APC applauds the acquittal of Irene Fernandez

Media Release: November 25, 2008


The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) today proudly congratulates its Vice-Chairperson for External Affairs, Irene Fernandez for finally being acquitted of the charges against her. The scheduled court appeals hearing which resumed on November 24 and scheduled until November 28 was surprisingly cut short when Judge Mohamad Apandi Ali announced his decision which disregarded Irene’s 2003 conviction.

When the defense lawyer, Mr. Puravalen asked that the motion for appeal to remain, the prosecution did not oppose the appeal. The Public Prosecutor, Shamsul Sulaiman, even said “Having been served the type-written notes, and having thoughtfully studied the notes, I have decided in the interest of justice, that justice itself would not be served by opposing this appeal.”

The Defense then asked that Irene’s earlier conviction and sentence should be dismissed. From there, the judge gave his momentous decision: “In the light of the respondent and Public Prosecutor is not opposing the appeal, I set aside and reverse the conviction and sentencing.”

APC Secretary-General, Danilo Ramos in a statement today expressed his sentiments, “The final decision regarding Irene’s case clearly shows that in the end, truth and justice do prevail. Irene was maliciously charged for exposing the real conditions of migrant workers in Malaysia . And even if her case lasted for thirteen long years, she still did not lose hope and still continues to fight for human rights.”

Ramos further adds, “All activists and human rights defenders like Irene and myself, who face various charges filed by fascist governments should not lose hope. We must always remember that we are fighting for the people and for a better society.”

Indonesian peasants rally against G20 Summit

The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) proudly commends the members of Front Perjuangan Rakyat (FPR) - an Indonesian organization composed of militant groups from the peasant, worker and youth sector for leading a protest action themed “Junk G20” ("Bubarkan G-20!") in front of the US embassy in Jakarta , showing their strong opposition against the G20 summit held in Washington on November 15. Rallies were also held at the front offices of the US General Consulates in the cities of Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , and Denpasar. The Alliansi Gerakan Reforma Agrairia (AGRA), a member of Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) in Indonesia is one of the sponsoring organizations of the rally. Other progressive Indonesian NGOs were also present in the demonstrations.

According to Erpan Faryadi, AGRA Secretary-General and APC Vice-Chairperson for Internal Affairs, “the Indonesian people, together with the rest of the people from nine (9) member countries of APC, are against the G20 summit since it is an evil conspiracy between the US and its allied imperialist countries. They merely want to ‘solve’ the ongoing financial crisis through plans that would in the long term result in further exploitation, oppression and enslavement of the people from Third World countries.”

Furthermore, in the statement made by FPR regarding their stand on the G20 summit, they believe that “There is no plan in the G20 meeting to address wage increase for workers and to increase the purchasing power of people globally. There is also no plan to stop monopoly of land and productive resources for billions of people in rural areas across the world.”

The Indonesian government is perceived to be a puppet regime of US imperialist. Therefore, its policies are geared towards the interest of the US . “No matter how much they convince the people that the financial crisis will only affect us minimally, the present situation in our country shows the opposite”, adds Faryadi.

Meanwhile, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) calls for the following:

• Denounce the G20 summit as a manifestation of the conspiracies of the imperialist countries.
• To end financial crisis, the government should take pro-people program and policies such as: (1) increase in wages, (2) implement genuine agrarian reform, and (3) providing employment for all workers.
• Abolition of foreign debt from imperialist countries
• End all forms of human rights violations, especially labor and agrarian conflicts.

Published on The Jakarta Post ( http://www.thejakar tapost.com)
A CAUSE TO AN END
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 11/15/2008 3:34 PM | National


Activists rallying in front of the U.S. embassy on Saturday, shouting for the disbandment of the G-20 as they deem the group of the world economies inept to solve poverty in developing countries. The U.S. is currently hosting a G-20 meeting, which will discuss measures to rescue the world economy from the global liquidity crisis. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

APC Congratulates DLA for Protest Action

Media Release: November 8, 2008

The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) would like to commend the protest action organized by the Democratic Left Alliance (DLA) last November 5. DLA is an affiliate of Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BFK) and BFK is a member organization of APC.

Protesters rallied against the presence of Myanmar warships in Bangladeshi territory, due mainly to gas exploration activities. Coincidentally, movements of Indian warships were monitored in the Bay of Bengal . Unfortunately, the Bangladeshi government is unable to see the threat posed by the warships on the nation's sovereignty in maritime boundaries. Thus, the whole country is placed at a precarious and vulnerable state.

Mass actions against foreign dominance and control must therefore be carried out in order to raise awareness among the public. More importantly, to force the government to act on issues concerning national security.#

Asian Farmers Group slams Global Forum on Migration

The recently concluded Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) held in Manila, Philippines last October 27-30, 2008 aims to link migration policies with development policies which would result to gains in both the host and sending countries. These include: (1) maximum utilization of remittances by the governments; (2) utilizing the skills and resources of the immigrants in their host countries; (3) protecting the rights of legal immigrants so they could be more productive in the host county; and (4) encouraging bilateral agreements between hosts and sending countries.

However, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), with 15 million members in nine (9) countries in Asia , says otherwise and believes that migration actually exploits the immigrants and forums such as these only pave the way for capitalist countries to profit from developing countries.

“Take our country, for example”, began APC Secretary-General Danilo Ramos in his statement made today. “10% of the Philippine population works abroad and distributed in 182 countries. This is due to the worsening conditions of unemployment and underemployment, and the inability of the government to provide secure jobs for the millions of workers.”

Ramos also concurrent secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), added that the issue of migration affects different sectors of our society as well, not just the immigrants. “In rural areas, poverty and hunger pushes peasant families to encourage their children to work in other countries, in the hope that they will earn bigger wages that they can send back here. What usually happens is that parents are forced to sell their carabao or mortgage their land in order to have money to help finance their children’s immigration overseas. In the long run, this practice greatly contributes to the food insecurity of the country.”

Clearly, the question of development in the context of migration only entails further advancement of the globalization in most capitalist countries. They are the only ones profiting from the continued perpetration of maldevelopment in Third World countries as the migrants become their source of cheap labor.

Erpan Faryadi, APC vice-chairperson for internal affairs and secretary general of AGRA (Alliansi Gerakan Reformia Agraria) from Indonesia , added that “In 2004, the number of registered Indonesian migrant workers was 380,688 persons. Of this number, 83% are women. More than 90% of female migrant workers work in the informal sector as housemaids. The rest works in the agricultural and industrial sectors as daily labours, as caregivers to the elderly, shop assistants, and as waitresses. The major destination countries for migrant workers are: Saudi Arabia , Malaysia , Kuwait , Singapore , Hong Kong, and Taiwan . In most cases where they borrow money from sponsor or local moneylenders, payment may be 3 times higher than the loan.”

“Moreover, immigrants are not the only ones exploited but their defenders as well. A renowned advocate for migrants also APC Vice-Chairperson for External Affairs, Irene Fernandez (and concurrent Executive Director of Tenaganita or Women Force) was sued by the Malaysian government for “maliciously publishing false news” in her expose on the maltreatment of undocumented migrant workers in detention centers. Defenders of migrants must likewise be protected by laws in order for them to be able to further promote the rights of immigrants,” APC said in the statement.

Meanwhile, APC commends at least 5,000 migrant workers from different parts of the globe under the banner of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) that held a rally in Manila on October 29 to protest the opening of the GFMD. Filipino peasants, peasant women, fisherfolks and agricultural workers joined the rally in protesting against the imperialistic agenda of the forum - among them is KMP, PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Small Fisherfolks in the Philippines ), AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women), UMA (National Union of Agricultural Workers) - all are member organizations of APC in the Philippines . #