The ABU War and Fund : An update and appeal

Shakuntala asked, in a comment to the “Oh Ibrahim Ali, beware!” post :

“By the way…we have left ABU far behind and are actually in a sense off focus, we are now into IA.(blow him)…what’s happening to ABU, may we know Haris how ABU is faring?”

Firstly, nothing, not even this matter of the lawyer responsible for drafting SD2, could distract me from the ABU work at hand.

I have, firstly, shared with all of you what we, at the secretariat understand this war to be, and then, in the Phase 1 Part 1, Phase 1 Part 2 and Phase 1 Part 3 postings, shared with you the work that ABU is taking up on your behalf from now right up to polling.

Presently, the ABU Secretariat is involved with efforts to help in the mobilisation for the Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat on 12th January, next year. More on this in my next post.

On the ground, as I mentioned earlier, we are continuing to identify where the new Mykad holders ( aka foreigners who have been granted overnight  citizenship ) are concentrated and are delivering and will continue to deliver a message to them : DO NOT COME OUT TO VOTE.

And I am now awaiting some extremely vital data, and after receiving the same, I shall be going to ground in the constituencies that ABU is focused on to do some of the most important work with our ground operators.

The Media Monitoring Team continues to keep track of the MSM lies and relays its analysis to the Counter Propaganda Team.

We are awaiting the final illustrations for a new ABU publication that is being put together by the The Counter Propaganda Team and which we hope will be out before the New Year.

Another publication for distribution into the Malay heartland is being worked on now.

We are awaiting the completion by SEAT of its analysis of two very critical documents, after which we hope to be able to get enough facts and figures to finalise a very important pamphlet for distribution, also to the Malay heartlands.

A team is looking into revising the Pesanan Tulus Ikhlas to the police and the armed forces to include additional material for their consideration.

A new video on Lynas which we hope will make this issue truly a national one, is in the pipeline.

We have had requests to supply another 50,000 copies of the DNBN Kuburkan BN DVD.

And we need to reproduce a large quantity of the Mengapa Harga Barang Naik? pamphlets for distribution in the constituencies were are focused on.

That’s all I can say.

ABU has 2 appeals.

Firstly, volunteers.

In a post here in October, we made an appeal for volunteers.

About 30 individuals responded via the dedicated e-mail address.

Much time was taken to vet and verify details forwarded.

We had our first meeting with about 13 volunteers 2 weeks ago and most have been assigned to various tasks.

We need more.

The Media Monitoring Team needs quite a few more.

We need people who have graphic design skills.

Video editing skills.

Website administration abilities.

Can give us some of your time?

Send us an email at abuvolunteers@gmail.com.

We are also, again, appealing for funds to carry out the work that has been outlined for you earlier.

On 7th October, I posted here a statement of the amount received in contributions from you, the amount that had been expended as at that date, and also linked the auditors report, in PDF.

I need you to look at the audit report again shortly , so its linked below.

ABU Audit Report

As at that date, the balance in hand was RM38,222.01.

Of that last balance, what remains now is approximately RM10,000.00, after the Ops Raya Haji and the SAMM ceramah in Melaka on 13th November.

I shall be contacting the auditors to fix a date and time to do a second audit of the expenses and the funds that have been received subsequent to the last audit.

Yes, there have been those from amongst you who have continued to send in contributions.

Thank you ever so much.

Friends, more is needed.

Much more.

I ask you to look at the scale of work in the working teams operating through the Secretariat, the material for distribution that is being generated, as well as the ground operations in the constituencies that we are focused in from now until polling day, to make an assessment for yourselves of the funding that is needed.

As we have done earlier, we will periodically get in the auditors to verify contributions received as well as to audit the expenditure.

And we will endeavour to keep unreceipted expenses as low as possible.

Can I make a suggestion?

Elections is anytime between now and June next year.

That’s about 6 months, at most.

Can I ask each of you who is reading this, and who sees this ABU war against UMNO / BN as very much your own, to help us meet the expenses of this war by sending us RM50.00 every month until the elections?

If you want to send us more, we welcome it, but can I ask that you at least commit RM50.00 a month to the cost of this war, for, at most, the next 6 months?

Could you, please?

I have another request, and this is from me, and not ABU.

First, look at paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of the audit report.

What do those paragraphs mean?

On 3rd August, I wrote this :

“Since January, this year, ABU has operated from a secretariat with one full-time co-ordinator.

In June, I sms’d a group of friends to say I could no longer afford to  sustain the operational cost of the ABU secretariat and that if each would  commit RM100 a month, the burden of maintaining the secretariat would be spread and it could continue.

So typical  of them, many rallied to the call and today, the operational cost of the secretariat and the one co-ordinator are borne by many”.

The cost of operating the secretariat together with the one full-time co-ordinator, is about RM5,000 a month.

Through that appeal I made in June, about 25 friends stepped forward.

A few handed me upfront RM100 a month for 12 months.

Some pledged to and continue to bank in RM100 a month.

And two hand me RM100 cash every month.

What this meant for me was that I only had to meet half of the operational costs personally since June, the rest coming from friends.

However. since we launched this War Fund, and many of you have taken to banking in your contributions, the contributions towards the operational expenses can no longer be distinguished from war funds coming in, and so have been also treated as part of the War Fund                      ( paragraph 3 of the audit report ).

What this has meant is that since September, the situation has gone back to what it was before June.

I am again sustaining the operational cost of the secretariat, less the monthly cash contributions of 2 friends ( paragraph 4 of the audit report ).

My request is if this monthly operational cost can also be borne out of the War Fund.

Those of you who have sent contributions previously and will continue to support us, the details of accounts remain unchanged.

If you are sending a contribution to the ABU War Fund for the first time, click the War Fund link in the side-bar on the right for details of where you may send your contributions.

On behalf of  my colleagues in ABU, both at the secretariat and on the ground, the 40% marginalised anak Bangsa Malaysia, and myself , thank you and God bless you all.

Posted in: 13th General Elections, ABU War Fund, Asalkan Bukan UMNO