Saturday, 18 October 2014 09:14 Malaysians in Australia launch new pro-reform movement Written by Praveen Nagappan By way of introduction, I am part of the Malaysian Diaspora advocacy movement in Australia, Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia in Australia (SABMOZ) with a following of approx 1000 Malaysian Diaspora. We have traditionally hosted open public forums with visiting civil rights advocates, politicians and the like. Most recently, we hosted Dato Ambiga and Citizen Nades of The Sun Daily. In the recent past we have hosted Haris Ibrahim, Waytha Moorthy, Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, Nizar Jamaluddin and Jefferey Kitingan to name of few. We also periodically run workshops for the Diaspora including voter education and democracy workshops for students. Recent developments have seen a new student movement, Malaysian Progressives in Australia (MPOZ) take form. Their aim is to fill the void left by existing student organisations, chiefly MASCA, who set the tone for all other Malaysian student organisations in Australia. MASCA are under the purview of Ministry of Education Malaysia through Education Malaysia, represented by the Consulate of Malaysia. To elaborate on this, for instance, members of their Advisory Council are appointed by Education Malaysia Australia, a fact publicised on MASCAs website. Almost to prove this point, MASCA was made to publicly retract their invitation to Tony Pua, a key opposition politician, who was scheduled to speak at their annual conference in April this year alongside Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Youth and Sport, due to pressure from their main sponsors - suffice to say Khairys invitation was not retracted. Frustrated with their voices and viewpoints not being heard, a group of bold and progressive thinking students have proceeded to form their own organisation, to a certain degree unshackling themselves. It is a giant leap for them to breakaway from the fear culture. Their inaugural event will be hosting visiting Malaysian Members of Parliament and State Assembly Persons around Australia for the next week. We in SABMOZ are delighted that our students are courageous enough to take this bold move. Irrespective of their views or actions, we want to support and encourage them to reach greater heights and keep at fulfilling their objectives. To this end, we are throwing our full support behind them publicly and encourage others to do the same. Could I please ask that you write a brief story about them in support of their courage. Please see attached release they issued to us along with details of their objectives and strategies. Praveen Nagappan
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:48:45 +0000