From Academia to Putrajaya (Talk at Pusat Islam Tun Abang Salahuddin)

On 19 September, at 10am, a talk was held at Dewan Syarahan, PITAS, UNIMAS. This talk was attend by the former lecturers and now servicing at Putrajaya. The first panelist is Dr Azmi Sharom who is Deputy Chairman of Election Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia - SPR). The second panelist is Dr Andrew Aeria who in Committee Member of the Vice Chancellor of the Public University under Ministry of Malaysia Education. The third panelist is Dr Mohd Faisal Syam who is Commissioner of Election Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia - SPR). Our moderator was Madam Ain who is a lecturer of Social Science of Humanities Faculty. First, a warm welcome to our guests and VIP to the talk. Then the emcee invited Madam Ain to the stage include our fellow guests. Our moderator start with an introduction of every panelist which start with first panelist till the third panelist.

The first question is regarding on different time and what are the approach that can be done by an activist. The third panel start his discussion with a warm greetings. He argued that in 1998 was an enlighten period for them. Its depends on the roles of academic and the students. The roles of students is very large and important. For example, in an university, the number of students is more than the number of lectures and staffs. Therefore, students tends to do anything in term of activist perspectives. He compared the 1990s and nowadays. He claimed that today is totally different. In 1990s, they just focused on one event only. The first panelist said about the student insurgency. In 1990s, students have their very own privileges and courageous enough to accomplish something. Universiti Malaya Student Union can impact and influence and defend their rights and privileges. Not just the rights rather than privileges of a society that they live in college. At that time, they likewise have their very own home which is Student Union's House. The occasion depended on a book which is "Mahasiswa Menggugat" by Muhammad bin Abu Bakar. However, at that point, the panelist likewise asserted that the students at that time was supporting each other back and extremely enthusiastic in term of ensuring their rights as an students. In my opinion, student union should be published in every university so that it will be a balance in term of running the university. The best example that I can say is, a state with the government party and the opposition. Therefore, the university ruling system will be balanced with the power of two parties which is Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar (MPP) and Student Union.

The third panelist gave an example, Lawyers march issue. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Malaysian Bar challenged and protested the Executive's assault on the freedom of the legal executive, which prompted the suspension of the Lord President and five judges of the Supreme Court, and which finished in the rejection of the Lord President and two judges of the Supreme Court. All through the 1990s and 2000s, the Bar proceeded to reliably advocate for the independence of the Judiciary, and has continued requiring the statements of legal unfortunate behavior to be examined, even to the degree of requiring an illustrious commission of request, to which the administration concurred. At that point, he proceeded with the transformation or revolution that connected with Dr. Anwar Ibrahim. At that point, came another rally about the political decision process, BERSIH. This is the reason the specialist expressed that the society have their very own privileges or rights to voice out on the administration to change the procedure of election to turn out to be progressively practical and more straightforwardness. At that point, the academician likewise need to voice out their rights too and the society's rights towards the government. They likewise need to remain in their very own feet and have the solidarity in the event that one of them being detained. In my opinion, I argued that the freedom of speech should be a rights to all of students in university and also anyone who leaving in Malaysia. Because Malaysia is a peaceful and harmony country and people can argue anything they want to because they have their rights.

Then second panelist add some information. He argued that students came to university is to gain more knowledge and also expanded the human civilization. But at the moment, the university did not treat the students as a teenager or adult, instead they treat the university students as a students. For example, ‘Aku Budak Dekan’ programme, should avoid using the word ‘Budak’. This is due to students need to expand and gain more knowledge to make them matured and we, as a university staff or lecturer should not treat them as a ‘Budak’. In my opinion, this kind of treat should not be in university. Lecturers or staffs should not treat students as a ‘Budak’. This is because, we need to educate them to be more matured and think widely and wisely.

The next question is regarding on social media who asked by our moderator. The first panelist claimed that he not using any social media. Because social media can make human lazy when doing work or task. In addition, he also claim that human are easily trust or believe of any news, either its true news nor fake news. Then, humans like to make viral of certain news that not suppose to be viral. That’s wrong. The panelist gave two possibility outcomes when humans use social media frequently. First is, human getting more smarter while another one, human getting more stupid, which is true. Human are easily make a news from true to false, and also make the news viral fast. Finally, he argued that, as a student, we need to use our brain first. We already in university and should think wise. More over, there also have a freedom of expression. Every people have their rights to express something social media but it has limit. In my opinion, social media plays an important role to human. Therefore, human should use social media wisely.

Finally, the question is about opportunity to do research. The second panelist answer the question where he encouraged students to research on political reasons. Most of the researchers are newbies. Therefore, they have less experiences to do research. Therefore, they need to read more articles to gain more knowledges and experiences. The reasons why political reasons is the scope is very huge and wide. Therefore, it is really accessable. These are the information I get from the talk and its very helpful to me in term of doing new research.

#Talk #PITAS