The Edge Daily: Options Cover Story :Shopping for a real candidate

Cover Story :Shopping for a real candidate

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The air is muggy and still in Sungai Siput, Perak. Barely a week into the 12th general election campaign period, banners and posters strung across the Jalong market have worn their festivities to exhaustion. They flap wearily as snatches of breeze from high-powered out-of-town vehicles pass by, and amusingly animated with the passing blare of party propaganda and songs. A steady hum of motorcycle engines vibrate, bringing a steady trickle of visitors to the market despite the afternoon somnolence.

“Hullo..!” A lady waves gaily at a table of men slouching over the weekend newspapers at a coffeeshop by the market. They hesitantly stretch a smile, eyeing her supporters and their placards guardedly. The character in a pink scarf and dark sunglasses smiles, and introduces herself and her friends.

The group, consisting of Women’s Centre for Change (WCC), Sisters in Islam (SIS), All Women’s Action Society (Awam), Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) and Pusat Janadaya (Empower), is on a voter education campaign to raise public awareness of a demand to end sexism in Parliament. With them are the Perak’s Women for Women Society and the Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI), to which our pink-scarved Mak Bedah belongs (see page 14).

Mak Bedah is an everyday woman who looks like any aunty off the street save for her similarly dressed posse armed with placards and sheets of manifesto. She and her group travelled three hours from KL with her friends from the Joint Action Group on Gender Equality (JAG). She is a fictional character created by WCI to raise awareness about WCI’s citizen’s manifesto. During the campaigning, between four and six women from WCI take on her personality to the streets to engage the electorates and the candidates in their constituencies.

Women’s Candidacy Initiative
WCI is a collaboration of women and men who believe that the political participation of women at every level of decision-making is vital to advancing and upholding the rights of women to better represent their concerns. The organisation made history in the 1999 general election when it fielded its candidate, Zaitun Kasim, to run on a women’s human rights platform in the Selayang parliamentary seat against the incumbent, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy (BN). She polled 43% of the vote in the constituency, slashing the winning margin for the incumbent from 38,627 in the 1995 general election to 8,835.

“Women’s lives are governed by social expectations and by laws that are made outside of their consultation. Thanks to the women’s movement (in Malaysia), you learn very quickly that women’s lives are also affected by what happens in political spaces — not political parties, but political processes — it is important to always make this distinction,” Zaitun, also known popularly as Toni, told Options in an interview last month.
Toni has worked in Malaysia for the last 15 years on a wide range of human rights and women’s rights issues. She has been involved in various civil society organisations and movements to work on issues such as sexual harassment, domestic violence, poverty, HIV/AIDS, women’s access to leadership and the impact of religious fundamentalism on people’s lives. Her work is based on the fundamental belief that women and men, and people of all races and religions, should be equal before the law.

“Bridging social activism and political processes comes naturally for most civil society movements,” said Toni, adding that she makes a distinction between a political party and a political process. “We either lobby politicians or decision-makers for our causes or get involved in politics ourselves. There is no viable option. It’s a very clear linkage for most civil society groups and activists.”

She was excited when she was approached by WCI to compete for the Selayang parliamentary seat in the 1999 polls. “I was really thrilled by the idea of running without having any party political affiliations. We had a viable candidacy, but we did not have a candidate. I had a knot in my stomach when WCI approached me,” she said, harbouring doubts about dabbling in politics, which was perceived as “dirty”.

“I still don’t think that politicians are necessarily evil people. It’s almost like saying that you won’t go into a bank because it’s so corrupt. In fact, it’s only as corrupt or as dirty as you make it.

“If you don’t think about how you can get into the system and change it, you’re just as accountable for allowing it to happen. There’s nothing noble in saying that you don’t want to be involved in politics because it’s dirty — that’s a cop-out. Why can’t we celebrate politics, and make it something joyful for us all?”

Even though Toni campaigned on a gender platform, she was not exempt from sexism while on the campaign trail. “I experienced things I’ve only read in theory about women in politics, issues of image and social barriers.

“Female candidates or aspiring politicians have to account for the clothes they wear, for example. Journalists ask questions like, ‘Did your husband allow you to run’, or, ‘How does he feel about this?’ And I will say, ‘Do you ask this of male candidates?’ or ‘Do you ask them how their wives feel about running (for elections)?’ This is the added baggage women have to carry all the bleeding time.”

“I’m not about to change the way I talk just because someone wants me to be more feminine in my speech,” said Toni, getting agitated at the topic. “There’s always an expectation in how you conduct yourself. It’s always a problem if you’re too feminine or too assertive. The measure (in a female politician) is in so many other things except your self worth and your manifesto.

“Is image really the most important measure of a woman? I can’t for a moment imagine that Malaysians are so shallow as to think it is... Is it really what the electorate is thinking, or is it what you think the electorate is thinking?”

She remembers 1999 as one of the highlights of her life. “Winning is not the point. The point is that you fight a good fight, and the fun is in running in it,” she said. “We were novices and are so used to a system that just is not geared to let a viable opposition win, much less an independent. We were caught by surprise when we managed to win 43% of the votes in the constituency.”

WCI’s shopping list
Toni spoke with much enthusiasm during the interview, despite recuperating from a spell of ill health. She confessed to having gone against the doctor’s orders to rest. Before we parted, we joked over a petition on social networking site Facebook, “A holiday for Toni”, which proposed that she should take a few days off for a short break. A week after the interview, the organisation, which had initially announced Toni’s candidacy in the 12th general election, decided to withdraw her candidacy and announced an alternative campaign. The main reason for this was that her health had deteriorated abruptly, and the organisation decided not to burden her further.

The campaign was launched on nomination day at the MBPJ Civic Centre. Mak Bedah, in a bright scarf and sunglasses, was accompanied by a group of supporters shouting, “Vote for equality!” They were wearing T-shirts that said, “Shopping for a Real Candidate”, and in Mak Bedah’s shopping cart was a “shopping list” styled after WCI’s 10-point citizen manifesto.

They approached the candidates to respond to the manifesto, which calls for democracy, a non-discriminatory society, the right to basic freedoms and human rights, a transparent and corruption-free government, a safe and violence-free society, a good and affordable standard of living for all, an end to privatisation of healthcare and basic needs, an end to unfair and oppressive laws, an end to forced evictions, and support for a responsible, sustainable and equitable development.

In the first week of campaigning, Mak Bedah approached candidates competing for parliamentary seats around the Klang Valley, including Hee Loy Sian (PKR), Edward Lee Poh Lin (DAP), Tony Pua (DAP), Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai (MCA), Chew Mei Fun (MCA), and Nurul Izzah Anwar (PKR). The responses were varied, from total refusal, to vague responses and total commitment.

Mak Bedah’s ‘shopping list’
I joined five Mak Bedahs on their first trip outside of the Klang Valley. Together with JAG members, we headed to Sungai Siput, Perak. The pink scarves threaded their way casually through the market. Surrounding them were placards that read “WCI’s Shopping List for a Candidate”, “Give Sexist MPs the Red Card”. The locals scrutinise JAG’s tri-lingual leaflets, “Don’t Vote for Sexist MPs” which identify 11 sexist MPs who have been nominated for the 12th general election, including incumbent Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu.

Only one of the three candidates competing for the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat turned up for the press conference that afternoon to endorse JAG’s position. Dr D Jeyakumar, the Parti Socialis Malaysia (PSM) candidate standing on a Party Keadilan Rakyat ticket, answered questions by Mak Bedah on sexism in Parliament, the representation of women in decision-making positions, his support for the sexual harassment Bill and the return of local council elections.

Is the Sungai Siput electorate aware of women issues and would they advocate voting on these issues? Several residents queried expressed dissatisfaction at the sexism and lack of gender sensitivity exhibited in Parliament. However, not all who were approached were aware of the sexist conduct of their elected representatives. A mother of two children, who declined to be named, said that she did not keep up with politics, and her main concern was just making sure her children get sufficient education to see them through their adulthood.

Mak Bedah emphasised the need for voter education campaign to raise public awareness of the fight to end sexism in Parliament. According to Jayakumar, the main concern of women in Sungai Siput was the plight of single mothers, many of whom were from the lower-income bracket earning an average of RM18 a day. He pledged to provide childcare centres in the area with more volunteers if he were elected.

At that same moment, several Mak Bedahs and their supporters attempted to query Samy Vellu, the MIC president, at a separate press conference. According to WCI, they were refused entry, rebuffed and verbally harassed. The sequence of events was relayed to the crowd at Jalong via SMS. It was greeted with disbelief. Spirits dampened. The rest of the day was uneventful. We stopped by the PSM’s Bilik Gerakan and admired the Che Guevara poster on the wall, and later adjourned for lunch before making the three-hour drive back to Petaling Jaya.

Mak Bedah finds Klang taxing
Three days later, another team of five Mak Bedahs and their convoy of cars travelled to Kota Raja in Klang, where PAS candidate Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud would be conducting ceramahs in several locations that night. We missed her at two locations, but eventually caught up with her in front of a row of shophouses on Jalan Kebun.

She greeted Mak Bedah warmly. A brightly lit makeshift tent was set up opposite Kedai Runcit Amin where she addressed a small crowd returning from evening prayers.

While Siti Mariah was speaking to the crowd, one of the Mak Bedahs found herself in the spotlight when she was interviewed by Al Jazeera about her campaign. The crowd slowly grew, as did Mak Bedah’s audience, most of whom stared from a respectful distance.

Siti Mariah was all smiles at Mak Bedah’s shopping list, and gamely answered her questions.

How had her day been? I asked Mak Bedah afterwards over drinks at a nearby Alim Curry House. “Taxing! I have no idea where we are right now… Are we in Klang, or is this Shah Alam?” she asked one of her supporters. “If you had to leave me here, I would… need a bus back, or a taxi,” she chuckled.

“Siti Mariah was a bit hesitant on the question of marital rape but she got around it by saying, ‘Yes, it should be an offence, but simultaneously there must be awareness.’ I can understand her point, because you can’t enforce a law without awareness.
“She also said, ‘I’m educated, I understand that, but there are wives who don’t know that they are not ‘properties’ of their husbands.’ So, yes, that kind of mentality and mindset must change. I understand her when she says it should go hand in hand — education and legislation,” said Mak Bedah.

Would she endorse the candidate? “I don’t know, because I didn’t manage to ask all the questions. I would have wanted to ask her about freedom of religion,” said Mak Bedah. Siti Mariah had apologised before she left, as she had to address another crowd elsewhere.

“She did agree to sexual harassment legislation and on local council elections. She did agree on the minimum 30% representation of women in Parliament, but also said that it should be done in phases. But the target (of 30% representation) was set so long ago — my question is, how many baby steps does it take?”
Over drinks we find out that WCI’s Mak Bedah project was loosely organised, mostly by a mixture of SMSes and an online group with about 60 members. The group intends to extend Mak Bedah’s presence elsewhere in Malaysia, post-elections, but nothing concrete has been decided upon yet.

Shopping in Bangsar
I met five Mak Bedah characters again the next day at a coffee joint in Bangsar Village 1, opposite the Bilik Gerakan for BN’s Lembah Pantai candidate and incumbent Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. Mak Bedah was engrossed with her reading, so I chatted with one of her supporters. We posited that Mak Bedah’s character could be a middle-class Malaysian who loves her skinny soy lattes.

The well-attended ceramah at the Bilik Gerakan comprised VIPs, well-heeled professionals, party loyalists, and a group of young supporters who call themselves “Youth for Shahrizat”. Shahrizat, resplendent in her own red scarf, greeted Mak Bedah and her supporters warmly upon arrival. She promised to let Mak Bedah and her group ask their questions during the ceramah.

Shahrizat spoke to the crowd for more than half an hour, followed by the VIP guest. Mak Bedah and her supporters began to feel restless, as they did not have the opportunity to question the candidate. After a short and private consultation with Shahrizat, Mak Bedah returned to her seat. They were to try their luck and catch Shahrizat before she left for her next appointment.

After negotiating many “last questions” with the candidate’s campaign personnel, Mak Bedah and her supporters finally released their clutches on Shahrizat. As they posed for photo-ops in front of the ceramah venue, a middle-aged Malay man approached them. A friendly exchange ensued, and the man pledged support for Mak Bedah. Everyone left the venue grinning.

We chatted over more cups of coffee, watching the remaining of the ceramah proceedings from across the street. Traffic was crawling from bumper to bumper, large sedans in a struggle for every inch of tarmac. Mak Bedah crossed her legs and leaned back into her chair. She looks tired, but she partook of caffeine in big gulps. “Does anyone know what Carol Chew is doing later?” she wondered, adding that they should meet BN’s candidate for Seputeh that evening, if possible.

“Shahrizat is a born politician and non-committal on certain issues and we are tired of her,” Mak Bedah said of her Bangsar shopping excursion. “We were hoping for something more concrete than that. If I had to shop (for a candidate), I’d be a bit puzzled as to what she’s actually saying. I don’t know her stand on marital rape; she only said, ‘We’ll look into it. It takes time’. What does it mean? How long is this time? When?” Mak Bedah will not know what her answers are.

“I wouldn’t say that our shopping excursion has failed. It’s exciting lah to meet Shahrizat for the first time.”
Mak Bedah tried to defend Shahrizat’s two pecks on her cheek when they were greeted. “But I don’t buy into that. Because while we agree that welfare services are important, as is cuddling [babies], many things have to happen before the cuddling. The cuddling is like the last resort — like if there are really no options or solutions — then cuddle, and comfort. We are hoping that the candidate will try all those options before doing that — cuddling.”

Mak Bedah and her supporters pieced together their report as an evening hue seeped into the coffee chain. Conversations were conducted simultaneously, and I learnt that Mak Bedah was planning to visit the candidates competing in Seputeh and Semenyih before the polling date on Saturday.

There are only two more campaigning days left, I reminded Mak Bedah — have they found a candidate? Will the last two days see Mak Bedah pushing her shopping cart in frenzy at the election hypermarket? “Well, we’ll see. We have found one (candidate), maybe. But Mak Bedah, her undi is rahsia.”
Mak Bedah put a finger to her lips, and said, “Shhhh.”

Marketing Politics Virally Youth 4 Change (Y4C)
The growing concern about Malaysia’s “politically apathetic youth” is not without reason. The median age of the Malaysian population is 24.4, and almost half of Malaysia’s electorate is under the age of 35. A telephone survey conducted by the Merdeka Centre late last year showed that one-third of Malaysians, aged 20 to 35, have not registered as voters. The opinion poll also showed that 52% thought there is little they could do to hold the government accountable between elections.

Youth for Change (Y4C), a youth-led organisation founded in 2006, is actively involved in engaging and encouraging young Malaysians to be more aware of and active in all aspects of the political process, through training, advocacy and exposure programmes. Last year, it organised by-election exposure trips to Ijok and Machap and a Young Voters Campaign in celebration of youth festivities, which also provided registration booths for young eligible voters. It has also organised a series of well-attended talks on social-political issues intended to engage and inform young Malaysians on current issues. This year’s activities also included election exposure trips to Taman Melawati, Batu Caves and Rawang.

The organisation played a series of satirical skits last month, which it says is a response to the civil society’s call for change. Y4C says in a press statement that it is confident that young Malaysians will “take up the challenge for peace and justice”. The four videos were launched on video-sharing site YouTube.com, Setem YB, Ubah Gaya Hidup, romPak lah, YB vs Blogger, which collectively gained 718,475 views in less than a week. Y4C plans to continue releasing videos in the same vein each month after the election.

According to Y4C convener Lee Khai Loon, Y4C supporters and volunteers made these series of videos based on current issues coloured with a sense of humour. “The political culture in Malaysia is very boring and full of fear. There should be an occasion or space to criticise, laugh, and tease (politicians),” he explains.

Lee hopes that the videos will be effective with YouTube. “These videos were made to present a new way of disseminating political messages, to get the young people interested in politics. We hope the viewers will be able to find room for thought and discussion in the presentation of our videos.

“This is an alternative voice to what is expressed in the mainstream media. Alternative views and stories are needed because people need more choices and channels. The interest of the people should be given priority.

“We ended all our videos with ‘Vote for Change’, as we think this is the time for change,” he adds.

Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI)
With less hits are the WCI music video parodies released online on YouTube. The three music videos — Democracy Back, Dontcha, and WCI - A tribute to Mak Bedah — cost RM10 to produce, according to producer and director Chi Too.

The lyrics were rewritten by Justin Timeforchange based on Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back, Pussycat Doll’s Don’t Cha and Amy Search’s Isabella, and performed entirely by a cast of volunteers, including Mak Bedah, Justin Timforchange and Amy is Searchingfordemocracy.

“The music videos are really Mak Bedah’s point of accessibility for the masses because she can’t be everywhere. Using online video to relay our messages is probably the next best thing to public TV. YouTube is probably the most ‘cepat, mesra, dan betul’ medium, especially since we have only 13 days in our campaign period.”

All three videos, including a soon-to-be-released Bedahlicious, took up to four hours to shoot, using the facilities of a production company. “The videos were ultra lo-fi so the editing process was really quick. I pretty much got a free hand to do what I wanted to do,” says Chi Too.

“The music video on YouTube was made specifically for voter education for this general election. I enjoy singing and dancing,” says Mak Bedah, adding that she listens to a potpourri of genres, including dangdut, hip-hop, and R&B. “Leisure? I have no leisure time! Busy lah, picking up the children from tuition, yoga…” Mak Bedah reveals. “Takde-lah, no career in showbiz, I have other pressing things to do. But who knows maybe later if Datuk Siti Nurhaliza sees our video, she may want to join us next time?”

[ Note: click for Youth For Change Youtube videos, and Mak Bedah Youtube videos ]