your say 'Najib talks about going 'glocal' and Pak Lah talked about creating 'towering' Malaysians. How on earth are the students supposed to do this?'

Don't ask sensitive questions or risk arrest, student told

Cannon: What is education if it's not to teach our young people to inquire and to think for themselves? They should be given the academic freedom to take risks in asking questions if they are to develop and expand their intellectual faculty and horizon.

I left university many, many years ago and have given back the courses I was taught. But this attribute of free thinking stayed with me because my professors in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) and Thammasat University have done an excellent job in encouraging and stimulating me to think for myself.

This Umno-BN regime is anxious to avoid any embarrassment. It is sensitive to our students who are raising questions that the Chinese government is particularly uneasy about, notably, its suppression of civil rights and treatment of civil right activists.

What if our students are to ask the Chinese premier such questions, imagine, Wen Jiabao might gently turn the questions around and ask our students, whether they have any such concerns and face any similar challenges in this country?

Alan Goh: Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Ghauth Jasmon was trying to silence real democracy by choosing or selecting students based on the questions they ask. This is democracy of the frogs, by the frogs and for the frogs. Do you feel really proud, Ghauth, for trying to pull wool over Malaysians' eyes?

No wonder the UM global education index has been sliding down - it is lower than Thailand and nowhere near National University of Singapore. Tak malu, kah?

Fellow Malaysian: I think this is part of high-level 'diplomatic protocol' of ‘I scratch your back and you scratch mine'.

Before Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao agreed to hold the so-called 'dialogue' (it was a eleventh-hour arrangement anyway), don't you think PM Najib Razak or Minister in the PM's Department Koh Tsu Koon must have assured him that it will be an off-the-cuff affair and there will be no surprises coming from the students?

I witnessed the final part of the question-and-answer at UM, but personally, if I were one of the students (I was 30 years ago), I would have refrained from holding or participating in any form of show of displeasure to a much respected and honourable man who has helped shaped a desolate country of 1.3 billion people to what it is today.

If the students really are enthusiastic and concerned about the curtailing of public voices, then go after Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his proteges.

Xiao Zhu: Don't waste time protesting against a foreign dignitary. It will lead you no where. Luckily, you have not been bashed up for nothing. If you are genuine in serious protesting, I suggest you do it on our home turf where so many serious issues are affecting our well-being.

Do you dare to post issues to PM Najib, DPM Muhyiddin Yassin and many others? I shall assume you will be locked-up. Don't waste your parents' effort in putting you in UM.

Christina Knew: It is so silly to ask a question regarding an incident that happened 22 years ago. What's the whole point? What do you gain beside raising tension for both countries? What is Malaysia to them? China dares to go against US and Europe. So who are you? You all are so brainless to be brainwash by western media.

Now I understand why the government wants to control the media because people like you actually believe whatever they say. Reporters and writers are human as well - they are biased and take sides, so use your brain to think before you do silly things.

Don't be so selfish and think you are brave and smart. You are just another pawn being used by others.

Anonymous123: Why should we offend our guest of honour? These students should instead focus on what is happening in Malaysia, rather than be busybodies about what's happening in other countries.

The student should ask premier Wen what his thoughts are about Perkasa and Utusan Malaysia , who constantly issue threat to the local Chinese.

Anonymous_1003: Why would you want to ask about Tiananmen Square, which is past and the changes have already taken place? I think the one who raised the question just wants publicity. The police was right as Wen was a guest. Why humiliate him? It doesn't concern us.

Anyway, who is he to ask this question? It's China's internal affair. Let's not be American stooges as were are Asians, okay? There is nothing to gain and that boy is too young to understand.

Josephine: More than 50 years ago, our founding fathers together with the people fought for Independence because we did not want to be colonised by the Britishs.

Fifty years on, we are still not free, we have merely changed our masters. Today, Malaysians are colonised by BN or more aptly, Umno. August 31 will not be meaningful if Malaysians still cannot exercise their civil liberties.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Najib talks about being 'glocal' and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi talked about creating 'towering' Malaysians. How on earth are the students in Malaysia supposed to do this when you restrict them from questioning?

Just look at the officers of the police force - they just don't seem to be able to exercise their discretion. Our universities are nothing more now than mating grounds for the young. They are censured when they become critical and are deemed dangerous if they ask too many questions.

All that we create from our universities' production line are dumb students who can't think and this is what the government is so proud of. There are so many out there who think that the job of a student is just to study with his eyes closed.

That is why we have our best taken by others, because for us, being stupid is the best policy.

 

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