Such discussion surprised me. Certainly because the topics that had discussed were deep into the core problem. What I gained was indeed hardly to find in any newspapers or even journals. Those were the experiences and knowledge from the experts and seniors. On top of that, now i realized how YKT can be applied !
The discussion started with environmental issues, mainly about rare earth. Lynas, mining giant in Perak were the issues deeply discussed. We know how hazardous and dangerous the materials, yet our voice been ignored.
Why ? Perhaps most of the people in the room were wondering.
' We had several demonstrations to against the setting up of the Lynas factory, ' says the speaker. ' In our country, you must have permission in order to march on the road. '
' What happened next ? What is the action of the government ? ' one of the foreign students asked.
' Well, at last they still sending semi-manufactured products here, and those products have high radiation. The factory is operating. Our government has do nothing on it. ' Speaker replied, and he continued to the deep point, ' In fact the Australian know the rare earth is hazardous, and yet they want the third world country to take it. '
Bingo ! A question in my heart : who define the world as First , Second and Third? On what basis?
' I would like to comment something.' Dr Kaw, professor of USF, formerly a malaysian, suddenly voice out, ' You know, the dominant still exist. Obama gave a call to the Prime Minister after winning the general election. Obama congratulated the Prime Minister and reminded him the free trade agreement. Actually we do not know what is inside the agreement.We do not know how it affect the public life and the environment. In fact in America, a lot of news and messages are covered. Recently a whistle blower had just been arrested. Obama speaks about human rights and freedom, but in another way he's doing something adverse. He even covered the news of TPP agreement in the begining. Before the agreement is signed, no one knew about it. And the TPP is a dominant of America to those countries. '
' Yea, any messages and informations that could not be spread here will be given a cop "sulit", means confidential,' says the speaker. ' We tried to get data of tobacco use from the Ministry of Health but fail. Some of our data are taken from WHO. The data and information from the Ministry are selected. Thankyou Dr.Kaw, if Mr President is here, he probably would agree with you. '
Two things that I want to point out :
1. Everything happens in contexts. Environmental issues are interconnected with social, economic, and political context. When we look into the issue deeply, they are truly interconnected.
.2. The colonial era had ended, yet it's not the end. The dominant is still there, the power is still within the leaders of the so called First World country, the belief of "America's Dream" is still exist.
Reflection of the day : Thank you to all lecturers especially Pn.Wang, Dr.Mus and Dr Mahyuddin who taught me in YKT courses . Those terms : Hegemony, Culture imperialism, Power, Class, Modernization..........they were so real today !
'
No comments:
Post a Comment