Election 2008 : Syed Shahir, The Voice for The "Working People"

As everybody knows, The Big Day of Election 2008 is 8th March 2008. Much has been going around the net. Some sites placed in pictures of nominations (that includes me). Some publishes videos of ceramah campaigns.

Main internet news-sites Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today are active with commenters expressing their hopes and aspirations for the "new" government. I am saying this intentionally as a joke. I don't place my hopes too high but one's got to start from somewhere. It is good having some hope and working towards it rather than having none at all. Results get better with effort. Decades of continuous work will probably yield something useful one day.

That aside, despite repeated denials of Ministers (from BN) on the importance of blogs and bloggers, this election witnessed a big number of these people nominated as candidates in various areas. This is definitely a good sign. Bloggers started out as concerned common citizens writing for their community. Net surfers can comment on Members of Parliament or criticise racist, sexist remarks or any form of wrongdoing. Politics has returned to the grassroots.

One of the bloggers that I am vouching for is Syed Shahir . He is running under the Parti Keadilan Rakyat banner. The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) president functions as an activist for the working class for many years already.

He has been blogging since 2005 : http://syedshahir.blogsome.com/

If I recalled correctly, Syed told the crowd during Nat Tan's Candlelight Vigil that he was locked up before. I would presume it was because of protests to assert rights of Malaysian workers. I came to such assumption because I have read of an organised protest last year by MTUC to demand a minimum wage for all workers .

The minimum wage was RM900. In my opinion, it is only a small amount of money. I wonder whether our Barisan Nasional government had agreed to this? My confidence is low on the BN government.

I remember reading another article elsewhere where the press asked him whether he is concerned on the racial demographics that he is contesting will affect his chances of being chosen as an Member of Parliament. He replied that it does not matter to him because he is fighting for people regardless of race.

Accordingly, we need a voice like him in the parliament. One that represents workers without biasness in terms of race and religion.

People, please vote for Barisan Rakyat - PKR, DAP, PAS !