Tuesday, August 2, 2011

MSLS 2011 : "Piecing Together the Malaysian Puzzle"

Assalamu'alaikum w.b.t. 


This time around, I want to share my experience about Malaysian Student Leaders Summit (MSLS) that I attended recently.
It was organised by United Kingdom and EIRE Council of Malaysians Students (UKEC). It was my first time attending such summit and I am sure that wouldn't be my last. I will attend MSLS again in the future. 
At MSLS, we had forums, speeches and group discussions. The panels and speakers included some prominent figures in Malaysia, to name a few ; Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi (UITM Constitutional Law Professor)YB Senator Datuk Seri Idris Jala (CEO of PEMANDU) , Rafizi Ramli (Director of Strategies of Parti Keadilan Rakyat) , Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah (Deputy Minister of Higher Education)YB Khairy Jamaluddin, (Chairman of Barisan Nasional Youth), YB Nurul Izzah Anwar (Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai) and our new "TRANSFORMER" YAB Dato' Sri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak.


There were six main topics highlighted during the summit :


  • Human Capital Development
  • Malaysian Constitution
  • Public Policy
  • Malaysian Economy
  • Civil Societies 
  • Malaysian Politics


Just a brief conclusion for each topics from my point of view. 

Human Capital Development
Some of the issues addressed under this topic were brain drain, Malaysian edu system, talent management and employment. Brain drain is a serious problem that Malaysia is facing currently. Millions of professionals Malaysians are working overseas and coming back to serve Malaysia was never been their thoughts. TalentCorp is established by the government to handle this problem. To quote a part of what CEO of TalentCorp said, in my own word, in addressing this problem, " serving the nation is not about working in the country only, you can still  contribute to Malaysia by bringing back businesses to the nation from where you are staying....". For M'sian edu system, many reckon that it needs to be revised by abolishing vernacular schools and include soft-skill subject in the syllabus and I second that. In conclusion, human capital is the most important element in nation building process. You can have vast land, large oilfield and thousands of gold, but without human capital all these mean nothing. 

Malaysian Constitution
During this session, the forum was extra interesting with the presence of Tan Sri Speaker Dewan Rakyat, Prof Shad and Edmund Bon. Most of the talking was related to Internal Security Act 1960(ISA), Emergency Ordinance 1969(EO), Sedition Act 1948 and the eventful July 9 2011. What caught my attention most in this session was Prof Shad and his thought regarding ISA.. " It is only Allah that has the total power to detain people without any trial, not us, human" (again, in my own word). Another point that is quite outstanding and should be given attention by the government is the suggestion by Edmund Bon to include the study of M'sian Consti in school's syllabus. From my observation, I can say that majority of other races dislike I*****m A** and Ut***n M***yu, judging from some of the questions posed by the participants. This might be because of their provocative approach towards certain issues in this country. In a nutshell, for M'sian consti session I admire Prof Shad. His views and opinions showed that they came from his mind that holds a firm principle : what is right should always be right, and what is wrong should always be wrong, never ever talk to purposely pleased a party. :)


Public Policy
In this part, the main focus was on TRANSFORMATION. Before that, fyi, Rafizi Ramli, whom I admire was one of the panels :). Back to the topic. The session was focusing more on Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and New Economic Model (NEM) since there was this PEMANDU CEO present for this session. It's YB Datuk Seri Idris Jala. So, what do we have in GTP and ETP? Of course, no other things than the famous 6+1 NKRAs and 12 NKEAs. We were presented with some details of what the government has and hasn't delivered from the promises stated in NKRAs. Besides those, the best part was that when Rafizi Ramli narrated about some efforts done by Selangor Government that enables them to "put back" quite a huge sum of money in the pockets of the rakyat by following guidelines/policies stated in their own economic model called BUKU JINGGA. On top of that, there were a few questions asked pertaining the issues of MyEmail and RM1.8 million that was spent by Ministry of Tourism on the so called facebook page lately. My review : it's all about transformation towards the betterment of the country, what matters most is 'What is/are the best yet effective way/s to make all the intended changes become a reality'... 

Civil Societies
We had three activists and one politician talking about civil society. What was supposed to be a forum/dialogue session turned out being 3 vs 1. Haha. Why? Because most of the activists, representing different CSOs were pointing their fingers toward the government for the lack of support given by them. Unfortunately, the politician was the Deputy Higher Education minister, Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah who apparently forced to be the sole government's representative for the session. The activists voiced out that the current government hasn't done much in aiding CSOs/NGOs in Malaysia. On top of that, they said that they were having though times, fighting to find their footing in the country due to certain government's policies that block them from certain things needed to empower their movements. Meanwhile, Dato' Saif was urging the civil society movement, business and government to synergise with each other in order to propel things forward. Besides those, the issue of low public awareness about CSOs was also being talked about. But, the limelight for the session was regarding the UUCA 1971(AUKU - Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti). Students are not happy with the Act because it poses some strict restrictions on the students which is deemed unnecessary. They called for the abolishment of Section 15 of the UUCA 1971 because section 15 of the Act prohibits University and College University student to participate in any political party and employees union. There are a few more things in section 15 but they just highlighted these two major restrictions. Pheww... I think that's quite a lot for one topic.. To wrap up,   all of us who are very lucky and talented must be very grateful and we should have the will to, one day, help others who are not as lucky as we are. About the UUCA, I also have the same thought as Dato' Saif that the government should delete section 15 from the act and I believe if they do so, they will see tremendous improvement in local universities besides allowing more talented young Malaysians to proof that they are able to become the future leaders of this nation. 



I'm done!! hehe.. About Malaysian Politics and Malaysian Economics, truth be told, I barely remember anything.. I don't know why.. Maybe I was too excited to see Nurul Izzah Anwar in person for the first time... Haha.. What I can recall, Izzah and Khairy Jamaluddin had some sort of debate.. Actually, it's not a debate..It's just that Izzah was wrapping up the session since the moderator gave her one last chance to speak, but this guy ah (KJ) interrupted her, it was quite rude because he didn't respect Izzah's time. His time had passed but still he wanted to defend himself and the BN's government since Izzah was talking about some flaws maybe.. can't really recall..sorry..haha.. well, that's all I can share.. thanks for your time.. :)




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