#IdolaDemokrasi40 : Penang

Four of us went to a gameshop on the 19th January 2013, organised by UndiMsia. It describes itself, on its website www.undimsia.com as "building DIY action communities by activating the youth vote."

The Penang Town Hall. A heritage.

The agenda for the day.

The gameshop kick-started with an introduction of each participant.

The facilitators asked if there were any three rules we would like laid down. We came up with a) silent handphones, b) anything said there, stays there c) agree to disagree - respect the opinions of others.

The Big Picture was the most interesting slot of the day. Before it we were talking about various issues and the causes and whether there are any solutions. The Big Picture started with outlining the Malaysian population, the categories of which we are sorted under, and then came a mini Public Law lecture on the bodies of the state, like the three main ones and the Bar Council.

It showed me the dynamics of our constitutional monarchy political system, and whether our democracy at its present form is really democratic at all. We were introduced to the various influences directed at the populace - media, culture, businesses, to name a few - and whether we are really in charge of our nation. Most of the issues touched upon, some which are not mentioned here, would not be unfamiliar to the Public Law student.

Human rights lawyer slash minor celebrity of the legal profession, Mr. Edmund Bon, stated that our democracy is the tyranny of the minority, not the majority. He also said that in the understanding of most Malaysians, holding elections once every five years equals to democracy, which is far from the truth. He went on to show us how the rakyat could take on a more active role in the democratic process and its many channels to bring about the desired change, instead of relying solely on our elected representatives to take the issue up to Parliament.

With the general elections very much around the corner, Edmund went on to say the most thought-provoking thing of the day. Regardless of who we vote into office, if the system remains and there is no constitutional reform, there would only be cosmetic change. To change the system we have no choice but to first understand it and its many deficiencies. In order for us to do that, there is a need for the common citizen to participate and initiate, to play a more assertive role on the democratic theatre.

At the end of the gameshop, participants were given UndiMsia t-shirts, on which we could do this!

#LISTEN

From the right: Sreetharan (Inter), Yue Shern (Part 1), Emmanuel (Inter) and yours sincerely.

It was a meaningful and fun-filled gameshop, thanks to the cooperation of the UndiMsia facilitators and the vocal yet witty old people who also took part. To see constitutional law being fitted into the Big Picture, to see it come alive, was much refreshing and impressionable. As a citizen, we now know that if we do not help Malaysia then no one else would; it is up to us to bring the change we desire, and this could be done through a myriad of ways. As a law student, it helped to regain a sense of the purpose of reading law, apart from making buckets of money, of course!

A Stormtrooper! Yours sincerely was secretly intimidated and outwardly excited.