Reflect, re-analyse, reconstruct, revolt!


Dr. Azly Rahman

[Final Part (Part 4) of the speech on “Student Idealism”, delivered to Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim students of North America, Washington D C, December 2007.]

We now come to the last part of our speech. If there is a restatement of my thesis statement, it should sound like this:

“Students, you are a beacon of hope. Reflect, reanalyse and revolt. Reclaim your righteous minds, as the African-American actor Denzel Washington said to his students in the movie The Great Debaters. Transform the world inside and outside.”

The hope for change lies in the middle class and in public education, and in you, students of social change. How do we teach ourselves to analyse propaganda, bias, half-truths, and recognise progressive forces, institutions and organisations of change and subsequently align with these forces?

(For reasons best known to WP, cannot post rest of this article, which can be accessed through Azly’s blog provided by the link above. – Admin)

  1. #1 by megaman on Friday, 25 January 2008 - 10:03 am

    I believe in the sayings:

    The con-men, liars, cheats and evil men are cunning but the righteous and honest have to more cunning than these men to protect the truth.

    The politicians may be good in politics for that’s their rice bowls but the normal folk has to be even better in politics because it is not only affect their livelihood but their future and their offspring’s’ future.

    We need to learn how to be politically-savvy in order to avoid being manipulated by the crooked politicians and to get the correct men in the right positions to work for the country.

  2. #2 by kritikus on Friday, 25 January 2008 - 10:23 pm

    ALLAH IS SYSTEMETICALLY, AND METICULOUSLY SURFACING AND EXPOSING MAN’S CORRUPTIBLE, ARROGANT, GREEDY, SELFISH, MERCILESS, VIOLENT CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOR WHICH IS A RECIPE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION.

    ALLAH HAS TO GATHER SUFFICIENT WRONG-DOINGS TO INCUR HIS WRATH TO WARRANT A DEVASTATING CATASTROPHE OR CALAMITY BY DEPLOYING HIS FOUR POWERFUL ELEMENTS OF DESTRUCTION, FIRE, WIND, WATER AND EARTH.

    WHEN THIS HAPPENS AND IT WILL HAPPEN, WE ARE GOING TO BE CAUGHT NOT ONLY WITH OUR PANTS DOWN BUT WITHOUT EVEN OUR UNDERWEARS.

    CONTENTS OF YASIN (for muslim bloggers ) self-explanatory.

  3. #3 by AsIseeit on Saturday, 26 January 2008 - 1:10 am

    While not relevant to the above subject matter, this article caught my attention:

    WEB EDITION :: Local News
    Hold an inquest into death in police custody: Suaram
    S. Tamarai Chelvi
    PETALING JAYA (Jan 25, 2008): Suara Rakayat Malaysia (Suaram) today called on the government to conduct an inquest into the death of a man who died in Segamat police custody.

    “Police claim that the suspect had died due to a fall in the toilet is just unacceptable. A healthy man cannot just fall in a toilet and die,” said Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng in a statement today.

    According to a report in a Chinese daily, Goh Yan Peow and his wife and brother were detained by police in thier house in Segamat on Jan 9 under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for allegedly cocealing drugs, bombs, pornograhic video materials and fireworks.

    On Jan 16, Goh was brought to a magistrate’s court in Segamat where police obtained a seven-day remand on Goh.

    Segamat OCPD Abdul Majid was quoted as saying Goh was brought back to the Segamat police lock-up on Jan 19. At about 4am, Goh was found unconscious in the detention cell and died after he was sent to hospital. The police told the family that Goh had died from a fall in a toilet.

    “Suaram finds the reason given by the police unconvincing and unsatisfactory. Conducting an inquest into the death within a month is most appropriate, as recommended by the Royal Commission on the police force,” said Yap.

    “The Attorney-General’s Chambers inaction for an inquest will only encourage impunity in the police force, as evident in the high number of death in custody cases in 2007, ” he said.

    Suaram urges Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to keep his promise to reform the police force and heed the recommendations of the Royal Commission, among them the setting up of the Independent Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), a coroner’s court and the abolition of the EO.

    Updated: 05:43PM Fri, 25 Jan 2008

  4. #4 by ktteokt on Saturday, 26 January 2008 - 12:49 pm

    Four years have passed since his ascession as PM and did we see any materialization of his so-called “promises”? Do not expect miracles to happen. “A zebra never loses its stripes” is a famous saying of the West and this is just the case. Give him another forty years, or better still four hundred, and you can expect him to do the same thing! The only way is to remove him once and for all!!

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