After viral video, Zahra to meet other ‘Zahras’ for MTEM campaign

Siti Azzahra Abd Razly speaks to her audience who included Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, during an event on June 17. The law graduate will now meet others who share her financial grievances. – MTEM video screenshot, July 15, 2015.Siti Azzahra Abd Razly, the 23-year old law graduate who gained both fame and scorn after her video "Saya Zahra" was uploaded by the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM), will go down to the ground to meet others like her, MTEM chief executive officer Nizam Mahshar said.

Nizam said Zahra would meet other youths facing the same issues she had talked about in the 6-minute video that MTEM is using as part of a campaign to lobby the government on improving economic policies affecting the younger generation.

The campaign, called #Saya Zahra #SayaSayangkanMalaysia, has received a lot of feedback, and had collected around 300 stories similar to Zahra's, Nizam added.

"This is not a story about those named Zahra but about the people, young citizens who want their voices to be heard," Nizam told The Malaysian Insider.

He added that Zahra's meeting with other youths will take place after Hari Raya, and will see her visiting coffee shops in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Ampang and in Hartamas, all suburbs in Kuala Lumpur.

Zahra became a hot topic on social media after a video of her speaking of her financial struggles despite being a graduate was posted and shared online.

Zahra's audience include Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The video was uploaded on MTEM's Facebook page last Wednesday and has gone viral, drawing agreement but also criticism from those who felt that the law graduate had yet to experience the real world when she lamented about being unable to own a home after just 2 years working.

Some said she was naive to think that working life would be easy, while others said her financial struggles were no different from what previous generations had to endure in order to own a home or pay off debts.

Nizam Mahshar, who heads the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM), says the message in the 'Zahra' video is that the country could soar higher given its rich resources. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, July 15, 2015.In response, Nizam said that the critics had misinterpreted the message intended in the campaign.

"It is not a call for people to quit their jobs or to wait for the govenrment to feed them.

"At the end of the message, she said this was not about politics, but about survival.

"She is not urging people to merely just sit and complain, that is the wrong interpretation.

"And she is not complaining, the greater message is that given the nation's large pool of Gen-Y and the resources in the country, we could be soaring even higher," Nizam said.

He added that everything Zahra said may not have been right, but the main message of the video was that housing and job issues were of grave concern.

"What we have now is a systemic problem, for instance, home ownership is made difficult not because one doesn't work hard enough. The problem is price speculation that cannot be curbed.

"So it does not matter how hard one works, it will not help.

"This is a systemic problem, not because you are not working hard enough.

"The housing and job issues did not come about because you are not working hard enough," Nizam said.

Nizam added that Zahra was a top student at the law faculty in her university.

"What she is trying to do is to create a platform for others to express their views," he said.

Checks by The Malaysian Insider found that Zahra won the best student award at the Sultan Zainal Abidin University's law faculty during its 6th convocation ceremony last December.

Nizam said MTEM was keen to extend the national debate that the campaign has sparked off.

Those interested can do so through the MTEM Facebook page or the "Saya Zahra" page, he said. – July 15, 2015.