Wrap of 14 Weeks of MMC Class

14 weeks has just passed in a blink of an eye. It is really, really fast. To be honest, I have learned a lot throughout these 14 weeks of class. At the first few weeks of classes, I was a little bored by the political issues that we discussed in class as I am not interested in politics.

However, as time goes by, I realize that in our daily life, no matter what we do, somehow would really related to politics. For example, what I have learned the most in this class is actually about our human rights (because of the group assignment). Many people may think that custody death is like, non of their business. But in fact, this is a serious issue. It is because that many people have this mindset, or they did not do anything about it even when they know about it. No public pressure is given to the government to look into this issues. What if the one who is locked in custody was you? Or your friends or family? Many people may think that it is impossible, but nothing is impossible. We never know what is going to happen in the future. We must know our own human rights so that we can protect ourselves. Without the knowledge of our human rights, the higher authority may abuse their power to bully you. A common example that we, as a normal citizen may face is when we were blocked by the police. According to our lecturers, we have the rights to ask the police for the reason to block us. Sometimes they will just threaten us just to get some "duit kopi".

Of course, I have also gained knowledge on the cultural performances/performing arts of the Kelantan-ese. 

What I remember the most from this class was actually the presentation of the Thai students. I love how they share their knowledge and culture with us in class and it was a really great experience that I had in class. 

Thanks for the awesome class Dr Carmen, Dr Andrew and Ms Ezzati! I have indeed learned a lot from this MMC class.

The Best MMC Presentation Group

To be honest, I think that EVERYONE has done a good job presenting their hard work today. I know that everyone has put a lot of effort in doing this assignment but the one group that I enjoyed the most during the presentation today was the "All in One" group. Their topic is about transgender. 

Transgender itself is an interesting word. It is indeed an interesting topic to work on. People nowadays are more open to the transgenders. In this group's presentation, they showed their interview session with the strangers public, including the students, adults and elderly. Most of the adults and elderly they interviewed said that they cannot accept transgenders, mainly because that they think that transgenders are breaking the norms and are a weird group of people. 

Therefore, Group "All in One" has presented a hilarious yet impactful play. This play is based on true real life story of the interviewee whom they interviewed. 

Throughout their whole presentation, the last sentence that Simon said really hits me hard. He said to the audience who were laughing hard at his character and his acting skill, (I cant remember the whole sentence but it was something like) "Ah laugh, this is what the transgender gets what they're mistreat by others"

Simon (left) acts as a transgender talking to Pei Wen (right) who acts as a police

Reflection of Our MMC Group Presentaion

After putting so much effort doing our assignment, it is time for us to present it to our fellow coursemates and lecturers. Since creativity counts, our group "We Don't Care" decided to add a short play before we start presenting. The play started with Teoh Beng Hock is being abused in the custody by MACC officer (which is played by me), and then the next day TBH is found dead and until now, the truth is not revealed yet. 

Left - TBH
Right - MACC Officer

I personally think that our play was not really clear and impactful as we are lack of rehearsals. Other than that, I think that we have done a good job in researching, collecting information, and interviewing the people who have more knowledge on our topic, which is related to human rights and student rights.  

Freedom Film Fest 2016

I went to the Freedom Film Fest (FFF) that was introduced by our lecturers at Jaya One yesterday. I only went for the night screening which was from 7pm till 10.30pm. That night, we have watched 3 documentary films in total. After every screening of each documentary, they had a Q&A session with the director of the film respectively. 

Among the 3 films that we have watched, I personally think that the first one, "Stories From My Father" directed by Ashleigh Lim, touched me the most. As the title of the film, she filmed her father's hidden past story. She thinks that people out there should know about what his father (and some of his father's friends) had been through in the past especially when her father was caught and jailed for many years and all he did was just stand for their human rights. He also shared the hardship that he faced when he was in the jail, which really pissed me off for a short while. 

I am really glad and touched that he did not give up, even until now. It is very heart-warming to see that his wife was willing to wait for him to get out of the jail and to marry to him. It is really touching to know that he had been through so much hardships in the past and now that he living peacefully and has a happy family. I would really want to thank him, and thank to those people who stands up for human rights. 

Journey of Our Group Assignment

I would say that by doing this group assignment, I have gained so much extra knowledge that cannot be learned academically. Our group named "We Don't Care", have chosen to focus on the absence of knowledge of human rights among the Malaysian citizens nowadays, based on the case of custody death of Teoh Beng Hock. 

On 22/7/2016 (Friday), my groupmates and I went to Publika for the "Remembrance as Resistance: Human Rights Exhibition" event. To our disappointment, we went there hoping to attend some talks about human rights or to interview some organizers of this event but unfortunately on this first day (event last for 3 days), it only had art exhibition. However we did not give up. We successfully asked for the contact of the organizer of this event. 

This was my first time attending an art exhibition. It really helps to raise awareness of human rights by looking at the arts.

Group picture with the staff that gave info to us

One of my most favourite art and its caption. [I did not manage to capture the arts ):]

During the first interview, with Tricia Yeoh, the Chief Operating Officer of IDEAS, I was not able to make it due to personal reason.

However, I join the second interview, with Wong Siew Yun, the vice secretary of Teoh Beng Hock Trust for Democracy. During this interview, I got to know more about human rights and the importance of it and how it may affect our daily life. Special thanks to Dr. Andrew who came and visited us and gave us some suggestions before interviewing Wong Siew Yun.

Wong Siew Yun also encourages us to join some activities related to human rights that organized by Teoh Beng Hock Trust for Democracy when we are free. 

Group photo with Wong Siew Yun (middle)

   
And at last, we decided to narrow down our topics of human rights to UTAR-ian (student) rights. Therefore, we have made an appointment with the president of SRC of UTAR, Ng Zi Kent to have an interview session in UTAR. He also provided us a lot of information of our student rights (which I really had no idea of what's our student rights) and what has SRC done to help the students to execute their rights. 

Really, I think we have chosen the right topic and I am interested in this topic.

Puteri Gunung Ledang

During this week's lecture and tutorial class, we have watched a Malaysian famous film Puteri Gunung Ledang!

It is a love story about a princess of the Majapahit Kingdom, Gusti Puteri and a Malacca warrior, Hang Tuah. Gusti Puteri leaves her kingdom and live in Gunung Ledang, hoping to reunite with her lover Hang Tuah. There are many obstacles that hinder them to be together. 

It is indeed a great romance action film involving the history of Malacca. However at the beginning of the film, I was kind of confused because I felt that all the Malay male characters in the film looked similar to each other (HAHA). To be honest, this was the first Malay film that I have watched in my entire life so far. 

After watching this movie, my mindset of stereotyping all the Malaysia Malay films has demolished. (Not to be racist but) I used to think that all Malay films are boring, but now I have changed my childish mind. 

There is a small question when I was watching this film*shy*. Why can the female lead of this movie wear kind of sexy and exposed outfit (even though she's a princess)? Isn't it not allowed according to the law of Islam?

Tiara Jacquelina
(She is very pretty!)

1984 HERE AND NOW

1984 Here and Now

This was my first time attending a play in a black box theater. 1984 Here and Now is written by Kee Thuan Chye, adapted from George Orwell's novel 1984. This play is written to criticize the Mahathir government and its oppressive rule. Besides, he also criticized the racial discrimination in our country. 

In this play, they showed us that in the year of 1984, all Malaysians are under the control of the "Big Brother". No matter what the political party or the government have said, the citizens HAVE TO believe or obey. If one does not obey and tries to go against the political party or the government, he/she will face some cruel consequences like what this play have shown us that at the end of the play, the main character, Wiran is forced to admit his guilt of disobeying "Big Brother" and apologize to "Big Brother" publicly. He is then tortured severely and threatened by the police as he does not admit his guilt (HE HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG TBH).

When I was watching the torturing scene of the play, somehow I immediately think of Teoh Beng Hock's case (as I am currently doing assignment regarding lack of knowledge of human rights based on his case). Unfortunately, nobody will know what he had faced when he was locked in the custody. However, a few weeks ago, I saw an article at the Remembrance as Resistance Human Rights Art Exhibition. It showed us the list of rights under custody. I personally feel that the torturing scene of this play can somehow related or linked to this issue (lack of knowledge of human rights) too.

Rights under Custody

I was very glad that I had this opportunity to attend and watch this play. I liked it very much (although the truth hurts). The settings, props, lighting, sound effects of the play and the acting skill of the talents are so professional and amazing! After watching this play, I feel really thankful to those who are very brave to stand up and voice out for a better Malaysia. It really takes huge courage to do so. I sincerely pray for a better Malaysia in the future.

RM20 and it is definitely worth it!