Malaysia Forum II: Citizens as Agents of Change

After hosting a well-received conference last year around the theme 'The Post-Mahathir Malaysia: Civil Society at the Dawn of a New Era', the Malaysia Forum is back!

This year's conference, 'Citizens as Agents of Change', aims to educate attendees on the history and present state of social movements - student movements and NGOs in particular - in Malaysia and to discuss the possibilities for the future.

Conference events include a broad overview of the subject by a panel of experts and live video conferenced talks by social movement leaders in Malaysia. There will also be many opportunities for attendees to discuss ideas for addressing various civil society issues, and to interact with each other and the speakers.

Panellists and speakers include: Lai Suat Yan (Lecturer in Gender Studies, University of Malaya), Amity Doolittle (Tropical Resources Institute Director, Yale), Farish Noor (Visiting Chair of Asian Studies, Sciences-Po Paris), Meredith Weiss (Assistant Professor of International Studies, DePaul University), Hishamuddin Rais (veteran activist, artist, former student leader), Amin Idris (Secretary, Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia), Jo Kukathas (Director, Instant Cafe Theatre Company), Steven Gan (Founding Editor, malaysiakini.com), Chandra Muzaffar (Founder, aliran.com and JUST), Irene Fernandez (women's and migrant's rights activist).

The Malaysia Forum is a non-partisan non-profit educational forum that seeks to promote discussion of affairs affecting civil society in Malaysia through various media and public dialogue. The Forum also hopes to raise awareness of civil society issues by providing a neutral platform for the exchange of ideas and resources for further action.

Please see the website for more details.