Projek Amanat Negara XIII

XIIII

5th march 2016 University of Edinburgh & Imperial College London

1

Contents AGENDA 3 foreword 4 introduction 7 science 8 economics 10 corporate 12 Entrepreneurship 14 politics 16 our sponsors 18 Acknowledgements 19

2

AGENDA 08.30am-09.30am

Arrival of Guests and Delegates

09.30am-10.15am Welcoming address by : Collaborating Malaysian student societies

Director of Projek Amanat Negara XIII 2016 (Edinburgh) Chairperson of UKEC (London) 10.20am-11.20am Session 1: Transcending the Scientifically Known: Malaysia’s Interstellar Hope 11.25am-12.25am

Session 2 - TPPA: Boon or Bane?

12.35pm-13.05pm

Breakout Session

13.05pm-14.30pm Lunch & Prayer time Networking 14.30pm-15.30pm

Session 3 - Women in the Corporate World

15.35pm-16.25pm

Session 4 - Breaking Boundaries: Startups

16.30pm-18.00pm

Session 5 - Malaysian Democracy: Where is it Now and Where is it Headed?

8.00pm

End of PAN XIII 2016

3

foreword It is with great honour that I write this foreword at the culmination of months of hard work in making the 13th Projek Amanat Negara (PAN) a success and, hopefully, an impact. I’d like to welcome all of you to this year’s session. Whether you’re reading this in Edinburgh, London or at home while tuning in to our livestream, I hope you find the sessions today both informative and inspiring as well as helpful in discovering and engaging with new ideas. On behalf of UKEC, I thank you all for your participation and contributions to this year’s PAN. The future of these ideas truly rest in our hands, and it is with this notion that I hope this year’s Projek Amanat Negara will resonate with you.

Yours truly, Daniel Subramaniam UKEC Chairperson 2015/2016

4

foreword Greetings to all fellow Malaysians, Over the years, Projek Amanat Negara (PAN) has evolved in significance and in numbers. UKEC will improve this year’s PAN by focusing more on student engagement and inclusiveness of Malaysians in the UK. We will be introducing new features such as the first ever double venue Projek Amanat Negara, and the inclusion of Science and breakout sessions to cater to the interests of different stakeholders of UKEC. These new features ideally enhance the theme of Projek Amanat Negara XIII, ‘Inspiring YOUth, Breaking Boundaries’. PAN is going beyond its sole purpose of inspiring youths through intellectual discourses by breaking boundaries at the same time, through its new initiatives of improving the quality of the conference and student engagement.

My hopes for PAN is that it will be the perfect avenue for youths to learn and benefit from by engaging in the discussions and challenging the speakers in the most intellectual way possible as this is all part of developing future leaders of Malaysia.

Yours truly, Amir Hafiz Director of Projek Amanat Negara XIII

5

PROJEK AMANAT NEGARA xii

6

introduction

TO PROJEK AMANAT NEGARA (pan)

Projek Amanat Negara (PAN) has served as a platform for honest and open discussions on important issues that Malaysians are currently facing since its inception in 2004.

UKEC hopes that this conference will not only expose students to different perspectives brought to them first-hand by experts of their fields but also encourage them to voice out and discuss these issues amongst their peers, thus cultivating awareness of national issues.

Having achieved an established audience, our next step is to extend our reach by introducing the first ever double-venue PAN. The chosen venues, Edinburgh and London, are strategically located for students from all around the UK to attend.

We have also added a Science session to reflect the interests and passions of our increasingly diverse audience. The breakout sessions are meant to gather students with different perspectives to discuss about the ideas presented at PAN in smaller focused groups.

These new exciting features demonstrate how we are trying to go beyond the norm to keep our best interests at heart – Malaysian students around the UK and ultimately, you.

Hence this year, we present to you Projek Amanat Negara XIII 2016 “Inspiring YOUths, Breaking Boundaries”.

7

amanat negara :

science This year’s Projek Amanat Negara for the year 2016 opens up the frontiers of science to the public – despite a related field or not. The speaker, Dr Dhesi Baha Raja - is not at all a foreign face: his involvement within the areas of medicine and technology surpass most usual practitioners. Combining both fields, he has managed to pioneer epidemiological software aimed at detecting and reducing diseases.

The tagline comes in two parts; Transcending the Scientifically Known and Malaysia’s Interstellar Hope - both of which has its own meaning. The former, relates to the sentiment that Malaysia should move forward beyond the usual boundaries of “known” science, first by mastering the basics and then investing human capital into developing areas of science which has yet to be discovered. It might not happen anytime soon, but the goal is to aim higher than to simply just rest on our laurels. The latter, is a symbolic phrase to signify the abundance and intensity of the hope we should continue to act on; more than just what lies on earth, but till the extent of outer space.

8

In a nutshell, research and development is the major niche that will be touched on in this session. Dr Dhesi’s talk to you will be divided into 3 minor parts:

as opposed to the present mere 12.4%?

[Source: Annual report: Public Awareness towards Science, Technology and Innovation, 2014]

i) The future of science:- where he will briefly guide you through the advancement of scientific fields such as nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, robotics and how it represents an unparalleled shift in how our world will work from now on using his own experiences on utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict deadly outbreaks for Malaysia and Brazil for the Rio Olympics 2016,

This talk will open up your perception to the fact that science is not at all a specialty but only requires certain basics to understand. Science is all around us, making up the fundamental building blocks of our universe, our life. To give you a taste of how fast science is moving, take a look at the video below, and come to the session with an open mind - and questions, if there is any.

ii) an insight on the current landscape of R&D in Malaysia by comparing it to some counterpart countries. This is akin to the comparison of R&D intensity but without the complexity of statistics and numbers.

He will address what he thinks to be the main challenges that our nation faces within the global arena and what are the steps that will be needed to catapult Malaysia to the international stage.

Finally, iii) a more personal note in delivering the importance of increasing scientific literacy amongst the Malaysian society. How would we create a shift from the current status quo of 74.5% not knowing that “antibiotics do not kill viruses, only bacteria� within the general population.

How can we increase the percentage of the population that are very interested in learning about new scientific discoveries,

9

amanat negara :

TPPA: BOON OR BANE?

economics

During the economic session, Mr Firdaos Rosli will explaine about the economic implications of this Agreement and also the economic outlook of Malaysia in greater detail.

With a lot of controversies and comments recently with regards to the implementation of the Agreement, Projek Amanat Negara seeks to shed some light in this area that affects our economy in a plethora of ways. This economic session hopes to engage attendees on the possible economic ramifications of this agreement on Malaysia’s economic landscape particularly. Hence, in order to ensure a more engaging discussion with Mr. Firdaos Rosli, Projek Amanat Negara would like to highlight a few key points pertinent to TPPA.

WHAT IS IT?

TPPA also known as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is essentially a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that comprises as of now 12 countries namely United States of America, Mexico, Malaysia. The TPP is a very comprehensive trade agreement that allows its participants the market access to approximately 40% of the world’s output. Since the start of the discussion of this agreement in 2009, there has been a lot of controversies surrounding and this is particularly apparent given the fact that the content of the Agreement was not publicly shown until recently. Recently, the Malaysian government passed 10 the bill in Parliament to allow Malaysia to be part of this agreement which may change the economic and political landscape of Malaysia significantly.

What are the contents of this What are the main disadvanagreement? tages of the TPPA? There are 30 chapters of this agreement which includes many aspects of the economy, which also extends to Bumiputera Rights. Some of the chapters include rules and regulations of government procurement, trades of good and services, financial services and also investments.

TPPA may lead to government having to adhere to specific rules and regulations set by the agreement which may infringe lead to the government being vulnerable to being sued by foreign companies if the government were to pass a law which may affect the profitability or the welfare of the companies.

The 30 chapters of the Agreement can be found here: https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-tradeagreements/trans-pacific-partnership/tpp-fulltext

TPPA may also expose SMEs in Malaysia to extremely competitive environment and it is feared that these companies may not be able to enjoy the whole benefit this agreement seeks to achieve and may also even affect their profitability and sustainability in the long run.

What are the main benefits to Malaysia from this agreement?

The reduction in tariff is also imposed on Malaysia. This may cause our trade surplus to shrink in the coming years post-implementation. This is because with the expected growth in income and also GDP, the demand for imported goods which are now cheaper are likely to increase and this may be detrimental to the economy.

The TPPA will lead to an increase in the GDP by about 0.6-1.15%. This is equivalent to an increase of $107bn - $211bn in nominal terms from 2018 to 2027. The opportunity cost of not being part of this agreement is the lost in GDP of over -12bn max over the period of 2018 to 2027.

The TPPA may also have a negative effect on the relationship that has been fostered beThe TPPA will lead to significant reductions on tween Malaysia and China as it can be pertariffs between participative countries in vari- ceived that Malaysia is forging a better trade ous goods and services namely textile, auto- agreement with the Western Superpower, the motive components and also electronics. This United States of America. will cause exports and imports to increase between member countries.

Pharmaceutical prices and medicines will also increase under this agreement as there stronTPPA will lead to an increase in foreign direct ger intellectual property protection and will investment into Malaysia of $136bn -$239bn also delay these new medicines entering the over 2018 to 2027. An increase in FDIs will market. This may be of a large concern for Maspur better economic growth within the coun- laysian especially when we consider the fact try as it accelerates job creation. Wage growth that our standard of living is lower relative to are expected to increase for both skilled and these larger countries like the US. unskilled labour.

11

amanat negara :

corporate

Based on the current situation in Malaysia, studies show that despite several women figures having made significant progress to top management, there still remains an invisible barrier to achieve board level positions.

The Malaysian Government felt that something had to be done to increase the presence of women in the boardroom. Thus, in 2011, the Government announced a challenging target for the private sectors, which is to ensure the involvement of at least 30% of women in decision making positions by 2016.

The pronounced gender gap in the boardroom led to a strong push from the government, such as training high potential women to be board-ready as well as creating several public forums where businesses are encouraged to understand the value of placing capable women on boards. The target and collective efforts have placed Malaysia on the world map as one of the most progressive countries in Asia in supporting women in leadership.

Yet, some say that a challenging target like this is insufficient and a mandated quota is necessary for any real change to happen.

12

A quota may help to encourage more conscious efforts on the part of companies, boards and authorities to get more women into leadership positions. Yet, arguably, quotas are insufficient as well; companies need to think beyond women in the boardroom and to go back to the starting point – by plugging the female talent leakage at all levels.

The phenomenon of women leaving the workforce is a brain drain and if companies do not address the root cause of this issue, they would be troubled to address the boardroom composition issue.

There is a whole host of factors that affect a woman’s career progression which meritocracy alone doesn’t address. Studies show that culture, society, emotional and biological pressures play a role too.

Generally, Malaysians still tend to be a bit more traditional in their thinking; the idea that women will still carry the role of managing the household – no matter what position they hold at work – can be a burden. In addition to that, the unconscious “old boys” network does keep women out and it can make it tougher for a woman to break into their circles.

Companies need to be sensitive to women and to think about how women can be integrated into the board and/or senior management.

Encouragingly, attitudes held by men regarding the role of women in the family and in the workplace have changed with time. Men are starting to voice out their need to be more involved in supporting their families and on the other hand, company leaders want to see more women in the company.

The situation today has improved compared to the early 1990s. The landscape has certainly changed for the better. As diversity is being discussed more among leaders of companies and with the addition of support by government initiatives, there is greater recognition of the capabilities of women, which leads to greater opportunities to climb the corporate ladder. Women now need to seize the opportunities that are being presented and they need to be courageous in taking up the challenges.

Joining us today is Dato Sharifah Sofianny, one of the directors of PETRONAS Malaysia.

13

amanat negara :

Entrepreneurship Following the theme for Project Amanat Negara this year, we have invited two inspiring young entrepreneurs to share their experience on how they took up the challenges to start up their own company and motivate students to break their boundaries by entering entrepreneurship. Below are the introductions of the companies and products of the speakers.

Musaddiq Adam Bin Muhtar – Founder of Learn{x}

Learn{x} was born out of the need for a non-intrusive and intellectually conducive environment for learning and collaborative work. We believe that people are not engaging enough in their latent interests, due to lack of interactivity and lateral breadth of contents online. Through an educational content aggregator and social network platform, their vision is to create a culture of knowledge searching and sharing amongst online users. Learn{x} aims to enhance peer-assisted self-learning experience and aggregate informational, high quality and engaging academic-related videos, many of which have not received the attention they deserve, particularly those in which were created with tremendous effort, precision, and substantially informational. There are plenty of YouTube channels dedicated to this. Crash Course, Veritasium, MinutePhysics, Vihart, MIT OCW, Kurzgesagt, TED-Ed... these are just a handful from a multitude of YouTube channel choices.

14

Via an interactive neural network platform, users can construct their own compilations of videos in the form of a graph, with thumbnails of the videos as nodes. In short, nodes are connected to each other according to their similarities but spaced out enough to give you the bigger picture. The mechanics of this system gives rise to an inherently intuitive tree-graph that is easy to understand and use. Additionally, users themselves will be able to construct out new branches within the system wherever they see an interesting pathway (a playlist of videos in a tree-graph setting) or easily follow the learning progress of the others and identify those with overlapping interests. The dynamics of the interactions will at the same time reduce self-reliance among the users in the process of discovering the right content. The combination of algorithmic-based suggestions and peer generated pathways provides a rich, diverse range of video playlists to enjoy from.

Our vision is to give rise to a generation of students benefitting from exposure of seeing the bigger picture whilst exploring in depth their deepest passions. In years to come, it is likely that we see more unique jobs emerge such as mathematical biologists, behavioural financiers, computer music composer/coder or even astro-economists.

Tan Jia Shern – Founder of Hyve

Hyve is a Bluetooth 4.0 tracking device built with the intention of keeping your personal belongings close to you at all times. The hardware startup received product development funding in late 2014 from venture capital firm, Infinite Ventures. Further funding and resources were also given by the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) in early 2015.

15

amanat negara :

politics

Malaysia today seems to be at the crossroads - we are experiencing an extremely turbulent time not only in terms of societal divisions, arguably the largest since any time after independence, but also in our democracy and institutions.

However, contrary to popular belief, there are more people than ever, from every race, religion and community, working to save our long-cherished multiculturalism, national cohesion and its august political foundation.

To understand the state of our democracy is today, however, we need to evaluate how it was before. Contemporarily, we look to the Mahathir-era and the changes he made under his administration, which undoubtedly affects us today. But the start of how our political institutions were developed reaches back to colonial times, and to get a better understanding of how Parliament and the first-past-the-post works, we need to realise how they were formed, and how they have affected us.

16

How do political parties use the system to their advantage? How are they taken advantaged by it? Which communities benefit from these structures and which do not? What policies have been implemented in Malaysia’s past, and what has resulted of them - if they are relevant at all?

These are pressing present-day issues that we can only comprehend given a good grasp of our political institutions and political past. From there, we will be able to see chart our future, and if possible, seize it.

Thinking of the future, beyond political institutions, reformation and policies, we can imagine that our country will be successful not just from uncaring institutions, but the people themselves. How has politics shaped social relations from the grassroots?

We must be careful, though, when we talk about society. Often times we look to our own stories to view our country. But Malaysia is a country of many stories - Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Dayak, rich, poor, urban, rural, and every combination of it has a different (and perfectly legitimate) perspective, which we usually have never heard of, be they from Selangor or Sarawak.

We have with us three esteemed professors who have done immense research into the societies of Malaysia. We hope that we can learn something from them today about Malaysia, beyond our own understanding.

17

our sponsors

18

Acknowledgement UKEC would like to acknowledge the following for their contribution and assistance for Projek Amanat Negara: Distinguished speakers Edinburgh Malaysian Students’ Association (EMSA) Imperial College Union Malaysian Society (ICUMS) Moderators Delegates

19