Poskod Malaysia

(By Zedeck Siew)

Last Tuesday, being a card-carrying penyibuk, I went to check out Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Negara 2011, the big national student assembly sparked by Fahmi Reza’s Student Power lecture (about Universiti Malaya-based activism in the 1960s) and fueled by 30-odd wide-eyed, idealistic uni-goers.

PMN’s aim? To get undergrads to unite under, talk about, and fight for issues like academic autonomy, lower tuition fees, and freedom of expression — things every student has a stake in.

So, boleh jalan ke?

Here are the notes I took in my sibukness:

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If you want to be a force for change, be prepared for CRUSHING BOREDOM.

The PMN began at 9am, proceeded through workshop and discussion sessions, and culminated in the 5.30pm Students’ Parliament:

The Parliament session was conducted with all the proper forms: a Speaker, motions, points of order, etc. Here, participants are debating the motion to establish a national-level Koperasi Mahasiswa, which could offer discounts for textbooks, manage events, and generate returns for students by way of shares:

“Will this co-op be administrated by students themselves?” some asked. “How will oversight work?” Asked others. One participant reminded the house that they were debating the idea of the national co-op, not its mechanical nitty-gritty. “But the mechanics is integral to the idea,” someone else retorted.

The back and forth went on for a fair bit, and went through to rounds of voting. Motion passed with a 81-to-6 vote:

Note the empty seats. About a third of PMN attendees had left by tea-time. In blogs, some participants made note of the unexciting discussion.

Dude, proper democracy is the most boring thing there is. Why do you think MPs shout at each other in the Dewan? Or that the UK’s House of Lords makes up conspiracy theories to amuse itself?

Things are so bad now because we’ve lost the staying power to go beyond being merely reactionary. Young people: the thing that will set you apart from the clowns we have today is the ability to debate, at length, about heavy-eyelid-ing issues. Guess it’s time for all of us to work on our attention spans! Attending those boring lectures will help!

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Old habits die hard.

An effort to organise Malaysian students from both public and private institutions into a united force for social change, the PMN was billed as a “neutral platform transcending ethnicity, faith, language, institution, affiliations and beliefs”.

Still, the debaters that I saw get up to speak were all guys. Weird, considering that Malaysia’s uni-going population is 60% female. Women, make your voices heard!

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Malaysian students can protect themselves.

Media covering the PMN were corralled in the upper gallery of the KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Look at these sad cases:

(I was one of them — hence the shitty pics.)

The reason for tight security? On 10 January, the UiTM admin came out with a circular, banning its students from attending the PMN, claiming that it was a breach of the “Akta Institusi-Institusi Pelajaran (Tatatertib) 1976”. What draconian bullcrap!

In PMN’s earlier morning sessions, SBs and university administrators had try to gain entry with fake IDs. Jeez, like underage kids trying to get into a club. Some people can be such dicks. Luckily, such unsavoury types were foiled by the vigilance of young security marshalls like this dude with the walkie talkie:

who managed to shame the pervert voyeurs into leaving.

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It’s a long learning process. But absolutely vital.

One of the motions raised at the Students’ Parliament was the possibility of pushing for a representative — who will champion/lobby for students’ issues — in the true-blue Malaysian Parliament. A watchdog- or pressure group-like arrangement. I wasn’t too clear. The motion failed at voting, due to doubts about feasibility.

A facilitator I spoke to later told me that the original idea would be to get a student to run for a Parliamentary seat — a rather naive suggestion. But he didn’t shoot the idea down outright, because it’s important to let students thrash out such things in the open, for themselves.

That last point is why PMN was so inspiring, for me: it was a seedbed for a true students’ movement — not just old-fogey Fahmi Reza’s pet project — with students themselves at the reins. Intelligent young people, braving potential reprisal from their respective institutions, willing to endure nearly 12 hours of exceedingly dry stuff. (Though I’m sure there were some hook-ups, too.)

The 300 people who attended PMN: you guys are the best. Keep on slogging!

(Last photo from the Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Negara Flickr photostream)