An interview with Linn, our Goducate worker among the depressed communities in East Malaysia.
Linn is a Filipina who now lives in Malaysia, with her husband and her three children. Her husband is working with poor migrants in Kuala Lumpur.
PC: Linn, how long your dad was imprisoned?
Linn: My dad was imprisoned for 5 months when i was 5 years old 2 months after martial law was declared by President Marcos.
PC: Why was he imprisoned?
Linn: During those times, everyone who has a dissenting opinion from the gov’t were rounded up. I remember my mom bringing us over to visit him. I saw all the other uncles mostly public school teachers, colleagues of my mom but more friends with my dad.
My dad was a laborer in the local sugar mill (central de azucarera del pilar) which meant that the people he went with were of a different league, but did not seem to matter to him. My dad’s friends were progressive minded, so was he.
They would invite speakers for their fora. The org was a local chapter of a national org of professionals. (My dad during investigation told authorities why were they insisting that he was one of them since he was only a high school graduate, not a professional)
The last forum they had, he was manning the projector. They did not know that all their names were listed. After which martial law was declared, then the crackdown.
PC: Why did you become a leftist activist – was it because of injustice to your dad?
Linn: I guess it was more of the environment I grew up with more than what was in my blood. Our house was made of nipa (attap) with bamboo slit floor but was quite big, elevated from the ground which serves as storage area.
It was a humble, simple house but we always had people at our house, not just relatives needing help but others i remember simply as uncles and aunties. There were different groups each time from all walks of life, some staying for some time.
Much later I heard from my lola (grandma) and mom’s cousins stories about how our house was surrounded by military men looking for my dad one night but could not find him. I have no recollection of this though
What i remember were meal times, bedtimes, reading times when my dad would talk to us about making it good in school that we should become somebody not to get rich but aim to be able to help the poor.
He said the poor had no one to help them. Even when they are innocent they cannot defend themselves simply because they don’t have money. And that there’s no one to help them. So he said we should always think of these people.
to be continued
Next post:
Interview with Linn – A helper of the helpless Part 2