UNITY IN COMMUNITY
Everything seems to be improbable until you make it into reality. I myself have been dreaming of going abroad since I found out that we are all supposed to be able to enjoy the other atmosphere of the world out there. This programme I joined in Singapore known as YMAC (Youth Model ASEAN Conference) is the one that has benefitted me a lot in terms of camaraderie from 10 ASEAN member states that could only be fostered amongst individuals who are willing to forge a common path in spite of their varied background. Apart from that, it has also made me way more open-minded and tolerated towards the diverse cultures and languages owned by each and every state within ASEAN. It was only a short period of time, only 4 days during the programme, but we made a strong friendship that won’t ever stop just because the event’s stopped. I was under a committee called Economics: Skilled-labour. It was such a great pleasure for me personally to be able to mingle up with intelligent fellow delegates from all over 10 ASEAN countries in Skilled-labour committee. I represented Myanmar and the other two representatives from Myanmar were Singaporeans Shang Yidan coming from Republic Polytechnic and the other gluttony guy Ng Jing Jie from Nanyang Polytechnic, and I was chosen to be the one who had the floor to present the position summary of Myanmar’s current issue on the unskilled labour and child labour. We had six committee in sessions during the programme which was quite intense and scary, although I’ve joined debate thingy quite a lot, but the formal debate and discussion system implemented in the programme is just different. People come from different states of ASEAN and we sort of have different opinions and prespectives on the current issues ASEAN is facing right now esp in terms of Economics: Skilled-labour. To be truthful to you, there are seven committees held by the programme one of which is Skilled-labour and the rest are Economics: Development gap, Security: Cyber Security, Technology: Information Communication Technologies, Social: Human Trafficking, Social: Connectivity and Cultural Integration. I was under committee of Skilled-labour and the thing that we were primarily focused on was How can industries work with tertiary institutions to enable youth to become more employable and highly-skilled?. We had very wonderful comm chairs and they are Cao Wen Qing & Darryl Goh Sheng En and the other three learning journey leaders one of which is Charlotte Aw (I forget the other two ones I am messed up with the names I apologise, they were probably Wei Sheng and Jun Xiang if I am not mistaken hehe!) We all the delegates and the comm chairs still stay in touch on Whatsapp group of our committee.
Everything seems to be improbable until you make it into reality. I myself have been dreaming of going abroad since I found out that we are all supposed to be able to enjoy the other atmosphere of the world out there. This programme I joined in Singapore known as YMAC (Youth Model ASEAN Conference) is the one that has benefitted me a lot in terms of camaraderie from 10 ASEAN member states that could only be fostered amongst individuals who are willing to forge a common path in spite of their varied background. Apart from that, it has also made me way more open-minded and tolerated towards the diverse cultures and languages owned by each and every state within ASEAN. It was only a short period of time, only 4 days during the programme, but we made a strong friendship that won’t ever stop just because the event’s stopped. I was under a committee called Economics: Skilled-labour. It was such a great pleasure for me personally to be able to mingle up with intelligent fellow delegates from all over 10 ASEAN countries in Skilled-labour committee. I represented Myanmar and the other two representatives from Myanmar were Singaporeans Shang Yidan coming from Republic Polytechnic and the other gluttony guy Ng Jing Jie from Nanyang Polytechnic, and I was chosen to be the one who had the floor to present the position summary of Myanmar’s current issue on the unskilled labour and child labour. We had six committee in sessions during the programme which was quite intense and scary, although I’ve joined debate thingy quite a lot, but the formal debate and discussion system implemented in the programme is just different. People come from different states of ASEAN and we sort of have different opinions and prespectives on the current issues ASEAN is facing right now esp in terms of Economics: Skilled-labour. To be truthful to you, there are seven committees held by the programme one of which is Skilled-labour and the rest are Economics: Development gap, Security: Cyber Security, Technology: Information Communication Technologies, Social: Human Trafficking, Social: Connectivity and Cultural Integration. I was under committee of Skilled-labour and the thing that we were primarily focused on was How can industries work with tertiary institutions to enable youth to become more employable and highly-skilled?. We had very wonderful comm chairs and they are Cao Wen Qing & Darryl Goh Sheng En and the other three learning journey leaders one of which is Charlotte Aw (I forget the other two ones I am messed up with the names I apologise, they were probably Wei Sheng and Jun Xiang if I am not mistaken hehe!) We all the delegates and the comm chairs still stay in touch on Whatsapp group of our committee.
Giving an overview of what to do during learning journey
The first of all, I’d like to express gratitude
to the sponsor of this programme The S
Rajaratman Endowment (SRE) for covering all the tuition fee, accomodation,
and all related things during the four-day –long programme. For the record, The
S Rajaratman Endowment (SRE) is a non-profit philanthropic organisation, set up
by Temasek to recognise Singapore’s first and longest-serving Foreign Minister,
one of the pioneering leaders. Its objective is to achieve development, peace
and stability in the region by deepening international friendships, promoting
regional cooperation, and fostering a greater and common understanding of
international rules, based on the twin pillars of good governance and
sustainability. Here take a peek of what I did before the killing presentation.
Me, taken the minute before presentation to VIPs and GOH
On the very first day, we were through the
bonding session game, the game where we were all gathered in a big hall
mingling up with people from all over 10 ASEAN countries, singing along,
running and jumping, doing the blindfold game as well, concluded that we had so
much fun, joy & laughter. You might want to see some photographs taken
during the session? Here they are. Let’s have a look!
When the bonding session was over, we had the
intense and hectic discussion and formal debate in the classroom. Debate here
was a platform of exchanging of opinions, simultaneously, the resolution at the
end of a debate was a reflection of the diverse views and efforts of the
participants/delegates involved.
Hours of comm session are governed by established
norms, namely the rules of parliamentary procedure. During debates,
student-delegates would share their country’s perspective and views with the
entire committee (I was representing Myanmar, therefore I shared anything
related to Myanmar’s developmental system of unskilled-workers in order that
they can be more employable and highly-skilled). How to do it? By making
speeches, taking questions (or we call it POI/Points of Informations), taking
comments from the fellow committe-mates during the formal debate and caucus
session. Four sentences I will always keep in mind are: 1. The chair would like
to call the house to order. 2. The delegate of Myanmar would like to yield the
floor back to the chair. 3. The delegate of Indonesia would like to yield the
floor to Points of Informations from the co-delegates. 4. The delegate of
Myanmar would like to have a caucus or anything related. Those four sentences
of formal debate during the committee session are completely different from
what I’ve gained when I was in a debating competition. This is a whole new
experience for me.
I was the delegate of Myanmar and the issues that
Myanmar is dealing with right now are child-labour, lost of professional
workers and mismatch problem where the demand is hugely not in accordance with
the supply of workers and most of the workers are low skilled. Child labour has
been an ongoing problem there in Myanmar, most of countries within ASEAN member
states are also experiencing the same. Children under age are forced to go to
the workplace inspite of enjoying their childhood in school mingling with kids
at their age to go through educational stage. This is such a shame. Education
is not spreading out evenly throughout the countries. Apart from the
child-labour issue, many of labours are lack of communication skill to be
competitive. Communication skill is very
much needed in terms of commerce. English language has become the biggest
barrier for ASEAN countries to enhance their capability of becoming more
employable and highly-skilled.
Taken during the formal debate and caucus
At the end of the day, WE, the Heads of State
/ Government of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations recognise that ASEAN consists of countries of diverse cultures and that one
variation comes in difference of language, the lingua franca of the global
economics as the English Language, and the proficiency of English Language is a
limiting factor in employability among the Youth, more efforts could be
made to enable youth to become more employable. Further recognising that quality of education in most ASEAN
countries has been poor due to reasons including but not limited to lack of
resources, outdated curriculum and under-equipped teachers as well. Acknowledgeing that most
ASEAN countries suffer from the problem of skills mismatch, where youths do not exercise their knowledge after
completing tertiary education as a result of not being able to find a job in
the respective industries. Then we came to a consensus in which we should
implement EL (English Language) as the lingua franca of ASEAN Countries
without undermining its cultural language:
a)
Seek commitment to promote English Language as the medium of
instruction of the technical and vocational education training in higher
institutions in ASEAN Countries;
b)
Seek technological support to promote Advance English Language and
Business English Language on an online platform;
c)
Seek budgetary support from the Asian Development Bank for
subsidies to be given in respect to each country’s financial status;
d)
Seek technical support from ASEAN Countries to create a committee
of qualified instructors will be gathered to deliver English Language lesson to
conferences of educators of different ASEAN origins;
The finalised declaration of Skilled-labour comm.
Finally hard work paid off.
The learning journey session. We tried to do a
jump shot, but we failed miserably.
Alex Edrolin, Decen, Atik, Wing. We got 1
singdollar ice cream to enjoy in the heat.
If you want to go around for some sightseeing,
take this comfy bus.
YMAC being screened on channelnewsasia
I had screen time on channelnewsasia. Me with one
of my fellow partner presentators from Cambodia.
Well, the thing that I highlight from the whole
conference is that we can solve amount of problems in a huge circle area within
ASEAN member states only in four short days. Together we made it, together we
solved it. The solution that we came up with is that adopting
English as the lingua franca of ASEAN countries without undermining its
cultural language. Therefore, English is so important for all of us to learn
and master. To be truthful to you, there were genuinely three solutions that we
arised, but only one to be chosen to present to the VIPs and GOH and we chose
that English language proficiency is the most crucial thing we all should
enhance. We all together countries within ASEAN can make it all true, to
improve EL for Youths to be more employable and highly-skilled. As the
lyrics of the YMAC song convey that: We're
one and we're young and we have a voice. Let's stand up for our people and give
them a choice. Our voices today, will be echoes tomorrow. Definitely, we
are one with our diverse cultures. As the slogan tells, Unity in Community. Thank
you ever so much to all the inspiring delegates and anyone invloved. I love you
to the moon and back. One last thing to wrap up our jofyul ocassion is this picture
of our short togetherness.
See you guys, soon! It’s not the end of the
world, we still could meet up in another circumstance. Hopefully soon.
Laterssss, until we meet again. ;)
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