The 8th Asian Training and Study Session on Human Rights

After joining SUARAM as coordinator in 2004, I was sent to participate The 8th Asian Training and Study Session on Human Rights, which was held in the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The training session was an annual programme co-organised by Forum Asia (a regional human rights organisation) and the Political Science Faculty of Chulalongkorn University. The 3-week training session covered many areas in Human Rights.

There were around 30 participants who came from many Asia countries, I was there with another 2 Malaysian participants from SUHAKAM (National Human Rights Commission), Azlina and Wan Mazlan.

I have learnt a lot from the study session, but the best lessons were the experiences of other participants, especially those from Burma, Acheh and East Timor. Their country's situation is extremely tough, yet they are still struggling for the betterment of their next generation.

At the end of the study session, we were asked to present a paper on a human rights issue in our own country. I had chosen Internal Security Act (ISA) as my presentation topic. When I was preparing the paper, I surprisingly found that when Dr. Mahather came into power in 1981, his administration had released many ISA detainees. But it did not last long. When the UMNO crisis happened in the late 80's, Mahathir revealed his true colours and detained hundreds of people without trial under the ISA. It has clearly shown that good man is not needed in a government, we need good system!



Beautiful landscape in the campus of Chulalongkorn University.





The academic freedom in Chulalongkorn University explains why UM is lower than them in the ranking of World Top 200 Universities. This was found outside the office of a lecturer from the Faculty of Political Science.