Hundreds of plantation workers in Malaysia, under the leadership of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), marched to the parliament building in Kuala Lumpur and presented their demand for housing for all on Wednesday, August 13.

The police tried to prevent PSM leaders and the members of the Farm Society Support Committee (JSML) from reaching the parliament. S Arutchelvan, deputy chairman of the PSM was even pushed to the ground by the police.

However, despite the use of force, the PSM leadership along with the JSML activists were able to reach the parliament and meet the authorities, including the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Malaysian parliament, Johari Abdul.

On Thursday, Arutchelvan was called by the Malaysian police for investigation related to the scuffle outside the parliament. The PSM called the move an attempt to intimidate the activists from exercising their democratic rights in the country.

The PSM and JSML leaders presented a piece of draft legislation for public housing for all plantation workers in the country. The PSM and JSML appealed to the prime minister, government, and even the opposition members of the parliament to act on the draft without delay and enact the legislation.

The draft legislation, called the Estate Workers Housing Scheme Act, was first prepared by the JSML in 2023 after consulting stakeholders in over 100 farms across the country for months. Since 2023, it has submitted the draft legislation to various state governments on different occasions as well as to officials at the ministry of housing, local government, and ministry of human resources and pushed for the early enactment of the legislation.

A stage in the long fight

The JSML, which is part of a collective of grassroots people’s movements (Gabungan Marhaen), has been active among the plantation workers for decades.

The JSML organized a protest demonstration in front of the Malaysian parliament in 2019 as well. At the time it had submitted a memorandum for a public housing scheme for all plantation workers along with several other demands.

The human resource minister at the time, M Kulasegaran, had promised concrete steps on the public housing issue. However, even after years, no progress was made, which forced the JSML to start working on the draft legislation using its own resources.

Wednesday’s submission of the legislation to the country’s parliament was the culmination of the JSML and PSM’s years-long campaign to build consensus around the issue by trying to mobilize other civil society organizations behind the call for public housing for all plantation workers.

There are hundreds of thousands of workers in Malaysia who work in various plantation farms in the country such as rubber, palm oil, tea, and coffee, among others. Most of them are low-paid workers.

According to R Karthiges, JSML coordinator, most of the workers in the plantation sector in Malaysia live on the farm in houses provided by their employers. However, they have to vacate those houses once they leave/retire or are laid off from the job.

Since salaries of most of these workers are low, they are in no position to buy their own houses even after working for decades. This leads to a severe crisis of shelter for a large section of Malaysian society.

Talking to Peoples Dispatch, Bawani KS, deputy secretary of the PSM, said that, “the demand for housing for the plantation workers has existed for decades because the houses (quarters) built for plantation workers are not owned by the workers.”

Given the gravity of the situation, it is pertinent that “the federal Government enacts and implements the housing act for plantation workers,” Bawani demands.

The post Malaysian plantation workers mobilize to demand housing rights appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

From Peoples Dispatch via this RSS feed