ALSA Malaysia National Forum on Labour 2009

Since the title is long and i bet it is brief enough for all of you to guess what is it all about right?

Well, the National Forum was held last week on 10th October 2009 (Saturday) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The venue was at Dewan Anuwar Mahmud (DAM) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and it was organised by Asian Law Students' Association, National University of Malaysia.

I was also involve in this event where I am under the Marketing department. My task given by my head department was to find sponsorship for this event. I am together with Kirubini divided our task to two parts. We need to call law firms to ask for their kindness to sponsor our event. But before that we need to email the sponsorship letter and the proposal of this event to the alumni listed by our head department. The day after we email, we need to confirm to them that we had email them the sponsorship letter and the proposal of our event.

Two weeks after that, we had our ALSA meeting and all the first year are welcome to come to the event. However, during the event was held, most of the students are not free as they have their co-curriculum simulation. So it a bit disappointed as there are only a few audience to hear the forum was about.

There are 3 slot in the forum. I did not manage to hear the first forum as I got my co-curriculum class that morning. So, I came late and I only hear for the 2nd and the 3rd slot of the forum. All of this slot was about Labour. I barely can not understand the content of the forum as I am not really understand what they were talking about. But, at the 3rd slot, it was interesting where we had to watch a video on labour exploitation. There are three victims. One is from Indonesia, one from The Philippines and another one is from Thailand. The video was aired at MTV before in a program called MTV Exit. To summarize, all of this victim did not know what is their job is all about. Once they have been brought to the working place, they realize that the place was like a hell to them. As for the victim from Indonesia, she knows that she will be working as a maid at a condominium in Singapore. But sadly, her employer is a bad man where she was kept being harassed and tortured. She is force to work from 5 a.m. till 11 p.m. everyday. She said that she just want to commit suicide since she cannot bare any longer the suffer that she's being through. But lucky her that she manage to get some help and she was brought back to Indonesia.

Same goes to the Philippines, the girl was a fresh high school graduates. She wants to enter college but their family cannot afford the expense. So she ask her neighbour help to find her a job. Sadly, her neighbour cheat her and she was brought into a place to work as a prostitute. She said that she was a virgin that time and it is painful. She was forced to do the dirty job and she kept cryingwhen she remembered the nightmare. Lucky her to be saved and now she live as a normal life she had before. As for the Thailand victim, he and his wife was forced to work for 19 hours a day to peel the prawn. They was forced to do the job without any payment. If they asked for their salary they will be kicked and punch and their boss said that they will be work thare until their debt is paid. He said it was like hell and he thanks to God as he was now released after 2 years working there and now he and his wife was working in a ne factory with a better life.

From the forum, I realize that some of us misused their power as employers and they just forced their workers as they think they own them. But, lucky them as they have their rights in the society as some of them know where to seek some help if they have been victimized. So remember to uphold their rights as a human being. They are just workers who need rest like us as well.