Extracted from Malaysiakini

My tribute to Malaysian NGOs

Sim Kwang Yang | Dec 31, 09 4:36pm

At the end of the year, newspapers and media organisations like to nominate their top 10 news items of the year or the top personalities of the last 12 months.

For me personally, I would like to use this column as my platform to pay tribute to our NGOs as the unsung heroes of the Malaysian society.

I was reminded of their contribution when Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) was accused of working against our national interest by the Registrar of Society (ROS) Mohd Alias Kalil a few days ago in Miri.

He said the ROS office had yet to receive an official complaint against SAM, which had been actively involved in activities against commercial logging and plantation development, besides the building of dams in this country. Mohd Alias was however quick to add that if SAM is found to have been involved in activities “detrimental to national interest”, then the ROS would deregister the NGO.

I am a Sarawakian. I know for a fact that a great deal of excessive and uncontrolled logging, plantation development and dam building only benefit the small circle of crony capitalists in Sarawak, and have brought nothing to the indigenous people but untold misery.

SAM and many other NGOs throughout Malaysia who are fighting against logging, plantation development and dam building are pro-people and pro-Malaysia, and should be recognised as patriots. If I were the home minister, I would fire the ROS for his insane remark on SAM, but with an Umno man sitting in that chair, what else can you expect?

Top NGOs

NGOs are civil society groups that are recognised by the United Nations as important citizens organisations involved in various types of social work outside the government and the marketplace.

With that kind of vague definition, the Rotary Club and all the Chinese guilds and associations are all NGOs, and so are the various religious and cultural bodies set up to promote their respective goals.

What I have in mind though are those NGOs established in Malaysia after the 1970s, dedicated to human rights, women’s rights, environment protection, and support groups of the indigenous people of Malaysia.  

The brand names that spring to mind are Aliran, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Amnesty International Malaysia, National Human Rights Society (Hakam), Federation of Malaysian Consumers’ Associations (Fomca), Sisters in Islam (SIS), Tenaganita, All Women's Action Society Malaysia (Awam) and Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), and you can add on your own list.

My first contact I had with an NGO was with the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia in the early 1980s when as a budding opposition member of parliament, I approached Gurmit Singh (right) for information and advice on the proposed Bakun dam. He overloaded me with a mountain of facts and figures, and became my personal advisor on the environmental portfolio which I held through three terms.

If I were Lim Guan Eng or Khalid Ibrahim, I would appoint Gurmit Singh as the environmental advisor of my state government.

Later on, as I was getting more involved in the anti-logging platform in Sarawak, I became more involved with NGOs, especially those working in Sarawak.

One of my closest associates has always been Wong Man Chuok, whose NGO under various names is based in Sibu. He once had an organic farm somewhere at Oya Road outside Sibu. He build some hostels and meeting rooms, and the natives’ community organisers from all over Sarawak would gather there for intensive training on land laws and Sun Tze’s ‘Art of War’.

Meng Chuok and I had fought many battles together against loggers and plantation companies, and until today, I consider him one of my best and oldest friends.

I had an opportunity to conduct some training in Meng Chuok’s organic farm. He bred some pigs, and the pig waste was then collected and stored to produce methane gas. The whole farm was then linked with pipes to supply the gas for cooking and lighting purposes. We had the great pleasure of netting and cooking many huge fish from his fish pond.

Later on, I had the opportunity to work with some NGOs in West Malaysia.

Dismissed as troublemakers

The individuals who are dedicated to their NGO work often throw themselves into their mission like a kind of vocation, and so do not care much for career or family. They are all very strong personalities, and sometimes, they will get competitive in lobbying for foreign funding. But they do share a common sense of solidarity as fellow civil society groups.  

Recently, I met up with Wing Boon Khiong, who is trying to set up his election watch body in preparation for the Sarawak state elections. He confided that volunteers are hard to find, and most workers on the ground expect to be paid some kind of allowance. The spirit of voluntarism in civic work for the Malaysian society has never been very strong in our country, and that is what makes these NGOs so outstanding.

Inevitably, all these NGOs are involved in working for the marginalised and the dispossessed, often the victims of our country’s unjust political or economic system. The superstructure of the state tends to regard them as anti-government and troublemakers. During the Operation Lallang in 1987, a few of them were also roped in, and some were even tortured.

Even today, those NGOs in Sarawak trying to help the Penans and other indigenous natives are often bad-mouthed by government ministers and the police. But I know these NGO people. They may be ordinary but concerned citizens like you and me, the steel in their soul had been tempered in the cauldron of the fire of life. As such, they are not so easily intimidated.  

As we turn enter a new decade in a new millennium, I salute you all, Malaysian NGOs.

Keep up the good work, and have a happy new year.

SIM KWANG YANG was member of parliament for Bandar Kuching, Sarawak from 1982 to 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.