[ETAN-key] NY Rally in Support of Elizabeth Wong & Women in Politics

[Charles Scheiner]

ETAN Friends,

Although I'm in Dili and won't be able to attend this rally in New 
York, I encourage anyone who can to do so.

Before she became a political leader, Eli Wong was a tireless 
solidarity campaigner for human rights, including in Timor-Leste. She 
was a key organizer of the second Asia-Pacific Conference for East 
Timor in Malaysia in 1996 (which was broken up by Mahatir's goons, 
with many people arrested, including Eli), and I met her at the 
subsequent APCET meeting in Bangkok.

I hope you can give her your strong support.

- Charlie

PS: John -- if you see JRH in New York, perhaps he can come to the 
rally or at least send a message, to the Malaysian gov't as well as to Eli.

PS: Jessica, if there's more information you can send, I can 
circulate it to friends here in Dili.

At 09:53 PM 2/19/2009, you wrote:
>[Replies go to poster. Send to etan-key at lists.mutualaid.org to reply 
>to whole list.]
>
>
>Dear friends and human and women's rights advocates,
>
>Join us for a rally in support of Malaysian Assemblywoman Elizabeth 
>Wong & Against Unwarranted Attacks on Women in Politics.
>
>Friday, February 20th 11am
>
>Malaysian Consulate
>
>313 East 43 St. btw 2 Ave. and Tudor City Pl.
>
>Please join supporters and activists rallying in front of the 
>Malaysian Consulate in New York this Friday to demonstrate in 
>support of our friend and colleague Elizabeth Wong, State Executive 
>Councilor and Bukit Lanjan Assemblywoman from Selangor, Malaysia. 
>She has been long time advocate for East Timor rights.
>
>This week Elizabeth Wong has suffered slander in the press and 
>attacks on her credibility as a result of supposedly "undignified" 
>photos of her being distributed to the press. The photos were taken 
>without her knowledge or permission in the privacy of her own home. 
>This attack on her personal life illustrates the double standard 
>women face when in politics, with more attention being paid to 
>superficial and irrelevant matters than to their platform and 
>political record. This smearing of Wong's image is a classic attempt 
>at a character assassination against someone with a proven track 
>record of personal integrity.   As a result Assemblywoman Wong has 
>since offered her full resignation to her party, the People's 
>Justice Party (PKR) which is said to be currently considering her resignation.
>
>The rally is being organized to give support to a brave activist and 
>politician whose privacy and dignity have been violated and to call 
>on her party to ask her to keep both her Assemblywoman post and her 
>Executive Council post. The barrage of attacks against Assemblywoman 
>Wong's right to privacy is nothing less than an attack on women 
>politicians everywhere.
>
>To many, Elizabeth Wong is a friend, leader, and, foremost, an 
>indomitable human rights advocate and environmentalist. Wong has 
>worked tirelessly as a human rights advocate for over a decade. 
>Before running for State Assembly in 2008, and winning with a 
>majority 5,000 vote she was the Secretary-General of the National 
>Human Rights Society (Hakam) from 2000-2006. She was also involved 
>in the creation of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus for 
>Democracy and the Solidarity Campaign for Human Rights in Aceh, 
>Indonesia. She has also worked on regional refugee rights and is a 
>long time advocate for East Timor human rights.
>
>During the last 11 months that she has served as an Assemblywoman, 
>Elizabeth Wong has been an outspoken government advocate for 
>responsible development, environmental rights, poverty alleviation, 
>minority rights and press freedom. She has fought for such policies 
>as environmentally responsible private development, a minimum wage 
>for workers and greater rights for women in an all too often 
>unreceptive political environment. She is also currently the 
>Information Chief of the Women's wing of PKR.
>
>For more information contact: Jessica Rucell 
><mailto:Jess.Tigra at gmail.com>Jess.Tigra at gmail.com & Jonathan Hulland 
><mailto:jonathanhulland at gmail.com>jonathanhulland at gmail.com
>
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***********************************************************
Charles Scheiner
La'o Hamutuk (The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring 
and Analysis)
P.O. Box 340, Dili, Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Telephone:  +670-3325013 or +670-734-0965 mobile
email: cscheiner at igc.org    website: 
http://www.laohamutuk.org    skype: cscheiner