Siva has sold out workers
A SatabPublished: Jan 18, 2005 5:56 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
Kindly allow me to respond to your report Aliran: Suhakam's Siva should step down.
Aliran has asked Siva Subramaniam to choose either to be a unionist or a human rights commissioner. In my view, he is not fit to be either one.
My letter two years ago tells us why he cannot be an honest, effective and sincere workers' representative - he is so closely associated with the 'sell-out' of workers' rights.
I was of the view then that Siva would be rewarded for his betrayal of workers' interests. Indeed, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has done just that - he has appointed Siva as a human rights commissioner.
Before I gone on, I must state that the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress under G Rajasekaran has stood up for workers and certain trade union principles. Unlike the dubious stand of then MTUC president, Senator Zainal Rampak, Rajasekaran's stand has always been strong and uncompromising and transparent. He has not betrayed the workers.
On the other hand, the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) under its former secretary-general, Siva, is a lost cause. Under Siva, the NUTP is not known to have taken a strong stand on behalf of the teachers.
He either welcomes government announcements or clarifies government position or defends government policy.
Even when the government, after so many decades of protracted demands for a better gratuity, finally conceded to grant an improved gratuity on Jan 30, 1996, Siva, as president of Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) rejected it on the grounds that the country could not afford it.
Then as secretary-general of NUTP, he vowed to fight for better gratuity. What kind of workers' champion is this? He sold out all the government servants in the civil service.
The government doesn't simply give away benefits to workers without first calculating the economic impact to the country. On what grounds did Siva and his sidekicks conclude then that the government could not afford to pay out this new gratuity?
Siva sits on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) board as the workers representative. Yet when the EPF declared one of its lowest dividends recently, he went out of his way to justify the record-low dividends dished out by EPF.
Not only that, Siva also told the MTUC to call off its proposed nationwide picket to protest against the low dividends.
You didn't see Rajasekaran rushing to KLIA to send off Dr Mahathir Mohamad every time he went on one of his numerous overseas trips - unlike one other union leader.
Wonder what is in store for Siva - a senator's post or an appointment to some huge government corporate conglomerate?
Aliran has asked Siva Subramaniam to choose either to be a unionist or a human rights commissioner. In my view, he is not fit to be either one.
My letter two years ago tells us why he cannot be an honest, effective and sincere workers' representative - he is so closely associated with the 'sell-out' of workers' rights.
I was of the view then that Siva would be rewarded for his betrayal of workers' interests. Indeed, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has done just that - he has appointed Siva as a human rights commissioner.
Before I gone on, I must state that the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress under G Rajasekaran has stood up for workers and certain trade union principles. Unlike the dubious stand of then MTUC president, Senator Zainal Rampak, Rajasekaran's stand has always been strong and uncompromising and transparent. He has not betrayed the workers.
On the other hand, the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) under its former secretary-general, Siva, is a lost cause. Under Siva, the NUTP is not known to have taken a strong stand on behalf of the teachers.
He either welcomes government announcements or clarifies government position or defends government policy.
Even when the government, after so many decades of protracted demands for a better gratuity, finally conceded to grant an improved gratuity on Jan 30, 1996, Siva, as president of Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) rejected it on the grounds that the country could not afford it.
Then as secretary-general of NUTP, he vowed to fight for better gratuity. What kind of workers' champion is this? He sold out all the government servants in the civil service.
The government doesn't simply give away benefits to workers without first calculating the economic impact to the country. On what grounds did Siva and his sidekicks conclude then that the government could not afford to pay out this new gratuity?
Siva sits on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) board as the workers representative. Yet when the EPF declared one of its lowest dividends recently, he went out of his way to justify the record-low dividends dished out by EPF.
Not only that, Siva also told the MTUC to call off its proposed nationwide picket to protest against the low dividends.
You didn't see Rajasekaran rushing to KLIA to send off Dr Mahathir Mohamad every time he went on one of his numerous overseas trips - unlike one other union leader.
Wonder what is in store for Siva - a senator's post or an appointment to some huge government corporate conglomerate?
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