Journal 5

How have social movements affected your life? Comment on various social movements that
have taken place in Malaysia over the past 5 years, and explore in detail how the social
change that occurred due to the work of these social movements has directly impacted your
life. From this exploration and form the discussion in class, how do you FEEL about social
movements? (Do not simply provide a cognitive assessment) For you what are the advantage/
disadvantages in terms of you as an individual.
There heve been many social movements throughout history that have dramatically
changed the societies in which they occurred. There have been many failed social movements as
well. These movement have varied widely in their ideologies; some movements have been
revolutionary in their aims, some have advocated reforms to the existing systems, and others still
have been conservative in their orientations and have worked to oppose changes in society. Social
movements have varied in scope as well. For example, many movements are limited to local
policies while others have been international in their focus. Despite all of the differences in social
movements through, there are important analytic similarities that sociologists have distinguished,
especially with regard to the life cycle of a social movement (Macionis, 2011; Hopper, 1950).
Globalization era is the most challenging time for the industrial society. All society have their own
different aim and very strong desire. This phenomena can be associate with a New Social
Movement Theory where an association were create by the civil society to achieve their goals
together. A social movement will have more than one member because a social movement cant
stand if it only have a single person to defend its goals. Social movement can be formal or
informal association. Generally, social movement is a group of people where they are sharing a
same goals and will make an affective way to achieves their goals.
There is a lot of social movement was established around the world. They using a lot of
way to recruit a society to join them and help to achieves the social movements aims. A famous
way is by using a mass media such us Facebook, Instagram, twitter or either television and Radio.
An it can be denied that by using a mass media, it easier to recruit people to let them join any of
social movement. Because nowadays, society are addicted with mass media and more opened
minded to join any of social movement that they like. For instance, in recent years, social media
communication has profoundly changed our lives, from how we interact with one another and the

world around us. With tools like Facebook, Twitter, YoutTube, and Blogs, our networking
capability has reached an unprecedented level, unimaginable at the beginning of the decade.
Amongst the areas how social media has affected our lives include: where we got our news, how
we start and do business, how we meet and stay in touch with people, what we reveal, and what
we influence. One of the successful social media project in Malaysia that has gotten our attention
is the iheartborneo.com. Since its launch years ago, iheartborneo has gotten tremendous
response from bloggers, twiterers, and internet users who shared stories, gave tips, and showed
why they heart Borneo.
As for me, NGOs are often seen as a threat to national interest as they are important
apparatus for checking the wrongdoings of the government and as an important advocate for
marginalized people. Most NGOs have their own procedural accountability. However, this also
depends on the type of organization, their composition and forms of funding. Non-profit
accounting is deemed as complicated because fundamentally, the operational method of NGOs Is
not the same as the government and companies. Its financial management is mainly focused on
utilizing money, rathe than making it. On the one hand, they have to account for the use of
financial resources to donors. On the other, they are also responsible to their beneficiaries- the
target group that they are supposed to assist. In contrast to the other Southeast Asian country such
as Thailand, Malaysian social movements were more limited in many ways. For example, in
defending community rights or protesting against disruptive large-scale infrastructural projects,
Malaysian NGOs never built a movement comparable in scale of participations, durability of
engagements, or organizational reach to the Assembly of the poor. For comparison, NGOs, such as
Alaigal and the Urban Pioneers Support Committee, had small numbers of dedicated activists who
campaigned in solidarity with workers, vegetable gardeners and illegal squatters facing eviction
from estates and urban fringe land on which they had worked and lived for long periods. Faced
with big projects liable to dislocate native communities or lead to ecological degradation, many
different NGOs might join in an ad hoc coalition of limited aims and duration. More established
NGOs, such as Aliran, SUARAM and Sisters-in-Islam, located in the bigger cities, concentrate
their efforts on the protection of human rights and civil liberties in broad democratic and
constitutional ways, they frequently network via an ad hoc coalition, formed with other NGOs
and political parties to mount a politically important or urgent campaign.

Over the years, the activities or Malaysian NGOs have chiefly been conducted for public
awareness, education and protest. Some of these have inspired new groups of younger activists,
including young professionals and new graduates (the latter freed from prohibition of political
participation in school and tertiary institutions) who have linked different kinds of socio-political
issues in their work. For instance, campaigning for the repeal of repressive statues infringing on
constitutional rights to freedoms of expression, associations and assembly, can be linked to
demands for fixed and minimum wages for estate workers, or support for harassed and abused
migrant workers. A few religious NGOs such as the (Muslim) Jamaah Islah Malaysia and the
(Catholic) Penang Office of Human Development have joined civil protests and demonstrations
against the states intensifying authoritarianism. The NGOs, too, are rarely involved in
development-related activities for several reasons. No NGOs can remotely approach the states
extensive programs in development and social services. Some niches in education, community
investment and relief work are available but many of these have been occupied by different parties
of the ruling coalition to extents rarely encountered elsewhere. It is no exaggeration to say
pervasiveness of state and ruling party coverage of developmental activities have crowded out the
NGOs. A point made about civil society in relation to NGOs in Malaysia is relevant here: civil
society itself is conflict-ridden, harbours ethnics hierarchies, and conflicting class visions and
identities and is subject to repressions (Cooke 2003: 179). Of these flaws of civil society, ethnic
identities and divisiveness are particularly weakening. The point is not the NGOs are habitually
pitted against one another in ethnic competition, but they are typically based in specific ethnic
communities. Two notable examples illustrate this problem, An NGO with rare mass membership,
Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM, or Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement), operated
exclusively among Muslims until it joined other NGOs to fight against proposed amendments to
the Societies Act that would restrict politics to self-declared political societies. Another NGO
which had mass support was Dongjiao Zong, the standart bearer of the Chinese education
movement and intimately associated with the Chinese community (even if Dongjiao Zong joined
civil society campaigns with other NGOs and opposition parties).
In short, if the Malaysian NGOs have putative ideological clarity, particularly towards
neoliberalism, it is unexpressed. Broadly defined solidarity work against repression and for
opening up political space do not require an ideological commonality beyond a commitment to
justice, democracy, solidarity (Alirans slogan). Where NGOs dissent they mostly target the state,

but a state with very definite characteristics. The state has been developmentalist since 1970 and
the economic outcomes have been largely acceptable to the middle-class activities who form the
core of NGO personnel. But the state discriminates by ethnicity, and has since the 1997 crisis been
much criticized for inefficiency, incompetence and corruption. Insofar as the market could be
more level and transparent, many NGO activist- particularly if they are non-Malay- could blend a
political anti- statist stance with a neoliberal preference for the superiority of the private sector.
This had a significant impact on the politics of the crisis.
One of the type social movement that affected certain Malaysian life , Era Consumer is
one of the famous social movement that has directly impacted the society. Era Consumer is an
non- government association that also known as Persatuan Pendidikan dan Penyelidikan untuk
Pengguna- Pengguna Malaysia. Era Consumer is a volunteering clubs and its was non- political
association that was established since 1985 at Ipoh, Perak. Since it was establishes, Era Consumer
have did a lot of project that helped those neede and now, Era Consumer has become a national
organization that registered under AKTA Pertubhan Malatsia 1966. In addition, Era Consumer was
established more earlier than Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia (SUHAKAM), and even led to the
establishment of SUHAKAM. The mission of Era Consumer are to make an organization that
serves research, education and support those needed. As a social movement, Era Consumer has
directly contribute in social changes. One of ti is heloing the indigenous people to claim their
right. Era Consumer had collaborated with other social movement such as Jaringan Orang Asal
SeMelaysia (JOAS), Pacos and more. One the project that Era Consumer organized under the
dibawah Program Pendidikan Hak- hak Asasi Manusia is Bengkel Asasi Manusia (HRTP). This
workshop often held in rurals area or at the remote areas and targeting the involvement of the
youth aged between 17 to 35 years old. The main objective of this workshop is to give an exposure
to the rural s society about the knowledge and about their right as indigenous people such as a
freedom of expression, the land right, economic right and more. This workshop also give the
exposure about paralegal education to let the indigenous people how to depends their right.
By the exposure from the Era Consumer to indigenous people, a social changes has
occurred. The indigenous people used to be considered as uneducated society and some society
like to take advantages from them. But with the education that given especially the paralegal
education, a lots of indigenous people know about their right and know how to depends their right

legally. Other than that, the education programs also had motivated them to gain more knowledge
and improving their standard lifestyle. It is clearly shows that Era Consumer have contribute
directly to social changes especially form uneducated society to a better society that know their
right and have a motivated to gain knowledge.
Social movements continue to be a major force in the world. Sociologist provide
important analysis of social movements that helps us to understand both past and present societies,
as well as to anticipate changes and trends that may play out un the future. As new movements
develop, they can learn from investigation of prior movements experience to better prepare for
future possibilities.

Reference
Cooke, Fadzillah .(2003). Non-governmental organizations in Sarawak, in Social Movement in
Malaysia: From moral communities to NGOs, edited by Meredith L. Weiss and Saliha Hassan,
London, RoutledgeCurzon, pp. 165-80.
Macionis, J.J. (2001) Sociology 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
http://www.iheartborneo.com/others/malaysian-social-movements-i-heart-borneo/ accessed on 3
April 2014.