About 300 single mothers demonstrated in front of the Selangor State Secretariat building this morning demanding their RM100 allowance promised during the 2008 general election.
The demonstrators, who claimed they were representing single mothers from Selangor, wanted to be back paid 54 months’ worth of outstanding payments.
“We, today, are gathering to demand for the promise. Because when a promise is made, it has to be honored,” they said during the hour-long rally starting 10am.
“When they (the Selangor government) won, we were just left out. There are so many single mothers here today, we are assets for Selangor,” said Murtini Kasman, who represented the demonstrators.
The demonstration was spearheaded by the Malay Army Veterans Association (PVTM) president Mohd Ali Baharom, who is more commonly known as Ali Tinju.
“The women who attended today are brilliant and bold. Kakak-kakak (sisters) all came today to claim the special allowance promised, right or not?” Ali said in evoking the demonstrators’ spirits.
Ali ( centre, in photo ) also urged the media not to view the single mothers as being politicised in the issue.
The group then handed a memorandum to Selangor women’s affairs exco Rodziah Ismail, who promised to meet with the group’s leader next week to discuss the matter.
Rodziah stressed that the state government has in fact been providing the RM100 assistance, but only to single mothers who have registered with the state and were deemed to qualify for it.
She added that the state government is also providing assistance to them in different forms, such as the Women Empowerment Program through the Women’s Empowerment Centre (PWB) as well as urban and rural microcredit schemes (Mimbar and SkimSel).