JAN 12 — Can we not accept student activism on its own terms?

Which brings me to two recent developments affecting youths in this country: The 18-month academic suspension of one Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) student and a New Year’s Eve protest involving some 20 students outside UPSI.

These students are not the first or last student activists in Malaysia. Their predecessors, like the UKM students caught during the Hulu Selangor by-election, have over the years have been harassed, taunted and generally had their lives made difficult because their politics was not on the Umno-government’s menu.

Some people have said that the actions of these students were ill-advised.

Perhaps. However any protest only has to justify itself, with the caveat its intentions and execution are not violent.

That is the only test any protest has to pass.

Martin Luther King Jr was not parading his police permit with checkboxes as he made history and changed lives with the march on Washington 1963. Nor were people blaming the Kent State University students for being shot when they protested on campus in 1970. Shall we blame the children of Soweto for protesting without permission of the Apartheid-professing police of South Africa in 1976? 

Lowering a symbol and waiting outside the university they study at on a party night are not crimes. Tanjung Malim is a dead town at night. There was no threat to public security. The only people at the protest site were the police, interested onlookers with phone-cams and the protesters. There was zero chance of a riot.

They were just people expressing themselves, which is something a democracy celebrates. Not that you agree with them, but that they should be able to express their opinion. So that one day when you, the reader, wants to express publicly on a matter most people disagree with you; this vibrant democracy will protect your right to express.

Insane draconian laws are not worth respecting. The others, the practical ones trying to balance the right of protesters and the general public have to be observed.

This is not just my opinion. This is the prime minister’s too. Which is why he came on prime time last September 15 to tell us Malaysians that he’s repealing repressive laws.

Malaysia has a bunch of them picked up from colonial British rule and introduced as counter-terrorism measures during the 1948-1960 Communist insurgency.

The ending of these bad laws was long overdue, and as a man of reform the prime minister should have celebrated the new voices of expression because the students are just embracing the new future he hopes to usher in.

Yield to the rebels

As Bertrand Russell put it: Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter. (A Liberal Decalogue, 1951)

So many people ask about the purpose of the protests, I’d ask these people to consider the courage of the protesters.

It is easier to be indifferent, than to care. The protester has to care enough about the issue to face-off against a police force which has a reputation for not tolerating any non-Umno supported demonstration.

Students excel when they are not impeded from pursuing their thoughts and conscience.

Let’s consider the remaining student population. Most are apathetic with a small group currying favour with the government of the day to secure their futures. Then it is the cynics, dismissive of the pro-government faction while being demanding of student activists.

Everyone can keep safe except the government-unfriendly student activist; he has to choose, to participate, and at times lead.

The future is uncertain and questions remain on future leaders in politics, business and public service.

Consider that for awhile, and then look back at the students you have, your future leaders.

From the indifferent, the keen to suck up to a get neat stuff, the cynics and then the activist students — who may fail to have a vision but have conviction. As any adult with life experience knows, that conviction is not easy to come by.

It is a valuable trait for real leaders.

The general Malaysian public should stop running down youths for not possessing more years, qualifications and experience to decide what is important to them.

Instead, consider our indifference to their enthusiasm and ideas.

To deny a young man 18 months of education because he had a poor opinion of the prime minister sends the wrong message to society. Equally charging at unarmed students in the dead of night and injuring them is wrong.

We need a paradigm shift. We have to start respecting lawful dissent, even if we don’t understand it.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.