MCA, Gerakan join in slamming of UUM panellist
Two more BN political parties have joined the growing group of people hurling brickbats at student forum panellist Sharifah Zohra Jabeen Syed Shah Miskin, who was captured on video last month berating a Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) student.
The two parties’ national youth bureaux expresses their condemnation for Sharifah Zohra Jabeen Syed Shah Miskin’s treatment of law student KS Bawani during the Dec 8 forum at UUM.
Two more BN political parties have joined the growing group of people hurling brickbats at student forum panellist Sharifah, who was captured on video last month berating a Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) student.
The MCA and Gerakan Youth education bureaux came forward today to express their condemnation of Sharifah’s ( right ) treatment of law student KS Bawani at the Dec 8 forum at UUM.
MCA Youth education bureau chief Chong Sin Woon said Sharifah’s “uncouth behaviour” towards Bawani was uncalled for.
Chong ( below ) reminded Sharifah that university students of today are no longer “katak di bawah tempurung (ignorant)” and are capable of holding sound opinions of their own.
“On the contrary, university students are able to think critically and hold strong opinions on current issues. It is their right to hold a view and stance on what they believe in.
“Bawani showed courage and did not interject in the face of verbal harassment and condescension,” he said in a statement today.
‘Adults can learn from children’
He felt Sharifah, who is also the chairperson of NGO Suara Wanita 1Malaysia (SW1M), should have behaved with more maturity and should have allowed the second-year law student to finish before delivering her own differing views.
In fact, he said adults too, can learn from children, citing Bawani’s call for the public not to make sexual innuendoes against Syarifah.
“Thus, it becomes obvious that Syarifah, with the degree she proudly extols, should be able to learn a thing or two from the undergraduate whose education background she belittled,” Chong’s statement reads.
Meanwhile, Gerakan Youth education bureau chief Thor Teong Gee (
right
) called on public universities to vet more thoroughly their choice of panellists before calling them to speak at forums and conferences.
If no suitable candidate could be found, Thor said, then the forum should not be held at all.
“We should not make a mockery of freedom of expression and critical thinking, especially when the objective is to engage students to freely express their views and analyse situations.
"We should not use our position to suppress others as it is tantamount to bully and abuse of power," he said.
Their statements came in the wake of criticism leveled again Sharifah by various politicians such as Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
Even Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar was quick to distance himself and BN from her, although it was found that she was once the deputy Wanita chief of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma).
The 24-minute video in which Sharifah can be seen trying to browbeat Bawani, at one point even taking away the latter’s mike, went viral on YouTube last week, have raised the ire of netizens and opening a floodgate of online jokes, as well as pictures and videos poking fun at the SW1M chairperson.
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