Project Malaysia
Civic Education
FNF Malaysia invests a lot of our resources in providing civic education to the interested university students, academics, youth leaders, NGO activists and government officials. We work with both the ruling and opposition parties in providing liberalism training workshops for their members and tools for strengthening their political organisations. For example, we organised workshops on political communication on the Internet, political strategies, economic freedom, and human rights issues. We also conduct civic education programmes in cooperation with think tanks and NGOs such as the Integrity Institute of Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research and the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association.
FAN Malaysia
We work with the Germany-based International Academy for Leadership (IAF) in sending selected young political leaders to seminars and training programmes on liberalism in Germany. Over the years, the number of such participants has grown to over a hundred. This led to the establishment of an informal network of IAF alumni members in Malaysia who cooperate and work together for the advancement of liberalism and civil liberty in this country.
The network, called “FAN Malaysia,” has since replicated training workshops originally conducted by the IAF so that more Malaysians will benefit from them. We held such workshops on various topics such as “Human Rights and Liberalism,” “No Education: No Freedom, No Opportunity” and “New Public Management (NPM) Lean State, Lean Government”.
Liberal Forum Malaysia
Established in 2003, the Liberal Forum Malaysia aims to promote liberal values in Malaysia through seminars, conferences, meetings and dialogue sessions. The Forum hopes to provide a window of opportunity for liberal-minded Malaysians to express and exchange ideas on liberal democracy, market economy and other current issues.All of its programmes are open to interested members of the general public. Previous programme topics included: “The Near-Term Outlook: The Malaysian Economy and the Currency Peg,” “Enforcing Public Morality,” “Syriah Law—A Constitutional Perspective,” and “Building a Corruption-Free Society.”
Promoting the Freedom of Expression and Use of New Media
The freedom of expression is an inseparable part of a truly democratic society.In a relatively free society, blogs are often used as counterweights to state censorship. In Malaysia, most media organisations are owned either by the government or by the ruling parties. Therefore, there is always a limit to what journalists can report or express their views. Blogs and podcasts offer a new—and sometimes free--space for young people to exchange views on social, economic and political issues.
For these reasons, the foundation invited blogging specialist Jeff Ooi to share his knowledge and experiences on the legal issues concerning blogging and podcasting.We also worked with Malaysiankini, an on-line Malaysian newspaper, to conduct a workshop on blogging and podcasting for young liberals.
Having a technically functioning blog isn’t enough. A blog needs to have interesting contents to draw people to read it. Therefore, we invited politically neutral experts to conduct a writing workshop for young liberals wishing to improve their writing skills to boost the popularity of their blogs.We continue to work on improving communication skills and relevant technical skills to help local liberals express their ideas more convincingly, reach a wider audience, and contribute toward a freer and more liberal Malaysia.
For this purpose, we support our partner organisations in conducting training workshops such as “Blog Attitudes” and “Blog & Wallet” and seminars such as “The Role of Blogging in Today’s Communication” and “Blogging As a Political Communication Tool”. We held blogging competitions to find the best bloggers and blog designs for promoting the freedom of expression. Awards were presented for two categories: Chinese-language and Malay-language blogs.
Promoting Young People’s Interest and Participation in Politics
Encouraging young people to express their opinions and to participate in the political process is as important as giving them basic political education.As they are parts of the national society, young people should be provided, if not given opportunities to create, venues for expressing their opinions on social, economic and political matters.
In cooperation with the Gerakan Youth, we held a political cartoon drawing competition on the subject of “50 Years in the Making of the Malaysian Identity” in September 2006. Thirteen winning cartoons were selected for publishing in the Gerakan Youth-FNF Malaysia 2007 calendar. Each of the winners received a cash prize and an honorary certificate.
We initiated the Young Socio-Political Entrepreneur Project in 2006 to encourage young people to be more socially and politically aware and to acquire skills in effectively planning, implementing and managing projects. Contestants in the project were required to come up with a project proposal to promote one or more of the following elements of a free society: liberal democracy, market economy, privatisation, human rights, social responsibility, rule of law and freedom of expression.
The project attracted the Malaysian media attention and received national coverage. The Foundation presented each of the winning groups—Balairakyat, Blog Blug and Young Malaysian Movement—with a certificate of achievement and RM5,000 cash for realising their dream projects, namely: “Balairakyat,” “News Portal: Merpati Jingga,” “Youth Blogging Campaign”.Following their victory, the three winning groups carried out workshops, seminars and forums nationwide to promote the use of blogs as a communication tool and the freedom of expression.
Promoting Women’s Rights
Women make up a significant part of a country’s population. Yet, their rights are sometimes restricted by social or political norms. Liberals regard women as being equal to men. As such, they deserve equal treatment, rights and opportunities in a society.The Foundation works with partner institutions such as Sisters in Islam and Balairakyat in organising seminars and workshops such as “Know Your Rights: Property Management in Marriage,” “Women for Women: the Path Less Taken,” and “Women in the Workplace”.
In May 2004, we held a two-day workshop for journalists on “Advancing the Rights and Position of Women in Islam” in Petaling Jaya. The aim was to engage and inform Malaysian journalists and writers about issues facing Muslim women in Malaysia so that they would disseminate better and fairer information with regard to Muslim women and their place in the society.
Talks, Seminars and Conferences on Current Issues
We continue to provide forums for policy makers, academics, specialists, NGO activists and politically-minded youths to share experiences as well as to discuss and express personal views on current issues or top national concerns. The goal is to create an understanding among different groups and to discover together the best possible solution to their common problems.
For example, we worked with the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), the ERA Consumer Malaysia and the European Union on a seminar, titled “Empowerment--A New Paradigm for Poverty Eradication”.We joined Balairakyat in organising a forum on “Community Driven Change” to encourage and empower ordinary citizens to bring positive changes to in their communities and to share such experiences with fellow Malaysians who are trying to do the same thing.
We also held dialogue sessions, for example, with Parti Gerakan on “Bangsa Malaysia: Our Vision, Our Future” to support the government’s campaign for a unified Malaysia.
Every now and then, our staff members are invited to deliver a talk. For example, when Thailand was about to hold its first referendum on the 2007 charter, our Malaysia project manager was invited to speak about it at the White Coffee Talk organised by the Political Training Bureau of the Party Gerakan Rakyat.
