A sane society needs NGO to provide checks and balances to the state and is the important element in the pluralism and democratic system.

——隆雪华堂副会长杨有为 Mr Yong Yew Wei, Vice-President of KLSCAH, 2017

The 6th Civil Society Award received 10 nominees. At the ceremony, Mr Yong mentioned that the unfair 13th General Election brought negative impacts among civil society. Hence, he emphasized that civil society organizations have to look for changes, not claimed all the democratic movement just towards political parties but lead from bottom to top for reformation.

These were the three winners:

 

1.  DART & BEYOND – Delineation and Research Action 1.1 Team

DART & Beyond started as a project designed to empower citizens in Malaysia to challenge any unfair or unconstitutional redelineation proposals by the EC.The DART & Beyond project was able to re-construct seemingly complicated information on delineation and made it more accessible and understandable for ordinary citizens to use the tools which DART has developed and to fully participate in the campaign .

 

2.  Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan

The Temiar in Gua Musang Kelantan, started the blockade since 2012, but repeated dismantle by the government authorities and logging companies force them to compromised. But since the deforestation seriously affected their life, the temiar started again blockades with five locations to protest the illegal logging since 27 September 2016 to prevent logging companies from entering the forest reserve.

3.  Chong Ton Sin

Mr. Chong Ton Sin has been participating in social movement through publishing alternative publications, organizing intellectual discussions and enlightened a generation of young activists.

Since 1998, his publishing house published political books that promotes democracy, human rights and justice.He has a vision to strengthen the dissent voice and intellectual discourse as a mean of democratic participation, he published books on hidden history and political criticism to promote critical thinking among youth.

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