A stroll in a city

I happened to walk along a pedestrian street in the city when a blind man burst in from the margins of my field of vision and became the latest addition to the moving crowd. Aimlessly, he hit his walking stick on the worn out pavement ground, while – unbeknownst to him – slowly drifting away from the pedestrian pavement. The two ladies in front of me, upon whom I have placed great expections to – due to their close promiximity to him – lend a helping hand, had walked away in wanton disregard for his safety.

“Here”, I said as I reached out to the edge of his sleeve, applying a mild pulling force enough to inform and effect a change in his bearings towards the yellow tactile pads, just before he was about to run straight into a steel pole bordering the pedestrian pavement.

A List of People I Want to Screw

I can resist no more. I want to stop being politically correct for just 5 minutes.

You have to watch The Lost Tribe by Al Jazeera to know what I am talking about. As I reflect on the show and the misfortune encountered by the people, yet was reminded about the ugly reality of the behaviour and altitude of the people that I encountered on a day-to-day basis, I felt there is no point to be politically correct anymore.

I, Aaron Lo, Shed Tears over These Videos

Especially when someone else could shed tears over a The Economist magazine. ;(

Muhammad Yunus, the Father of Microcredit

Centre-stage of Khazanah Global Series at Hilton KL

My usual mundane daily routine was spiced up a lot late last month.

After all, it is not an everyday thing to be able to dress smartly in business suit and disguise myself as some young corporate executive, attend a gala dinner at the finest ballroom in Hilton KL with the former Prime Minister and Central Bank governor, among other big shots, just across the hall, and of course, meeting a Nobel laureate for the first time in my life and gaining lots of words of wisdom.

Hilton KL Ballroom

Professor Muhammad Yusuf won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his effort in alleviating poverty through micro-loans to the poor in this home in Bangladesh. “Micro-loans” imply loans that are not significant in amount. Loans are usually given in significant amount in most, if not all commercial banks. For instance, there is no way you can borrow RM10 from HSBC or Citibank, not even RM100 (I think). Professor Yusof founded Grameen Bank, a bank that loans any amount to the poor. Dubbed the father of micro-credit, the noble Nobel laureate was in KL on invitation by Khazanah Nasional Berhad (the national investment corporation) to give a talk on his journey.

The day of getting the invitation filled my day with excitement. I immediately registered myself the day I found out about this, for it was stated that there will be free spaces for the public. I was, however sceptical about my chances to attend such “high-society” function. I mean, how many people are there in the “public”? Millions. Plus, priority will probably be given to corporate managers and city professionals who, most people think will make good use of the opportunity and his advice to do something good for the country. That is not entirely true. *Ahem* A student, given the right opportunity and advice, can make changes too.

So imagine the thrill of getting a call from the organizers. I was so excited that I agreed immediately without checking if I have other obligations on the date and time of the event. And, the rest is history.

The event, originally scheduled to begin at 8pm, commenced at 8.30pm. What a reminder that this is Malaysia!

Red carpet for VIP guests

Malaysia’s Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed bin Yakcop gave a welcoming speech. Whatever he said might sound trite, but the novelty exists on my part because it is the first time I witness a formal speech, live, rather than watching it on television. Surprisingly, the finance minister was a rather articulate person, capable of generating interactions with the audiences. When I view it on TV, it feels like no one is listening to him (I digressed)

He spoke of Dr. Yunus’ profile and commitment to development and reducing poverty, describing Dr. Yunus as one noble person who believe “one man can make a difference”. A native of Bangladesh, Dr. Yunus is the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, offering credit to the poorest of the poor, especially women. Today, it runs 2,283 branches, granting credit to 6.83 million poor people residing in 73,609 villages in Bangladesh.

He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States in 1970. After teaching for a few years in Middle Tennessee University, he returned to his home country where he joined the University of Chittagong as Head of Economics Department. Grameen Bank Project was initiated in 1976 and its transformation into a formal bank was in the year 1983.

Dr. Yunus took the center stage. “The aim of micro credit is to give the poor a chance”, he said. Dr. Yunus does not believe the poor has less ability or skills than the rest of the people. Everyone was born equal. He wants females to be able to earn money, beggars to be entrepreneurs. Poverty, according to him, is not the fault of the of the poor people. The real culprit, is society, who judge people base on their social status and financial capability. This subsequently caused the denial of basic human rights. Access to schooling and health care facilities is made more onerous.

Dr. Yunus began his speech

Hence, Dr. Yunus set up a “social business”, operating on a long term and sustainable basis to not just give the poor a chance, but essentially, to “right” a “wrong”. I once saw a video on a speech given by celebrated author Guy Kawasaki at Stanford University on entrepreneurship. Mr. Kawasaki mused that an entrepreneur’s aim of starting a business ought to be to “make meaning”. And this can be done through 3 ways: 1. Increase the quality of life of the people, 2. Right a wrong, and 3. Prevent the end of something good. Grameen Bank was born. Dr. Yunus did all these. And you’ll see why later.

His social business took risk that no other conventional bankers would attempt to take on – giving credit to the poor. The risk, however, was worth it, as statistics from Grameen Bank shows that 99% of the loans that he reached out to the poor people, was repaid. I am not sure if conventional banks have such high loan repaying rate.

Dr. Yunus talked about Corporate Social Responsibility programmes initiated by Grameen Bank under his leadership. No other conventional business entities can rival the CSR programmes by Grameen Bank. Bangladesh is a country often bogged down by natural disaster like massive floods. When this occurred, Grameen Bank suspend all its banking activities. In other words, it shuts down its business temporarily, a bold move that I think no business establishment would attempt if their businesses itself were not affected by natural disaster, pardon my cynicism.

Following the suspension of all its banking activities, its staffs volunteered to go village to village, offering micro loans to the needy. Being “people centred” and a socially responsible business, Grameen Bank adopted an operating philosophy that, “if people lose, you lose too”, a saying that was meant to inculcate in every employees the notion that the operation of Grameen Bank is very much dependent on the well being and circumstances of the normal people on the street. So when disaster strikes, the bank goes to the people, offering micro loans. Interestingly, no collateral is required for the poor people to be eligible to borrow money from Grameen Bank, which makes his willingness to take the risk commendable.

The enlightening forum session

Forum and Q&A session. Left is blogger and social activist Marina Mahathir, the moderator for the session

As an Asian, modesty is always a virtue. Dr. Yunus humbly claimed that he knew nothing about banking. What he did, was not to “start a bank”, but merely to react to a situation or social condition which he felt strongly for – poverty. It was understood that he was the Head of Economics Department at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Adjacent to the university, about 1000 villages sprouted, where extreme poverty manifest itself. A university, regarded as a source of knowledge and subsequently a way out of poverty, should have a spill-over effect on its surrounding areas, helping these poor people to dissociate from the poverty cycle. Alas and alack, as he taught Economics in University of Chittagong everyday, he saw people dying of hunger on the streets. Being part of the faculty of the university, the conundrum faced by the extreme poor generated a sense of guilt in Dr. Yunus.

So one fine day, Dr. Yunus visited the villages and the homes of the poor. He compiled a list of 42 families, and found that these people are in dire need of money. Their attempt to obtain credit through other means proved futile. They tried to secure loans from banks, but suffered inhumane humiliation and torture. Society has been judgemental and was accustomed to believe that these poor people are incapable of repaying the loans.

Dr. Yunus lend an amount of $27 dollars to these people, advising them to use the money to create something to sell. After a certain period of time, the 42 families managed to make enough money to repay the loans. And he was treated as if he descended from heaven. He opined that the problems are terrible. The solution, however, was simple. He saw micro-credit as a key solution in alleviating poverty. He reckoned, if he can help alleviate poverty and aid in ending the poverty cycle with merely $27 (Aaron: hey, I have that amount of money too!), why not do more of it?

“The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world – all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them” – Dr. Yunus

Like every great man, success is not attained without failure. He endeavored to obtain loans on behalf of these poor people. He went to all existing banks but to no avail. No one is willing to give loans to the poor. So Dr. Yunus came up with an idea of borrowing money for the poor by signing up as a guarantor. He took the risk and was hopeful that it will eventually bear fruits. Back then, his friends were telling him, “Say goodbye to your money. It will never come back”.

The risk however helped established Grameen Bank. He tried and experimented with micro loans, and it worked.

Dr. Yunus from a big screen. “I went to the bank and proposed that they lend money to the poor people. The bankers almost fell over.”

Dr. Yunus is also a feminist who believe there should be no gender inequality. His bank distributes most of its loans to woman, about a whopping 97% today. A banker once asked him, “Why don’t you change your name to Grameen Women’s Bank?’, to which he wittily replied to the person, “ then why don’t you change the name of your bank to XYZ Men’s Bank?”. Banks at that time do not lend to the poor and the weaker sex. Grameen Bank set a target to achieve a 50-50 ratio between men and women.

When Grameen Bank first gave loans to women, the women were afraid of keeping the money. They simply do not know how to spend it. As a result, much of the money was given to their husbands. Dr. Yunus knew that too well and went on to meet these women, encouraging them to think for themselves of what they could do with the money. After plenty of encouragement, these women finally felt secure to take up the loans. Six years later, Grameen Bank achieved the 50-50 target.

Granting credit to more women, according to Dr. Yunus, has a much more profound social-economic benefit. When money goes to the family via women, they are typically more careful with their money. Plus, they pay more attention to the well-being of their children, like ensuring their children have access to education. Also, they spend thriftily on improvement of the facilities of the home. Generally, women are more likely to make use of the scarce resources for investment purposes, for a better tomorrow. On the other hand, men are less careful with managing scarce resources. We all know that men are prone to spending money in a spendthrift manner, much to my detestation I shall add. Gambling, smoking, and ?prostitution? are all avenues to waste money.

So it is not hard to comprehend why giving loans to households through women has a greater social economic impact and improve the economic well being of the poor people. The money recycles in the family, and in some households the investment yields returns and help alleviate poverty. Putting the children to school and saving hard to do so is arguably the most important process in getting out of the poverty cycle.

So Dr. Yunus said one day to the staffs of Grameen Bank, “Let’s focus on women!” And they did just that. The rest is history. Today, nearly 100% of the Grameen’s children (a term use to describe children of micro credit borrowers of Grameen Bank) attend school and STAY in school. Those who are ranked 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd in class were given scholarship. About 18000 students went on to university and higher education. 2 Grameen Children obtained a Ph.D. recently. It is amazing to see Ph.D. holders in one generation just after their illiterate parents. This is no doubt a social engineering programme that works.

In what I regarded as his most memorable quotation of all time, he famously said, “Charity is not the solution to poverty”. Charity is the short term solution. A beggar can receive money from charity, and when the money is all gone, he goes and begs again. At the end, the entire life of this person is all about begging.

Dr. Yunus: “Charity is not the solution to poverty.”

To this point, one could clearly see that the premise of Dr. Yunus’ work is based on his belief that everyone is equal. Poverty cannot be obsolete if we keep giving money to the poor. He believed that money should be spent on unleashing the capacity of the poor people. Poor people have unlimited potential hidden in them, just like everyone else, just that society did not give them a chance. Some people die without knowing about his/her own talent. He believed beggars have entrepreneurial skills that are highly valuable, and he then set up at programme to give them loans to start small businesses while they are begging. So it is a concept that works as such: Beggars in Bangladesh goes from house to house, but instead of merely begging, they obtain loans from Grameen Bank and started producing candies, sweets, drinks, etc and sell them while begging. Originally 100,000 people beggars participated. Today, 10,000 beggars no longer beg.

Dr. Yunus has his fair views on the cynicism of conventional businesses. He lamented the fact that most businesses exist to make money and to maximize profit. Social business is what he claimed Grameen Bank is. Social businesses are powerful in recycling the profits back in the society. They invest for various social causes, and utilize profit to expand their initiatives or geographic coverage.

“Here we were talking about economic development, about investing billions of dollars in various programs, and I could see it wasn’t billions of dollars people needed right away.” -Dr. Yunus

To encourage those who wish to fight for various social causes, he urged them to spend a weekend to make a wish list on what kind of world they want, hang it on the wall, read it everyday, and work for it. Do it. And when they retire, review the wish list to see what is accomplished.

Well, I have developed my wish list long time ago. In my lifetime, I want:

1. to stop the physical and verbal abuse (and hence the inflow) of foreign maids in Malaysia.

2. all schools in the world to adopt an education system which shapes everyone into:

- progressive thinking, liberal and open minded people who are capable of arguments and debates based on hard facts and wisdom

- people who have a high level of self awareness and know very well of their purpose of existence and true vocation

- people who are willing to contribute and make a mark for the benefit of mankind

- people who are capable of identifying and developing their own learning techniques and can therefore learn anything they want and are therefore extremely versatile and resilient to massive changes in future societies

- people who are capable of coming up with ideas, creative and innovative solutions to existing problems

- people who would learn for the pure sake of learning, not to pass exams or other purposes which doesn’t add up to the true learning

3. a place where media regains its status as the crusader for good governance and public accountability. I want media organizations to investigate corruption, public funds wastage, and tackle sensitive issues instead of sweeping everything under the carpet. I want all media organizations to be of “centre wing”, not left nor right, and report things as it is. I want these organizations to get voices from all parties concerned. There are at least two sides to everything. I want all voices to be heard so that the general public would be able to make informed political judgements and decisions based on facts and opinions from all parties concerned.

4. democracy to be non-party based. This is something that I’ve ponder for a long time. Why should people from a same ruling party hold decision making positions? How sure are we that we have the best people in the country holding these positions? What can’t we get the best people to hold the job, regardless of their political affiliations and inclinations? And if making decisions will be an issue when the best people regardless of their political inclinations, hold the job, why can’t they negotiate, sit down behind close doors, resolve, talk and let reason and wisdom be the main decision making tools? Why can’t government run like corporate entities where the best people hold the job?

5. a world without disable people. I was nearly “disabled” when I twisted my one of my fingers when I was younger. I want a state-of-the-art research facility to provide solutions, whether “mechanical” or medical solutions, to ALL disable person, at no cost at all.

6. people to care. To come together and protest and fight for what is right, not follow the establishment like how we were all brought up to be. I want people to come together in huge numbers and stop paying taxes when government mismanage public funds, I want people to protest when government officials made sexist or racist remark, I want people to get angry when a building collapsed and kill innocent lives due to corruption practices and poor planning, I want people to voice their displeasure when election promises are not fulfilled. I want people to care, take awareness, and stay together. Unity is strength.

Only 6, but that’s a lot to do, plus there are more to come. Hopefully when I get these done I’ll win a Nobel Peace Prize. ( Just fantasizing…)

The Nobel Peace Prize – my WILDEST fantasy…

Dr. Yunus is a successful social entrepreneur, something that I would like to become some day. Dr. Yunus’ words certainly made me ponder and reflect on my life thus far. I now have a better understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility. Listening to him further refines my definition of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is NOT about maximizing profit for personal gain, but to “create meaning”, as Guy Kawasaki put it. Dr. Yunus did just that, by raising the quality of life of the poor people, righting a wrong by dispelling stereotypes and the negative perception of the society on poor people, and preventing the end of something good – the inherent ability of every human being to be useful contributor to the society.

“This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty” – Dr. Yunus

Dr. Yunus is no doubt a true entrepreneur, someone I wish to emulate. Someday, I will give the same advise about entrepreneurship to my younger generations too.

Someday.

Inverted Pyramid versus Narrative Journalism

My interest in media was embellished with a fresh and novel perspective. The fun thing about media is no longer just thinking about how governments utilize media to stay in power, contemplating how mainstream media paint and illustrate the illusive idealism that everything in the world is beautiful and perfect, or imagining what Rupert Murdoch is capable of doing.

I was introduced to a whole new (relatively new in Malaysia) genre of news-reporting called Narrative Journalism.

I was one of the privileged few to participate in a by-invitation-only media workshop recently, entitled “The Role of Media in Religious and Racial Harmonious Building”. This workshop, as one would have imagined, is to explore the ethics of journalists in reporting race and religion issues, especially in a country where race is (sadly) still one of the main preoccupations of politicians and people in general. It is especially hurting to see other countries moving forward rapidly while we are still reckoning the past over small menial subjects like race and religion, unwilling to embrace the future to face conundrums of greater magnitude, like globalization for instance.

In a room filled with journalists and journalism students, I was probably the only “engineering student” in there. In the whole day event, the first part kicked off with a forum where two highly experienced veteran journalist gave their views on media reporting in racially polarized Malaysia. Mr Bob Teoh is the English Editor of Sin Chew i-Com. Mr Baradan Kuppusamy on the other hand, is a freelance journalist and is an active contributor to Time magazine, among others. Mr Baradan claimed to have threw a chair in the office of The Star in front of his editor, because – as one would have imagined would have happen between an ethical journalist and an editor who needs to adhere to strict news reporting guidelines set by the owner (government) – Mr Baradan had some problems with the editorial policy.

The highlight of the day, if of course, a media workshop by a highly experienced media expert, Dr. Janet Steele, an Associate Professor of Journalism at the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Dr. Steele is no doubt a source of inspiration. She is highly passionate about media in this part of the world, visiting Malaysia and Indonesia regularly, and more recently producing a research paper on the media landscape in Malaysia, from what I gathered from my world wide web voyage. Most intriguingly, she took on the highly agonizing – but really exciting – process of learning a new language – the Bahasa Indonesia. That took her 6 years, and it ultimately is a worthy investment. Her ability to converse in Bahasa Indonesia opens up doors of opportunities. Immediately after the South Asian tsunami, she found herself doing some translating job, at a time where information has to be translated as many languages as possible to reach out as many people as possible. Due to similarities between the Malaysian national language and that of Indonesia, she was fascinated by how Malaysiakini – one of the very few independent news source (read: non-government-owned) in Malaysia – works, and had spend her summers in Malaysiakini office to learn more about them and to give advice. I imagine advices on how to maintain journalistic integrity and at the same time to continue to be able to obtain permit to continue operations.

Her involvement in the workshop is another of her contribution to the Malaysian media landscape. She hoped to help Malaysian journalists to address the ethical dilemma in every journalist when writing about race relations as well as religious affairs, especially in a place call Malaysia. The dilemma is whether to write about them, or not. And if to write, how are they going to do so without igniting public riots and evoking public disorder?

Dr Steele was quick to issue a disclaimer, saying that she has no “right” answer of how to do it, but she believes narrative journalism will help. Journalists in the US have been practicing this for many years in reports pertaining to race relations and religious affairs. She was kind enough to bring a few copies of sample news reports that are written in this genre from The Washington Post.

Narrative journalism, according to Wikipedia, is the interpretation of a story and the way in which the journalist portrays it, be it fictional or non-fictional. In easier words, it tells a story. I was particularly intrigued by another interpretation of what narrative journalism is, by Suzy Fleming of Florida Today, also found on Wikipedia.

“Narrative is writing rather than just reporting. A reporter gathers information and regurgitates it — sometimes projectile-vomits it — into the computer. A writer arranges the information in a way that draws pictures, evokes tears, holds the reader’s attention. A good writer does this without emotional manipulation and forced phrasing, but like telling a story over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.”

Words like “regurgitates” and “projectile-vomits” indicates so accurately the differences between writing and reporting. As Dr Steele put it so aptly, “mainstream reporting is predictable, expected, and boring”.

The three words resonated so powerfully with me. My contention is that most mainstream quote only main government officials and authorities, completely ignoring the voices of the ground level. What they say, is always be predictable. For instance, during the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence, would you experience your wildest surprise to hear ministers saying “Malaysia is united, bla, bla bla“, or something that has the “we’ve come a long way” meaning in their every utterance? Or would it be unexpected if the government express urgency that they want immediate action and inspection on all buildings everytime a building collapsed? I think not.

In my humble opinion, this is an insult to the intelligence and credibility of the ordinary people. It undermines our ability to make inform judgement of what is happening around the country. it questions our integrity. The blatant way the media quote the ministers or people with “credibility” is as if they are the smartest in the country, which might not be the case.

Narrative journalism empowers journalist to gain voices from the ground level, because it tells stories, stories of those involved or are key characters in any given issues. For instance, in an issue about education inequality, the key person is definitely not the Minister of Education, because what will be said would be something like, “Yes, we know there are problems like this… we remain committed to improve the situation…In the recent budget, there have been extra allocations on education…”, which is unsurprisingly predictable even without my crystal ball.

Maybe the head of an NGO would be a good one, but I reckon the most compelling key person is often the student or the victim of education inequality. However, narrative journalism does not mean it is a fictional story. The stories must be factually accurate.

Adds Wikipedia, some critical elements of narrative journalism include the following:

• It contains accurate, well-researched information, and is also interesting to read.

• It looks at intriguing people, human emotions, and real situations. It provides the private story behind the public story.

• It reaches past the ordinary by blending the reportage of facts with the writing style of fiction.

Here is one exquisite example of narrative journalism. This is a short excerpt of an article appearing in The Washington Post on March 31, 2003, written by Anthony Shadid. For full article, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55252-2003Mar30?language=printer

———————————

A Boy Who Was ‘Like a Flower’

BAGHDAD, March 30 — On a cold, concrete slab, a mosque caretaker washed the body of 14-year-old Arkan Daif for the last time.

With a cotton swab dipped in water, he ran his hand across Daif’s olive corpse, dead for three hours but still glowing with life. He blotted the rose-red shrapnel wounds on the soft skin of Daif’s right arm and right ankle with the poise of practice. Then he scrubbed his face scabbed with blood, left by a cavity torn in the back of Daif’s skull.

The men in the Imam Ali mosque stood somberly waiting to bury a boy who, in the words of his father, was “like a flower.” Haider Kathim, the caretaker, asked: “What’s the sin of the children? What have they done?”

———————————

This is a news report on the Iraq war. A 14-year-old boy with the name Arkan Daif died in a sudden bombing. Notice how it was done without a trace of the usual mundane “inverted pyramid” news reporting style. It does not contain all the who, where, how, why, what, when in the first paragraph.

It certainly does not start of with “BAGHDAD, March 30 — A 14-year-old boy was among the many victims of a sudden air bombing in Baghdad late yesterday….” This sounded utterly boring and hackneyed that we really do not pay attention to it anymore.

On the contrary, a beginning that sounded like this “On a cold, concrete slab, a mosque caretaker washed the body of 14-year-old Arkan Daif for the last time.” intrigued the readers, sustains the attention of the reader, ignite emotions, and create lasting impression.

In Malaysia, news are often cliched, carrying the same old writing style. An article appearing in The Star yesterday reads “It is time for Malaysian to re-look at their “rice bowls”, XXX said.” That alone is a total turn-off for me.

And like, why do I have a sense of Deja-Vu? Didn’t this happen, like, last month?

It is time to embrace narrative journalism.
It is time for the voices to return to ground level.
It is time to uphold the principles of democracy (if we haven’t done that already)

It does not matter what “they” say, what matters is what we at the ground say.

The Exuberance of Working with Non-Profits

In my first foray into the local NGO scene, I was lucky enough to have found the serendipity and blessed enough to have discover the beginner’s luck.

To put it simply, it has been a rewarding and fulfilling experience that possibly made the NGO experience highly addictive to me, for the rest of my life.

It is of great pleasure to be able to work with Y4C. Y4C, short for Youth for Change, is a newcomer in the Malaysian NGO scene, yet the quality of the programs organized has never been a reflection of their inexperience. In just one year, they managed to build up remarkable connections with other NGOs in Malaysia, gathered a massive volunteer base, and most importantly, organized activities that have never been done before by other NGOs. The latter played a pivotal role in getting me to sign up as a volunteer.

During the recent by-election in some places in other states, they organized trips to the locations of the election. They ran into trouble with a political party affiliated with the ruling party, who thought they were some opposition groups and subsequently stalked them to monitor their every actions. It takes lots of audacity to be at that position, I reckoned, but they managed to stay together and get back safely. This is exactly what makes civil society movement so exciting – the defiance that you get to display, together with like-minded people around the country.

I did not have the time to go on the trip, plus I was rather afraid of things back then. But that incident inspires me a lot. A friend of mine claimed that the trip was indeed an “eye-opening” experience, opening her eyes to the true state of “democracy” of the country.

The first project that I worked on is the Young Voter’s Campaign. It was organized based on the premise that more than 4.9 million Malaysians above the age of 21 are not registered as a voter in the country, most of whom are young people congregated around urban areas like the Klang Valley.

I knew I wanted to do this. The alarming figure will consequently bring another dimension to electoral unfairness. That is, the true voices might not be reflected in the electoral results in this so-called democratic country.

Malaysians generally have a lot to complain. Traffic jams, rotten education system, racial discrimination, social inequality, poor public transportation system, corruption, lack of transparency, poor public delivery service, and of course denial of basic/fundamental human rights allocated under the Federal Constitution. The problem? These people however, never show their resentment through the cross on their ballot paper, or at least do not see the need to do so due to the general perception that the ruling party will always win ( through various means of course, like the control on media and the election commission, the mobilization of government’s machinery, huge campaigning budget (read: tax payer’s money), and of course, a never ending list of ( ) promises [never mind the EMPTY bracket].)

The next thing I know is, I wrote a little write-up about myself, and was called to their meeting subsequently.

I was overwhelmed with the familiar nervous disposition I used to have when I first joined the team because of the same ol‘ reason: I was afraid of what it could mean if I voice my opinions and give my ideas. I really do.

I was a little perturbed by virtue of my (not very young, but relatively young) age and my lack of experience. Being the youngest person to participate in this activity, the worse things that could happen is when people dismiss you as being young and think you should be hanging out at Friendster or My Space or playing (insert name of latest computer games) instead of doing this.

Nevertheless and thankfully, things turn out to be totally different and I instead get the nicest people that I’ve ever met to take me really seriously, who clearly displayed and conveyed through their every actions and behaviors, that every idea is equally important, regardless of your age and experience.

That itself made me stay on. It is also great for me to see people who are so passionate about civil society movement, coming together and making sacrifices and commitment to champion the cause that they really felt strongly for. What I see is the purest and most genuine form of passion and motivation, because money is completely out of the picture (since it is plain volunteering). While I am glad to meet such people, I am even more excited to know that there are so many passionate people in the country championing for various noble causes – perhaps a spark of hope for a better country in future?

I too am intrigued that meetings are really, really productive. And by saying that, I am saying there are sheer effectiveness in the conduct of these meetings, where there will surely be results or some form of finalization, unlike in situation where there could possibly be no outcome after a few hours of being in the boardroom in the corporate world.

It also occur to me that the NGO movement in Malaysia is like an interconnected huge “underground” web where everyone is so united, so together and seem to know each other. Throughout my involvement with Y4C, I met people from Bar Council, film director, columnist, people from CIJ, AWAM, Suaram and other NGOs, as well as some political figures, something that I wouldn’t imagine would happen to me few months before. Thanks to Y4C.

Meeting new people has always been my passion, especially meeting like-minded and more matured people. I benefited a lot through my meeting with other volunteers. Jien Sing, for example gave me a lot of info about American universities. He went to University of California Berkeley, one of the elite schools in US and the world. These information are extremely crucial for me to know since I will be applying to US schools end of this year. Joyce Tagal, the expert in US application is also someone I am utterly thrilled to meet. I’ve read her blog for a very long time but have never met her or seen her. Not forgetting wonderful people who made my life more enriching. People like Lai Ming, Su-Ann, Roseline, Regina, Patrick, and other wonderful people are really fun to have as a friend. I have also finally spoken to Tony Pua. I previously have seen him and had emailed him but never spoke to him in person before. Not forgetting people like Khai Loon and Yee Ling who’d gave me many learning opportunities and taught me many things.

My most critical contribution to the team and ultimately to the cause, albeit it was rather insignificant, is doing copywriting work in the project. Rudimentarily, my responsibility is to write a leaflet to educate the public about voting right.

The challenge? To make things comprehensible for the general public.

The leaflet team met up during weekends, write lots of drafts, discussed, send emails, show friends to proof read, etc, etc. The leaflet is there to inform the public about their rights, and more importantly, what should they be taking into consideration when putting that crucial cross on that ballot.

Of course, we can’t say things like, “Article XX of the federal constitution states that every citizen must vote….”. That itself is a total turn off. I did read the constitution, and mind you, it is an agonizing process. Reading the Malaysian constitution is the last thing in mind for the general public. Upon much deliberation, we’ve come up with 7 different issues that we believe the public should take into account when making the political decision. They are: freedom of press, freedom of association, embracing diversity, separation of power, government transparency, competent governance, and most importantly, fair election.

Bearing in mind that we can’t write things like “Freedom of press is allocated under Article 10 of the Constitution of Malaysia. In Reporters Without Borders’ annual Press Freedom index, Malaysia ranked…..”, and that nobody wants to read something that sounds like a legal statement, convoluted with jargon and terms that aren’t that accessible to the general public, we finally reached a note of concordance to firstly tell people what are their rights with respect to each of the 7 issues outlined in a fairly simple way.

For “Freedom of Press” for instance, we said, “A free press is like your eyes and mouth……You are intelligent enough to judge for yourself… You don’t need someone else to censor …..” Basically, we used highly anecdotal and relevant context in order to convey our thoughts effectively.

After knowing their fundamental rights and what they are entitled to, we then tell them the consequences of voting blindly without caring for the particular issue. Lastly, we illustrate the benefit that the people will get if they care and are concerned.

Just some example, for the “Competent Governance” part, we have this:

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Competent governance
A competent government strives for progress and an open and just society. A competent government is also efficient and able to please the people. And you are entitled to that.

If you don’t care…

• You might need to wait for a long time to get your passport done – you might miss your flight!
• You will not be able to speak up even when you feel you need to – that is like taping your mouth with tapes.
• You might be discriminated through government policies because you are of Race X or Gender Y or Sexuality Z

If you care…

· Everything is done efficiently. This improves the competitiveness of Malaysians. – And you don’t have to miss your flight

· You can tell the government what you think and provide them constructive feedback to improve – they will take your interests into account to provide you with what you want (that’s reliable public transport, fair education system, livable environment etc)

· Everyone is treated equally, it is a fair and just society

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One of my biggest personal accomplishments is to overcome my personal fear – the fear of going out to the street and talk to people/distribute stuffs in outreaching activities. The notion of outreach programs in this campaign left me in uttershock. Questions started popping out. I was really not receptive to the idea of talking to random people on the street.

People would probably think I have lost my sanity. The worst thing is of course, being treated rudely by some people. I guess I was too into my youthful idealism that Malaysians are friendly (which is not really the case) and so naively believed that everyone is as nice as how I treated people. Sigh, what has befallen mankind…

Far from my sluggish beginning, I am now proud to say I have managed to overcome that street phobia. I have learned to stay true to myself and be indifferent to what others might think about me. I have come to learn to take pride in whatever I do. Whether or not people think I am being jerk for talking to people whom I do not know is totally another issue.

There are situations where I was ignored completely, and there are situations where I was thought to be some bogeyman or salesperson. A friend of mine, who also volunteered, said something very enlightening. He advised everyone that we (volunteers) should not bear reservations on the fear of altering our own “friendly Malaysians perception”, but instead should open up our eyes to see the real world.

That itself is insightful, and perhaps is the reason behind my determination on doing this till the end of it, apart from opening my eyes to see for myself the true reality of the Malaysian way of life. Of course, some people are kind enough to listen to you. Some offered to help! Some gives constructive feedback, some teases their friends for not voting! Anyhow, as I am writing this now (two months after the outreach activities), I reckoned it was not a bad thing either. It actually indicates the diversity of the human race, the various behaviors and attitudes of people. That diversity shapes the world like it is today, add sugar and spices to our everyday lives.

Throughout my volunteering period, I had on several times went on to the activities without informing my dad about it. Uh-oh. (Insert horror theme from X-files with the sound of lightning strike)

Yes, I know, that is not a very good son of me (for not telling him about it). If I did, he probably (like he did before) exaggerate and tell me things like getting arrested, as if all people who work with NGOs will be arrested. This undermines my ability to make informed judgment of what is happening in the “real” world. I felt offended. This is also the reason why people are reluctant to join NGOs – the fear of getting arrested following the introduction of oppressive laws introduced by the government.

I am clearly aware of how people get arrested and how the ISA and other “draconian” laws work. Event like the Young Voter’s Campaign is neutral, non-bias, and has educational purposes (in fact, taking over the educational role from the authorities who seemed to prefer people to not vote in general election). I personally do not foresee any trouble with the authorities by involving with it.

Moving forward, I do not think I will stop doing what I did, even though it did not augur well with my dad. After all, my life is all about myself. I am in charge of making decision for myself, not he making decision for me. Furthermore, the cause that I champion for is too great for me to rest in the laurels and merely hope things will happen itself in the country.

What’s next?

Be on a constant lookout for opportunities to champion for greater cause and issues that I felt strongly for.