Yesterday, i decided to walk the talk, to become an activist for the good cause. At the same time, i learned so much after the postmortem when i was telling my housemate what was happening. I've got scold badly by her... damn right, i shall well deserve it. I wonder why am i so ill-preparing the activity.
The objective of my activity yesterday, was to raise as many political awareness from the crowd attending Malaysia Night, especially about the upcoming General Election. We want to persuade the people by distributing to them two flyers, showing videos and do some talking, about how bad BN handles the country and it's time for change.
As my initial research and try to book an official space in Imperial College to do that campaign. First, from the Conference office, states that we could not go on with any activity in the vicinity of venue , but could allow to do it outside the Sherfield building. For what i got heavily criticized by my housemate later is, i failed / did not get a black-and-white permission for us to do the activity outside too. I also did not study the Union Constitution, to defend my every right to be in that area for doing my activity. When i was confronted badly by the President of current Malaysian Society, he was so rude and bad into swearing , at the same time, telling me whatever i do here and there needs his approval. He said Union gave him authorization to do this and that, and every attendee is his guest, claiming that we have no rights to pull the crowd away. At some point, he threaten us with calling security (which he said he did call but no one actually comes). Even though i believe that his arguments were quite poor and what he was telling big might not have any proofs behind, strangely i did not defend my rights to be there and ask him to show proofs.
Event was reached into a climax after hearing enough of swearing from a president, i said out loud that 'you are a shame to Malaysian Society'. He responsed aggressively with a swear sign and shouted 'screw you' - that was the Kelab UMNO member a.k.a Msoc President i was dealing with. REMEMBER THIS NAME - Hazwan Hadian. I wish the future leader of Malaysia could never be like him (He reminds me of Khairy, the PM's son-in-law). Two of his colleagues hold him and calm him down, and pleading us not to incite him. (We did not say a single bad mouth word to him, i must clarify)
Later the drama went on, he finally calm down his emotions and offered us a 'gentlemen' talk. At first he did apologize to us for his rude attitude. We asked him about how was things going with M night as well. He wanted us to understand something about the nature of non-political of the society, and he was afraid to associate with the things we were doing. We of course knew that, and told him we did clarify that we were not related to M night or M soc, but not effective enough as too large crowd coming in the direction. Finally we reached a 'gentlemen' agreement that tomorrow we will do that outside the campus (at the gate entrance of college). After knewing this , my housemate scold me stupid enough to take that humiliating compromise. She said (and i also believe) that our activity is no way could have anyhow affect the event in the great hall. She told me how could easily done to remove the tag of association with the society, but we didn't do it.
She actually like lecturing me about how much preparation we must do to face every situation, so that opponents could not find any single fault in every step we take. The way we have written the flyers also stir the controversy. She said, even if i want to achieve the goal or objective i set, i could have written them properly , with proper quotes and references. In one flyer i wrote about the comparison of policies between Barisan Rakyat and Barisan National, she said it was not convincing enough, as i did not actually do reference for BN side. A clearly bias argument is harder to persuade or convince people to buy it (how true is the extend, i don't know -- cause previously i thought neutral argument is a waste of time). She went on to say, it needs not to be neutral, but if i have written it smartly, by comparing the solid facts (which are quoted) sometimes could reach the same argument more convincingly.
I am not sure if Malaysian all work this way, but maybe psychologically true -- the fact is, i rarely receive a flyer like what she said. It's still a good critic from her though, made me inspired by her thoughts. That was the first time when she scold me, and i don't hate her but thankful to her.
To some extent, i have a afterthought that if i wish to achieve the same objective next time (how to raise people's awareness and persuade them into your arguments), the way you (and your words - in text or spoken) approach them is crucial. This leads me thinking about how past demonstrations did not effectively convert more people into your support (but served the purpose of grabbing people's attention). Political Education is a long way to run, but essential to lay a foundation to shape people's mind and beliefs. Strong arguments come from good reason/ strong point which have strong backing. I shall not take it for granted next time.
Next time, i shall take all these advises into my calculation should if encounter similar situation. I am so regret now that i was not well-prepared. No more next time. I shall rehearse everything in my mind.
So much for my first lesson to learn to be an activist!!! Please apply this to other real-life situations too , such as what could you do if you were arrested by Police in Malaysia unjustly or without good reason. You must know what are your rights, how to defend them reasonably and showing them you actually know how things go, so that then police could not bully you for your ignorance.
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