purpose - Yayasan Khazanah

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FROM THE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF’S DESK
011
Dear Scholars,
February, 2015
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2
PURPOSE
Driven by a Greater Reason for Doing Things
Source: http://www.euintheus.org/what-we-do/energy-and-environment/
I want to write about one of my all time favourite movies, Pay It
Forward. I am not sure how many of you out there have watched this
movie before as it is quite an old one; a 15-year old at that. Anyway, it
is not going to be a movie preview that I would be doing but I thought I
just need to share with you the essence of it, for our own learning. The
story revolves around a 7th grade boy who came up with a plan he
called "Pay It Forward" hoping to make some changes to other people
so that they will feel better. His plan got him to do favor for 3 people
and he asked each of the recipient to do favor for 3 other people
hoping that the plan to continue to reach out to more people out there.
It was such a noble idea, as simple as that but it gave hopes, it created
trust and it built bridges. And it all started with an intent; a simple and
pure thought that drove a boy to do good things that helped create
multiple effects to others.
The point that I am trying to make here is that 'Pay It Forward' is also
pointing to the same direction to one of the competencies in our YK
Leadership Model - Purpose: Driven by the Greater Reason for Doing
Things. We do things that we do in our daily life with varying reasons.
But, something that we do intentionally with a purpose which are
impacting many beneficiaries is what distinct us from the rest of others.
These are the people, the scholars that we hope to groom and develop
through our scholarship programme to become the leaders with such a
trait. With the YKPSP launched and will be running through the
calendar, we hope the internalization of good values and building up of
the competencies would come to fruition in the later years - premier
scholars to leaders with purpose.
Regards,
Intan
QUOTES :
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BRILLIANT MALAYSIA FOR SOCIAL CHANGE:
DZAMEER ZULKIFLI
Many great dreams are born and die in mamaks. We Malaysians have no
trouble brewing grand schemes over kopi-O, or solving the world’s ills as
we spill curry over rice. But what happens when reality bites? Like our
banana leaves, our plans soon fold.
Source: https://hozanek.wordpress.com/
Dzameer Dzulkifli’s plan to change the world started off exactly the same
way. Back in 2009, he and his colleague, Keeran Sivarajah, were at a
mamak after a long day at the office. At the time, they were both working
as consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and they started
talking about the social problems they saw around them.
“We were saying, ‘All these problems come down to education. But what
about education? We should do something. What we need is good quality
teachers in the classroom.’ And I said, ‘Who’s going to listen to us?’”
Fast forward a few years, and 31year-old Dzameer is the Managing
Director of Teach For Malaysia, a non-profit enterprise that takes talented
graduate students and trains them to teach in under-privileged schools.
Who’s listening to him now? The Ministry of Education, private
stakeholders and the 98 Teach For Malaysia Fellows currently placed at
schools across Malaysia.
Source: http://quoteseverlasting.com/
TEAM EDITORS:
Intan Zalila Mohd Yusof
Emilia Maizura Harun
Azlina Jaffar
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In his case, the dream brewed up over a drink became a reality. He has
trouble believing it too, sometimes. “It happened quite quickly, it wasn’t
something I planned. But I continued every step of the way because the
model really works,” Dzameer tells me. “It’s not about introducing a new
policy, it’s not about a grand strategy. It’s about simple implementation
and execution by using the best talent.”
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MY TEKSI: TRANSFORMING THE TAXI
INDUSTRY
Dzameer’s direct approach to problem solving is something he credits
to the fact he is a trained mechanical engineer. “But very quickly, I
learned I was not meant to be an engineer,” he confesses. “There was
no fire, no passion.” After working for PwC for a few years, Dzameer
still felt something was missing.
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Then, he conducted some research and found out about Teach For All,
an organisation that helps local enterprises start their own version of
the educational programme, Teach For America. The goal of these
programmes is to overcome educational inequity by placing talented
teachers in struggling schools, so that all children have access to a
decent education. Dzameer and Keeran founded Teach For Malaysia
in 2010. It was the first chapter to be set up in Southeast Asia.
Everyone has faced a lack of taxi drivers, especially when one is
needed the most. Raining? The cabs disappear. Have to get somewhere quick? Cabbies magically know to avoid the area where you
are waiting for a cab, and heaven forbid if any of the routes are congested.
Teach For Malaysia encourages high-achieving graduates to consider
a career in teaching for two years, either before entering other professions or as a break from their current career. After a rigorous selection
process, the selected Fellows go through an intensive two-month training, before taking the plunge in schools. Even for the brightest graduates, it’s not an easy job.
“We’ve had graduates from Harvard, Cambridge, University of Malaya,
who come in with pedigree qualifications, but their first three to six
months, they’re struggling,” Dzameer says. “They bawl their eyes out
because the kids don’t care. That’s when they have to show the extra
care to make that difference. It comes down to perseverance and grit.”
To date, Teach For Malaysia’s Fellows have been present in schools
for 14 months. Some have decided to stay on beyond their two-year
contract. Meanwhile, Teach For Malaysia had over 1,300 applications
for their last recruitment drive. How does Dzameer explain the attraction? “It’s very, very real,” he says, slowly. “Kids who couldn’t read can
read. Kids who couldn’t count can count. Then, kids can start dreaming.”
Some students, at 14, struggle to read and write in Bahasa Malaysia,
let alone English. “Children from low-income backgrounds don’t succeed at the same rate as children from middle- or high-income backgrounds. Some get through but others don’t. The root cause is still the
quality of the teacher in the classroom. The private sector can pay
more and attract that talent. But this doesn’t mean the education system can’t attract talent too.”
Of course, the demand for top, new graduates is partly down to resources in the education system. But culture has a lot to do with it, too,
says Dzameer. “It’s this mindset, society’s mindset. It’s nice to drive a
nice car or work in a nice office. The glamour of teaching has gone
down the drain. We’re trying to bring it back. I’ve met a few brilliant
teachers in government schools, but there aren’t enough of them.”
For those up to the challenge, however, the pay-off can be truly rewarding. “Trust me; every kid wants to learn. It’s built into them,”
Dzameer insists. At Teach For Malaysia, Fellows even go beyond
teaching the curriculum by helping kids with their confidence and personal goals. “We ask the kid, ‘What’s your dream?’ And we tell them,
‘We believe you can achieve that dream. But you’re going to have to
work really hard.’ That’s when it kicks in and the kids eventually start
believing you.”
As for this mamak dreamer, it
seems he’s found his calling.
Dzameer describes himself as “a
people person”, and his job sees
him meeting everyone from government ministers to corporate honchos and of course, students. “It’s a
lot of fun—more fun than PwC,
more fun than mechanical engineering,” he laughs. “You get to be part
of something real. You get to belong
to something.” And of course, you
get to change the world.
Source: http://www.esquire.my/People/Profile/article/Brilliant-Malaysian-for-Social-Change-Dzameer-Dzulkifli
Apparently, enough was enough. Anthony Tan, along with a few
friends during his time at the Harvard Business School, came up with
a method to answer the cry of people in need of taxis in Malaysia.
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MyTeksi Sdn Bhd identifies itself as a for-profit social startup aiming to
revolutionise the taxi industry of the Southeast Asian region, with its
core product a taxi dispatch service, enhanced by the use of GPScapable devices, which would allow passengers to hail the nearest
taxi.
With over 1.2 million downloads of the smartphone app (also called
MyTeksi), as well as 250 000 users per month, MyTeksi Sdn Bhd has
become a market leader in Southeast Asia.
The initial inspiration, according to Tan, was when a friend from overseas visited him in Malaysia. Said friend also found the taxi service
(as it was then) to be horrendous.
“He reminded me that my great grandfather was a taxi driver and that
my grandfather had started the Japanese automotive industry in Malaysia. Due to my roots, I was in the position to make a difference to a
very real problem in Malaysia,” said Tan, referring to his grandfather
Tan Yuet Foh, co-founder of Tan Chong Motor Holdings Berhad.
Carrying the seed for MyTeksi Sdn Bhd, he got together with a female
friend of his, “who also understood the pain of being female and taking
taxis”, and pitched the idea of building a social, for-profit enterprise,
that utilised smartphones and GPS technology, to build a platform
which makes the taxi system more efficient, and safer.
“This was while we were at the Harvard Business School back in
2011,” recounted Tan, adding that the idea placed second in the Harvard Business School Business Plan competition, which provided the
seed capital for the duo to get started on turning the project into a
reality.
With the necessary kickstarter funds in place, now comes the time for
(further) action, with the initial starting point here in Malaysia.
“Malaysia is a market that we understood very well, and we spent
many months understanding the problems of both the passengers and
the drivers,” said Tan. The MyTeksi application was then launched in
June 2012, two years ago.
“The 12 months after
the initial public launch
was spent iterating and
experimenting with the
app,” recounted Tan,
adding that MyTeksi
Sdn Bhd then launched
in the Philippines in
August 2013, under the
moniker GrabTaxi. This
represented the company’s first expansion
out of the nation.
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The first 12 months were also spent identifying the product-market fit
for the Malaysian market, and this was done by listening to and learning the needs of the market. Tan believes that any growth before obtaining the product-market fit is dangerous, “as you have yet to discover what the tipping point of your product is”. This careful approach
seems to have served the company well.
“In just 24 months (since the public launch), we are now in six countries
and 15 cities in the region,” said Tan. The expansion came once the
company had gained traction as well as forward momentum, which
allowed the company to begin raising capital for further expansion
The second most important lesson that I learned was that money is
not the only way to leave a mark upon the world.
Simple acts of kindness like lending a helping hand, providing a shoulder to cry on, saying nice things that makes someone happy, cleaning
up after your own mess and simply treating others the way you'd like
to be treated can also leave a huge mark behind. Whether you know it
or not, a potentially anorexic girl ate today because you did not call
her fat. A man who was about to commit suicide is still alive because
you helped him through. A young girl realised how important she is
because you showed her how beautiful she can be. All of these things
makes the world a better place to live in.
Source: http://www.kinibiz.com/story/issues/99838/myteksi-the-journey-begins.html
You don't have to be rich or wait until you're older and more able to
change the world. You can start today by improving yourself and set03
ting that chain reaction in motion.
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SEND IT ON
Making the world a happier world for girls my age to live in is my drive
for the greater good. What's yours?
It's a lie to think that everyone has the best interest of the environment or the human race as a
whole at heart when most people do not see altruism as a real value rather a mere myth. But it's
also a lie to say that no one is driven by some
force to be better because the truth is everyone is
in some way motivated by a greater good. The
only delineation between what we want to believe
in and the truth is that the greater good can mean
so much more and not just sacrificing yourself for Zulaikha Zainal
Effendi,
the benefit of others.
Forrm 5,
Kolej Yayasan
Saad
The greater good is subjective, varying from an
individual to another in accordance to their
needs. It can be derived from personal traumatisation and experience, the effect of living in a particular society or a
burning passion that you naturally adopt since childhood.
Although they sound similar, the drive in you to do something for the
greater good is different from your purpose to commit yourself to something. The personal purpose for an individual to achieve something
most often than not only affects you and the individuals close to you.
On the other hand the drive in you to do something for the greater good
might be sparked by an individual purpose but affects a bigger amount
of stakeholders.
Personally, I think to be driven by the greater reason for doing things is
not an exclusive value a few great individuals should have. Instead it's
a necessity for everyone regardless of age, race, religion or ethnicity.
And this is my story.
I had my fair share of ups and downs since I was a child that really hurt
my self-esteem. At the age of 12, as my friends applied for prestigious
boarding schools like TKC and STF, I applied for a normal day school
nearby. It was by force that I applied for KYS and even then, I doubted
I had any chance at all especially coming from a village school in the
suburbs of Ipoh. In fact, I remember clearly my Science teacher told
me not to put my hopes too high. I often torment myself with impossible
questions like whether I was good enough, whether it was worth to
dream and whether I'll ever find where I belong in this world. I believed
that the biggest factor to succeed was the birth lottery for only rich
people will have the capacity to give back to society, self-actualise and
ultimately leave a mark upon the world.
It wasn't until much, much later did I realise how wrong I was. The truth
is, different environments work differently on different people. So the
birth lottery does not affect or define your life in any way. It's what you
choose to make of the factors around you that defines you.
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THE REASONS
“Kak Ayu!”. That’s how students in my campus call
her. She is a cook and cashier in one of the cafés
near my Hostel. There is something which distinguishes her from other vendors; she often gives
the students free vegetables and fruits, not to
mention that she always gives us discount. One
day, I asked her why she does such good deeds.
As she wrapped my food she said, “I often give
free fruits to make sure you, the future doctors,
dentists, pharmacists, and healthcare profession- Fikri Ahmad Raals, are well nourished. You have to be healthy in fani,
Bachelor of Biomedical
order to make others healthy. I know some stuScience,
dents have financial difficulties and cannot afford
IIUM, Kuantan
to buy fruits. Giving free fruits is the least I can do
for them”.
I was quite surprised on how she thinks. She doesn’t see us as the
source of profit. Instead, she sees us as ‘who we are’ in the future.
She might not be the leader who can make the big decisions in order
to build a better community, but instead she plays her part in the process of generating such leaders.
Last week, I had a chance to participate in one of YK programmes,
namely, Yayasan Khazanah Premier Scholars Programme (“YKPSP”).
There were sessions which interest me. One of them was a discussion on a video about Sattar Edhi, a Pakistani humanitarian and social
activist. He is the founder of Edhi foundation which runs the ambulance service and operates free nursing homes, clinics, orphanages,
women's shelters, and rehab centers for drug addicts and mentally ill
individuals.
In the video Edhi says, “…people are educated but their humanity is
flawed”. I had a deep thought on things he said and uttered “That’s
true!”. It makes me really think about his words, and hardly nod,
“That’s true”. Corruption, for instance, is mostly done by so-called
educated people. They graduated from well-known universities with
outstanding performance, but in the end, they are just the burden of
the nation. They take others rights to feed their greediness. So, why
does this thing happens?
I came into a conclusion that education is not the factor that determines one’s sense of humanity; it is their reasoning of doing things.
Why do we study hard in College? Is it to get good CGPA? Or get
better job?
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It is not wrong to have such thoughts, because I, myself, cannot run
away from those thoughts. As a human being, we always want to be
the best. However, we should not make them our ultimate purpose and
our main reason of doing good things. Kak Ayu, if she wants, can just
make profit so that she can have better life, able to spend the money
for vacation and shop fancy things. So does Edhi! These people however, have greater reasons for doing things i.e. for the community than
just satisfying their personal needs.
Currently, I am doing my final year project on ‘osteoarthritis’ as one of
the graduation requirements. Initially, all I wanted was to do my level
best in my project since it carries 12 credit hours. However, what happened in the first semester changed my perception. I read lesser science journals than I am supposed to, made the project proposal at last
minutes, and look for my supervisor only when I need her signature.
Then, I came to realize that this is not about fulfilling the graduation
requirement. It is beyond that. My research is just a very small part of
the research development on the disease. It made me believe that by
completing the projects successfully I would be able to help others.
In a nutshell, having greater reasons to do things other than for the
sake of ourselves will change two things: It transforms ordinary people
like Edhi and Kak Ayu to do great things. It also changes our attitude in
everything we do.
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DRIVEN BY A GREATER REASON FOR
DOING THINGS
things. Let us all be the change we want to see in the future, and start
to search for some greater reasons of doing good things.
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SPECIAL FEATURES: RERUM COGNOSCERE CAUSAS
Before you read further, I have to warn you that I
don’t claim to have the answer to the question
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“what is the greater reason anyone does anything?”. No one should forcefully impose any set of
ideals on anyone; people should be free to decide
how their lives should be. That said, education here
is key; through sound logic and reasoning, people
will arrive at many amazing and wonderful life
goals. Hopefully my story here will serve as some
educational bearing to you readers.
Musaddiq Adam
Muhtar,
BSc Economics
If you’re short of time, then a quick ‘too long, didn’t LSE
read’ version is this: this is my story of why I do the
things I do, driven by my need to understand everything (Rerum Cognoscere Causas. Google it!)
and armed with knowledge, live out a meaningful life. This is my story.
A New Path
“It is not enough to do things in the right way.
What’s more important is doing things for the right
reasons”. For each and every behaviour we act
out, there must be reasons behind them, be it good
or bad. However, good things can only become
reality when it is driven by greater reasons for
doing it. Desire, passion, enthusiasm and determination are some of the driving forces that catalyse
us to perform noble things and behaviour.
Fatin Najiha Binti
Rahman,
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of
Surgery (MBBS),
IMU
Looking back at history, our leaders are equipped
with noble and genuine reasons for doing extraordinary act, for example, how Sultan Muhamad Al
Fatih can conquer Constantinople and how our
country achieve independence by the efforts of our
leaders back then. I believe that the leaders have an utmost and ultimate goal of saving and release their country from the hand of others.
Catalysed by their noble reasons and vision of doing extraordinary
actions, they were able to achieve what they want and we, can now live
our life the peacefully.
My participation in the recent YKPSP session 2 was a real eye-opener
for me. We visited Rumah Pengasih and Rumah Safiyyah as the locations for our community visit. It was really an inspiring experience.
These shelter homes could not have been built if it’s not there’s no one
out there who wants to help the needies. For instance, Rumah Pengasih, was founded by someone who was once a drug addict but had a
very noble vision to give hope for the addicts. He was driven by the
reasons of giving hope and brighter future for the addicts.
Contradicting to the reality we are facing now, imagine how many of us
human being are doing things just for the sake of doing it. They have
no reasons of doing those things but did that just to please others or
their superior. If we are just doing things without greater reasons, I
think there can be no success from it. However, I realise that as a human, we always want to do good things but often, we do not have the
drive and passion to do so. I believe that everyone should be equipped
with greater reasons to do good things in order for us to spread the
goodness around us, reach out for the helpless and achieve greater
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Early September 2014, a group of friends (spread out across 4 different universities, 3 countries and 2 continents) and I came together
and sought out for a way to learn whatever we wanted learn, debate
whatever we wanted to debate about and create whatever we wanted
to create. We formed a group focusing on a very specific, core objective; concentrating our efforts on learning and discovery in the form of
research. I believe our idea of a research-first approach contains tremendous amount of potential to grow and evolve into things that may
seem unthinkable now. There’s no blueprint or template that we could
follow and it is all about finding a new pathway. It is new, borderlinecrazy but yet, downright exciting stuff!
It was clear to everyone in our group that research orientation will
remain a permanent feature of the way we do things, which predominantly revolves around the fields of mathematics, statistics, economics
and finance. Prioritising research first embeds a beautiful relationship
between discovering truths and the rewards that high-end research
bestow. However, it is important to note here that the only ‘strict’ rule
that should be adhered to is that there should be no limits to our what
we are curious of and what we are capable of; as such, delving into
other fields is welcomed. Another important point to note is that our
research does not necessarily mean investigating a purely academic
question; it should also include investigations of real world problems
and finding optimal, applicable solutions for them.
Once we’ve grown accustomed to the business of doing research, we
will explore various pathways to fully utilise our findings that is most
meaningful and impactful; for us and everyone else. With that said,
anyone following this path will have to gear up for this crazy ride - the
flood of ideas and rapid intellectual growth that one will experience is
akin to ‘drinking from a fire hose’!
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Order from Chaos
Coming up with a truly original idea, groundbreaking discovery or solution to a major problem is obviously not as simple as it seems. It is,
however, worth keeping in mind that all great truths of this universe
exists and manifests itself in everyday phenomena – the nature of universal truths demands its manifestation to be ever-present, even
though the machinery and mechanisms of how it works are hidden
from plain sight. All we have to do is observe, comprehend and appreciate it.
This abstract explanation on the abundance of untapped knowledge
may be too vague for our group to work on. Thus, we began with a
more practical footing: by looking into real world problems (e.g. investigating poverty traps), forming hypothetical explanations of real world
phenomena (e.g. patterns in financial markets) or entertaining thought
experiments (e.g. interplanetary trading). Of course, there are plenty of
other potential starting points that are not covered, but the main theme
of beginning an investigation is this: explore the world with your mind.
For all we know, it might all come down to a simple chance or coincidence that we stumble on something new and revolutionary. When the
moment comes, seize it! As Louis Pasteur (the French chemist who
discovered the way to make your milk safe to drink) famously said,
“Luck favours the prepared mind”.
An excerpt from a speech given by a top Google executive on Google’s
culture explains a lot about its flourishing culture of curiosity, innovation
and discovery:
“For cultures that punish you for failing, what will rapidly happen to the
people who have ideas? They will rapidly stop sharing because they’re
incentivised not to. The hardest part of cultural change is, actually, to
accept failure as part of the learning process and actually build support
structures and processes around learning from failures…
… Another really important process-oriented component around innovation, lots of companies want to structure their innovation. They have
an innovation tsar. And they have an innovation process person. And,
when you have an idea, you get to submit a business case, and it includes a budget. And then, a committee of people will meet in a dark
room, smoking cigars, and decide whether your innovation is worthy.
The problem is, by that point, the energy to create a start-up is so high,
that you’ve taught most innovators to do something else…
We have a different approach. We let there be chaos. 20% time projects, lots of small projects, lots of projects starting and stopping all the
time, it creates total chaos. And then periodically, we try to organise the
chaos into themes, focus areas, centre strange attractors - if you’ll stick
with the mathematics analogy - and try very hard not to kill the fragile
little things. We measure success over time, but we cull projects late.
Rather than culling projects at the start-up, we have projects, regardless, measure their percent growth… …Google News was a 20% time
product, almost all of Google Labs were 20% time product, Gmail was
20% time product…
… We try to cull projects as late as we possibly can to give innovation,
which is a very very fragile flower, as long a spring as possible to
thrive.” – Douglas Merrill, Former Google CIO
The Scientific Method
Once the proper motivations are set in place, now comes the next
question: How to proceed? Here I refer heavily on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s commentary about the awesome power of scientific method in his
documentary series ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’. In one of the
episodes, he mentions two great thinkers who lived centuries ago: Mo
Tze (墨子) and Ibn Alhazen; a testimony to the universal trait present in
every human which is curiosity and a tribute to the Chinese and Arabic
civilisations for their contributions to science.
Mo Tze, who lived around the years 400’s BC, founded a philosophical school of thought called Mohism – its philosophy rested on the
idea of universal love: Mo Tze believed that "everyone is equal before
heaven", and that people should seek to imitate heaven by engaging
in the practice of collective love. Tyson said of Mo Tze:
“In his writings, you can find early stirrings of the scientific approach…
In one of them, entitled ‘Against Fate’, a three-pronged test for every
doctrine is proposed: Question its basis. Ask whether it can be verified
by the sights and senses of common people. Ask how it is to be applied and if it will benefit the greatest number”.
Unfortunately, sparks of curiosity in the writings of Mo Tze and his
disciples were effectively stomped out. Tyson explains, “Mo Tze was
extremely popular but a few hundred years after his death, Emperor
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Qin Shi Huang (most of us know him for the army of 7,000 terracotta
warriors that guard his tombs), the first emperor and unifier of China
took power. He took a continent, and turned it into a nation that now
bears his name: China. In Emperor Qin’s drive to consolidate his farflung empire, he took drastic measures to standardise everything
within it. This included mandating a single coinage, making uniform all
weights and measures, the width of carts and roads as well as the
precise way the Chinese language was to be written, including what
you were allowed to write and think… The works of Mo Tze and many
other philosophers were destroyed in the world’s first book burning.
Hundreds of scholars who bravely resisted by trying to preserve the
forbidden books were buried alive in the capital.” It’s no surprise to
believe that any loss or limitations imposed in seeking out knowledge
sets us decades, if not centuries, back in our pursuit for peace, prosperity and progress. It is worth remembering that much of knowledge
that is readily available to us today were kept alive by scholars all over
the world who sacrificed a lot for a better world. This leads us to one
of the most important insights about the nature of the scientific process:
“Science needs the light of free expression to flourish. It depends on
the fearless questioning of authority, the open exchanges of ideas.” –
Tyson.
Fast forward about 1000 years, and we find ourselves to another era
where open-minded thinking was once again celebrated. Tyson narrates, “A culture open to new ideas and questioning, it was the golden
age of science in the Islamic world. Christian and Jewish scholars
were honoured guests at the research institutes of Baghdad, Cairo,
and other Islamic capitols. Instead of burning books, the caliphs sent
emissaries around the world in search of books [Middle East was the
intellectual bridge that allowed Indian ideas to be imported to the
West]… The reawakening to science that took place in Europe hundreds of years later was kindled by a flame that had been long tended
by Islamic scholars and scientists”. And of Ibn Alhazen himself, Tyson
mentions, “Ibn Alhazen is the first person ever to set down the rules of
science, he created an error correcting mechanism, a systematic and
relentless way to sift out misconceptions in our thinking”. This is the
scientific method described by Alhazen, as envisioned by Tyson:
“Finding truth is difficult and the road to it is rough. As seekers of the
truth, you would be wise to withhold judgment and not simply to put
your trust in the writing of the ancients. You must question and critically examine those writings from every side. You must submit only to
argument and experiment, and not to the sayings of any person; for
every human being is vulnerable to all kinds of imperfection. As seekers of the truth, we must also suspect and question our own ideas as
we perform our investigations to avoid falling into prejudice or careless
thinking. Take this course, and truth will be revealed to you.” – Ibn
Alhazen.
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Tyson continues:
“This is the method of science. So powerful, that it has carried our robotic emissaries to the edge of our solar system and beyond. It has
doubled our lifespan, made lost worlds of the past come alive, enabled
us predict events in the distant future… This way of thinking has given
us powers that Alhazen himself would have regarded as wizardry. But
it was he who put us on this rough, endless road. And now it has taken
us to a places where even our imaginations are stretched to its limits.”Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Final Thoughts
If our greater intelligence is the hallmark of our species, then we should
use it as all other beings use their distinctive advantages to help ensure that their offspring prosper and their heredity is passed on and
that the fabric of nature that sustains us is protected. Human intelligence is imperfect surely and newly arisen. The ease with which it can
be sweet-talked, overwhelmed or subverted by other hard-wired
tendencies, sometimes themselves disguised as the light of reason, is
worrisome. But if our intelligence is the only edge, we must learn to use
it better. To sharpen it. To understand its limitations and deficiencies.
To make it the tool of our survival. If we do this, we can solve almost
any problem we are likely to confront in the next 100,000 years.
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Nashrun & Farhan’s team was the Champion for rugby during the
Sheffield Malaysian games.
We often dream of a better future. And chances are, it is very possible
that we humans, collectively as a one whole, will probably realise those
dreams. It will not be we (as in our generation) who reach out to the
other nearby star systems on our interstellar arks. It will be a species
very much like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our
weaknesses. More confident, farseeing, capable and wise. That future
will not happen if we don’t move ourselves towards that direction. For
all our failings, despite our flaws and limitations, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders undreamt of in our time will we
have accomplished in another generation, and another? How far will
have progressed by the next century and the next millennium?
Whether will it be we or some future generation who will bring forth
great advances for humanity, all of us (everyone, including you and I)
are the conduits for the human race to realise those dreams. The next
golden age of human achievement begins here and now, through us.
We must become the change that we seek. We do it because we must.
We do it because that is what it means to be human.
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7 SCHOLARS’ ACTIVITIES
On 17th January 2015, KYUEM sent one rugby
team and one netball team to have a friendly
match with Kolej Yayasan Saad Business School.
The venue of the match is at KYS's field.
As for the netball team, I was entrusted to lead the
team for the friendly match. There are a few other
YK scholars who played in the match which are
Nur Adlina, Azhani Lamry and Farhani Irfan. A
picture of KYUEM's netball team attached. We are
also going to represent our respective houses for
netball competition (some are also joining basketball competition) for KYUEM's annual Sports Carnival after the Chinese New Year's holiday.
HAPPENINGS
Engagement on 23rd February 2015 with IMU Student Services Team
Maisarah Najla
Binti Mansor,
Foundation,
KYUEM
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Engagement on 23rd February 2015 with IMU Watan Scholars.
The selection of the Khazanah Asia Scholarship Programme—
Indonesia was successfully completed in February 2015. The assessment camp for the undergraduates was conducted in collaboration
with Ancora Foundation. Postgraduates assessment camp on the
other hand was conducted jointly with CIMB Niaga and XL Axiata.
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Engagement with YK Bestari scholars at Marlborough College Malaysia, Johor on 5th February 2015.
Briefing session with Sekolah Berasrama Penuh (“SBP”) and Maktab
Rendah Sains Mara (“MRSM”) Principals.
YK Scholars’ engagement with Tan Sri Dato’ Azman Mokhtar over
dinner at Khan’s Restaurant in London, UK on 28th February 2015.
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Yayasan Khazanah Premier Scholars Programme Series 1, Session 2
Programme was successfully held from 24th February to 2nd March 2015.
BESTARI
-Muhammad Syahmi bin Zulkifli
-Nur Hani Dayana Mohd Yazid
-Muhammad Shahirin bin Mohd Sharfi
YK STAFF CHILDHOOD PHOTO: GUESS WHO???
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Guess whose childhood photo
is this! The first to email us
with the correct answer is the
winner! 
Previous Issue answer:
Syazana Akmal
GLOBAL
-Nadia Elena binti Nor Azlan
-Aiman Farhan Johari How
-Joss Qaid Knussi
-Ng Wai Lam
-Foo Chee Chenk
-Nurfirzanah Binti Ahmad Firdaus
-Afiq Bin Ramizi
-Ng Jia Tsing
WATAN
-Haikal Azri bin Abu Bakar
-Sanesh Ryann Jay Maganran
-Muhammad Hussein Bin Nizam
-Hani Saidatunnisa' Binti Abdul Halim
-Kulsanofer Binti Syed Thajudeen
ASIA
-Md. Torikul Islam Badal
-Zahidur Rahman Shimul
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