Youth and Sports Minister, YB Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, received a warm welcome during his first visit to the Cyberjaya campus on 17 December, 2018 where he met with Founder President, Tan Sri Dato' Sri Paduka Dr Limkokwing, and the Senior Management Team of the University to discuss youth empowerment in Malaysia.
YB Syed Saddiq, Malaysia’s youngest cabinet minister in history, arrived promptly at 10 am and was taken on a guided tour of the Presidential Library, and the Centre for Content Creation (CCC) where he was briefed on the educational games being developed on campus.
The Minister said he was impressed with the games being developed and was open to facilitating connections with relevant parties who are now revamping the country’s education system.
“It is very difficult to find those who specialise in customising games in Malaysia. Keep up the great work!” said YB Syed Saddiq.
Following the campus tour, the Minister met up with Tan Sri Limkokwing and Senior VPs to discuss various possibilities of empowering young people, including building national unity through sports.
“I call the youth a power generation because of their ability to affect real change in a lot of different areas. I feel that young people should step forward now. This place (Limkokwing University) is also called United Nations because we have students from over 160 countries here and more than 80% of our students are foreigners,” said Tan Sri Limkokwing.
He added that every year Limkokwing students organise a cultural festival that is “very peaceful even though their home countries might be fighting each other”.
“We also focus on creating a digitally-savvy, smart new generation here at the University. The schools can learn something from what we do but there is very little integration between universities and schools,” said the Founder President.
YB Syed Saddiq said that merging education and entertainment and transitioning into a digital-friendly zone is something that the government is very interested in.
“In fact, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is always looking for unconventional ways to resolve conventional issues. When we speak very passionately about education and entertainment together, he keeps on saying why have we not transitioned into a more digitally friendly zone.
“Together we can look at ideas to empower the youth, not just youth development but give a sense of pride and belonging to the young,” said YB Syed Saddiq.
‘Building Unity through Sports’
YB Syed Saddiq says he was keen on building a sense of unity for the nation through sports, a notion brought up by Tan Sri Limkokwing earlier in the discussion where he mentioned past efforts with programmes like Rakan Muda and 1Malaysia 4 Youth (iM4U) that was originally created and promoted to encourage volunteerism among youths.
Also mentioned was the design of the ‘Harimau Malaysia’ jerseys used by national athletes, which was initiated by Limkokwing.
“We wanted the Harimau Malaysia jerseys to represent our athletes on the field. The emotional intention is for every Malaysian to embrace the spirit of the Tiger. Also to create a sense of oneness – can you imagine a stadium full of stripes? Everywhere, we stand out as tigers. The whole country would then embrace it, sending out the message that we are ONE,” said Tan Sri Limkokwing.
Syed Saddiq said that existing programmes branded by Limkokwing could be repurposed to help uplift young people of the country as some have lost their original purpose.
In particular, the Minister mentioned iM4U, which was originally created and promoted to encourage volunteerism among youths.
“I want to see where we can collaborate because Rakan Muda, branded by Limkokwing, iM4U branded by Limkokwing as well, all these we can find a way to revamp and repurpose to ensure they are free from any political entity and only serve the interest of all young people,” said the Minister.
“Within the Ministry, we already have a point of contact, next we will need to iron out the details. I am especially interested in the idea of building unity through sports so we will see how we can brand the Harimau Malaysia concept.
“Secondly, positioning Malaysian youth to create impact nationally and abroad. One thing I feel very strongly about is to build bridges and restore ties,” said YB Syed Saddiq.
