- 4 months ago
What does student power look like in Malaysia today? Liga Mahasiswa President Alyaah Hani Anuar talks AUKU, campus freedom of expression, and the challenges of funding higher education.
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00:00So we're still a baby organisation and I was the co-founder of Ligama Si Swamnishir.
00:04A very loud baby.
00:06Yeah, because we were given rights to vote 18 years old.
00:10Then how can you give us the right to vote when you don't trust us enough to hold an academic discussion?
00:15We have always believed that the education is a right and not a privilege.
00:19What we want is university to not be just a preparation for students to be a worker.
00:25It should be a compound that celebrates ideas, increase the student autonomy.
00:30Campus life should be something more than just what we have right now.
00:34In the next five years, the student actually understand their power and the culture of student activism will bloom once again in Malaysia.
00:41That is how we're trying to go into that direction.
00:44Welcome back to another episode of Life Confessions.
00:56And as usual, we bring amazing guests in to join us and share their opinions, their views and their life.
01:02With us today is the National Coordinator of Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia, Alia Hani Anwar.
01:09Thanks for joining us, Hani.
01:11No problem. Thank you for inviting me. Appreciate it.
01:13We have so much to ask you and so much to learn about you and what you've been going through.
01:21Let's start with how did you first become involved in student activism and what motivated you to take on the leadership role, this leadership role in Liga Mahasiswa?
01:30Yeah, this question recalls me back to five years ago when I was in Form 5 actually.
01:36I started student activism by joining Dewan Undangan Negeri Belia in Kedah.
01:41And starting from that, my activism is more on parliamentary seating, like youth parliamentary seating.
01:47So I have also joined Parliament Wanita Muda Malaysia, Dewan Muda Malaysia and a few others more.
01:52But when I started getting into university, University Malaya, by the way for context, I'm an upcoming final year law student in university.
02:00Thank you so much.
02:01So when I got into university, I thought of slowing down my activism.
02:06But because of the issues inside as well, it makes me wanting to be involved again in student activism, but on a different spectrum, on a different way of involving student activism, whereby we or we or I get in touch with more on the grassroots student issues.
02:25And that motivates me to pursue student activism.
02:29Because previously, my activism is more on women activism, youth activism.
02:34It's more on that.
02:36But now that I am in university, my focus shifted to student activism.
02:40And how did I ended up become the national coordinator?
02:43For context, once again, Liga Mahasiswa actually started just January this year.
02:48Right.
02:49Yeah, so we're still a baby organisation.
02:51And I was the co-founder of Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia.
02:53A very loud baby.
02:57Yeah.
02:57So basically, the context in University Malaya for student activism, we only have student political fronts that is contesting in campus election.
03:09But we don't have a group of students that is non-partisan, that is not participating in the campus election.
03:17And I, for sure, is not interested in campus election.
03:19That's a lot of work.
03:20So I have decided with my friends who share the same interest to start a new community of students.
03:26And we collect student activists inside the university.
03:29So now we're happy to say that in January, we started with University Malaya.
03:34But now we have four to five other Liga Mahasiswa branches in University Science Malaysia,
03:40in University Sultan Zainal Abidin, in University Technology Malaysia.
03:44So we're still branching out actively now.
03:48So hopefully, by the end of the year or next year, we have more of our branches.
03:53Has the growth, the speed of growth surprised you?
03:57Actually, yes.
03:58We are very surprised on how there are students who want to participate in student activism,
04:05but they don't have the platform or they often avoid any platform that is affiliated to political, real political parties.
04:14So we're happy to provide a platform for them.
04:17You're like a true independent.
04:18Yep.
04:19Yeah.
04:19Okay.
04:20As president of Liga Mahasiswa, what do you see as your primary mission?
04:25And how have these or those goals evolved since you assumed the position?
04:29Yeah.
04:30So basically, technically, I am the first national coordinator.
04:34So I get the privilege to sort of draft and craft where does this movement go.
04:39But then that's a lot of responsibility as well.
04:42But we have three principles.
04:44Our principles are threefold.
04:46First is student autonomy.
04:48Second is intellectualism.
04:50And the third is social justice.
04:51So technically, we want to encourage students to involve more in intellectual discourse inside the campus and outside of the campus.
05:01We want students to be aware of the national issues and fight for social justice because we often believe that now the status quo is students is detached with grassroots.
05:13Student is detached with community, especially marginalized community.
05:16And we want to integrate back students with the community.
05:21But this has been, based on history, student activists has always been the voices of the marginalized community.
05:28But because perhaps due to COVID, based on our discussion and observation, there's a lack in student being vocal.
05:37So we're trying to bring that back again.
05:41Yeah.
05:41And for student autonomy, we have seen that, you know, of course, maybe we can discuss this later on.
05:46We have an act, which is the AUKU Act.
05:49Yeah.
05:50The universities and university colleges act.
05:52And historically, this AUKU has been affecting student activism a lot.
05:57Despite there's a lot of amendments, still the spirit of AUKU that is supposed to dissent student voices are still lingering around the students today.
06:07Whereby most and majority of the students are afraid to talk about anything they claim to be political, perhaps because of the repercussions they might face.
06:16So there are opinions that are being stifled, you think, because of this.
06:22And that's where you come in.
06:24Liga Mahasiswa comes in to hopefully find a way to...
06:28Challenge the status quo.
06:30Right.
06:30You are so passionate about what you speak about and what you stand for, right?
06:36Just for clarity, what degree are you pursuing currently?
06:40I'm currently a law student.
06:42Right.
06:43An upcoming final year.
06:45I'm currently doing my legal internship right now.
06:47How are you finding the time?
06:50Managing through.
06:52Yeah.
06:52You know, organising on-campus events involves navigating the Peaceful Assembly Act.
06:57What is your approach to planning and executing gatherings in compliance with relevant regulations?
07:04How do you make it happen?
07:05The situation is that students are unclear on what regulations we must follow inside the universities.
07:13If the regulation is that we have to send the proposal and it got approved and we can do it,
07:19there are a few examples of students that got their proposals approved but then got cancelled by the administration last minute.
07:28So we sort of question that.
07:30And from Liga's side, we want to challenge the status quo because we believe that there is no need for such a strict regulation
07:38if you want to do just an academic discussion or academic forum whereby we believe that every part of the university compound
07:45should be filled with different ideas, different discussions.
07:50So the first time we did a discussion, we gathered a few students, I think around 20 to 30 students,
07:57we just want to talk about the current going national issue.
08:01So there's a lot of confusion on what we can and cannot do because we're not doing anything that is harming the university
08:09or affecting the public peace of the university.
08:12And back to the Peaceful Assembly Act, there's a situation that we are informed that we must notify the admin
08:23before we can do any gathering.
08:25So now a question arise.
08:27If we want to just lepak with our friend, must we also notify the admin?
08:32There's a bit of confusion and, you know.
08:34Where's the line?
08:35Yeah, where's the line?
08:35And previously, when we look back off the history of University of Malaya, there's a speaker's corner initiated by the student
08:43whereby the students can voice or do public speaking on any issues they feel like sharing with other students.
08:49But now the culture has died.
08:52We want to bring that in.
08:54So there's a confusion between the regulations and the execution.
08:58But if we must, we believe that AUKU should have been aligned with the Principal Act.
09:05For now, Malaysia has Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.
09:10And it has required that the criminalisation of sending the notice is now no more of that.
09:19So we believe that AUKU should have followed the recent amendment of Peaceful Assembly Act.
09:26So we believe there is no need for us to submit a notice.
09:31Especially the actual reason for a notice is so that police could facilitate our Peaceful Assembly.
09:41But how come that they have the jurisdiction to disperse us?
09:45Especially when the reasons provided to us is unacceptable.
09:50So that's the situation with Peaceful Assembly Act.
09:54Especially after approval has already been granted in some cases, right?
09:59In your opinion, what role does freedom of expression play in fostering critical debate on campus?
10:05And how can institutions safeguard open discourse while still maintaining a respectful learning environment?
10:12That's kind of like a fine line and a balance.
10:15But it depends on who you speak to.
10:17So in your opinion, what is that?
10:18That is when we touch on academic freedom.
10:21Academic freedom is whereby every discussion on anything should be celebrated.
10:29Especially inside university compound.
10:32And we believe that the student knows the limitation on what they can say or what they cannot say.
10:38We believe that now, with dissent and suppression coming, it is sort of disrespecting the students.
10:45Because we're not high school kids anymore.
10:47We know what to talk and when to stop.
10:50So technically, it's very important for a student to, you know, our opinion should be celebrated.
10:57Because inside university, now, we are being treated as only the stakeholders, not the co-owners of education.
11:06While that should actually be the case.
11:08And now, we have talked to other student activists from different, different universities.
11:14And they face even more, even more sort of repression from the administration.
11:20So this is when we question, what kind, you know, of university culture that we want to practice in Malaysia.
11:29Because if we look at the outside country, there's a lot of demonstration going on, even inside the university,
11:36when there's something, you know, they can go against with.
11:39But this culture is not being practiced in Malaysia.
11:43There's very rare of student protests inside the university.
11:47So in your opinion, it would seem that the ability to have the freedom of any sort of discourse on campus is, should be allowed.
11:58And you would be able, students themselves would be able to self-regulate if they are going too far in any particular topic of discussion.
12:06Yeah, definitely.
12:07Because we were given rights to vote 18 years old.
12:10Right.
12:11Then how can you give us the right to vote when you don't trust us enough to hold an academic discussion?
12:16So that is something very irony.
12:18And we always question that on why.
12:20Why do you always so, being so restrictive towards our discourse?
12:24You make a good point.
12:25Because how can you vote if you don't have the chance to speak about the issues that you will be voting on?
12:31Yeah.
12:31Yeah.
12:32Makes sense.
12:33How does Diga Mahasiswa view the current mix of public funding and private contributions from Malaysian universities?
12:40And what, in your opinion, are the alternative financing models do you think that could better serve both the institutions and the students as well?
12:48Is there an alternative?
12:49Yeah.
12:50We have noticed that the universities is leaning towards more privatisation and that is very worrying.
12:57Because there will be a lot of students, especially coming from B40 or the underprivileged students, will get affected by it.
13:07We, on part of Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia, is actually currently working on a campaign.
13:12It's actually a free education campaign and this is not something new because this has been long proposed before, even by the previous, you know, previous political fronts.
13:24But we're questioning why there is no progress on this.
13:28Why is there no blueprint on this?
13:31We are not asking for an immediate free education to all students.
13:36We know that realistically, that there should be like, you know, different stages, but there must be a progress moving towards that idea.
13:46But now we have seen little to none of the government trying to work on that.
13:51So we're trying to bring that up, bring that as a national conversation so people talk about it.
13:57And we need to fight for it because contextually, for political spectrum, student movement inside Malaysia, there are very less progressive sides.
14:08Most of student movements are on the conservative sides and most of student movements are funded by the political parties.
14:15So it's very hard for you to have a genuine student movement who talk only for the benefit of students.
14:22There must always be like, you know, for political party, their political party interests as well.
14:27Yeah, but although that is, you know, something that we should not restrict, but that is very sad because I have always hold this belief that the students should be independent from being controlled by any entity.
14:41So those are the things that when we gather, Liga Masis from Malaysia not only gathered with student movements from different, different background, economy background,
14:50because I cannot say for sure from economy backgrounds because I don't have the knowledge on that.
14:55But when we're fighting for free education, it for sure impacts the economy and financial status of the country.
15:01So we bring students with that background and students from different, different background, as well as international students from a student movement from Indonesia.
15:09We sit down together and talk on how and what can we propose to the government.
15:14So what I'm saying now is that the student movement is not just being vocal without data and without being prepared.
15:23We are always prepared and we have always wanted the authority to invite us over so that they can listen to our voice.
15:31But the issue is that our voice is being, you know, suppressed.
15:35So that is something that we are fighting as we are right now in Liga.
15:39It's interesting that you say that because we were checking on some statistics and only 14 to 19 percent of Malaysian workers have entered higher education.
15:51And so you actually and Liga Masiswa are championing for B40s, rural and other underserved students to access higher education.
16:00Aside from free education, is there anything else that you think would help?
16:03Yeah, I think that we need to decentralize university, not just in the city.
16:10Oh, right.
16:11Not many also go to university because they don't have the access to come to the university.
16:17For example, University Malaya, we are in the center of KL and the cost of living for University Malaya students is very high.
16:25And we must admit that, of course, we are very privileged to have gotten the access to University Malaya.
16:32But there are also other universities that are also the cost of living are very high.
16:37So we totally understand on why there are a lot of, you know, young, young people not being able to afford universities.
16:47Right.
16:48And this is also when we trying to, you know, propose to the government to make education more accessible.
16:55Because we have always believed that the education is a right and not a privilege.
17:00So location is just one basic thing as well.
17:03Yeah.
17:03When you're too far away, whether that be making sure that more universities are built in more places that are considered rural,
17:12or whether we are willing to supplement the students so that they are able to afford going to study.
17:19So it's not just making education free, but maybe paying for the education.
17:23Yeah.
17:23And if I may add, the amount of fee that we're paying now is not proportionate to the infrastructure that we can get.
17:32Interesting.
17:32We pay such a high amount of fee.
17:35For example, University Malaysia Sabah, they pay fee as like any other university,
17:41but they don't get the access to constant water supplies.
17:45And that is very frustrating that it is happening now in 2025.
17:49Yeah.
17:49So we're still questioning on why the fee is not being reduced,
17:54especially when we don't get the basic needs of, you know, necessity inside the university.
18:00Yeah.
18:01So there are a lot of situations, a lot of frustrating realities happening inside the university compound
18:09that we always try to voice out.
18:12Right.
18:12And through Liga Mahasiswa, you now have an avenue or students now have an avenue to network with the other universities
18:19and share the different issues that are going on and champion what needs to perhaps be looked at
18:27and possibly even improved or changed.
18:29Yes.
18:30I have one interesting story to share with you.
18:33So apart from Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia, I'm also a national coordinator for Gerakan Perempuan Melawan,
18:39which is also a baby organisation.
18:41So this is Gerakan Perempuan Melawan.
18:44So this is sort of the first female student movement.
18:49Right.
18:50Compared to Indonesia, because I went to Indonesia the other day to learn about student movement dynamics,
18:54they have a lot of female student movements, student groups.
18:59In Malaysia, we don't have any.
19:01So I have started that and now we have 80 to 90 members from different-different colleges,
19:07campus, be it private university or public university.
19:11So this network of solidarity among female students allow us to share the issues impacting female students inside our campus.
19:21And because of that, we realised that we share a lot of same problem.
19:26But now because we have a collective voice and we collect data inside our university,
19:32now our voice is, you know, more solid sort of.
19:36Right.
19:36There seems to be a theme in what you champion.
19:41Liga Mahasiswa gave a voice to people who wanted an independent platform to be able to express themselves in the university.
19:48And then now with this new Gerakan Perempuan Melawan.
19:52It gives female students, and in this case, not just female students in government universities,
20:01but across all higher education institutions in Malaysia to be able to share.
20:06And do you actively look for avenues to help people who don't have a voice?
20:15That's very interesting.
20:18Let me tell you the reality of Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia.
20:21We do not ask every member to be the front face.
20:25We appreciate that they, you know, they have something that they could offer.
20:28Maybe they want to do their activism through their writings, through videographic.
20:33They can do that.
20:34And whoever wants to be the front face, they can, you know, be ready for whatever repercussion might face.
20:40Right.
20:41Can do that as well.
20:42So technically, in Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia, we also appreciate people who want to say something,
20:46but they are not, you know, ready.
20:48I'm not saying that they are afraid, but I'd rather say they are not ready to, you know, put themselves up front.
20:54And this rapid growth of memberships in Gerakan Perempuan Melawan and also Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia,
21:01the branches of the campus, shows that the students are aware of the issues.
21:05They know that there are a lot of wrongs in the issues and they want to be a part of, you know,
21:13fighting movements to fight for it.
21:15Yeah.
21:16So, and now they have a place, a platform to do that.
21:18One thing that has come up a lot, especially among this current generation,
21:24your generation actually, is the importance and the knowledge of mental health.
21:30In your experience, what are the most critical gaps in campus mental health and wellbeing support?
21:36And what should universities do to fill them?
21:39Is there a need?
21:40Yeah.
21:40So basically, from, based on my reading, in every university, we have a counselling unit.
21:46But the students, most of the students don't even know that it exists.
21:52We also believe that the counsellors inside the university lack of trainings on how do they
21:58go down to students who need help.
22:00Right.
22:00On what way, mechanism do they collect these students?
22:04Because most of these, you know, most of affected students often try to stay away from the public.
22:12Right.
22:13They hide what they're going through.
22:15Yeah.
22:15So how does university plays a role on reaching out to these students?
22:20What sort of mechanism?
22:22And they're afraid that if they seek out, you know, there's always this culture that we say,
22:28in high school, don't go to counselling session because your stories will get spilled to everyone in the school.
22:34Oh, that's a thing?
22:35Yeah.
22:35That's a culture.
22:36I'm unaware of this.
22:37But in universities, we're still having that, you know, sort of stigma against the counselling unit.
22:46So perhaps they need to be more student friendly.
22:50They need to be more, you know, approaches more.
22:53Right.
22:54To let the student body know that this service is available and that it is a safe and secure place for them to be able to seek help.
23:03Yes.
23:04And often, most of the time, students who are affected mentally, their academic, you know, like academic progress will get affected as well.
23:12But universities has been applying more of a punitive approach to punish these students who are not able to commit to their education.
23:20So this is something that we might need to look back on what sort of mechanism on how we tackle and handle these issues.
23:29With institutional prestige, you know, that's often tied to global rankings.
23:34How can universities, in your opinion, balance the, you know, chasing that global ranking with focusing on teaching quality and student welfare at the same time, not just the academic ranking?
23:46Yeah.
23:46Do you know that actually the ranking, the world ranking is based on the amount of publications produced by the university?
23:54So this is where university, of course, at least in my experience, doesn't really care about the student welfare.
24:03What they do is they enlarge the quota for students to come in so that more students come in, more money can be produced towards that publication that ends up affecting the ranking, the world ranking.
24:16And this is a very sad reality because what we want is university to not be just, you know, a preparation for students to be a worker.
24:27It should be a compound that celebrates ideas that, you know, increase the student autonomy.
24:34And, you know, campus life should be something more than just what we have right now.
24:39How can universities and student organisations work together to ensure academic programmes evolve in step with, you know, industry needs, equip graduates with in-demand skills?
24:50It's very hard for us, student movements to be in touch with university because we don't see the same objectives.
24:59For example, student movements view education from a human perspective, human lenses.
25:07But universities view education from a market lenses.
25:11So, from these basic lenses that we view, the education is already different.
25:17That is why it's very hard.
25:18We have always been trying to, you know, sit down together with the university and tell them on, you know, what we want, what we wish things to be like.
25:27But the university has not been very, very friendly and accepting us in sort of way, at least based on my experience.
25:34Because maybe they are afraid of changes.
25:39But if we are still stagnant on where we are now, how are we progressing towards, you know, producing students that are more critical?
25:48Do you also face any pushback or resistance from your peers, from students, from other students?
25:58Rarely.
25:58Rarely.
25:59Actually, students are more inspired and happy when there are a group of students that are ready to be the vocal, the voices of them.
26:10They have been very supportive.
26:11With a spearhead.
26:12Yeah.
26:12For example, in Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia University Malaya, we get supplied by information by the student.
26:18They seek help from Liga Mahasiswa.
26:20So, they try to raise the issue, not to the administration or universities, but to us.
26:26Because they think that, you know, the problem or the issue should be raised by students.
26:30Right.
26:30And we, in that way, we sort of have a voice of demanding the universities to settle it.
26:36Right.
26:36Yeah.
26:36They feel more comfortable coming to you because they feel you understand them better?
26:41Yeah, definitely.
26:42Wow.
26:42What are the issues that have come up?
26:45For example, let's just say the accommodation, because now University Malaya, at least, has
26:50expanded the quota of students, but the accommodation that we have, the hostels, are insufficient.
26:56Right.
26:57So, most students have to, you know, try to find a place outside.
27:01And, you know, inside Kuala Lumpur, the cost of living and cost of rent is extremely high
27:05for a student to afford.
27:07And these sort of issues is what they bring to us.
27:10Maybe it's more on the student welfare issues, the lacking of infrastructures, not having,
27:17you know, the toilet is not working.
27:18More on that.
27:20Just day-to-day living.
27:21Day-to-day living.
27:22Yeah.
27:22Even that, that they come to us.
27:24Yeah.
27:25Yeah.
27:25Those are basic needs, actually, right?
27:28Yeah.
27:29And is there an avenue for you to make change when these issues are raised?
27:35So, technically, we've, there are always this perception that when we gather for a peaceful
27:41assembly or for a demonstration inside university, that is not the right way to voice things out.
27:47So, we have always often tried to send a letter, negotiate with the administration.
27:53We have always been trying to do that.
27:55But when they have been constantly ignoring us on that, that is when we mobilize students
28:01to, you know, demand for things.
28:04Right.
28:04Yeah.
28:04Right.
28:05So, there is a, there's an elevation to things when it comes to getting things done.
28:12Yeah.
28:13You know, with the next general election approaching, what role do you envision for student movements
28:19in shaping policy agendas and encouraging young people to vote?
28:23Would this be the first?
28:24No, you've already voted once.
28:25Yeah.
28:25Is that right?
28:25Once.
28:25You've already voted once.
28:26Actually, twice.
28:27Twice.
28:27For the state election and also the general election.
28:31Yeah.
28:31So, basically, we have always, you know, when we look back at the history
28:34of the glorious day of student movements, they have come up with their own manifesto.
28:40And they seek every political front, every party, every coalition to endorse their manifesto.
28:47So, and only then, this party is, you know, worth of a vote.
28:50Okay.
28:51Because these students will do their research on the grassroots level.
28:55Well, what does the, what does the rakyat need?
28:59They do their own research.
29:01They come up with a list of manifesto and only parties who endorse their manifesto will,
29:07you know, sort of get, get, get the support.
29:11And this is what we're trying to do, perhaps, in the general election.
29:15Right.
29:16Yeah.
29:16So, we participated in a lot of public discussion.
29:19Also, there's a, there's an initiative called Manifesto Rakyat.
29:22We're a part of that as well in discussing it.
29:25So, from that, we collect data on what actually we need.
29:28And that is when we demand whoever that wants to be the next government must actually follow
29:34what the rakyat needs.
29:35Do you think you've established yourself as a voting bloc?
29:39Yeah.
29:40Yeah.
29:40Because with the recent amendment of voting age being lowered to 18, there are millions
29:46of new voters.
29:47Right.
29:47And these new voters now are being left hanging without education, without a proper education
29:52in high school, without a proper education in university.
29:55So, the students are required to seek for themselves the knowledge of who are the political parties
30:01available in Malaysia, on, you know, which party would worth a vote, on what kind of, you
30:07know, criteria and how to vote and that sort of things.
30:11These are the things that student movements itself trying to advocate and reach out to
30:16our peers.
30:18It's like they gave you the power, but not the education.
30:21Exactly, exactly.
30:21Not the skills to actually make an informed vote.
30:25Yep.
30:26Unfortunately.
30:27Did you find yourself in that situation when you were going to vote for the first time?
30:31Yes.
30:31Yeah.
30:32I've actually had to done my own research.
30:34Because now the issue is, the new voters are often influenced by what the family chooses.
30:41But that is not what a healthy democracy is.
30:45We want every citizen to know who they want to vote and what they need.
30:51And either that party that they voted will fulfill their demands.
30:55And we want the student being able to do that decision, that important decision for the
31:00nation.
31:00But this, you know, privilege, or I'm not saying privilege, this right that is given
31:06to us is not being supplied with, you know, the information and the education that we
31:12need to practice the right.
31:16Looking ahead five years, what are your long-term goals for Liga Mahasiswa and how do you plan
31:22to sustain and expand student activism beyond immediate policy wins?
31:27So basically how I view is that with the constant rate of how Liga Mahasiswa has been doing it,
31:33student activism, and how we draw attention from other students who are now approaching
31:39us on how can I be a part of student activism.
31:43Interestingly, I see that in the next five years, the student actually understand their
31:49power and the culture of student activism will bloom once again in Malaysia.
31:53That is how we're trying to, you know, going into that direction.
31:57And back to the three folk principles that I have explained earlier, we want intellectualism
32:01to be freely exercised in university compound or even outside university compound.
32:07We want students to be aware of the, you know, social issues and fight for social justice.
32:13And we want students' autonomy to be respected by all parties.
32:17Back to our principles.
32:18Yeah.
32:19For students who are listening, like right now, watching this now, what advice would you
32:23give students nationwide who want to engage in social justice and intellectual activism,
32:28but feel kind of intimidated by existing regulations?
32:32They want, they see you, they're inspired, but what can they do?
32:35Yeah, we never blame students who are not ready to, you know, be part of student activism
32:40because this fear of, you know, whatever, whatever loss that we have now often suppress
32:48students and inside each universities, universities has the right to make their own regulations.
32:53And most of the regulations trying to, you know, control the student's voice.
32:57We're not denying that that is the reality and we totally understand students who are not
33:03ready, but the issue is that we need to challenge the status quo because the law has never been
33:11perfect.
33:11We need to, you know, in order for us to change the law, a bad law, we need to challenge it
33:18first.
33:19And there's always this, you know, worry that if I join this sort of things, it might affect
33:27my future.
33:27I might not get a job.
33:29Well, that is not true.
33:30This sort of narrative of trying to, you know, oh, there might be repercussions, heavy repercussions
33:36for your side.
33:38That is not true.
33:39And we're trying to advocate for that as well.
33:41Right.
33:42It is a very big message.
33:45It is a lot to stand on.
33:48And you are definitely the right person to be the spearhead of this based on everything
33:55that you've said.
33:55And we've come to the rapid fire question part of this interview, this discussion.
34:01And like we thought, tell all of our guests.
34:03Now, your answer at this point can change later on.
34:06But this is, these are your thoughts and your answers at this point, right?
34:09All right.
34:09Which achievements this year make, or which achievement this year makes you most proud?
34:14Think of one.
34:15One.
34:16If two.
34:17Okay.
34:17The first one is that there's a demonstration, student-led demonstration, Himpunan Rakyat
34:23Benciraswah 1.0.
34:25And because of that, now we are seeing that there's, there will be an amendments on Peaceful
34:29Assembly Act.
34:30It all started from that student movement, student-led movement protest.
34:36Definitely an achievement.
34:37So technically, we could see that the law cannot, cannot be perfect.
34:42Yeah.
34:43And it is our responsibility sort of to challenge that first.
34:47Second, proudest moment is that because I am spearheading two movements and I am seeing
34:53how rapid the growth of the movement.
34:56It's sort of something that is very content and fulfilling.
35:00Yeah.
35:01Because you know that the students are always, always ready to be a part of, you know, fighting
35:08for social justice.
35:09It's just that they don't have a platform.
35:11So this is also a call for anyone to actually start a student movement.
35:15It's not, it doesn't necessarily need to be Liga Mahasiswa or Gerakran Pem-Pem-Pem-Lawai.
35:20It could be anything.
35:21Right.
35:21Which matters more right now, public funding or private support?
35:24Public funding, 100%.
35:26We believe that education is a right.
35:29Great.
35:30Study abroad or stay local?
35:32What do students choose more?
35:33Most student wants to study abroad, but because of a lot of issues, financial, it could be
35:39access, it could be, you know, scholarship issues, they stay local.
35:43But our local level of education is not bad as well.
35:48Coffee, tea or snack feel for long meetings?
35:50I, if you give me a buttercream latte, I will go for hours.
35:59Most effective way to de-stress?
36:02Oh, okay.
36:03So now I'm trying to practice this new thing where every week we need to go for a jogging
36:09or we play badminton.
36:10Every week?
36:11Every week.
36:12So this is sort of my way now.
36:14I used to do journaling a lot back then.
36:16But now I think that with, you know, me trying to shift to a new lifestyle, I think that there's
36:20a need to change that as well.
36:22How many weeks has it been?
36:24I think three to four weeks.
36:26All right.
36:26We're still new.
36:27We're trying to get that.
36:29Okay.
36:29What's Liga Mahasiswa's top priority for next year?
36:32For next year, basically we want to branch us out to more university and we're trying
36:39to make students understand of their power.
36:43And we want to, of course, focus on free education campaign.
36:48Right.
36:48Seems like you're well on your way to making your goals happen.
36:53Final question.
36:55All right.
36:55This is what we ask all of our guests.
36:56If you had the opportunity to make one change as Prime Minister of Malaysia for a day, what
37:02would it be and why?
37:03I think I know the answer already when it comes to funding for universities, but I'm going
37:07to ask you anyway.
37:09Okay.
37:09You're Prime Minister for a day.
37:11What do you do and why?
37:12Of course, there's a lot that I could recommend.
37:15But when we're talking about from a student perspective, of course, free education, 100%.
37:21Although, you know, the argument that we always receive is that Malaysia economically
37:26is not ready for it.
37:27But we have seen a lot of, we have met and discussed with a lot of economic experts and
37:33they say that it's actually not a problem.
37:35It is just that the lack of political will.
37:38So, if I could be, although I don't want to be, I really don't want to be.
37:42Yeah.
37:44Well, I look forward to the day when you may run for office, in fact.
37:48It will be an interesting, if nothing else, it will be a very, very interesting campaign.
37:52Thank you so much, Hani, for joining us today.
37:54No problem.
37:55Thank you so much.
37:55Of course, with us today has been Hani, our Alia Hani Anwar, who is the National Coordinator
38:00for Liga Mahasiswa.
38:02And this has been another really eye-opening episode of Life Confessions.
38:06We'll see you in the next one.
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