The recent controversy surrounding the UiTM has certainly caught my eye. I was quite surprised to see that a lot of students are against opening up Uitm for all Malaysians. I never thought that it will happen because most of my friends are from the UiTM and they never show that kind of tendency. Maybe because they are from Sarawak. I'm not sure. Please don't get me wrong but this is what the general impression that I have. Sorry to all you readers out there but I don't mean all those from Peninsular are racists. Maybe just a few, but those are the obvious ones, and when they are loud, they seems like the majority.
And another thing, I'm just wondering where is the "University and University Colleges Act" or AUKU which we have been constantly warn about.
This is taken from the blog by Haris Ibrahim about the UiTM demostration by the students opposing the opening of intake to other Malaysians!
One particular UiTM student was asked to wear black coloured clothing by a senior when he refused to as the colour black on that day meant supporting the protest and he did not support it. The senior could only respond in ways such as asking him whether he was a jew or a homosexual. And this brilliant friend of mine then just answered, “No, I’m a muslim and remember when the Prophet Muhammad SAW ruled Medinah? He had all kinds of races that were hostile towards each other to live peacefully under the open sky. Why would you be afraid of opening this institution to others if you claim to take the prophet as your example?” And the senior who was lost for words just left and slammed the door on him. Although stories like these do not happen everyday in UiTM as many students who share similar views to my friend here are usually fearful of the consequences of speaking openly.
...
Though I believe there is still hope. The light comes soon after the darkest part of the night. In an incident in a Constitutional Law lecture, a student went up to class defending the recent student protest as on the principle of defending natives’ rights with, in her own words, “First come, first serve”. Ironic that a business principle has been adopted to an issue affecting all of Malaysia, I thought to myself. I then proceeded to ask her why then are there cases of stripping the rights of land from the Orang Asli, which are the real natives, to give way to capitalist ventures and these natives are then only compensated with how much their houses were worth, which probably costs less than my pair of shoes? Is it not a practice of double standards when you talk about “First come, first serve”? Are we really protecting the natives’ rights or Malays in particular? She then proceeded to open the Federal Constitution to find an answer but predictably, it was in vain. She ended her presentation right there with a dumbfounded look. But what happened soon after was even more interesting. Students from the class started to flock and ask me questions, wanting to know more about the issue. With interested faces all around, I could only smile.
A few blogs reinforced my belief that not all from UiTM is racist. People like Dr Azly Rahman , Haris Ibrahim, and a few others shows that not all Malays thinks the same way.
The only problem is knowing which is the majority.
7 years ago
