Joyce’s opening speech

Azly Rahman

Prem Chandran

Tony Fernandes

Malik Imtiaz


Bridget Welsh
Video I: Talk

Video II: Q&A

Karim Raslan


Zainah Anwar


Sim Tze Tzin

Jeff Ooi

You can also check out the raw footage from the Malaysian side.

Day 1

01 - test
02 - premesh chandran
03 - premesh disappears
04 - premesh returns
05 - premesh again
06 - premesh qna
07 - mark chang qna
08 - mark more qna
09 - colin nicholas
10 - colin nicholas qna
11 - karim raslan
12 - karim qna
13 - karim more qna

Day 2

14 - test
15 - more test
16 - tony fernandes
17 - tony qna
18 - malik imtiaz waiting
19 - malik talking qna
20 - malik more qna

Disclaimer: If you’re new to this, do note that this is a video conferencing, unedited (includes tests), and probably more amusing at its current state than inspiring. The US side videos would come later.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find any. In particular, the Malaysian side has done a great job covering what’s happened, especially back home. On ReCom, Chen Chow covered much of what happened on the first day. On his blog, Chen Chow covered the second-day teleconferencing sessions — Tony Fernandes and Malik Imtiaz. Meanwhile, Hafiz blogged (with pictures!!!) about Karim Raslan and the second-day teleconferencees. A gigantenormous thank you to these two awesome guys! We will try to get more information about the conference proceedings online in the following days, so do stay tuned.

He moved on to describe the founding of the Stanford Malaysia Forum one bitter California winter four years ago. “Stuck in a coffee shop,” he and a few others resolved that they needed a space for overseas students to engage in dialogue about the home country we all care for. He put it as a “spirit of civil society,” where we begin first with discussion, and continue on to form small projects to improve the country and maybe later fully “engage in the nation-building process,” as he and Jeff have done.

In particular, Jeff emphasised the impact of using the internet to disseminate various political videos, be they simply an expression of one’s personal opinion, or a recording of a ceramah. In his analysis, Jeff attributed the dramatic results of the recent elections to the drastic proliferation of political media in the online space.

Responding to a question on why he decided to leave the neutral ground of civil society to enter the realm of partisan politics, Jeff explained that he had grown tired of dealing with political issues in an ineffective non-partisan manner, and “thrown in the towel”. He also stressed that being a blogger-politician would be beneficial for both his cause and Malaysian society at large, mentioning the possibility of explaining the inner workings of Parliament on his blog, and using online media to strengthen the space for political dialogue in the country.

Prompted by a Penangite questioner, Jeff also expounded on his analysis of the economic situation in the country. Rejecting the notion that Malaysia can compete in providing low-cost labour, he instead proposed looking into hi-tech industries as a future source of economic growth for the state and the country.

Zainah sees civil society as the way forward: arguing that public law must be open to public debate. She calls for lawmakers not to “hide behind the sanctity of the divine;” and for civil society to speak out on important, far-reaching religious issues without discrimination, rather than frame them in a Muslim/non-Muslim binary. Zainah argues for a progressive, intellectual understanding of Islam to cope with changing norms and times (Arabic: ijtihad) — to ensure that religion is a “source of peace.”

As a response to a probing question about the legality of enforcing religious law (e.g. raiding night clubs), given the secular nature of Malaysia’s laws, Zainah explains that the state grants regulatory bodies like JAIS power to regulate the lives of Muslims with the Shariah Criminal Offenses Act — and that its jurisdiction has expanded over the years. She highlights the gender biases against women inherent in such enforcement, and argues that public outrage at the excesses of religious authorities (e.g. Zouk!), while rejuvenating, is only the first step towards reformation of religious law in Malaysia.

In closing, Zainah urged the audience to look to the Federal Constitution for guidance on handling the confluence of religion and public law in Malaysia. As she ended, her speech was met with raucous applause — perhaps the most enthusiastic yet of the conference.

Zainah encourages participants — and anyone interested in the issues she discussed — to check out the Sisters in Islam website, or get in touch with her via email: zmha54 AT yahoo.co.uk (replacing “AT” with “@”, of course).

In a response to a question about the role of Islam in the constitutional framework of Malaysia (Article 3 and Article 11) and its relation to the Lina Joy case, Malik quotes a 1988 Federal (Supreme) Court decision (Che Omar Che Soh), where the court ruled that the laws of the country were secular, including personal law. Malik also explains that the Federal Court awarded habeas corpus to a Malay man who converted to Christianity and who was proselytizing on the grounds that his ISA detainment was an infringement on his right to freedom of religion. Given these legal precedents, he therefore argues that the current legal imbroglio is a result of the political Islamic race between UMNO and PAS in the 90s and also of the 1988 Salleh Abbas affair that emasculated judicial independence, among other factors.

While recognizing the role of Islam in public life, Malik reminds us of the social contract inherent in the Constitution of Malaysia and exhorts us to be wary of the language of supremacism that many political parties make to position themselves. Another interesting question raised was the tendency of framing Malaysian issues in terms of “religious” versus “secular” rather than articulating them in a larger human rights context, or as Malik argues, in terms of “constitutional rights” and “equality.”

“This is the problem with Malaysians”, he says, “we sit around and think ‘Oh, it can’t be done.’”

The self-made man related his experience setting up a fledgling business in an industry long dominated by the national airline, MAS. Tony stressed the importance of being willing to go out there and take risks, warning that most Malaysians are often reluctant to take chances, which he spoke of as imperative to the entrepreneur. Audience members quizzed him on the difficulty of starting up a new firm in Malaysia, and opportunities for Indians to break into the corporate world, prompting Tony to remark that this seemed to be a rather “political conference”. In response, Tony emphasised that educational opportunities are the necessary factor for economic progress, and that relative to other countries, our airline industry is still more open. Closing his speech, Tony chuckled that thanks to the Malaysia Forum, he now has “another feather in [his] cap” — using modern, low-cost technology to speak at a conference thousands of miles away.

Welsh celebrated the recent elections for its “democratic opening” and “fundamental transformation” in electoral outcome. She said it had reflected a rise of an “increasingly sophisticated electorate,” which implicitly posed the question of “What should the government be doing.” The election pointed to how Barisan Nasional (BN) is “never going to be same again” but has to reform to maintain political hegemony, and also showed that “cooperation between opposition can be effective.” However, since the opposition parties “did not cooperate to govern but to win seats,” the challenge is to work together and prove that the “negative vote” against BN is indeed also a “positive vote” for the opposition.

Several challenges were highlighted: the lack of experience of younger candidates, an inconsistent cabinet, sultans challenging leadership in different states for a more representative leadership; sharp differences of opinions on the NEP and other racial questions; the rise of multiple sovereignties. Welsh also predicted that East Malaysia would emerge as “a pivotal player of Malaysian politics” and that Keadilan would be the focal point of these debates. She also pointed out that political power had previously been centralized around a single person; there is a heavy focus on personality figures within the party, rather than the focus of taking care of public interest.

At the end, Welsh underscored that “everyone in the room can make a big difference”. She suggested: -

1) 1) Share your opinions and insights with each other and back in Malaysia

2) 2) Offer your talents that the Malaysian education system has snubbed;“don’t stay here, go back” since the government needs to hear the different ideas

3) 3) Remind people that this issues mentioned have to be incorporated into the system – younger leaders have to be more open