By LAM KA-JHUN
brats@thestar.com.my

WHAT do you get when Malaysian students from all states of Australia come together to organise one grand event? You get the Malaysian Summit of Australia (MASA) 2014!

Spearheaded by the National Malaysian Student Council of Australia (MASCA), the second edition of this summit saw nearly 800 students from all over Australia gathering in Melbourne in April for five days of amazing talks, events and activities.

Eye on the future: Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir speaking about the social situation in years to come.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was on hand to officiate the opening ceremony, which had a pasar malam theme. He was also there to speak at the MASA Student Leader Agenda, one of the many awesome events that took place that week.

The Student Leader Agenda was a platform for students to share and learn ideas related to organisational skills.

Probably the highlight of the event were the dialogue sessions, which featured guests like Khairy, TalentCorp Malaysia CEO Johan Merican and TV personality Datuk Aznil Nawawi.

Other events included the MASA Cyber Games, MASA Excellence Awards, MASA Careers, and the MASA Games.

But the highlight of the week was undoubtedly the MASA Conference, which saw nearly 500 Malaysian students converging at the Melbourne Concention Centre to engage in intellectual discourse with prominent individuals.

An hour-long keynote address was delivered by Khairy, who received a standing ovation at the end. During the address, he said: “Malaysia should no longer be the factory of the world we used to be. We should all strive to be a laboratory for the world, and that begins with youths today.”

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin received a standing ovation for his keynote address at the Malaysian Summit of Australia (MASA) Conference.

The first forum session of the conference was on the “Economic Challenges of Vision 2020”, featuring Johan and IDEAS chief operating officer Tricia Yeoh as panellists. Johan shared his insight as a policymaker, emphasising how crucial young Malaysian talents are in driving development.

The second session was on the “Social Challenges of Vision 2020”, with Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (MAFREL) chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh speaking on issues such as quality education and youth involvement in nation-building.

“Besides defending human rights, our civil society has a larger role to play – to organise lots of dialogue sessions to break the barriers of insecurity and fear, so we can understand each other and move forward better,” said Syed Ibrahim.

The conference provided a platform for students to gain a more holistic understanding of the socio-economic challenges faced by Malaysia, and to learn how they can be involved in solving those challenges.