An Inspiring Address- MSLS

For those who had known me personally, you know I have this 'activist' kind of personality. I get excited when there is a volunteer program or an event where I can make a difference; especially youth development program.


So when my blogger friend/ uncanny twin, Syaza/Nazu told me about the 6th Malaysian Student Leader Summit, the decision was clear. 


I'm definitely going to participate in this event.


So flash forward to the day itself, I woke up early despite sleeping really late last night (Regretted every second of it) I even had thoughts to just sleep and screw this Summit thing.


But when my dad send me to Intercontinental Hotel my fate was sealed; I'm still going through with this event.


So flash forward once again, and I'm in the grand ballroom of the hotel. I met a few interesting people and strangely enough, I'm among the youngest one there. (And they say I look 25...What the?)

That 'epic' spell check error

The theme of the Summit is:

The Malaysian Metamorphosis 

It has a nice ring to it imo. :3

Then, Tunku Zain Al-Abidin, President of IDEAS (And my new-founded idol) gave his opening speech which in my opinion, very very very inspiring, witty, frank and straight to the point.

I will be copy pasting my Evernote post of his speech and will be commenting on the points in italics.

"Embracing the Future, preserving the past" by YAM Tunku Zain Al-Abidin ibni Tuanku Mukhriz

"Stand out of respect, not out of order"

He started off with this statement referring to the event when students rise up to greet him. He told us to stand up due to respect of the said person, not just because the person is a politician or a man in power. A truly butt hurt statement.

The embrace the future part is easy. But preserving the past is hard

Everyone wants to fight for the future but we tend to forget about the past. We are ignorant of the past and merely depend on the school textbooks for historical facts which he argued may or may not be true

Rote learning for history is bad

He believes that Arts and Science stream should be hand in hand, not viewing one is superior or inferior to the other. This is because, due to the overemphasis on the Science stream and the social perception of 'Science Stream being superior than the Arts stream' led into several kinds of social phenomenon like the ignorance of our own country's history and culture.

He argues that Arts shouldn't be ignored. He laments that today's generation don't know the steps of Zapin and the tuning for Cak Lem Pong (I got butt hurt because I didn't know)

Controversial topic should be discussed, not avoided, avoiding is a form of ignorance

We often hear people say "Weyh, benda camni tak boleh bincang, nanti ISA tangkap," Well, Tunku said that is a form of ignorance and we all know that ignorance is the inhibitor of change. When we discuss on a topic, we shed more light to the truth behind it as you can exchange views and ideas, giving you a wider perspective to the said topic. However, as Farquar Haqqani cite in his remarkable article: 'Debating in Malaysia', We are prone to debate destructively rather than constructively. This caused our debates to be driven by emotions and the need to see the other crumble to our argument, not to know more and see the truth. I think this way of debating is why we don't discuss these topics openly; people are prone to emotions and go out of control.

Political and social progress should be hand in hand

I once heard a quote that says : "The leaders up there is the reflection of its people." The way I interpret it is that, if you want a great leader to lead the political scene, you need to change the society to be great to. If you want progress in politics, you should have progress in society too. A great leader won't be miraculous appears from a society that is a far cry of it, wouldn't it?

Controversial books, videos are ban. Why?

Same thing why we don't discuss controversial issues openly. People here are driven with emotions and the last thing we need is a catalyst to cause more divide. But think, once the damage has been done, actions need to be taken to forge it back together which includes addressing the issue from both side of the divide. Once the issues being addressed, a best solution could be decided. Won't it be a better world if it is like this?

Labels can be politicize and cause divide

Malaysia was not a product if strife, not united

We are not as free as the past

Politician must be loyal to the rakyat, not the political leader

If you want to mature politicaly, we need practice when we are young

For that above points, I really don't have much comment on that due to lack of knowledge (Or, I'm just plain lazy)

Argh, I really having problems with time constraint to post about this topic.

Will be updating more soon