Speaker at "What's Next For Sarawak" by UKEC

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Many commented on my hair color. My answer is I'm in Super Saiyan mode.
Last Saturday, I was an invited speaker at "What's Next For Sarawak" by United Kingdom & Eire Council of Malaysians Students (UKEC) at the Chemsain Building in Kuching, Sarawak. During my speech titled "Turning Lemons Into Lemonade", I spoke about turning the challenges that life hurls at you into opportunities to shine & contribute to the betterment of Sarawak, with sprinkles of anecdotes from my experiences as an educator in rural Sarawak & New York City.

Additionally, I had the pleasure of learning from & sharing the stage with these distinguished Sarawakians:
  • Dato' Sri Haji Fadillah Yusof, Senior Vice President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, who delivered the keynote address about the future of Sarawak's economy in accordance with the digital economy & industry 4.0.
  • Sridharan Nair, Managing Partner of PwC Malaysia, who delivered a plenary keynote about global megatrends & how it relates to Sarawak.
  • Ariff Azahari from Positive Impressions, a HR & public speaking consultancy, who spoke about disconnecting to get connected & provided very useful tips for succeeding socially in a professional setting.
  • Dr Esther Michael of Help Somebody & Borneo Medispa who shared about ikigai (where passion, mission, profession, & vocation intersect) & her journey from a medical doctor to a beautician to a national icon.
  • YB Dr Kelvin Yii, MP for Bandar Kuching, who spoke about the importance of having young people participate in politics & having good people in the civil service, while sharing his passion & experience as a young MP in parliament.

What is the UKEC?
It's basically a council for all of the Malaysian student societies in Britain and Ireland with a focus on student activism & nation building. Fun fact, it has been in existence since before Malaysia's formation. This network helped spark the struggle for independence & the formation of the Malayan government.

They contribute to Malaysia through community development, tackling the brain drain, developing employability in their members, strengthening unity between Malaysians abroad, & providing for non-partisan intellectual discourse.


What is "What's Next For Sarawak" about?
It's UKEC's first ever event in Sarawak, reason being there are several members in the council that are Anak Sarawak. So proud! It's a free youth conference for Sarawakians in university where prominent Sarawakians are invited to share their experiences & major employers in Sarawak are available for networking at a mini career fair.


Having interacted with some of the members of UKEC, I am very impressed with these young people & their abilities as student leaders to bring about this successful event to Sarawak. Many of them at the event are Sarawakians themselves & many have expressed a desire to return home. They make me feel hopeful for the future of our nation. I really hope that they will make something for themselves abroad before coming back to Sarawak & contributing to the development our underdog state into the jewel of South East Asia.

Were you at the event? How was it? What did you benefit from the most?
If you weren't at the event, would you be interested in taking part / speaking at the next one?

Here's to another What's Next For Sarawak next year!














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