The Malaysian Insight

FOR a year-old opposition party, Bersatu’s women wing, Srikandi, has a clear and definite plan: do or die in the next general election.

Srikandi chief Rina Mohd Harun has no illusions. “It is going to be tough but it is not okay to say if we don’t win this time, we can wait until the 15th general election”.

“We want to win the election,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

The 44-year-old admitted that they have their work cut out for them.

They plan to recruit and train 50,000 women nationwide to be part of the party’s election machinery when Parliament is dissolved for the 14th general election.

Rina might not be a household name in local politics, but the former Puteri Umno exco member is hard at work to ensure Srikandi provides the fledging party led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed the support it needs.

“We may not be loud but we are the silent force. That’s why we let Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin (president Muhyiddin Yassin) and Mukhriz (deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir) do the talking, while we do the work on the ground.”

Rina, who was Puteri Umno Sepang division chief, said among the first things she did when she was appointed to lead Srikandi was to form committees at the state and division levels. 

Currently, Srikandi has 132 committees and chiefs, out of the total 165 parliamentary constituencies in Peninsular Malaysia. 

“Now we are training our election machinery personnel and we need to increase the intensity in these few months because we are still new, unlike Wanita Umno that has been around for 70 years, or other parties like PKR. 

“Our target is to get 50,000 women. This is not the total number of our members, this is only our election machinery personnel,” the 44-year-old said in an interview with The Malaysian Insight.

The plan is to have Srikandi lead a corp of women to be like Wanita Umno, who are the worker bees for the ruling Malay party during elections. 

Umno women have played an essential role for the party and Barisan Nasional by going house-to-house to canvass for votes, collecting intelligence for the party on which households are “black” or “white”.

Rina would not reveal the total number of Srikandi members but said women formed about 30% of the party, of which Dr Mahathir is chairman, his son Mukhriz Mahathir deputy and Muhyiddin Yassin president. 

All are former Umno stalwarts and once in government, who are now against Prime Minister Najib Razak over his alleged corruption and handling of the government and economy. Bersatu is part of the Opposition pact Pakatan Harapan, together with PKR, DAP and Amanah.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: Who is the typical Srikandi member? What drives her to join Bersatu?

Rina: Our members represent 30% of the total Bersatu members. They are aged between 18 and 45, and 70% of them are career women. 

Many of them grew up during Dr Mahathir’s era and they are also former Puteri Umno and Wanita Umno members. They realise that the current Umno is not like the old Umno. They no longer want to be with Umno, so that’s why they are with Bersatu. 

In the three to four month period, Srikandi has increased its membership by 30-35%. We recently organised a house to house programme in Klang, Selangor and managed to register 525 new members within three hours. 

Q: What kind of programmes does Srikandi have to win women voters?

Rina: We started in May by doing a ‘Sentuhan Kasih Ramadan’ programme. About 80 parliamentary constituencies participated, involving around 12,000 families. We donated basic necessities to selected families. 

Apart from using social media, we also communicate with voters through house to house programmes, to explain to the voters what’s happening in the country. Yes, Dr Mahathir has said he wants to remove Najib Razak, but we also have to explain why the cost of living is high, about unemployment and what are the solutions to these kinds of problems. 

We also set up counters to register new members at pasar malam (night markets) in our areas. 

Q: What are the challenges in trying to get women who lack political exposure to vote?

Rina: We need to change their mentality. Firstly, they can’t be intimidated by threats. 

They also need to change their mentality that our country needs better leaders and it is our responsibility if we love our country. This can only be done through elections. So on election day, voters need to come out and vote. 

We want to tell the people that the government is still there (and functioning) even if Pakatan Harapan wins. And they need to learn to differentiate between political party and government. 

Q: How does Srikandi approach those who are afraid of change?

They (Umno) say our country will be in chaos if BN doesn’t rule. But we don’t have to be afraid. 

What we should be afraid of is the people who cannot accept defeat and who will deliberately cause chaos. In Selangor, people are happy with Azmin Ali (Menteri Besar) and if we want to compare with other states, it’s the same if not better in Selangor, and the same goes for Penang. 

But that’s the doctrine Umno (spreads) to the Malays, to intimidate us. I always tell my Srikandi members that we are on the right side, our struggle is like reclaiming independence. We have to be united because we have members of mixed background. 

Not just ex-Umno but we have those from non-governmental organisations, and people who never joined politics before or even voted in elections. 

Q: Will Srikandi demand more women candidates in GE14? 

Rina: When we left Umno we wanted Pakatan Harapan to win. Dr Mahathir is a very wise man. We don’t have seats (except one parliamentary seat in Pagoh and a state seat in Ayer Hitam) and what’s more important to us is that we (Bersatu) need to win first. 

There is no use demanding anything (if) we can’t win. I believe our top leadership will give a fair opportunity to Srikandi. Our objective is to win the election then we can talk about implementing strategy. 

Q: Tell us about yourself. 

Rina: I was a Puteri Umno Malaysia exco. I also held the Puteri Umno Sepang division chief post and was once Selangor Puteri Umno deputy chief. 

When I first joined as Puteri Umno Sepang division chief in 2002, I was tasked to form the Puteri wing in two weeks. They told me to have at least 10 branches with 15 members each. At that time we only had 37 members, but within two weeks I managed to get 728 members. So the Sepang division was among the top 10 divisions with the most (Puteri) members. 

And they (Umno) knew that my idol is Dr Mahathir. They could feel it that if Tun formed a new party, I would most probably join him. They even tried to convince me to stay when Tun formed Bersatu. 

I joined Bersatu in February. Besides the Dr Mahathir factor, I also left because of the Umno leaders who no longer listen to the people’s frustration. – August 18, 2017.