Rise my generation : Malaysia's future leader

Assalamualaikum & good evening,

"We are the cream de la cream, we are being sponsored to study on a full scholarship to study abroad & be a professional in your career so that you can come back and repay your country." 

Those words are often heard to remind us that we have a big responsibility towards our country. Yeah, i realized that i am not in a comfort zone. Me, along with my generations are the future leader for our beloved Malaysia. 

Well, that's enough for the introduction. Actually, what made me geared up to say something so inspirational like that was because of 1 occasion that really made me think my responsibility. My responsibility to contribute to my country when the time comes. The occasion/event was Global Leadership Outreach Program 2012 for student studying in Japan.

GLO that stands for Global Leadership Program is a program organized by Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) in co-operation with Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE). Actually, GLO is an annual event held in countries that our student's studying. For example, other than GLO in Japan, there are also others GLO program for students studying in UK, Indonesia,Ireland & etc. As i just arrived in Japan this year, this was my first time to attend GLO program. Luckily for me, GLO for Japan has just started since last year. So, 2012 was the second time AKEPT organized such event in Japan. 

Global Leadership Outreach Program was a 3 days event held from 10th to 12th of November 2012 at Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 

The event was really splendid with great speakers being invited to give a talk/speech. Their talks were really amazing, mind-blowing and really did made us think a lot. A great activity and exercises to our brain. 

Some of the contents that i still remember was Malaysia target year-by-year (for sure it will focused on 2020 with the Wawasan 2020) and what are we going to be beyond that (beyond the year of 2020). It was more like a question rather than a description/explanation. It was deliberately to be made that way because beyond 2020 (in fact, in the year of 2020 itself), we are the one - our generation to lead Malaysia. Because Malaysian leaders today have done their job and it is almost their time to step down. Next, we will be the one to shape Malaysia into what we want, what we dream. Do realize it, Malaysia future (beyond 2020) is in our hands.

Then, the questions come again ; do we think 'Wawasan 2020' can be accomplished within the prescribed time? We hesitated for a moment to answer. Then the speaker told us : "Don't worry, we will be there. It's only 8 years left from now. No matter how conditions we are in, we will still be able to reach 2020. But.....questions we really need to ask : 

do we really has become a developed country by that time? 

do we really achieved our target as what stated in 'Wawasan 2020'?

We must be reminded that as time passed, we are not the only country that have change/develop. Other countries are struggling to develop and increasing their GDP too. For example, if our pace right now is in 100km/h while Japan in a pace of 130km/h. In order for us to realize Wawasan 2020 dreams, we must RUN faster at a pace of 150km/h or maybe we can reach to 200km/h. So that, by the time of year 2020, the gap between Malaysia & Japan are not too far. If we are still in our 'comfort zone' like we all did right now.....don't even dream of Malaysia becoming one of the developed country, we will still by far fall behind Japan. 

So, the point is....to realize the dream of 'Wawasan 2020', we must to ensure that we move/act/run faster than we do now. If we're in the same pace, yes we can still reach the 2020 but only the year 2020 (only the figures count). What's the point of acting like we have realized our dream of 'Wawasan 2020' if there is not much changes have been made. Make sense right?

Next, what i learnt from the speech/talk given was we need to train ourselves in critical thinking. Honestly speaking, in order to develop a country into a huge success, one of the main important characteristic for a leader is a good way of thinking or in other words : creative thinking. To make it simpler and easier to understand, i take an example of our Prime Minister. Tun Dr. Mahathir , the one being called 'Father of Modernization (Bapa Pemodenan). He has served well in leading Malaysia into modernization. He was the one who proposed to build our national car : Proton. Eventhough, Proton is not on the same level if compared with Honda/Toyota/Hyundai, but still we can be proud with our national car. How many countries in South East Asia have their own national car? 

He was also the one who introduced the idea of "Look East Policy (Dasar Pandang ke Timur)." Well, thanks to him, now i'm studying in Japan. He introduced the LEP ; which made South Korea & Japan as a role model. He admired the punctuality in both countries and he wanted to apply it in Malaysia. Plus, he amazed with the way Japanese Government lead their country. Japanese Government considers Japan (their country) as a big company, and all of their people act as a company workers. Thus, everyone has their own respective roles to help raise the company. 

There're many more good deeds that has been done by Tun Dr. Mahathir. So, what i learnt in GLO was that we need someone who is more creative than Tun Dr. Mahathir in order to make Malaysia more successful than now. We need someone who has more unique way of thinking, a greater critical thinking. 

"Mahathir is great, but we must be greater to make Malaysia's greater"

Other than hearing speeches & talks, GLO program prefer a two-ways communication. Thus, there were many games & activities that have been done. What i mean by 'games' was more to 'using your brain' type of games. More like a brain challenge. I remember one games that test our presentation(is it a correct word here?) skills. The game was like 1 person would be on the stage and presented with a drawing. He/she must not shows the drawing to others. He/she must give a specific direction based on the drawing so that the others (audience) would get the image and try to draw as close as possible with the original drawing. This will test on how actually we present something to others; either they will easily understand what we said or not.

Same goes in our real life. For example, if we are a leader, we got a great idea on how to develop Malaysia, but sadly we have a very poor skills to communicate ideas. Either they find it hard to understand or they misunderstood our talking. That will be a problem too, eventhough it is not a major problem maybe. So, in order to communicate/transmit our ideas successfully, we must first understand our listener (for example : who are they, what level of thinking that they are on). After reviewed those important aspect and taking into consideration, then we should transmit our ideas using a correct way of talking, in other words ; a correct terminology.

"If you have an idea but don't know how to articulate the idea, 

it is as good as don't have the idea in the first place"

With one the speaker which i admire the most.

He is an entrepreneur (which i dream to be), a great thinker, 

&  the way he talk made me mesmerized

I think that's all for my sharing on the program. After participate in this program, i am really enthusiast in contributing something to Malaysia. It's not a matter of what a country has done to you, it is what we have done to our country ! What i really hope is that we, as Malaysian can unite together to bring Malaysia to top of the world & to my generation (i am reminding more to myself), who will be a future leader, do prepare ourselves with all the preparation needed. Be a leader that really qualified. *What i meant by leader is not only the government, but everyone should be a leader in their own profession/career. 

For example in my case, i am an engineering student. So, if i'm gonna be an engineer.....i better be a bloody good engineer of Malaysia! 

A little inspiring video to watch : 

That's the spirit....well, thank you for reading. Assalamualaikum