Mubarak wants more Indian, Chinese in Undergraduate Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR: More involvement from the Indian and Chinese undergraduates is needed in the next Undergraduate Parliament as the involvement from this group during the current session was very small, said the president of the Malaysian Association of Former Elected Representatives (Mubarak) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Rahman.

The third session of the Undergraduate Parliament Session 2017, to be held tomorrow until Thursday, will see 210 undergraduates participating. They comprise 200 students from 20 public institutions of higher learning and 10 from private institutions of higher learning.

“There are 10 students from each institute, but not many Chinese and Indian. That is a parameter. If you are not involved (in activities), you just study and study. Then you don’t surface as a leader.

“I want to reflect a profiling population, somehow this is not possible.

“Last year was also the same, Chinese about 10, Indians about 11 to 12,” he told Bernama after closing the Undergraduate Parliament’s Training Workshop and Debate Simulation, here yesterday.

Describing the workshop as being successful in giving an exposure on the running of the Malaysian Parliament and knowledge on methods of debate and the tabling of motions to the students concerned, Abdul Aziz said the former elected representatives shared their knowledge and information with the students.

“Soft skills are still lacking, we want to equate academic achievement with personality (for the Undergraduate Parliament) as a whole,” he said.

The workshop aimed to give exposure on the Parliament Session including ethics and Parliament procedure, learning ways of preparing materials for debate in Parliament, tabling of motions and participating in the full-dress rehearsal of the Parliamentary session.

He said there were undergraduates who showed an interest in politics and leadership.

“They are potential graduates. They’ve got the knowledge. Basically their analytical mind is more than the youths but they must have proper manners and ethics (in Parliament),” he said. - Bernama