It's Now or Never!

19 September 2019 had given an opportunity to be involved in a talk, forum; you could place as you wish or derive. Entitled " From Academia to Putrajaya", the session had covered some political issues, student's position and thoughts regarding politics and external environment. Consisting of three speakers from a similar background and two of them are from my very own faculty, precisely they were before.

Beginning from Dr Azmi from Universiti Malaya who touched on Dato' Anwar Ibrahim issues back in 1998. It was one of the hottest topic discussed by scholars back in that time. To add more, Lawyer's march, BERSIH rally and HINDRAF issues are on the line too. One thing that had grabbed my attention was his quote of implementing that social sciences shouldn't be afraid and took the responsibility of speaking up the truth. Students need to realize how to choose to make the best choice or an inappropriate thing in social associations, work circumstances and dealings with power figures. In the wake of choosing to support themselves, understudies can't bear to decrease their endeavours by acting in an insolent way. While there are a period and spot for feeling and force, it's ideal to obviously and doubtlessly spread out the circumstance, the worries and the arrangement before getting noisy and troublesome. Individuals frequently feel they've been denied fulfilment in the wake of supporting themselves. My recommendation would simply go past their "first stop" and request to address somebody with a greater position to achieve the outcomes. As fundamental all things considered for understudies to advocate for themselves, it's additionally significant that they understand they can, when vital, support other individuals. Being a voice for the minimized in our general public is a fundamental piece of our vote based system. Self-promotion is our method for telling the world we esteem ourselves and the manners in which others treat us in our lives, which makes it very significant expertise.

Moving on to Dr Faisal whose speech primarily reflected on election system of our nation since he had been involved in the process for some time in Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia (SPRM). He did mention about the University and University College Act 1971. or AUKU 1971 is an act of Parliament that was legislated by the Malaysian government that was approved by the king on 27 April 1971. It is also an act that is partially under the legislative authority of the Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia) to accommodate the foundation, association and the board of Universities and Public University Colleges and for issues associated herewith. It includes the involvement of students in political parties and labour unions and student unions. Although it was done to avoid excessive influence over certain ideologies that could affect the whole education system, as an academician, we do owe to the public; to provide them a better life. Isn’t for that we are studying? To solve the issues, so that everyone could be happy? I do believe students need to be involved to make the world a better place to live in. We can’t satisfy all but we should try. Dr Faisal eventually focuses on providing education and exposures regarding the election process to the society; youngsters most importantly. Voter education means providing citizens of democracy with basic information about participating in elections, furnishing residents of a vote based system with essential data about taking an interest in decisions and regularly given by the state itself, frequently through a national appointive commission, so it is in this way significant that it is politically non-divided. Government departments that focus on voter education are often highly scrutinized by a third party. Moreover, there are different private foundations whose crucial is to reinforce majority rule esteems by expanding voter education. The emphasis is frequently on the best way to cast a ballot as opposed to who to decide in favour of.

Dr Andrews as the final speaker spoke about issues regarding the status of university students that had been neglected often by the public sectors. He even questioned the leadership of universities and how far there had been issues in the decision making the process. One need to understand that our nation’s base principle is democratic consultative and not ruled by feudal kings. It’s like returning back the autonomy to where it belongs. Being a rebel without a cause would not bring us anywhere. In order to fight for certain issues, knowledge to be gained as it is important rather than being important and situations had to be understood properly. 1998 Indonesian Reformation was referred to as an example for the electoral situation and the tensed multiracial relationship. The May 1998 riots of Indonesia were incidents of mass violence, demonstrations, and civil unrest of a racial nature, as happened in Malaysia in May 1969. We’re living in a society which is confused to pick the right lead. Racial issues had been used as a bait by cheap politicians to create a nuisance and disrupt the peace and unity which already had been worn out; sadly, to say. Questions could be raised whether youngsters could solve this issue that has been proclaimed. I have no answer for this since even youngsters aren’t really equipped or to say precisely not interested to learn politics and the surrounding analysis. But things are changing definitely.

One thing that came up in my mind was regarding the comment on the usage of social media and its existing purposes. In my opinion, I strongly would say that changes or reformation that is happening right now; social media had some influence on it. Major issues and cases which was not clear or to be just hidden beneath all political layers came to truth through social media. An example would be regarding the internship payment issues that had been brought out by the public to our Youth and Sports Minister, Syed Saddiq. The minister had kept close contacts with netizens since it is the best platform to reach out to a larger number of audiences in a short amount of time. It is vital for the recent situation. There are negative aspects such as false news spreading or to disgrace someone intentionally but it is upon us to be responsible. So, I strongly believe that social media would be the new face of reformation; politically or socially. Overall it was a good session where the speakers were very genuine and spoke some bitter truth. It is definitely important for scholars and academician to voice out whenever needed.