The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Anwar akhirnya menjadi Presiden PKR? Posted: 12 Aug 2013 04:30 PM PDT Penulis adalah seorang jurutera semikonduktor, wartawan freelance, penerbit dan editor buku motivasi yang suka mengikuti perkembangan politik Malaysia Sudah banyak yang ditulis mengenai pemilihan parti Umno, dan tidak kurang juga fokusnya pada PAS. Tapi situasi di dalam PKR, yang bakal mengadakan pemilihan parti tahun depan juga tidak kurang hebatnya. Minggu lalu, Utusan Malaysia memulakan laporan mengenai Timbalan Presiden PKR, Azmin Ali yang didakwanya berhajat untuk bertanding untuk kerusi presiden yang disandang Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, isteri kepada bos sebenar PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Mengikut perlembagaan PKR, Wan Azizah tidak mungkin lagi menjadi presiden kerana mencapai tempoh maksima, 3 penggal berturut-turut menyandang jawatan itu. Ini disusuli dengan satu artikel di Malaysiakini yang ditulis Terence Netto yang seolah-olah berkata Azmin akan bertanding presiden walaupun tanpa Utusan memainkan isu tersebut. Sebenarnya percaturan untuk pemilihan PKR sudah bermula sejak 5 Mei yang lalu, ketika Pakatan Rakyat gagal ke Putrajaya. Karenah Azmin yang mengambil pendirian bertentangan dengan parti dalam mengadakan Himpunan Blackout 505 dan kemudian mempersoalkan pemilihan Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim sebagai Menteri Besar Selangor dan juga pelantikan Setiausaha Agong PKR, Saifuddin Nasution ke pejabat Menteri Besar Selangor sudah memperlihatkan niatnya untuk menerajui PKR. Azmin yang tidak kelihatan bayangnya di Himpunan Blackout 505 pertama yang diadakan 8 Mei di Stadium Kelana Jaya menulis di Twitter menegur partinya untuk bermuhasabah atas kelemahan sendiri dan menerima keputusan PRU13. Kemudian di satu sidang akhbar pada 11 Mei, Azmin juga menempelak parti sendiri mengamalkan nepotisme, satu dakwaan yang semua mengetahui ditujukan siapa. Keluarga siapa lagi dalam parti yang memegang Ketua Umum, Presiden dan juga jawatan Naib Presiden? Tiada hadiah bagi mereka yang dapat menekanya dengan tepat. Dalam pelantikan Khalid untuk penggal kedua sebagai MB, Azmin mempersoalkan tindakan Wan Azizah yang menyetujui pelantikan Khalid tanpa berbincang dengan PKR Selangor, di mana Azmin juga pengerusinya. Dalam hal ini, ramai di PAS dan DAP melihat tindakan Azmin cukup menjengkelkan kerana Khalid adalah MB untuk Pakatan Rakyat dan bukan PKR sahaja; dan tidak wajar untuk Azmin berpendapat PKR sahaja yang boleh menentukan siapa MB di Selangor. Selepas itu, Azmin turut mempertikaikan keputusan melantik Saifudin ke jawatan pegawai perhubungan politik di pejabat menteri besar. Beliau mengadu di media berkata, kalangan ahli melahirkan rasa kurang senang dengan keputusan itu yang didakwanya dibuat tanpa perbincangan malah "seolah-olah melupakan pemimpin Selangor yang berjaya memenangi hati rakyat serta menang dalam pilihan raya umum ke-13 lalu." Di sebalik ini pula, timbul risalah propaganda yang menjadikan Wan Azizah sebagai sasaran berbunyi: "Azmin for president! We don't need a 'sleeping beauty' ." Siapa di belakang risalah itu tidak perlu dibahas di sini. Yang perlu dibahas ialah mesej di belakang risalah itu iaitu jelas memuji dan menyindir Wan Azizah - memuji rupanya dan menyindir kebolehannya dalam menerajui parti. Sekiranya dituduh Wan Azizah sebagai 'sleeping on her job', apakah Anwar juga 'sleeping on his job', kerana sudah tentunya pasangan suami-isteri ini berbincang sesama sendiri mengenai hal parti sebelum sesuatu keputusan diambil. Apa yang berlaku dengan rungutan Azmin? Himpunan Blackout 505 yang tidak disetujuinya diadakan 15 kali dengan kali terakhir pada 22 Jun di Padang Merbok. Tan Sri Khalid yang dipertikai kebolehannya masih menjadi MB Selangor. Saifuddin pula secara rasminya dilantik sebagai Chief of Staff (Ketua Staf) di pejabat MB Selangor berkuatkuasa 16 Julai yang lalu. Sekarang dilaporkan Azmin berhajat hendak menjadi presiden. Dengan perkara yang tidak menggembirakannya di atas, Anwar sebagai Ketua Umum PKR perlu bertanya apakah sesuai untuk Azmin menjadi presiden dan mengkaji impaknya terhadap parti dan kerajaan Selangor? Jika Azmin menjadi presiden, kata pemutus di dalam parti adalah di tangan Azmin dan bukannya di tangan Ketua Umum, satu pangkat yang tidak dikenali di dalam perlembagaan PKR. Apakah Anwar masih boleh menikmati kuasa dan kebebasan menjadi pengemudi PKR dengan berjawatan Ketua Umum seperti sekarang tanpa menjadi presiden jika Azmin ialah presiden PKR yang baru? Bayangkan apa berlaku kepada Himpunan Blackout 505, pelantikan Khalid dan Saifuddin sekiranya Azmin ialah presiden PKR ketika itu? Jika Azmin ingin bertanding presiden, rasanya tiada siapa di dalam parti yang boleh menghalang hasratnya selain Anwar. Walaupun Ketua Umum tidak berjawatan rasmi, umum mengetahui siapa kuasa sebenar di sebalik presiden PKR dan juga ketua Pakatan Rakyat. Ia bukan Wan Azizah, tapi ialah Anwar. Jika Anwar ingin kekalkan kuasa itu dan kekal hanya sebagai Ketua Umum, selesa seperti sekarang, beliau memerlukan seseorang yang menurut perintahnya di kerusi presiden. Sudah tentunya, calon itu bukan Azmin yang semakin dilihat tidak bersamanya. Jika Azmin sudi kekal sebagai timbalan presiden, segala isunya akan selesai. Barangkali MB yang dilihat tidak 'bekebolehan' olehnya, Khalid akan dipilih menjadi Presiden PKR. Jika Azmin betul ingin ke kerusi presiden, melihat karenah Azmin selepas 5 Mei, nampaknya Anwar akan terpaksa turun padang melawannya dan barangkali Khalid akan menjadi Timbalan Presiden PKR. Namun begitu, segala hipotesis yang diutarakan di sini hangus jika Anwar tidak lagi berniat untuk mencuba sekali lagi untuk menjadi Perdana Menteri Malaysia ke 7 pada PRU14. * Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan The Malaysian Insider. | |
| “Don’t let your friend come. Don’t want your friend to go through all this.” Posted: 12 Aug 2013 04:26 PM PDT
My first memory of her was how small she was. Her pale and blemish-free skin looked as if they had not seen a day of light. Her colour-treated hair was always held back neatly in a high ponytail. She was well-groomed as how aestheticians should be - her eyebrows were shaped perfectly and her eyes enhanced with kohl and eye shadow. I was pretty sure I had the right visual when her name was brought up by Megan, my aesthetician. "Poor Kathy. She looked the type who never had to do a day of hard labour. This must be really hard for her," I said to Megan. I was lying flat on my back with my eyes closed while Megan performed my monthly facial treatment in her home in Petaling Jaya. I normally loath the idea of participating in perfunctory conversations with my hairdresser and manicurist but for some reason, I like talking to Megan. Perhaps she comes across as someone who is sincere and not exploitative like many other professionals relying on commission. That day's conversation was particularly interesting and I couldn't take my mind off it. "She told me that short of being whipped and chained at the ankles, it was exactly like those slaves you watch on the movies. I mean, can you imagine this happening now?" I could sense repulsion in Megan's voice as she moved on to give me a shoulder massage while the mask on my face slowly hardened. Kathy and Megan used to work together at a beauty spa in an affluent neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur. I got to know Megan when I used to patron the spa and she was my aesthetician. Slightly more than a year ago, Megan made a leap of faith by leaving the spa to set up her own beauty parlour at home. She said she had enough of slogging away six days a week for someone else. Her former boss used to go around asking all the commissioned aesthetician what they thought of the five-digit Rolex watch she had just bought on a shopping trip to Hong Kong. I left the spa and followed her. The conversation about Kathy came about when I asked Megan whether she had heard of those farming programmes in Australia where people go pick strawberries and apples. "They seem to be really popular," I said. She gave my face a quick inspection after she completed her usual cleansing routine. "You're not getting enough sleep and you need to drink more water," she said before she proceeded to answer my question. "Uh-huh. Why? Are you interested?" "Oh no. I have a friend who's thinking of taking a year off from work to do this. Someone else I know wants to do the same thing too. It's just funny that two people said the same thing to me in less than a month." I grimaced as she extracted the acnes on my forehead. "Do you remember Kathy? She was one of the aestheticians at the spa. The really small girl, fair skin? She's working in a strawberry farm in Australia now." I was expecting Megan to tell me how Kathy was enjoying the farm fresh air and stuffing herself with strawberries as big as cikus while plucking them. I was wrong because for the next hour or so, Megan revealed the harrowing story of how her friend had left Malaysia to work like a slave in a foreign country. According to Megan, Kathy left with a group of friends. She wasn't alone. Like Megan, Kathy was probably fed-up with her work at the beauty spa and wanted something more lucrative. An agent told them they could each easily earn RM10,000 a month by just picking fruits from a farm in Australia. Such opportunity seemed too good to pass and they weren't really convinced until they were shown photos of the farm and accommodation. Everything looked lovely and sounded easy. Working in Australia meant they had to obtain a working visa and this was where the agent came in. Apparently, each of them paid about RM7,000 to the agent to sort out their paperwork. It seems that a few days before they were to depart to Australia, they were told that their working visas were not ready and they would have to leave on a tourist visa while their agent would continue to work on getting them the correct paperwork. Perhaps they did not want to waste their plane tickets or perhaps they did not want to postpone an opportunity for a good income, as many of them had by then presumably quit their jobs and were left with no income. I could only presume such an investment might have cost some of them their life savings. Whatever reason it was, they left for Australia more than four months ago. Before leaving, they were told to delete the agent's phone numbers from their phones. "Kathy told me she has muscular legs and her skin is tanned now. She said she's ugly now. She has to squat on her feet to pluck strawberries for about ten hours a day without much break and under the hot sun. She sent me photos of the farm and you can't see the end of the strawberry beds. It's that far. She said it's very tough for her. She cried every night for a month when she first started," Megan told me. "Kathy said she never thought something like this would ever happen to her." I know. Normally you only hear of such abuses happening to Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese. Not Malaysians. Kathy told Megan that when they arrived at the farm after hours of driving from the city, they were brought to their accommodation. They were shocked by the condition of the place. It was filthy, smelly and filled with all sorts of junk. It was obvious that decent living condition wasn't part of the deal. They spent days cleaning and clearing up the space to make it habitable. By then, the thought of being victims of a scam had slowly crept in since the reality of the place did not match the photos that were shown to them back at home. For the first month or so, they could not pick the strawberries because it wasn't time for harvesting yet and because they would only be paid for each basket of fruits picked, they were not able to earn any income right away. On top of that, they had to pay for their own lodging and food. Apparently, mattresses were rented out at A$3 per night by the farm owner. Kathy said that this information was never disclosed to them by their agent. With no income, their expenses accumulated quickly and soon enough, they found themselves in debt. On a tourist visa. "Why don't they report this?!" I sounded angry and to be honest, a tad judgmental. "Kathy said she doesn't want trouble. In the beginning, when they complained to the owner, he told them that they are free to go as long as they pay off their debts. Kathy said she has no choice but to wait and pick as much fruits as she can so that she can earn some money, clears her debt and leaves the farm. Also many of her friends want to earn back the money they had spent to pay the agent," Megan said. "Kathy told me that most of the workers there are Malaysian, Chinese and Thai. Apparently, the owner doesn't want to take anyone from Hong Kong because they are known to be vocal and they will stand up and fight. You knowlah, we Malaysians are quite submissive. Always too scared to cause trouble." I couldn't help but think that the combination of not wanting to worry her family and the fear of humiliation and being judged by them could partly be some of the reasons why Kathy had kept this from the authorities. I wondered whether I would have done the same if I was stuck in a situation like this. Before we ended my facial session, I asked Megan to get information from Kathy on the agent and the farm. "I want to warn my friends about them," I said. Megan nodded in understanding. On the same night while at home on the internet, I found out that the Australian High Commission is aware of such scam. They had posted a warning against fruit picking/harvesting scam on their website. According to them, you can detect a scam if you are promised a quick working visa, if you receive an email (especially one that does not address you specifically) offering you either a guaranteed income or job, if a job advertisement requires you to send a fee to receive your start-up materials, if an advertisement only gives you a post office box address, and if the fruits do not coincide with the harvesting season. Later that night, I received a message from Megan. Kathy had given her some vague information on the agent and the address of the farm, which appears to be situated in Western Australia. No useful information turned up when I did a search of the agent's company and the farm address on the internet. Before I called it a night, I received another message from Megan. It read "Kathy said don't let your friend come. Don't want your friend to go through all this." If you suspect you might have been a victim of such scam, please report to the local police or at www.scamwatch.gov.au. *All names have been altered to protect the identity of the individuals mentioned on this article. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. |
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