Citizen Journalism Blog

On Tuesday, 1st December 2009, I was feeling a bit bored and told my ‘boss’ Shuf that I will go to the Dewan Undangan Negeri. Usually, I need to sort of report what I am up to so that Malaysiakini has some ideas where I would be, just in case I got into trouble and need them to bail me out in the name citizen journalism.

I got there early and stumbled upon a group of women sitting, squatting and hanging around the Dewan Undangan Negeri perimeter. The compound is strictly guarded and only certain people are allowed.

So, I was wondering, “Hey, how come PKR employed these women to demo?” You see, I was told that there is going to be a protest of sort that morning by PKR Youth.

Well, it turned out to be yet another interesting citizen journalist type of video. It is about human rights. These women who were retrenched without being paid any benefits have their rights to voice out their grievances. They do not deserved to be treated so rudely by the Chief Minister’s staff. I told the CM’s staff he was rude and went ahead to make the video.

Interesting enough, some senior MTUC folks saw my video and related to me about something that happened 20 years ago. At that time, YB Lim Kit Siang was in the opposition. Tun Lim Chong Eu was the Chief Minister. A group of Mega Textile workers picketed outside the Dewan too. They wanted to see Tun Lim. Tun Lim who was in the assembly sitting refused to meet them. YB Lim Kit Siang who was alerted about the picketting workers staged a walkout with his opposition members to see the workers. Tun Lim also had to follow eventually.

Above are the screenshots of the archieved Rocket News dated 1986/87. Isn’t it marvelous how the internet has archieved history and today, my video has managed to bring a reminder to the ruling government the struggle their predecessors have gone through?

It wasn’t meant as a comparision but it certainly is a good wake-up call that citizen journalist like me will not tolerate bad treatment given to women. The CM’s staff who asked the police to disperse those women are totally rude and unbecoming of a representative of a Chief Minister who preached people-centric government.