A story in The Malaysian Insider says, “Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) printer, Dawama Sdn Bhd, has asked all 400 staff to take no-pay leave starting tomorrow due to financial difficulties.It is understood that Dawama blames its ongoing school textbooks dispute with DBP, an agency under the Education Minister, for its predicament.”
Ramadan has just started, and Dawama wants its staff to take leave without pay? That's evil.
Dawama Workers Association president, Zainal Awit, is surprised to hear of the printer’s financial woes as the company was supposed to make a profit of up to RM60 million every year. He is quoted: “Dawama prints and distributes textbooks, books and magazines, where it’s not supposed to make a loss. But we understand that it... cannot even buy paper (now).”
DBP signed a 12-year contract with Dawama in 2002 to print and distribute its books, magazines and journals.
In a meeting with a former Director General of DBP (and some board members) a few year ago, I was asked if Silverfish would be willing to carry their titles. I said, we’d be ecstatic, but we couldn’t find any. Who were their distributors? Subsequently, we had a visit from a gentleman who said he was from Dawama, who promised to send us some catalogues. We never heard from him again.
It is not surprising that DBP is mad at Dawama. How many bookshops are there in Klang Valley that carry DBP books (besides the dictionary)? After taking the trouble to publish the books, one would think, DBP would expect to see them out in the market (for whatever it’s worth). Silverfish Books, for one, would be interested in the DBP backlist.
The problem is the lucrative school textbook largesse worth millions, which the rest of us minions are shut out from. Why would any printer, bestowed with such a bountiful concession even bother with any of the (slow moving) other titles, or even turn up for work?
Now, the workers are appealing to the Deputy Prime Minister to help solve the issue. How Malaysian can you get?
Latest -- 4 Aug 2011: According to The Malaysian Insider: "Dawama workers no-pay leave letters have been rescinded and they remain employees, said Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S.Subramaniam today."
