Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala

Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
The other side of the reality
In every country, politics is considered to be a waste of time
-Malala YousafzaiI am Malala is a book written by Malala Yousafzai. The book is written in diary style
which based on the reality of her life which she need to face with. Some peoples might believe
that they are safe because they live under the government, politics or even laws. However
throughout history they have been many government that persecuted their people. While many of
these governments failed along time ago some lasted into modern times. Two of these countries,
Pakistan and Myanmar, show how these government rule. The Taliban and SLORC, respectively,
the Taliban and SLORC use fear to exercise power over the people in Pakistan, governments are
weak compared to the people they rule, and the Taliban and SLORC are vulnerable when people
start to oppose them.
Who are the Taliban and SLORC? To give these two backgrounds, according to the book
Malala Yousafzai define The Taliban as, The Taliban are a militant Islamic fundamentalist
group. Originally, they suggested that Muslims had strayed from the teachings of the Quran, the
central religious text of Islam, and would do well to return to their religious roots. However, to
further their religious agenda, the Taliban turned to militant, bloody tactics, intent on gaining
power mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban is made up largely of Pashtuns, but by no
means are all Pashtuns members of the Taliban.(Cathleen Small, p.11). While SLORC which
stand for the State Law and Order Restoration Council before renamed it to State Peace and

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
Development Council. Myanmar time define the group as, The military government of
Myanmar, which seized power in 1988. (Mar Oo&Lynn).
Pakistanis and Burmese lived under the fear of Talibans and SLORCs power. In the
book I am Malala, Her-self Malala describe one of the scene as:

I was ten when the Taliban came to our valley. Moniba and I had been reading the
Twilight books and longed to be vampires. It seemed to us that the Taliban arrived
in the

night just like vampires.They appeared in groups, armed with knives and

Kalashnikovs,

and first emerged in Upper Swat, in the hilly areas of Matta. They didnt

call themselves

Taliban to start with and didnt look like the Afghan Taliban wed

seen in pictures with

their turbans and black-rimmed eyes.

(Yousafzai & Lamb, p.103).

Malala define the Taliban as a group of vampires with have their own weapons with each of
them. This show how she feel fear to the Taliban as the first time she saw them. Further more,
there were several news about the Taliban after their took control of Pakistan. One of it was in
Peshawar school, Taliban gunmen have killed at least 126 people, including 84 children, at an
army-run school in northern Pakistan(James Rush, 14). This show the affect of the Taliban who
want to topple toward the Pakistan government and Pakistani which is not happened just one
time, but many more. The Taliban even not allow women to go to the school so any women who
want to go to the school need to covered their heads while travelled to and back from school.
While in Burma, after the SLORC took control of Burmese, according to the book Aung San Suu

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
Kyi: Fearless Voice of Burma, When SLORC wanted to relocate a village and use occupied
land for a road, hotel, airport, or gas pipeline, government officers simply arrived in the village
and announced their plans. The villagers had to move where SLORC demanded.(Whitney
Stewart, p.73). The quote shows how Burmese need to move themselves to the other place, and
easily give their own land to the SLORC which those people does not need to bought or make
any deal. Finally, the facts from the two country, it show how the Taliban and SLORC use their
power, which make others feel fear and need to keep quite instead of stood against them.
Evermore, sometimes government are not even strong enough to stood up against them.
Sometimes people under the rural of government are much more fearless than them.
People in Pakistan including government were forced to keep silent and afraid of the Taliban.
According to one of their speech,We carried out this attack, and anybody who speaks against us
will be attacked in the same way. Malala had been targeted because of her pioneer role in
preaching secularism. (Yousafzai & Lamb, p.239) Malala Yousafzai is widely known for the
girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban(Yousafzai & Lamb) However after
the shot by the Taliban, she does not hide her self away from the society like other people might
do. Instead, she was be able to spread the story more wider and all over the place. According to
the book I am Malala, If one man, Fazlullah, can destroy everything, why cant one girl change
it?(Cathleen Small, p.38) This is the part of the interview given by Malala on December 2007
when she was just eleven-year-old. She show how fearless she is by giving the speech to the
society, and does not afraid of Talibans power. While in Burma, the country was living under the
military system in the forms of Authoritarian from 1962 to 2011. All Burmese were all afraid to
spoke out against the SLORC. According to the BBC news,1990 - Opposition National League

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
for Democracy (NLD) wins landslide victory in elections, but the military ignores the
result(BBC, 2016), no one really stood out to oppose them, but not this women-Aung San Suu
Kyi. She began to spoke out in 1988 against the SLORC about all the issue such as democracy
and human rights, but after that she was warned by the SLORC to leave the country, and they
would not arrested her, but she refused it, and continue spoke out for her agenda. Aung San Suu
Kyi got arrested inside her house in between 1899 and 1995. After got released, she was not
quite herself, but still keep promoted her goals to the society(A&E Television Networks, 2016).
From the facts, it can been said that Malala Yousafzai and Aung San Suu Kyi have one common
thing which is they are fearless to those power and more braver compared to the government that
they lived under.
When there were one people who brave enough to speak up, others usually tends to
follow the leader, causing the Taliban and SLORC weakness. After Malala got shot, the news
about her does not give up on her objective spread worldwide. Malala quickly become a global
icon of for activism. There are a lot of supporter who support Malala such as a group of Hong
kong female started to spread the story of Malala in Hong Kong(Cathleen Small, p.71) or Tens
of thousands of people have signed an online petition to award Malala the 2013 Nobel Peace
Prize, supported by everyone from actress Angelina Jolie to public intellectual Richard
Dawkins(Foreign Policy, p.38), but not only foreigner people who support Malala, native
Pakistan also do. According to Women News Network, there were many feminine who stood out
hold the signs outside the street to show how they support Malala(Women News Network).
While in Burma, after Aung San Suu Ky spoke out. There were many group of people who form
a group and support her. To illustrate, Trishaw riders, who support Myanmar opposition leader

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, take part in a campaign
rally ahead of the upcoming November 8 general election in Yangon on September 27, 2015.
Some 30 million people will have the chance to vote -- many for the first time in their lives -- in
the election, the only nationwide polls contested by Suu Kyi's party in a quarter of a century as
the nation emerges from decades of stifling military rule(Ye Aung THU) and a support from
overseas such as 2001 June - Thai Prime Minister Shinawatra visits, says relations are back on
track(BBC, 2016). In reference of the facts, it can be seen that after both of the story goes
worldwide, both of the Taliban and SLORC tends to be more quite and does not use the violence
publicly, because of all the pressure form worldwide.
In conclusion, Fearfulness is one of the power that both of the group used which can
cause people to hide themselves from speak up for what they want to say. Next, sometimes there
are people who actually have lower power than the government, but he or she are brave enough
to speak out for what they think. Lastly, a huge group of people which started to speak out can
cause the weakness to the group that use fear to exercise their power.

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb

References
Small, C. (2014). Malala Yousafzai: Teenage education activist who defied the Taliban. United
States: Cavendish Square Publishing.

Shwe Yinn Mar Oo; Soe Than Lynn (2011). "Mission accomplished as SPDC 'dissolved'".
Myanmar Times. Retrieved 13 December2016.
Yousafzai, M., & Lamb, C. (2013). I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and was
shot by the Taliban. London, UK: Orion Publishing Group.
Rush, J. (2014, December 16). Peshawar school attack: Who are the Pakistani Taliban and what
do they want? The Independent - Asia. Retrieved from
http://www.independent.co.uk/
news/world/asia/peshawar-school-attack-who-arethe-pakistani-taliban-and-what-dothey-want-9928261.html
Stewart, W., & Whitney, S. (1997). Aung San Suu Kyi: Fearless voice of Burma. Minneapolis:
Lerner Publishing Group.
BBC (2016, December 2). Myanmar country profile. BBC Asia. Retrieved from http://
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12990563
6

Jammy Thanyamas Chanchaiwat

Book name: I am Malala
Published: November 1, 2012
Authors: Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
A&E Television Networks.Retrieved December 11, 2016, from
http://www.biography.com/people/aung-san-suu-kyi-9192617#awards-and-recognition
MALALA YOUSAFZAI. (2012). Foreign Policy, (197), 38-39.
Women news network / WNN global. (2016, January 20). Retrieved December 13, 2016, from
https://womennewsnetwork.net
Ye Aung TH. (2015, September 27). Trishaw riders, who support Myanmar opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and the national league for democracy (NLD) party, take part
in a
campaign rally ahead of the upcoming November 8 general elec.. Retrieved
December
11, 2016, from http://www.gettyimages.pt/detail/fotografia-de-not
%C3%ADcias/trishawriders-who-support-myanmar-opposition-fotografia-de-not
%C3%ADcias/490236734?
#trishaw-riders-who-support-myanmar-opposition-leaderaung-san-suu-kyi-pictureid490236734