Wednesday, November 14, 2007

As I Believe

The Malaysian Bar's Human Rights Day will be celebrated on Sunday, 9 December 2007 to (almost) coincide with the international celebration. This year the focus is on something very dear to my heart: the right to self-expression.

This from the Bar Council's website:
The right to believe and express oneself finds its voice through various means ... Our Human Rights Day this time is therefore themed: “As I Believe: Freedom of Expression through Art, Music, Culture and Conscience”.

If the United Nations celebrates the Day in New York, ours will be held in two parts in Kuala Lumpur. At 7.30 am, we will commence with a peaceful walk, the “Peoples’ Freedom Walk” from Sogo Complex through Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman-Jalan Raja to the old dame of Arts, the Central Market through Jalan Leboh Pasar Besar.

At Central Market, the second part of the Day will be held from 9.00 am onwards. There will be a host of events including poetry reading, Orang Asli cultural dance and performances by the underrated but talented Dr Wan Zawawi, and our own ‘home-grown’ lawyers, Fahri Azzat, Syamsuriatina Ishak, Dipendra Harshad Rai and Lai Chee Hoe. There will be other guest appearances being lined up.

The highlight of the Day will be the “When Faith Meets Law” multi-religious panel session discussing conscience rights. At this session, we seek to give religious groups the opportunity to discuss issues and concerns on faith, law and human rights. Prominent figures from the various religious groups in Malaysia have been invited as speakers.

There will also be a session titled “I wish that…”. Here, the various NGOs and groups will present their particular demands on issues affecting them. It will be a fun day out.

As C.S Lewis once said, “We are what we believe we are”. Share with us what you believe. See you on Sunday, 9 December 2007!
A flyer for the event with more details on can be found here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I believe :

I believe that a "freedom walk" is merely a symbolic gesture. Walking has nothing much to do with freedom. It has much more to do with being a show of force and a somewhat threatening gesture.

"It will be a fun day out."

This pretty much says everything doesn't it. It's entertainment.

Apparently the blog's been deleted. Pity, I was looking forward to a good debate.

bibliobibuli said...

what blog's deleted?

hmmm ... people walk to show solidarity e.g there have been walks of causes like aids, or against violence against women

i can't see anything at all wrong with walking to express solidarity with a cause (an international one at that) and if i were here on that day (instead of in singapore for the writers'festival) i'd walk too.

it's a cause i believe in whole heartedly.

Anonymous said...

When I visit it, all I get is a message from Wordpress saying the authors have deleted this blog.

bibliobibuli said...

wonder if the site was blocked??

Anonymous said...

If it was deleted I would not have been able to access it :P it clearly said the authors had deleted the blog.