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Tribute to a true Malaysian champion

  • Publication Date | May 22, 2019
  • Document Type | Articles & Stories
  • Programmes | Development & Planning
  • Tags | Malaysian champion, Mohd Idris
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S. M. Mohamed Idris was one of a kind.   He was a force of nature.   And in more ways than one.

His passing away on 17 May was the passing of an era.  I doubt we will be so fortunate to have someone like him again.  

He had such an incredible mind, with an insatiable thirst for information on all kinds of issues, from the most minute to the largest.  He could process and synthesise all that information and see the links between them. And then translate them into points for concrete actions and policies.

He put this intellect, creativity and knowledge of practical action into constant use, day after day, from his adolescence till the last day of his 93 years of life.   Family and friends told him to take it easy, especially in the last few months.  

But he could not.  He was driven by a burning passion to right the wrongs in the local community, the country, and the world.  He could not bear to read that children go hungry, when so much food is wasted.  

He would be incensed by the chopping of trees, whether in cities or on the hills and in forests.  He could not stand that Malaysians’ health was being threatened by unsafe food, occupational hazards, road accidents, polluted air…when all these could be prevented.

Most of all, he wanted ordinary people to stand up for their rights. “Complain!”  became one of the popular slogans of the Consumers’ Association of Penang, which he led for 50 years.   If you are cheated, if the house you just bought has holes or cracks in the wall; if your workplace is harming your health; if the forest in which you go hiking is being felled;  don’t just take it or grumble to yourself.  Make an official complaint, mobilise your friends and neighbours, assert your rights, and fight back!

This rallying call of Idris became CAP’s guiding philosophy. Idris transformed the objectives of the consumer movement. Instead of focusing on which brand of camera or motorcar to buy (the traditional main issue of consumer organisations), he redefined the movement’s concerns towards whether the basic needs of food, health, education, housing and having a job are being met. 

By steering  CAP in this direction, Idris opened the path for citizens not only in Malaysia but also many other countries, to broaden the scope of the issues that consumers can and should take up.

CAP operated in its earlier years under difficult conditions, when government was very sensitive to public criticism, let alone protests.

I remember when returning from overseas studies in the mid-1970s I read an issue of CAP’s Utusan Konsumer, with a front page photo of huge casuarina trees with their roots exposed by erosion in Penang’s Gurney Drive beach, and the headline, “The death of Penang’s trees.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being arrested and CAP being closed down?”  I asked Idris. His answer:  “We just have to highlight this problem.”

This incident reveals how scared ordinary Malaysians were at that time, how restrained was the media and how Idris saw CAP’s role as speaking up when no one else was willing to.

Through the annual CAP seminars (usually 50 speakers and papers on all aspects of a specific topic like the state of health, education or rural development, the economy and even the administration of law and justice) CAP pushed the envelope to assert that all these were legitimate issues to take up.   

“We pay the taxes that finance the government’s operations ”  Idris would say. “We thus have the right to give the government our views on how the Ministries and agencies are performing and how to improve.”       

The environment was a large part of Idris’ concern.  CAP organised its first forum on the environment in 1971 and held a large symposium on Crisis in the Malaysian Environment in 1978.   In 1982, the new Environment Minister Datuk Amar Stephen Yong visited CAP and told us this was among his first acts because it was CAP’s work that led to the Ministry being formed.   

Mr Idris leading a demonstration against the south Penang reclamation project near. the proposed project site. | SAM

The environment became so important an area that Idris initiated another organisation to deal with it. Thus was born Sahabat Alam Malaysia, which Idris also led for 40 years.

In the early 1980s, Idris discussed with us the need to expand CAP’s work internationally as the source of many problems lie in the global system.  

So the CAP conference of 1984 was on the development crisis in the Third World.  Experts, journalists and activists from all over the world took part. They urged CAP to set up a network to tackle the problems faced by developing countries in the imbalanced world system.  Thus was established the Third World Network.

Idris was a household name in Malaysia but he was also well-known internationally.  When I visited the office of the famous American consumer icon Ralph Nader and said I was honoured to meet him, he surprised me by saying:  “The honour is mine.  I have heard all about Mohammad Idris and CAP.  He is the world’s consumer rights champion.” 

The renowned public health activist from South Africa, Prof. David Saunders, was impressed after visiting Idris and CAP. “You have set up a whole effective machinery for citizens to know and fight for their rights.”            

Idris was far ahead of the curve on many issues.  He started an anti-sugar campaign three decades ago when few knew the full extent of dangers of excessive sugar intake.  CAP took up the climate change issue long before the governments recognised it as the biggest threat to the world’s survival. 

Antibiotic resistance, now seen as the biggest global health problem, was taken up by CAP in the 1980s.  Twenty years ago, Idris became excited about the need to protect micro-organisms in the soil; two years ago, the FAO publicised its report on how crucial these micro-organisms are and how they are now being threatened.

Many laws have been changed or created because of Idris’ memoranda and discussions with various government Ministers and officials.  And many planned projects that he viewed as being wasteful or damaging to people’s interests or to the environment have been cancelled or modified. For example, CAP successfully campaigned with other NGOs to save Penang Hill from a massive development project in the early 1990s.   

Idris cared deeply for the poor and downtrodden.  He got CAP and SAM to prioritise supporting the rights and welfare of fishermen, farmers and smallholders, estate and factory workers, squatters, land and house tenants, the natives of Sarawak, the Orang Asli, the foreign workers.  And this started decades before the “Bottom 40%” or B40 became a popular term.   

Idris was against the USA-Malaysia free trade agreement negotiations (which was cancelled in the early 2000s), and the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and its new form the CPTPP.  In his view, these would cause Malaysia to give up many of its important present policies and compromise the country’s sovereignty.  He met personally with the then International Trade Minister to press his points, and sent a series of letters and memos to numerous Ministers.   

His last big battle was against the RM$45 billion Penang transport master plan, which he was convinced would ruin Penang’s environment and way of life.  In recent months, he personally led two protests, including one near the site of the planned three-islands reclamation project in South Penang.

Idris was a simple man, who always wore a white kurta (Indian-style shirt) and sarong.  He was not one to chase for awards.  The only three he accepted was the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), the Tun Abdul Razak Award, and the International Islamic University’s inaugural Ibni Khaldun award last November (though he insisted the award be given to CAP and not himself).  

He was not one who rested on his laurels.  On the contrary.  Despite so many achievements, Idris was always frustrated that there were so many injustices in the world, and that Mother Nature was facing the worst ever crisis.  So he drove himself and others to continue the work started so long ago.

When I last met him at his Rose Avenue home in Penang two Sundays ago, he was full of energy, reminding me to get CAP to take up all the many unresolved issues. Even after his death, his daughter Fatima told me her father, while in hospital, wanted her to convey to me to do research on why reducing food waste would also lower food prices.

I started by saying Idris was a force of nature.   Such a force is someone who does not follow the normal ways of the world but charts his own way, creating a path that others follow.   As for Nature, he had the rare gift of seeing the inter-connectedness of things, and within that, the central importance of protecting the environment. 

Rest in peace, Mohamed Idris, one of the very finest sons Malaysia has ever produced, and a true champion of the rakyat’s interests and of the environment.  Rest assured that many in the country and around the world will carry on the work you devoted your life to. 

——————————–

The author:  Martin Khor is the Honorary Secretary of the Consumers’ Association of Penang, and Advisor to the Third World Network, two of the organisations that S.M. Mohamed Idris founded and led.  

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Testimonials

Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
Jamaluddin Mohamad Bualik
Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
Hue Fui How
Hue Fui HowSecretary, Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide in Goldmining Action Committee (BCAC)
Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
Che Ani Mt Zain
Che Ani Mt Zain
SAM taught me the importance of social activism and the role it plays in upholding the rights of people and the protection of the environment. In my experience, SAM has never hesitated to speak up in defence of people and their environment, and has gone the extra mile to champion their rights, by helping communities take their battles to the higher ups and even to the courts.
Jessica Binwani
Jessica BinwaniPublic/Private Interest Lawyer
Semenjak kami kenal SAM, banyak pengalaman dan pengetahuan yg kami dapat. Kami telah belajar cara membuat baja asli daripada SAM. Semenjak itu, bermulalah minat kami dalam aktiviti pertanian. Dengan memperolehi kemahiran dalam membuat baja asli dan penanaman lestari, kami juga telah dapat menambahkan pendapatan sampingan kami. Ini lebih baik daripada tanah kami terbiar dan tidak diusahakan. Terima kasih SAM kerana sudi memberi bantuan dan tunjuk ajar kepada Persatuan kami.
Chedo Anak Nyuwen
Chedo Anak NyuwenPersatuan Penduduk Sg Buri, Bakong, Marudi
My journey with SAM started when her community organisers took me to the meet the paddy farmers of Kedah, connecting my growing interest in environmental law with our people who struggle to work the land in the face of pollution, replacement of traditional seeds with commercial hybrids and their accompanying chemical package of fertilisers and weedicides. I then had the honour to work with SAM in the struggle for the rights of the native communities of Sarawak, in defence of their forests from massive logging and destructive mega-projects. In every issue that SAM takes up, she combines rigorous research with the realities and voices of the communities to advocate for policies and laws that care for people and nature. From the courts to the elected legislators to policy makers and implementers and to the United Nations, SAM walks side by side with the communities in Malaysia. How can I not be inspired by the vision and passion of the generations of women and men who coalesce to form SAM?
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
129A, First Floor,
Jalan Tuanku Taha,
P.O.Box 216,
98058 Marudi, Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 758 973

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