sarah`s blog

This topic could be outdated compared to permatang pauh by election. I just want to express my thoughts over what have happened lately.

As a UiTM student, I must admit that I am so thankful for being selected into UiTM. Moreover, my SPM result wasn’t excellence and I did not manage to get into public universities after the UPU result on public universities fresh intake.

 

I applied for MMU and I was offered with alpha level (similar to matriculation programme) in information technology which costs me a lot of money.

It took me a long time to decide on the MMU offer. In the mean time I tried to apply for UiTM second intake somewhere in June or July (UiTM intakes done twice per year & if I’m not mistaken it’s the only public university which intakes are done twice per year).

 

Alhamdulillah, many thanks to the Almighty Allah Ta`ala, I’d received an offer – diploma in public administration from UiTM.

 

I put a lot of effort during my 3 years diploma programme and I managed to graduate on time with an excellence result. After that I pursue to law school.

Being taught in political science and public administration as well as development administration makes me well verse with our nation’s scenario and history. Thus things are getting interesting when I can merge my knowledge with the laws. To be frank, I love reading blogs like Malaysia today, Malaysia kini and etc. it exposed me to the news that I could not get in local mainstream mass media. I‘ve been doing that since Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s dismissal in 1998. Lots of funny and fishy things happened. Lecturers were not hesitated to share their views in this case. Blogs supplement me with knowledge and also update me on the current issues.

 

Now, come back to the point, I’ve been studying in UiTM since 2003. I go to UiTM because I do not afford to go other universities especially private one. This is a fact which I must admit and plus I am not an intelligent student who entitled to a scholarship to go abroad then.

 

UiTM is meant for poor malays and bumiputera only. Only those who are not financially strong and do not have second chance to further their studies are the people who are entitled to get into UiTM. It goes with the history of the establishment of UiTM itself.

From my point of view, this is the idea which lies beneath the objective of Article 153 of constitution.

 

When Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim made a suggestion, I repeat, a suggestion, to open 10% places to non bumiputera as to give competitions, there were outrageous outcries from UiTM VC and students. Students marched off to MB office as to show their protests. On the night before the march, I’d been told to sign a petition of protest and to wear black shirt during the march. So the allegation of UMNO sponsoring or bribing students with black shirts is false and baseless.

 

I did not take part in the march because I knew this issue has been politicized by unscrupulous, filthy, desperate politicians.

Why? Because MB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim wasn’t the first man to make such statement, in fact there have been a few statement made previously even from non Malay bodies and yet no protests were made.

When MRSM opened to non malay where the semangat melayu gone? Why there was no protest against Dato Nazri Aziz and Dr.M then?

And why the semangat melayu came up when Tan Sri Khalid made that statement?

 

These are the big question marks which I think are answerable through what has happened in our local political scenario.

As for the main objective of UiTM establishment which to help Malays and bumiputera to be at par with other races is good effort. This affirmative action is lawful in legal sense. However, we mustn’t forget that big names born from UiTM like Media Prima CEO Datuk Farid, Dato Zaid Ibrahim, Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah CEO of PNB, Dato’ Salleh Majid and many more is a strong proof that UiTM managed to produce these kind of people.

 

Question of the quality of UiTM graduates are subjective in the sense that it differs from people perceptions. But I strongly think it depend on the student. If you work hard you will impress your employer about UiTM, vice versa. It happens in other universities as well, let’s be fair okay?

 

Should government intend to implement what Tan Sri Khalid had suggested, there should a thorough study on the viability of the Malays and bumiputera to face the challenge without privileges under Article 153. This issue is sensitive towards certain people, and I write this article based on my stand and not inclined to any parties.

 

As for present scenario, there are few rich and famous sons and daughters of Dato’s, Tan Sri’s, are studying in UiTM. I do not understand why they are here, since they are not categorized as poor people like me. They can afford to go to other universities. Indirectly they already grab the places of poor people who entitled to study in UiTM and deny these poor people rights.

 

And my final say is that UiTM students have been dragged into politics. Extra evidence is when Khairy Jamaluddin came to UiTM before the 12th general election with the purpose to meet Kelantanese. If I’m not mistaken the video of his speech at Dewan Sri Budiman is available at youtube.

 

As a university, it should be a place which is free from political interventions. Let us, the students be given freedom to think, observe and choose what we want. As for government, I think the effort made way back from the reign of Tun Abdul Razak is a very good effort. However, the system cannot run smoothly if people kept meddle in the system as to exploit it for their political interests as it will jeopardize the future of Malays and bumiputera and the nation, as a whole. 

On 9^th august 2008 there was a forum regarding the issue of the hot-debated Article 121(1A) of federal constitution. As a student, this is my first thought over the forum.

 

First of all, laymen are not aware of the treatment which are given by our legal system towards the non Muslims when they are in disputes with their Muslims ex spouses or relatives who covert into Islam. As a muslim, I am stick to the true teaching of Islam that, Islam do not discriminate non muslims. Instead muslims are obliged to treat non muslims equally regardless their religion, origin or skin colours.

 

Secondly, it is important to highlight this fact to the readers that, the supreme law in Malaysia is not Islam. Thus, we are basically not a religion skewed state, but more or less much inclined to the hybrid system which incorporates religion and secular system in our legal system.

 

Now, there are 2 parties in dispute- muslim and non muslim. Disputes happened many forms like matrimonial, rights to bury corpse and others. Muslims can seek their rights at Syariah Courtwhile non muslims can seek their rights at civil courts. How on earth to settle problems when there are 2 different courts involve in a single issue? This is the gist of the matter- an overlapping of powers of two different courts.

 

Now, from my view, what bar council did is a form of effort to settle the matter. Simple logic could solve the problem if we could confront sensitive issue wisely..( I don`t intend to take this matter easily and on logic only..). Should you have a problem and other people are discussing on it, why can’t you join in and give your views? Being provoked by the media should not become a strong excuse to get overwhelmed easily and jump into conclusion in a second. Anyway this is part if Islam teachings too- musyawarah.

 

On the other hand, I wonder why JAKIM did not take place in the forum. The forum should consist of those who are an expert of syariah law and Islam too. Anyway i`m was informed that someone from syariah court withdraw himself from the forum. He ought to be there and give adequate explanations on Islam’s view of the matter.

i know and i admit there are thousands of discussions on this matter. this morning the lecturer `interrogated` my classmates and i regarding contract law which we did it on the first year. of course few things that we know is actually wrong and this has not been pointed out since we already  did it, by assuming that yeah, got A for that paper means you are an expert now.sadly,it is wrong.A does not shows your level of knowledge as you might fail in the reality application of the law itself.

the gist of this piece of writing is we, malaysians love to keep quiet when lecturer ask..`do you have any questions?`. a friend of mine pointed out that there are several lecturer who warned us `do not argue with me`..this is an absurdity.as varsity student we are expected to think and not to say yes without thinking.we must argue so that our level of thinking as well as knowledge improves.

i still remmeber when i was 11 years old, i asked my science teacher, what is DNA?she gave me a disappointing reply by saying that you are too small to know this stuff. at that time there was a rape case and the word DNA was famous. thats why i asked her. i feel shamed and disappointed with her attitude. later i asked my father who gave me a lenghty explaination on it.

what matter me most is our attitude.do we want to produce 1 class thinking society?yes.but how do we treat students?is it fair to them by denying their desire of knowledge hunger?luckily the lecturer loves to argue and i like her style of teaching.she keeps me busy so that i could come out with my own stands as to why i say this and that.

when i did english courses at the british council, i must admit i prefer reading children books, because it gives me knowledge that i don`t have.mind you, the books were imported from UK.it covers Shakespeare( i know this man when i`m in varsity,pity..), Einstein in detail, history of world war, winston churchill, and others which all of it i do not know when i was in school.that books full of colours as well as explaination on the topic..i could say it suits primary school students in UK.

if we are to put the blame for the lame system, actually you will ended being disappointed.so the best way is to read more and try to inculcate this habit to small children.apart from that,never disappoint small children as what my primary school teacher did to me.