Ong Jing Cheng is currently a graduate student at USM. He is also the Secretary of Administration of the Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (DEMA) and the program officer of Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower). He graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with an Honours degree in Social Science majoring in Economics. In July 2009, Ong was arrested in Universiti Malaya for “trespassing” in the Center for Islamic Studies and detained for three days.


N. Surendran is a coordinator of the Malaysians against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET), member of the Malaysian Bar Council and the legal advisor for the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee. He is an active human rights lawyer in Malaysia, and notably represents the family of Kugan Ananthan, who died under suspicious circumstances in police custody.


Wan Mohd Firdaus graduated with LLB (Honours) from the University of Nottingham. He was Chairman of the UK and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) in 2005 to 2007, and was the representative of University of Nottingham to the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Federation of Students Islamic Societies (FOSIS). A founding director of Malaysia Think Tank (Waubebas.org) , he is now working at the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) as the Special Officer to the Chief Minister of Johore.


Lee Khai Loon is currently a councillor with the Selayang Municipal Council. Prior to this, he was the secretary to the Bukit Lanjan assemblyperson and Selangor State Exco Elizabeth Wong. Khai Loon has been an advocate of involving young people in voting and bringing on positive changes in society, having formerly been the Convener for Youth for Change (Y4C). He was an active student leader throughout his time at University Teknologi Malaysia, and continues to work towards empowering Malaysian youths about their rights as citizens through advocacy programmes and education on the democratic process of elections.


Mark Teh is a director, performer, researcher and educator whose projects are particularly concerned with the issues of Malaysian history, youth, sport and empowerment. Mark was a recipient of an Arts Network Asia grant to research engaged arts practice in India and the Philippines in 2003. The same year, he was the recipient of the inaugural Boh Cameronian Arts Award for Most Promising Artist. Mark teaches at The One Academy of Communication Design and the Department of Performance and Media, Sunway University College, and is a member of Five Arts Centre.


Tricia Yeoh currently works at the Selangor Menteri Besar’s Office as a non-partisan Research Officer (Pegawai Penyelidik) on policy affairs. She is also a member of the Advisory Panel at the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) and is part of the group Revolution of Hope (RoH). She graduated from Monash University (Malaysia) with a degree in Econometrics, and has a Masters in Research Methodology from the University of Warwick, UK.


Roshan Thiran is currently the CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise supporting leadership development amongst all ages across Asia Pacific. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Global Talent Management with Johnson & Johnson. Roshan was also with the General Electric Company (GE) for more than 12 years, working in a number of roles in the US, in Europe and in Asia. His infectious and inspirational teaching style and unorthodox learning methodologies are well-received across various geographies and people groups from Europe, the US, Middle East and across Asia.


Intan Suraya Hashim graduated from Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering in 2003. She then returned to Malaysia and worked in the banking sector, recovering non-performing loans via property tenders and legal action under Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad, Malaysia’s national asset management company. Three years later, Intan left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, founding Studio W, an all-women fitness studio located in Kota Damansara. She is now back in school, pursuing her MBA in University Malaya.


Wong Chin Huat is a political scientist and activist. After graduating with a Bachelor’s from Universiti Malaya and a Masters from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, he completed a PhD in political science at the University of Essex. His PhD thesis was on the subject of electoral and party politics in West Malaysia between 1982 and 2004. Presently, he teaches journalism at the Monash University Malaysia Campus, and is a spokesperson for Bersih, a coalition of NGOs for free and fair elections. He has a column at The Nut Graph, and chairs the Writers Alliance for Media Independence.


YB Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is the State Assemblyperson for Seri Setia in Selangor and the Political Secretary to Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Prior to taking public office, Nik Nazmi was private secretary to current Opposition Leader Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim from 2006-2008. He studied at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, Kolej Yayasan UEM, and graduated with a law degree from King’s College, University of London. He lives with his wife in Petaling Jaya, and was the youngest candidate in the 13th General Elections.


YB Hannah Yeoh is the State Assemblyperson for Subang Jaya in Selangor. Hannah graduated with a law degree in 2001 from the University of Tasmania in Australia, and was called to the Malaysian Bar in 2003. She practised law for three years, and moved on to an event management company in 2006. When Parliament was dissolved in 2008, Hannah was asked to run, and accepted the call to public service.

YB Dato’ Rahman Dahlan is the Member of Parliament for Kota Belud in Sabah. He has held a number of prominent positions throughout his political career, including Umno Youth Secretary, BN Youth Secretary, Committee Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Malaysia, member of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, and Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary BN Supporters Club.


Wan Ahmad Faysal is a final year Engineering student at the Universiti Teknologi Petronas, who passionately believes in fighting against the injustices of capitalism and highlighting the dangers of neo-colonialism. A social activist, a regular contributor to the newspaper Siasah and an accomplished speaker, his unique views on contemporary issues are widely disseminated amongst student associations at local public universities, most of which can be found on his website at http://rausyanfikir.com.


Edmund Bon is an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. He has been involved in a number of high profile public interest cases, more recently the trial on the Perak constitutional crisis and the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trial. Edmund was Chair of the Bar Council Human Rights Committee for two terms and is currently Chair of the Bar Council Constitutional Law Committee. He is also a founding member of the widely-read bLawg, LoyarBurok dot com. In 2007, Edmund was arrested during the Bar Council’s Festival of Rights for allegedly preventing local authorities from removing banners from Bar Council premises and subsequently released without charge.


Fadiah Nadwa Fikri was born in Alor Setar, Kedah. Called to the Bar in 2007, Fadiah is also Honorary Secretary of the Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre, committee member of the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI), member of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) and volunteer Tutor on the Mentari Voluntary Tuition Project. Earlier this year on May 7th, Fadiah and four other lawyers were at the Brickfields Police Station to provide legal representation to the fourteen people who had been arrested by the police for holding a candlelight vigil for Bersih activist, Wong Chin Huat. The lawyers were then accused of being part of an illegal assembly, and later arrested and themselves denied the right to legal representation.


Fahmi Fadzil is a performer and writer. Trained as a Chemical Engineer, he soon decided to leave that field to work in the arts. Since then he has performed in a number of plays, which has won him several awards as well as attention in the arts scene abroad. He contributes a monthly column with urban youth culture magazine, KLue. Fahmi is a member of arts collective Five Arts Centre, coordinator of experimentation group Projek Wayang, partner at creative studio Bright Lights At Midnight, and host of online interview programme The Fairly Current Show.


Mohd Jamizal Zainol is currently 31 years old, and graduated from International Islamic University with LL.B, and went on to obtain a Masters degree in law from University Malaya in 2007. Currently he servers as a legal adviser in PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd focused in upstream activities. Has been with PETRONAS since 2007, before which was a Federal Counsel from 2002-2006, attached in International Affairs Division. Jamizal was tasked with looking after the Human Rights Unit and represented Malaysia at the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Conference in Geneva Switzerland. He likes to listen to music, especially R&B, and some jazz – his favorite artists include , Norah Jones and Yuna!


Tham Keng Yew A graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelors in Computer Engineering, Keng Yew made an exit from a PhD program to join a Silicon Valley startup (eXS Inc). Keng Yew has 5 years of work experience with multiple Silicon Valley startups, developing high-tech telecommunications products. In mid 2008 Kengyew returned to Malaysia to start up Socialwalk. The idea behind Socialwalk is to transform conferences & business events into lasting communities. SocialWalk’s current client list includes events by TEDxKuala Lumpur, TiE Asia Pacific Conference 09, Barcamp, Bursa Malaysia, and more.


Mien Lor is a filmmaker and trainer by curious incidences of life. Her latest documentary ‘Running’ on refugees in Malaysia has been screened in Cairo, Australia and Jakarta this year. She has run trainings in human rights, gender and sexuality rights, non-racism and video making. She is also co-founder of filmmakersanonymous.blogspot.com, an irregular screenings of indie short films in KL; partake in random street actions with katagender.blogspot.com and volunteer her services with freedomfilmfest.komas.org. She tries to maintain a blog at mienly.wordpress.com.


Farhan Read obtained his LLB degree with honours from the University of the West of England, Bristol and was called to the English Bar as a Barrister of Law at Lincoln’s Inn in 2007 before joining the Prosecution Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia in the middle of 2008. In the brief time he has spent at the AG’s Chambers, he has had the opportunity to deal with cases (to varying degrees) ranging from murder, firearms and rape to sedition and drug trafficking offences. He is currently in the Commercial Crimes Unit and is specialising in cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery offences under the Penal Code.


Fynn Jamal believes that she is an expressionist. She loves to embrace her feelings and parade her fragility in her journey in seeking strengths in life. A product of International Islamic University Malaysia, she majored in English Language and Literature. She used to be a lecturer in UIA but she is now happily residing in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan having found her other half. She is currently a lecturer in Limkokwing University. A truly Malaysian poet, performer and singer – you can learn more about her at http://fynnjamal.blogspot.com.


Faisal Abdul Aziz is the President-elect of the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students (PKPIM) and the present Vice-President of PKPIM International. He previously attended Anglo Chinese School (ACS), Ma’had Al-Ummah School and Izzuddin Shah School in Perak, and is in his final year of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at the International Islamic University Malaysia.


Mei Chern is a singer-songwriter of sort and an experimental psychologist by training. She writes for Freespace (The Sun) and her
songs on social justice used in award winning documentaries. She was selected to perform at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival 2008, an international feminist music festival in the USA. You can find more about her on: http://meichern.blogspot.com/ & http://freedomfilmfest.komas.org/.


Nurulasyiqin Ikhwan Nasir graduated with a B.Ed (Hons) TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the University of Warwick in 1997. She firmly believes in empowering the youths and is actively involved in planning, organizing and conducting youth related programs, such as volunteering for the Cyber Development Corps (CDC), a platform for Regional Youth Leaders to affirm their interest, plans and commitment in executing the CDC initiatives of United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN-GAID). She currently teaches English for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at the MARA College Banting, Selangor.