Of Hari Raya and ‘Sembang-sembang’

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Assalamualaikum.

I just came back to KL to further my study since our class start on Monday. Bundle of assignment and course work stagnant in my working desk. But I feel much better because just met lovable family members and friends in hometown.

We also had a massive gathering among Kedah students who were studying in Malaysia and abroad in 3^rd day of Hari Raya. Chit-chatting and discussing about our study and previous school of Alma mater makes us feel strong to face the challenges in the next period of life. Congratulation to Persatuan Mahasiswa Darul Aman (Persada) as the organizer. Thanks a lot to those friends for the touching and poetry Hari Raya wish via SMSes and emails.

This is my last Raya and Ramadhan in university, and hopefully not the last one in my life. InsyaALLAH. O ALLAH, give me a long and barakah life.

Past couple of days before Hari Raya, we in Econs had a coffee session entitled ‘Sembang-sembang’ on cynical topic ‘Apa cerita Ekonomi Malaysia?’ featuring special guests YB Nik Nazmi, state assemblyman for Seri Setia, Selangor, and Wan Mohd Firdaus from Malaysia Think Tank (MTT), who is currently working in Iskandar Regional Development Agency (IRDA).

I’ve tried to invite Dr. Dzul Ahmad who is currently working as a Member of Parliament for Kuala Selangor. But he refused to come due to his responsibility as Imam leading terawikh prayer in his place. “Malam-malam terakhir kita nak simpan juga untuk kita dan Allah,”added him.

As an Islamist vis-a-vis ‘Islamic Democrat’, I believed Dr Dzul can make our discussion wider with Islamic fundamentals and practices. I used to discuss with him about Islamic and welfare state. He always reminds us about New Politics and the stratagem that we must be aware.

Nik Nazmi that claimed himself as a ‘centrist’ and Wan Firdaus widely known as a Libertarian make our discussion interesting but little bit prone to be ‘liberal’ in term of economics. I have predicted that since our friend in UTP, Wan Faysal leaved a comment on our event Facebook wall that our two ‘lawyers’ were not balance in term of economics thought! “Dua-dua libertarian. Tak balance. Bawak Marxis, Islamist sekali,” provoked him .

Wan Firdaus always stressed on liberalism of market focus about the smart practice in economic management including easing of doing business in Malaysia and smaller the intervention of government regarding the supervision of GLC and also the policies. “Keep our business, GLCs like Proton, run freely,” said him.

Honestly, I can see ‘Anwar-nomics’ in the explanation that been given by Nik Nazmi, sorry if I’ve make anyone feel uncomfortable. Heheh.

By the way, Nik Nazmi also has intelligence ideas. Aside talking about welfare of rakyat, the ‘lawyer-turned-politician’ also stressed on the wrongdoings of financial management due to corruption and ‘ali-baba’ style of business among Malays. Wan Firdaus also filled up our discussion with his information of corrupted Malaysia-Singapore relationship since he is working in Iskandar Regional Development. We also discussed about racism and its roles in dividing our distribution of economics cake. Our Chinese friend who came along with Wan Firdaus, Chen also sees this problematic issue.

“Chinese and non-Chinese is one thing, in Chinese themselves, Penang and non-Penang divided again, north Chinese and South Chinese also divided,” said him.

Thank you to those friends who were participated in our discussion. The thesis and antithesis of ideas always the most welcome. I just able to a give cynical smile to bro Hilman since we knew that our bills have been settled by Wan Firdaus. Thanks for the ‘kaww’ coffee.

That was a great discussion, hanging up with a cup of white coffee of Old Town involving 13 guests, from many places and various political and economic thoughts. The two lawyers also cheered up our discussion with their experiences, ideas and thoughts.

Before we ended up the session, I gave a book to each guest entitled ‘Imam Khomenie: Life, Thought and Legacy’ as a token of appreciation. Thanks a lot to an ustaz from Iranian Culture Centre, KL for the free books.

I took the books from his program due to the upcoming annual Remembrance of Al-Quds (ROQ) in last 18^th. There was a representative from Iranian Embassy who gave a speech about our struggle Palestinian friends condition with their (read: ours) country unrest and Israeli military invasion. The Iranian ‘Sheikh’ also agreed on my comment of the numbness and dysfunction of Organization of Islamic Countries Conference (OIC).

Thanks also to Wan Wasif and bro Azlan Zainal for our quick-chatting on Imam Khomeini, his two most massive gathering of human in modern history and the involvement of Ali Shariati behind the Revolution of Iran.

Don’t forget to further our 6-days-fasting in Syawal.

After in my hometown, I got many open-house invitations from friends around KL and PJ within this month. Thanks, InsyaALLAH I’ll join them.

Thanks also to my classmate; Vincent for your Hari Raya wish and those friends from Persatuan Ekonomi Universiti Malaya (PEKUMA).  Heat up the group guys!

———–

P/s- Congratulation to our friend, Syafikah Asna who’s going to fly away to Egypt.

- More ECONS ‘Sembang-sembang’ photos from Nik Nazmi, Hilman Nordin and Najwan Halimi.

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Filed under Coretan

Tags: Economics, Econs, Old Town White Coffee, Sembang-sembang