Global donation drive to help voters from Sabah & Sarawak
THREE Malaysian NGOs have joined hands to launch a PayPal-based global donation drive to help registered voters from Sabah and Sarawak meet the costs of airfare returning to their hometowns from Peninsular Malaysia to vote.
JomBalikUndi (JBU), the Facebook social media campaign encouraging citizens to fly home to vote, has teamed popular communication centre for human rights, Komas and Focus on Sarawak (FOS) for the donation drive, which was launched today.
All donations will be exclusively directed to registered voters working in peninsular Malaysia whose constituencies are in Sabah and Sarawak.
“Priority recipients will be low-paid workers and higher education students in the peninsula,” said Kevin Bathman, a Malaysian living in Sydney and the brains behind JBU.
“We hope to meet their return-trip airfare costs.”
“We are actually throwing our social media weight behind JBU Bah, which is already encouraging Malaysians from these states to go home to vote.”
“If you are not a voter for GE13, you can do the next best thing: help a Malaysian who can’t meet the cost of travelling home to vote in East Malaysia.”
Donors may remain anonymous, but those choosing not to reveal their identity must seek permission from someone else through whom the donation may be made to a dedicated PayPal account. “We are appealing to people the world over,” Bathman said, “including former Malaysians and citizens living overseas who will not vote in GE13 for one reason or another”.
Arul Prakkash of Komas said: “All beneficiaries of the donation drive are required to undergo a briefing session to become election observer “PEMANTAU” Recipients will then be able to observe election process and voting activity and help ensure free and fair election. They also can educate the community on voters rights and election process. Meanwhile Focus on Sarawak (FOS) will be giving training session on PACA (polling and counting agent). Recipients will then be able to monitor voting/counting activity.
The NGOs say the training requirement is a key strategy in raising awareness of human rights in rural communities on Borneo Island.
Komas will take responsibility for collection and disbursement of donations. While FOS will vet suitable recipients, JBU will focus on promoting the global drive on social media and reaching out to wealthy and caring individuals.
Komas is also committed to delivering full reports of money received and distributed once Malaysia’s 13th general election has been conducted. “All donations will be made online via email, so we will write back to these emails with a full accounting of how donations were used,” said Komas’s Executive Director, Prakkash.
“We are talking about Malaysia’s future. And some of us can do more than others to help build that future,” said JBU’s Bathman from Sydney.
