Ambiga says impressed with ‘Little Ambiga’ activist
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Student activist Bawani KS earned high praise yesterday from Bersih 2.0 co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan for defending the group in a verbal stand-off with controversial speaker Sharifah Zohra Jabeen Syed Shah Miskin during a university forum last month.
Ambiga said the second-year law student had been brave to voice her opinion, even supporting it with facts and figures, despite being forced to stop later when Sharifah Zohra pulled her microphone stand away.
“Her argument outdid the moderator’s (Sharifah Zohra),” the former Bar Council president observed in an SMS to The Malaysian Insider.
Bawani was seen defending Bersih and supporting the opposition-backed proposal for free education.Ambiga, a renowned lawyer and civil society activist, said Bawani, who has been dubbed “Little Ambiga” over incident, would likely have a bright future ahead of her.
The Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) student turned into an overnight sensation when she was seen defending Bersih 2.0 and supporting the opposition-backed proposal for free education to forum panellist Sharifah Zohra in a video that was posted on the Internet. The forum, titled “Seiringkah mahasiswa dan politik? (Are graduates and politics aligned?)”, was held at the university in Kedah on December 8, but the storm erupted after the 20-minute clip went viral and was spread on Facebook and Twitter as well as several online university fora.
In the middle of Bawani’s tirade, Sharifah Zohra, who appeared to be a staunch pro-Barisan Nasional (BN) supporter, abruptly interrupted her and took away the microphone, repeating “listen” 11 times.
Bawani protested but Sharifah Zohra cut her off before going on to call Ambiga an “anarchist”, even affirming her stand by inviting any media present at the December 8 forum at UUM to step forward.
Sharifah Zohra also quelled another student who attempted to speak out, saying insistently, “Let me speak” before asking the rest of the auditorium audience: “Students in the hall, 2,300 students everywhere. Did I give her respect? Did I give her respect? I came up to her, shook hands with her and gave her respect as another woman. Do you think I need to answer her question with this attitude?”
She repeatedly berated the 27-year-old Bawani, saying she had the “least education” and adding lines like “when this is our programme, we allow you to speak” and “when I speak, you listen”.
Ambiga feels Bawani has a bright future ahead of her.Asked to comment on her “anarchist” tag, Ambiga said she was unfazed by the label but was more concerned about how the forum had been run.
She noted that at the start of the event, students were made to take an oath condemning street demonstrations and troublemakers, which appeared to suggest that the forum was deliberately held to “brainwash” students into going anti-Bersih.
“I was... alarmed by the brainwashing as seen in the oath they took, that students were afraid to speak up (it’s not their fault) and I was alarmed by the fact that our system has allowed for this to happen,” she said.
But Ambiga added that it was heartening to see politicians from both side of the divide condemning the incident, despite noting that some of the criticisms against Sharifah Zohra were racist, sexist and had “gone beyond the bounds of decency.”
Two BN leaders have defended Bawani on Twitter and said that Sharifah Zohra was not related to the ruling coalition.
Undergraduates in local universities have in recent years become increasingly more vocal and critical of the government, more so after the Najib administration moved to loosen the law allowing students to participate in politics, in a bid to draw support from the younger generation who are seen to make up a substantial voter demographic group.
Last year, several student groups took part in demonstrations nationwide to demand greater freedom and free university education.
