Students get to ‘work’ on policies

AIMED at providing Malaysian students with real world experience in making public policies, the International Council of Malaysian Scholars and Associates recently held the Malaysia Public Policy Competition 2016 (MPPC) at Sunway University.

The two-day event saw the participation of some 96 students from local and international varsities.

ICMS is an international student organisation encompassing Malaysian students from six different countries.

Now in its sixth year, the MPPC is an annual case-based competition directed at presenting students with the opportunity to understand the process of policy-making and finding a balance between realistic and populist policies.

“This year, the competition went through a format change to better reflect the challenges policy-makers often face.

“What we want them to experience as participants is that it is difficult to draw up policies because you have to consider the stakeholders.

“It is also not just about your ideas, but other people’s ideas as well and a lot of times, you have to find a common ground and that takes a lot of negotiation and persuasion,” said MPPC deputy project director Jonathan Peter-Oswin Dason.

On the first day of the competition, students experienced a hybrid model United Nations conference where they were split into different rooms.

One room had around 20 participants all of whom had their own ideas and vision on specific issues.

Dason said participants had to be well read and knowledgeable as the first day of competition required them to debate. The second day was for them to present their policy ideas in groups.

Participants were each given a 15-minute presentation followed by a question-and-answer session with the judges.

Citing the competition as an educational platform for students, Dason added that MPPC’s format “injects new life into the competition”.

The competition also saw a voting system open to its audience in the finals.

Participants had to convince the audience that their ideas were not only feasible and practical but also a policy that was acceptable.

“When it comes to voting, as much as your policy may be good and you think is right, it must still be accepted by people who may have other ideas,” said the enthusiastic 22-year-old.

Every year, policies by the winning teams are presented to ministers.

“This year’s (winning) policy will be presented to the Human Resource Ministry as the theme is ‘Reimagining The Workplace’,” Dason added.

Coming in second, team BZB presented their policy on mental health issues in the workplace.

Team member Lai Ming Yi, 21, said that his team chose to address mental health issues as it was something that Malaysians don’t often discuss.

“It is something that needs to be talked about a lot more. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“I’m quite happy as I presented my opinion and offered a solution,” said the University of Cambridge second year medical student.

He said winning wasn’t his reason for joining the competition as he wanted to get his message across – mental health is something that needs to be tackled.

Offering a solution to the prevalent problem, Lai and his teammates came up with a policy called ‘Employment Assistance Programme’.

The team won RM3,000 and certificates of achievement.

Lui Sing Yi was surprised and excited when her team was announced the champions ofthis year’s competition.

The Universiti Utara Malaysia international affairs third year student, said she and her teammates learnt a lot over the course of the competition.

“We proposed that a rating system be introduced on how companies comply with safety standards,” said Lui, 22.

Her team walked away with a RM5,000 cheque and certificates of achievement.