SGM and Universiti Putra Malaysia Organises Peace Week

From September 19 to 23, SGM and the Institute of Social Science Studies (Institut Pengajian Sains Sosial; IPSAS) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) co-organised the UPM Peace Week 2011 to raise awareness on the importance of peace in our lives. This is part of SGM's activities for SGM's inaugural Month of Peace held throughout September. The events held throughout the Peace Week are the "Seeds of Hope: Visions of Sustainability, Steps towards Change" exhibition, a talk on global issues, a human rights forum and film screenings.

"Seeds of Hope" exhibition

The opening ceremony of the Peace Week was held at the multi-purpose hall of UPM's main library on September 19. In his speech, SGM Deputy President Liu Cheng Choong expressed his appreciation to UPM for organising this Peace Week with SGM. He also quoted from SGI President Ikeda's 2002 proposal "The Challenge of Global Empowerment: Education for a Sustainable Future" that stressed the importance of education in creating awareness on how environmental problems intimately connect with our daily lives.

In his speech, Prof Dr Tai Shzee Yew, UPM's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry Networking and Community) noted that while globalisation has made everyone more interconnected, human beings seem to care less about each other. He hoped that the activities in the Peace Week will enable the UPM community to be more aware of global issues and strengthen the links between UPM and the local community. Also present were Assoc Prof Dr Bahaman Abu Samah, the director of IPSAS, Dr Jamilah Othman, head of IPSAS' Social Change, Economy and Peace Studies Laboratory, UPM academics and students.

The "Seeds of Hope" exhibition was held at UPM's main library, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Medicine alternately. The exhibition attracted 357 viewers. The movie screenings featured three movies; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond. The documentaries Another Way of Seeing Things and A Quiet Revolution were also screened. The screenings of the films attracted over 210 viewers.

Prof Dr Abdullah Al-Ahsan

On September 21, Prof Dr Abdullah Al-Ahsan, Deputy Dean (Academic Affairs) and Professor of History at International Islamic University Malaysia, gave a talk titled "Arab Uprisings: Spring or Anarchy?" at the multi-purpose hall of UPM's main library. He talked about the historical problems brought on by colonisation and local issues that resulted in the citizen uprisings in the Arab world in recent months. He also talked about the challenges faced by these countries on the road ahead and possible signs of hope. Following the lecture, there was a question-and-answer session. Prof Al-Ahsan is also a vice-president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

On September 22, a forum titled "Human Rights: What's the Right Thing to Do?" was held at UPM's Experimental Theatre. The forum's moderator was Assoc Prof Dr Lateef Abdullah from the Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education, UPM. The speakers were undergraduate and postgraduate students of UPM. The forum first discussed human rights in various contexts such as those involving science and technology, women, children and education, economic rights and family and culture. It also explored the questions of what role can women play in human rights education, how capitalism promotes or erodes human rights and what university students can do to promote human rights.

Forum entitled "Human Rights: What's the Right Thing to Do?"

A lecturer in the engineering faculty remarked that the Peace Week activities can help raise awareness among students who are usually preoccupied with their studies. Assoc Prof Dr Lateef Abdullah hopes that these activities will see more like-minded organisations coming together to promote peace. UPM students also found that the Peace Week activities are important in raising awareness towards peace and hope that more people can be made aware of the Peace Week.