User:Hizzilitis/Rajib Ghani

Associate Professor Mohd Rajib bin Abdul Ghani (born 6 December 1953) is a Malaysian lecturer, scholar, liberal and political theorist. Rajib has been outspoken throughout most of his life, holding to a universalist world view, he advocated various changes to Malaysian society, education and politics throughout his life. Namely, efforts to increase liberalism, transparency and to ready the Malaysian community for the challenges of globalization.

Rajib is the co-author of Strategic Communications (Psyops, Information Operation and Public Diplomacy) - The Relationship between Governmental 'Information' Activities in The Post 9/11 World (2006) along with Prof. Dr. Philip M. Taylor, University of Leeds.

Currently, he serves as the director of the Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies at Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia.

Early Life
Rajib was born in Alor Setar, Kedah on the 6th of Disember 1953 to a family of Islamic religious background. His father, Abdul Ghani, was a pugilist for the British aristocracy in pre-independence Malaya. He fought such names as Kid Pancho and Kid Cabanella during his boxing years. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, he worked as a train operator. He sent Rajib to the Alor Setar National School (Malay: Sekolah Kebangsaan Alor Setar) and there Rajib studied until reaching Form 3.

Wandering Years
After finishing Form 3, Rajib didn't decide to continue with his education within Malaysia. Instead, he made the choice to go traveling. Through hitchhiking, walking and working odd-jobs to save up money, he managed to wind his way through Asia and South America to arrive in the United States. There, in San Pablo, California, he was adopted and his adopted parents sent him to school at Berkeley High School.

Tertiary Education
After graduating from Berkeley, Rajib enrolled at the Antioch University of San Fransico in 1979. There he received his baccalaureate degree in Journalism. In 1982, he enrolled in the University of Colombia and two years later graduated in 1984 with a master's degree in Journalism.

Return to Malaysia and Political Activism
After gaining his master's degree, Rajib returned to Malaysia and got a job as a journalism lecturer at Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM). He joined MITASA, ITM's academic staff union and rose to the rank of union leader. He held the office for 10 years, demanding more equitable salaries for staff, encouraging lecturers to be more involved in writing and publication, resisting the usurpation of non-academic activities in institutes of higher learning and working towards upgrading ITM's status to full university.

Rajib wanted to make Malays more independent from government financial aid, seeing it as a double-edged sword. Furthermore, he also wanted to liberalize their thinking, replacing backward superstitions and religious dogma with logic and reason. He wanted to create an intelligent Malaysian society capable of meeting the challenges of today's global society.