Several days ago, a 20-minute video that was shared by Politicalgags on Facebook that featured a controversial speaker who openly attacked a student at a forum, has caused a massive wave of storm among Malaysians.
The speaker, Sharifah Zohra who is a president of the organization Suara Wanita 1Malaysia (SW1M) was caught berating a young student who openly voiced her views on the Bersih rally and free education.
The forum, titled “Are Undergraduates and Politics Alligned” was held at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in Kedah on 8th December. The video recording was uploaded on Youtube just last week, and has soon spread on like wildfire through Facebook and Twitter, and several online university forums.
The video, features a young student, Bawani K.S. who took the microphone in the auditorium of over 2300 people, to speak on the Bersih rally and why Malaysia was unable to offer free education like other countries.
Sharifah then interrupts Bawani by telling her to “Listen!” about 11 times, and then dragging the microphone away from Bawani to stop her from speaking. Sharifah used her own microphone and criticized Bawani, saying “Number one, when this is our program me, we allow you to speak. Number two, when I speak, you listen”. (Source)
She then said insistently, “Let me speak”, and then spoke to the audience about the subject of 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?”
With regards to Bawani’s argument to why there isn’t free education in Malaysia unlike other countries, Sharifah responded, “Go to Cuba, go to Argentina, go to Libya, go everywhere. Because all the students in this hall are happy with whatever the government does for them”. She most likely offended Bawani when she claimed that Bawani had the very least of education. “The difference between you and me is a degree and an O’Level. That’s all”, said Sharifah.
And out of nowhere, the so-called speaker went on about the difference between the dilemmas that human and animals face. “Do you think humans have problems? Animals have problems too,” she stressed, and then citing examples of various animals, and one fairly amusing story about cats getting leftover food at restaurants.
Subsequent to this controversial video, President of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (KIMMA), Senator Syed Ibrahim Kader accused Sharifah (a former National KIMMA Women’s Head) for having a “hard to control” behavior. The public and Malaysian Netizens are furious with this behavior, questioning the integrity of a bold student, and being shot down by someone whose all ‘farm talk’.
(Snapshot from SW1M’s Facebook page before it was deleted)
Sharifah Zohra also appears to have gone underground since the video had spread one rate internet, but SW1M has adopted a rather aggressive attitude towards the episode claiming that Sharifah should not apologize, as Bawani “ran away” and “should learn to respect her elders”.
Bawani, who is also a social activist, revealed to The Malaysian Insider how state-funded universities use student forums to “brainwash” undergraduates. She apparently was not upset about being told off, but she was in fact worked up how forums are organized to turn students against street rallies that highlight the nation’s rights. (Source)
“She had belittled all of the students and underestimated all of us,” said the 27-year old undergraduate, who is a member of Parti Socialis Malaysia.
On a lighter side of the story, no controversy will go unnoticed by the Netizens, and within a few days since the video storm too place, internet memes were already swarming the internet. Malaysian Gags, a Facebook page featuring internet memes regarding the Malaysian political scene has uploaded up numerous images to mock Sharifah.
(Image: Malaysiakini)
Outspoken Malaysian actor and director, Namewee has also taken the video to his liking by uploading a video on his “Namewee Tokok” sessions on Youtube.
Numerous companies have also taken advantage of this new internet phenomenon by taking on the ‘Listen! Listen! Listen!” catchphrase as part of their advertisements. Family restaurant, Nando’s took the lead, and local telco, DiGi and Benefit Cosmetics followed.
Since the storm occurred, Bawani’s received numerous support from Malaysians, students and even the support of Higher Education Deputy Minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who contacted Bawani over the incident.
“He told me he is supportive of me and I replied that NGO leaders like Sharifah should not b allowed to organize such one-sided forums in public universities,” she said. (Source)
