Alhamdulillah 'ala kulli...we received the news from SPA that we were offered for HO intake this Dec. Letters are making their ways to our homes. Yet I'm still unsure what to feel. The closer it comes, the more blunted I feel.
Anyway, I made a mental note to post a few things here. But pure laziness and a heavy sense of procrastination really made my day. I got a chance to attend a few events for the last few months. So much to share and yet I'm stuck either on bed or in front my tv haha.
Early Sept, I had chance to attend National Unity workshop organised by IDEAS people (was actually replacing my younger brother). You know what, mostly those who attended there were either have political science background or actively involved in that particular field - guess u know where I stood among them; clueless most of the time. hahaha. And it was a workshop, man. WORKSHOP. U supposed to throw out ideas and questioning statements coming from each other. Dude, i was not in the right place. Yet, it was so interesssting that I forgot to take any pictures while I was there. Somehow, that particular event became a platform for me getting to know people of different ideologies. Libertarians, socialist etc...and my facilitator herself is from Seksualiti Merdeka. Surprisingly, including me, there were 3 USIMians. None of them I'd known before actually.
There's a few points worth of sharing here. Two mains topics discussed were on public policy research and campaign/advocacy. It sounded very technical like sooo way beyond my usual thing. The former topic was on research for issues concerning public policy making. Nothing new, since we also had discussed it in during the good old days at campus. We were then divided into civil society (also known NGO), politicians, businessmen and student group. This way of division was to see how each level of people favour certain interest according to their niches in the community. The theme was on fostering national unity.
I was placed into civil society (like thank God because at least something I was familiar with - i think...). We decided to focus on education part, in which at last, we unanimously believe that our current history subject was very lacking. How? Well, it didn't deliver the message of 'hubbulwaton' and understanding + respect to other races and cultures. Our history is merely factual events and rigid contents with one-sided point of view. My history textbooks were full of highlights ink. Haha. Because I didn't grasp the core of subject instead I memorised it all and regurgitated it back on exam papers next day. I hate it yet I wanted to pass (as nerd as it may sound) - with flying colour. Lol. My nephew who stays in Australia; while he was on vacation here, was telling me a story on WW2. How he hates Japanese soldiers - said they were bad people for attacking the Americans. He said it soooo enthusiastically as if he is an American =.='. (when I was 7 y.o, i'm still in my own world :P). My point here is, some people way of teaching/learning the history is remarkably effective.
Another issue was, the weightage of peninsular vs Borneo history is off balance. The Borneo side of history is somehow marginalised compared to us here. I remembered reading about their fight against British, feeling like they were side dish to our main fight here in peninsular. At the end of our discussion, we recommended that our history syllabus to be govern by independent bodies that are not biased by certain political groups. But will it possible for us to have the uncensored history of our nation that really (really) teach on early cultural relation, our Malay dilemma (should I say ketuanan Melayu?) or other narrative views on the nation's history? That really requires enormous reform in the education system. Lol. Which at this particular moment is...a bit...unreachable?
Other groups were speaking on women's right in the corporate, speech freedom in universities for students and academicians and i could not remember what was the 'politicians' were after for...hahaha
Next, the second half of the day, we had a forum on 'Advocacy & Campaign'. The forum was based on the panelists' experiences in organising and handling their own's. We got different panelist from different NGOsss; Yana Rizal (Projek Dialog), Mandeep Singh (Bersih 2.0), Thilaga Sulathireh (Seksualiti Merdeka) and Abdul Rahman Shah (TFTN). Among the points emphasised by the panelist were proper documentation, to have a niche (either from group u've working already or forming a coalition with other) and I couldn't really recall anything else...hahaha.
Wow, this is super lengthy post than my usual. Still have a few to write...till i've have the spirit and mood for more lengthy postts hahaaha
I was placed into civil society (like thank God because at least something I was familiar with - i think...). We decided to focus on education part, in which at last, we unanimously believe that our current history subject was very lacking. How? Well, it didn't deliver the message of 'hubbulwaton' and understanding + respect to other races and cultures. Our history is merely factual events and rigid contents with one-sided point of view. My history textbooks were full of highlights ink. Haha. Because I didn't grasp the core of subject instead I memorised it all and regurgitated it back on exam papers next day. I hate it yet I wanted to pass (as nerd as it may sound) - with flying colour. Lol. My nephew who stays in Australia; while he was on vacation here, was telling me a story on WW2. How he hates Japanese soldiers - said they were bad people for attacking the Americans. He said it soooo enthusiastically as if he is an American =.='. (when I was 7 y.o, i'm still in my own world :P). My point here is, some people way of teaching/learning the history is remarkably effective.
Another issue was, the weightage of peninsular vs Borneo history is off balance. The Borneo side of history is somehow marginalised compared to us here. I remembered reading about their fight against British, feeling like they were side dish to our main fight here in peninsular. At the end of our discussion, we recommended that our history syllabus to be govern by independent bodies that are not biased by certain political groups. But will it possible for us to have the uncensored history of our nation that really (really) teach on early cultural relation, our Malay dilemma (should I say ketuanan Melayu?) or other narrative views on the nation's history? That really requires enormous reform in the education system. Lol. Which at this particular moment is...a bit...unreachable?
Other groups were speaking on women's right in the corporate, speech freedom in universities for students and academicians and i could not remember what was the 'politicians' were after for...hahaha
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| My usual awful handwriting - i volunteered to write most of the time hahaha |
So, for the group discussion, we had Thilaga to facilitate us. Her story during the forum was, of course, on her fight for LGBT and how they've become the national threat for that. I shall not discuss on their choices here. But among their fight, I believe, was on basic human rights. If that's so, whatever their choices are, their basic human rights should not be violated. So, for the advocacy, we made a sequel from our previous presentation; that is to introduce diversity of our historical narrative to the education board. By doing so, it gives the students freedom to choose the book that suits their thoughts (well, i guess at the same time, encourage them being critical and creative). and yeah, creates more challenges (probs as well :P) to the teachers. The idea sounds too idealistic actually. With the gap between the rural and urban areas as well as the draconian law we have in this country, the idea is a bit overestimate. But it's never too late to think of anything. hihihoo.
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| With the group faci - very resourceful and friendly in person |
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