GERAK or MOVE, an NGO consisting of concerned academics of academic freedom and teaching professionalism at the tertiary level organised a forum last night at University Malaya.We did not expect the turn out to be so encouraging.The panelists were Prof. Terence Gomez, Prof Dato Rahman Embong, Prof Zahrom and Diana Wong.Terence was a real scholar..very balanced and factual.He presented the analysis of past general elections and showed us a few surprises (for me at least):from the analysis, it was clear that the coalition between DAP,Keadilan,PAS didn't actually work in most of the elections.The states won based on the strength of each party (DAP in Penang, Perak, PAS in Kedah and Kelantan.Selangor a mix of both in different constituencies).
It's nice to know during Pak Lah's time, the swing for BN was overwhelming, mengalahkan zaman Mahathir and Terence said it was during Pak Lah's time that he tried to address REAL issues: educational reforms,development in rural areas, bringing back the importance of agriculture (which Mahathir dismissed sampai tukar Universiti Pertanian jadi Universiti Putra cos' he didn't think pertanian was important.Baik dia buat kereta and twin towers supaya kita semua makan besi),uniting the Malays through his policy Islam Hadhari (which would appeal to both PAS and religiously inclined UMNO supporters now in the majority).Malangnya Pak Lah didn't deliver his excellent policies (attacks from within were too strong gamaknya plus his own personality...ubat resdung which made him cepat mengantuk, selalu dtg lambat, etc)
Terence said teringat pesan Syed Hussein Alatas who fought against political intrusion in universities.He (Alatas) said Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for this cos' when AI was Minister or Deputy for Education, dia pun sama.
Diana Wong lamented on the lack of intellectual voice during times like this and that it is the students' movements that actually brought a lot of changes where academic freedom is concerned and indeed that evening, the young voices came out as very articulate, forward thinking, bold and confident.Everyone was impressed.
It's nice to know during Pak Lah's time, the swing for BN was overwhelming, mengalahkan zaman Mahathir and Terence said it was during Pak Lah's time that he tried to address REAL issues: educational reforms,development in rural areas, bringing back the importance of agriculture (which Mahathir dismissed sampai tukar Universiti Pertanian jadi Universiti Putra cos' he didn't think pertanian was important.Baik dia buat kereta and twin towers supaya kita semua makan besi),uniting the Malays through his policy Islam Hadhari (which would appeal to both PAS and religiously inclined UMNO supporters now in the majority).Malangnya Pak Lah didn't deliver his excellent policies (attacks from within were too strong gamaknya plus his own personality...ubat resdung which made him cepat mengantuk, selalu dtg lambat, etc)
Terence said teringat pesan Syed Hussein Alatas who fought against political intrusion in universities.He (Alatas) said Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for this cos' when AI was Minister or Deputy for Education, dia pun sama.
Diana Wong lamented on the lack of intellectual voice during times like this and that it is the students' movements that actually brought a lot of changes where academic freedom is concerned and indeed that evening, the young voices came out as very articulate, forward thinking, bold and confident.Everyone was impressed.
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