‘STUDENTS CAN DEFINE MALAYSIA’
We can use best global practices, says Khairy
LONDON with the theme “Where Aspirations Take Flight: Reaching out to First-Year Freshies”.
The dialogue was attended by more than 300 Malaysian students from universities in the United Kingdom at the University College London.
Present was Datuk Ahmad Rasidi Hazizi, the Malaysian high commissioner to the UK and Northern Ireland.
The session, which was the second for the minister after his meeting with Malaysian students in Edinburgh, lasted more than two hours, where he heard about 38 aspirations from students.
“When we talk about cleanliness and discipline, the best practice may be in Japan. If we talk about best practices in welfare, looking after people, we look at the Scandinavian countries.
“For engineering precision, we look at Germany, and for entrepreneurship and business, we look at the Silicon Valley.
“We can map them back to our Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin at a Transformasi Nasional 2050 dialogue in London yesterday.
country. There are some things that you like in the UK, so use this opportunity to define the future of our country,” he added.
“I am truly excited by the aspirations expressed by the students. They were certainly highquality aspirations, they spoke in detail and are well-informed about issues that they raised. So, I am very impressed,” added the minister after the session.
The 30-year initiative mooted by the prime minister is said to be at the “listening stage”, where engagements with the diaspora around the world had been held by ministers over the past few months.
During the first face-to-face engagement with the students, apart from Skype sessions, the minister heard issues such as unity, brain drain, nation branding, education, as well as the question of the family unit in line with that of the future workplace and practices.
The minister noted that many students spoke on the quality of life of the family institution and about the possibility of a longer weekend to give more time for the family to get together.
“We don’t really need to be in the workplace from nine to five. With technology, we could do our
work anywhere and in 20 or 30 years’ time, this will be a reality,” he said, adding that in the future workplaces and with new work practices, families will have more quality time with each other.
“A strengthened family institution is actually the first defence in solving the problems in our society,” he said, referring to the problems of incest and bullying that is a growing concern now.
“When we have more time with the family, the stress at work will be less, with the aid of technology. Our ties with the family will be closer and I believe this will help strengthen the social values of our society,” he added.
About the rebranding of Malaysia, Khairy said while the current campaign of Malaysia Truly Asia was effective, we needed to promote the country more and reclaim some of the country’s best assets that had been claimed by others.
Answering comments on brain drain, he said that there was no problem with brain drain as long as students who aspired to work overseas continued to contribute back to the country.
“My own take away from this session is that I am optimistic if this is the level of thoughtfulness, of care and passion, of ideas, that
our young people have, I think there is a lot of reason to be hopeful for Malaysia in 2050, “he said.
Speaking about his own aspirations, the minister said he wanted the country to be the top 20 country in the world in human development index, in terms of people’s well being, health, access to education, access to economic opportunities, competitiveness, trade, investments, income per capita, and universities.
He admitted that some were more difficult than others to realise, while there were some realistic ones.
“My last comment to you is never give up on our country, never give up on the future, and make sure that we have a Malaysia that we aspire towards.”
He said he would be submitting a report on the aspirations that had been expressed.
“Next year, the final policy documents will be announced by the prime minister. I want you to read that document because in that document, you will find your ideas. Maybe not exactly how you said it, but you will find your ideas, and when you see your ideas as a policy document as a signpost for the future, then you will have an incentive to make sure that it happens,” said Khairy.