Name: Fatimah

NIM: s411608009

Who Is My Idol?

Syed Saddiq is one of my favorite idols recently. He is a Malaysian debater as well as

a famous youth activist there. He is around 23 year old and was taking law as his majority in
university. Here, I would like to talk about some of his achievements and inspirational sides
as a debater and youth activist.

Saddiq, as we all know, has been a debater since he was in high school and now
becomes a professional. May be, his best achievement is by winning three times Best Asian
Debater. He, now, becomes a coach in his university, International Islamic University
Malaysia. In addition, he, sometimes, makes videos to share his knowledge about debating.
Those videos can be easily accessed through his Facebook.

Then, Saddiq is also a famous youth activist in his country. As we all know that today
Malaysia contacts with some political and economic issues, such as: corruption, absolute
power of some functionaries, lack of role model leaders, lack of coalescence, and many more,
Saddiq emerges as an activist to help demanding the people’s right that has been taken for so
long. He, then, established an organization named “BERSATU”. As an activist, his life
cannot be said as “normal” and “safe”. Many powers and issues are addressed to him to balk
his ways for fighting for Malaysian’s rights. However, he is brave enough to speak up his
thoughts and ask youth in Malaysia to be critical and be in line with him to fight for their
rights. As a result, not only many youth in Malaysia advocates his hassle, but also some older
politicians and activists do so, even Tun Mahatir Muhammad, the former Prime Minister of
Malaysia.
 Gender Equality issue in Indonesia

The gender equality has become a sensitive issue for many years, especially in
Indonesia. This is because many cultures here contradict with this issue. The general
definition of gender equality is the condition in which men and women are equal in getting
the chance for developing their personal abilities without any boundaries from in and out.
This also includes the equality of participations and decision making in many different
aspects in life.

The most common case in gender equality is when women want to take higher
education. Many people and traditions still think that this is not necessary to be done since at
the end of the day women should marry and raise their children; they do not need education
for their rest of their life because their places are not for getting job and pursuing a good
career. I, personally, do not think so with this point. Being a housewife and a mother is, for
me, a choice; it is a right for every woman to choose what they want their life be and do what
they think is needed to be done. In many cases, there are a lot of women feel so depressed in
their life because they are not happy. Many factors influence this, for example, an arranged
marriage, too young marriage, no opportunities to work and have a good career, etc.

When at the end of the day women want to be in a marriage relationship and choose
to have children, they actually have their own way to raise them. May be, some of them
choose to be a part time or even full time worker but still can raise their children well.
Besides, some of women in Indonesia actually have the potential to be a businesswoman.
This may be a good choice to balance the time to raise their children as well as running a
business. Or, some of them want to be a full time mother; it is really fine, either. So, I think
the most important thing here is to respect what women has chosen. Moreover, women with
children have also been responsible with their rights and duties as a woman and a mother.

So, the gender equality issue in Indonesia has to be faced wisely. This issue needs to
be solved and understood by those men and women and find the best solutions for this. There
is such kind of things that should be underlined here; they are RESPECT and
RESPOSIBILITY from all parts of the society.