Why do we go to university? by Oon Yeoh in Malaysiakini letters.
Excerpts:
"At that point, everybody seemed stumped so the lecturer finally said, "The main reason you go to college is to learn to socialise" and he proceeded to elaborate.
When you graduate and enter the work force, you will be surrounded by generally like-minded people with roughly the same educational background and social status.
Unless you happen to have a very unique job that requires you to mingle with a broad range of people, the harsh reality is that your world will be constrained by your career choices.
College is the only time in your life when you are exposed to all kinds of people from all walks of life and from very different backgrounds – unless of course you go to UiTM.
While preparing to do a podcast on the controversy surrounding Khalid's comments, my podcasting partner, Ong Kian Ming, said something remarkably similar to what the guest lecturer had said. "The whole idea of a university is for different people to get together and interact."
Marina Mahathir’s latest posting in her blog: Chittagong-watching-girls-blossom is a good example of diversity in action, which she encourages as her blog has a label ‘Embrace Diversity’ on the left corner.
Excerpts:
"One of the reasons I wanted to go to Bangladesh was to visit a new project called the Asian University for Women. Several years ago I met a Bangladeshi man named Kamal Ahmed who is President and CEO of the AUW Support Foundation and who had this vision to provide girls from poor families a university education. In many developing countries in Asia, primary and some secondary education is free or very cheap so many children get to do their basic school education. But they don't get to continue to university because they cannot afford it.
I was almost in tears listening to Dola. Only four months ago, she arrived at AA from her village speaking very little English. Now here she was, confidently presenting her story to a stranger in near-perfect English and expressing her thoughts with a sophistication I had not expected.
Again, these girls are aged between 17 and 20 and had only been there for four months. In that short time, with the right guidance, it was obvious that these girls, 128 of them from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Cambodia, were blossoming."
Haris Ibrahim’s A voice-for-uitms-minority
by A Worried Student
Excerpts:
"The standard of public universities in Malaysia have been going down in recent time and many reasons have been given on why the standards are dropping yet some still refuse to acknowledge that this is the case and claim that it is perfect as it is and students should be thankful and stop complaining. But this piece is not about public universities in Malaysia as a whole but rather a certain one named UiTM. This university has been appearing a lot in the news lately especially concerning the proposal made by Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim on opening the gates of the institution to 10% of non-bumiputra students and it has caused a great deal of furore.
About 5,000 students marched to protest against the proposal under Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS) and the UiTM Student Council with the direct backing of the Vice Chancellor. Posters were distributed all over the main campus to promote the protest with headlines such as, “Anda sayang UiTM?”, “ MRSM sudah, SBP sudah, Matrikulasi sudah, JPA sudah, UiTM seterusnya?”, “Ini bukan mengenai kesama rataan bangsa, ini mengenai hak”, “UiTM telah membantu kita, apa sumbangan kita kepada UiTM? Sedarlah wahai bangsaku”.
If one is able to read between the lines, we can see the wordplay here expressing that if a student is to not support this protest, they are one of the ignorant unenlightened ones who do not care for UiTM. Now as a student of the University, I feel disappointed that opinions that differ from the norm are usually labelled as traitors. I have always felt that most of these things are usually politically motivated. I cannot fight the feeling that a NGO such as the GPMS which is headed by someone working right under the Prime Minister, is not exactly a non-partisan group. For this is also one of the organizations that went for the protest at the recent Bar Council forum and went a little, overboard.
The UiTM Student Council which unanimously supported this protest must not be looked upon as the voice of UiTM for they only speak for themselves when they come out with protests such as these and label those who do not support it as traitors to the race. How many students from the institution have spoken out supporting the idea of liberalizing the university? Almost none. But how many students who agreed with the proposal by Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim in silence? A number in the minority, albeit a very significant one. And the sad thing is, there is little avenue for any of them to express themselves in the University or externally. With the little avenue available, those that attempt to express themselves are usually met with threats and childish arguments."
So, despite the banner (from Anil Netto's blog), there are exceptions to the rule. Honestly, unless the atmosphere is more friendly and welcoming, who would want to send their children there even if they decided to open up? To be bullied?
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