By Beatrix Kang Yin Suet & Farah Liyana Roslee
On 16 November 2018, Vox Populi, the politics club of HMC held its inaugural public speaking competition and forum. The event took place at the auditorium of KPD A and was held in collaboration with the Public Relations students of HMC.
The politics club was formed with an objective to enhance political literacy and youth participation in our democracy, in line with the changing political climate of New Malaysia. The lack of knowledge in world affairs is a fundamental challenge in the process of building informed opinions. The more students read, respond, and wrangle with complex global issues, the more compelled they are to understand the importance of growing inequality, poverty, war, conflict, economy, and foreign policy.
The event started with the public speaking competition. There were six participants from HMC and topics were given beforehand to them. The topics were social and economic consequences of compulsory PTPTN repayments, the Cabinet’s decision to lower the voting age from 21-18 years old, the Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto to return Sabah and Sarawak’s autonomy under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, and plans to limit the tenure of the Prime Minister to two terms. Most participants were well prepared and presented their arguments on the given topics. After much deliberation, Sharafina Razin was crowned the winner of the public speaking competition and took home RM500.
The competition was followed by a public forum entitled New Malaysia: What’s Next. The forum featured Prof Dr Geoffery Williams. A graduate of the University of Cambridge. He has held academic positions at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and the University of London. His extensive research has been covered in the media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal & Bloomberg. The second panellist was Mr Mark Goh, a law lecturer. He practiced law before joining the academia. His work has also been published by the Legal Review as well as the Commonwealth Lawyer UK. The final panellist of the day was Ms Nur Qyira Yusry, the co- founder of Undi 18, a movement to lower the voting age in Malaysia to 18. She helped form various student associations for Malaysia in the US while pioneering many student projects. The forum was moderated by Vox Populi’s Ashley Danielle Ch’ng Sze Huei. Current issues such as economic policies of the new government, institutional reforms, corruption, Malaysia’s 4th Industrial Revolution were some of the topics discussed during the forum. Students were keen to ask questions and share the views on the current political scenario of the country.
The event created an ideal platform for intellectual exchange through differing opinions and discussions. As we move forward, we hope to create more opportunities for students to interact with activists and analysts from various fields and be the voice of change in the future.
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