Malaysia Public Policy Competition 2011

A friend still in university, with Kian Ming's advice, has initiated a public policy competition for Malaysian youth. This is the sort of initiative and independence which more of our students should have. Registration has closed, and now almost 50 teams from a variety of schools and universities are competing for 16 spots in the final, where public policymakers will judge their ideas. The final round, to be held at UCSI University, looks like it will be exciting, even if you aren't participating -- how often do you get to hear 16 teams of Malaysian youth putting their policy suggestions out there for actual policymakers to listen to and critique?

The final will be held on Sunday 4 September, 2 to 5:30PM at the UCSI University North Wing, Kuala Lumpur Campus, in Cheras. The judges include the Chief Commissioner of the MACC, and the Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly. For more details and to guarantee a seat at the final, visit: http://malaysiapublicpolicycompetition.blogspot.com/p/audience-registration.html

For more general information about the competition, including a list of teams, see http://www.malaysiapublicpolicycompetition.blogspot.com/

50 Years, 50 Heroes: Young Malaysians You Need to Know

A quick note from Andrew Loh who's promoting the above competition ;)

theCICAK has launched its second annual writing competition with the theme 50 Years, 50 Heroes: Young Malaysians You Need to Know in conjunction with Malaysia's 50th Merdeka Day.

Prizes worth RM 1,000 are up for grabs and the top 50 stories will be published into a book!

All one has to do is write about an unsung Malaysian hero between 12 and 29 years of age who has persevered against the odds to succeed or helped his community in unique ways that has not been previously highlighted. The story should not be more than 1000 words in English or Malay, and must be accompanied with a photograph of the hero.

People can choose anyone at all to be their heroes. Just as long as they tell us why he or she is one. Tell us about something heroic that the hero has done and justify it: theCICAK welcomes liberal interpretations of heroism and looks forward to reading he public's take on this competition's theme.

Judges include Jeff Ooi and Marina Mahathir.The submissions deadline is July 15th.

Check out the competition website for more details. These are what the Star and Tinkosong has to say about it.

HPAIR Conferences 2007

The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) invites you to participate in our annual summer student conference in Asia.

HPAIR is a partnership between the students and faculty of Harvard University, offering a sustained academic program and a forum of exchange to facilitate discussion of the most important economic, political, and social issues relevant to the Asia-Pacific region.

This year, the event will be held between August 17-20th in Beijing.

HPAIR's international conference has emerged as the largest annual Harvard event in Asia and the largest annual student conference in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting a wide variety of distinguished speakers and future leaders as Harvard's student outpost in Asia. Past speakers at our conferences include former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Singapore President S.R. Nathan, Secretary-General of ASEAN Ong Keng Yong, and former Japanese Finance Minister Heizo Takanaka.

Both delegates and papers are welcome! The theme will be Engaging Asia: Discourse and Dialogue. More details are available on their website. You can also make your application online before March 15th.

The Workshop Topics include:

• Economic Growth in Asia and its Effects on Society
• Comparative Notions of Leadership
• Understanding Security Issues in East Asia
• Inequality and Social Policy in Asia
• Asia's Information Society
• Popular Culture in Asia

In addition, HPAIR Academic Conference will offer delegates opportunities to participate in field trips, visits to our host schools, and gala dinner.

For those interested, there is also a Business Conference (as opposed to the Academic Conference above) which will be held on 24th-26th August in Hong Kong, co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong.

The HPAIR Business Conference now invites all university students to apply to participate as conference delegates. Graduate students, post-graduate students and professionals are also welcome to apply as a regular delegate.

More information is available on the business conference website. Similarly, applications need to be submitted before 15th March 2007.

For any inquiries about HPAIR, please feel free to email help@hpair.org. Or alternatively, contact Sriram Krishnan @ sriramkri (at) gmail.com.