Buddhists not allowed religious classes in campus

"It is hereby informed that the meeting of the Student Affairs Management Committee decided that any program or religious class activity other than the Nation's Official Religion ( Agama Rasmi Negara) are not allowed to be held within the vicinity of the university campus."

The above statement is an extracted translation from an official letter issued by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Centre for Students Advancement to student bodies for religions other than Islam early last month. The same letter also withdraws approval given earlier to a student religious body to run religious classes which extends to April 2009.

It was a shock indeed to the student bodies of religion other than Islam when they received the letters from the said university. In the 38 years of UKM's existence, this must be the first time an official letter of this nature was issued to dis-allowed activities of the Buddhists, Christians and Hindus' inside the campus ground.

This irresponsible and unfair decision by the university authorities clearly contravenes the nation's constitution. As per Article 3 of the Federal Constitution it is clearly stated that "Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation. "

Ordinary folks can easily understand that the "any part of the Federation" includes any place within a university campus. Why is it so difficult for those "smart and educated" people in a university to understand this simple line in the constitution? Unless of course these people have other motives in their mind.

The student bodies who received this similiar letter reacted differently. While another two religious students bodies accepted the decision unwillingly, the Buddhist group decided to response officially to the university authority. The Buddhist group argued that the university directive contravened the Federal Constitution and requested that the directive to be retracted and all activities shall be allowed to resumed as usual.

When the Buddhist group asked for an explanation to the unjustified decision, initially a lower rank officer of the university said it was a directive from the Ministry of Higher Education. When check with the relevant people in the Ministry it was found out there was no such directive from the ministry. From there on it can be conceived that someone is playing with fire at the university level.

Since they are not getting any responsible respond from junior officers, the Buddhist group follow up the issue with the Student Affairs Deputy Vice Chancellor who by then already been called up for an explaination by the Director General of Higher education regarding this issue. During the meeting with the Buddhist students representative, the Deputy VC tried to tone down the matter by giving the excuse that the directive was issued due to some inexperience new officers! The DVC requested some time to have a re-look on the matter.

At the onset when the issue arises, the Buddhist student leaders already seek opinions and assistance from their existing networking. One of the network were seniors who were previously active in the university Buddhist group. One of the seniors referred the matter to the Ministry of Higher Education and from there on the powers-that-be in the ministry took up the issue with the university concerned.

The Deputy VC finally called a meeting with students representative from various religions other than Islam and announced religious classes and activities by religions other than Islam shall resumed as usual.

Those who read the first paragraph of this article might have felt very upset, annoyed, angry, disappointed, sad and etc etc. Some might have thought to call for a press conference and denounced the decision or even organised protests all over the country as what was done by the UiTM students recently. The Buddhist student leaders did seeked advice and opinions from many sources and they receives many views and also support.

Finally the students decided to approach the matter in a systematic and procedural way by engaging the authorities directly via discussion and persuasion. As the first step to resolved this matter amicably, they decided to contain the matter within a small circle while trying to solve the matter without any wide publicity or public protest. They seek to resolve the matter step by step in a very professional and calm mind by approaching the relevant authorities or persons. It it with this consideration that this article was only written after the matter was resolved.

At the end of the day, they managed to settle the matter in a good way without getting agitated or confrontational.

The lesson learned is that there is always a different way out for a situation, having demonstration or public protest is not necessary the only approach. There is still consultation and soft persuasion because truth is might. It's not that Buddhists don't know how to protest or have demonstrations but there is always a better option - peaceful mind, mindful solution. Hope the students of UiTM will take a leaf from this. - Loka