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 The 2nd Malaysian Summit of Australia or known as 2^nd MASA  which was held in Melbourne from 20th April ended yesterday on 24^th April 2014 with a closing ceremony that saw the attendance of more than 300 students at the Princes Park Open Venue, Royale Parade, Carlton, Melbourne.

Summary of every component of MASA event:-

 

Day 1: MASA Student Leaders' Agenda (20/4/2014)

Student leaders from across the country were gathered in this seminar to be trained to be better in terms of leadership and presentation. Shell representative, Ms. Shiela Bala conducted the session. Team activities such as a group presentations and mind challenging games were conducted to promote teamwork. Shortly after that, MASCA took over and facilitated a debate session. Students were divided into groups and given topics related to Malaysia's socio-economy.

 

Day 2: MASA Student Leaders' Agenda (21/4/2014)

The day started with a forum with Astro representatives such as Datuk Aznil Haji Nawawi and Mr. Prashant sharing their past experience as student leaders. This was followed by a session with Johan Merican, the CEO of TalentCorp, Paul T. Subramaniam, Knowledge Management and Training Partner of ZicoLaw and Mr. Shaiful, the Vice President of Business department of Astro. After lunch, the day continued with Yang Berhormat Khairy Jamaluddin's key note speech.

 

Later that evening, the opening ceremony was held at Argyle Square attended by a variety of VIPs such as  YB Khairy himself, Dato' Dr Rameez Yahaya, Dr Jumiati Ismail, Datuk Aznil Haji Nawawi, Mr Johan Merican and Ms Tricia Yeoh.

 

Day 3: MASA Careers, Conference and Awards (22/4/2014)

On the 22nd of April 2014, Malaysian Summit of Australia (MASA) officially started with the MASA Conference. YB Khairy Jamaluddin provided a useful insight in his key-note speech on the importance of being a Malaysian citizen with an open mind. In other words, to not simply accept things blindly without digging deeper into sources and credibility of information.

 

The next segment was lively exchange of ideas between Johan Merican from TalentCorp and Tricia Yeoh from IDEAS. Among the points discussed were challenges 8 and 9 of vision 2020, which basically is about ensuring an economically just society and establishing a prosperous society with an economy that is fully competitive and resilient. Johan and Tricia had different point of views in the sense that Tricia wanted more transparency & policy, while Johan believes that the current system in the country is good for economy and has a lot of potential.

 

The next activity was followed by MASA Excellence Awards which rewarded outstanding students in the Science sector, Engineering sector, Social Science sector and also Commerce sector. An award for MSO of the year was won by Adelaide University Malaysian Students Association (AUMSA).  For the second session, the discussion was on the social challenges in vision 2020. The lineup of panelists were Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir from Sisters in Islam and Syed Ibrahim from IKRAM. Among the points discussed were the faults in our education system and how to approach a better quality one in future. In addition to that, they also addressed women's rights and the existing culture of having less woman holding executive positions in the corporate world.

 

After the discussions ended, students were free to visit a variety of companies' booths to explore their career paths and opportunities. Among the companies available to network with were ZicoLaw, and PwC. ASTRO also held an exclusive interview session with Datuk Aznil Hj Nawawi where students were free to let their personality shine through for an opportunity to score a job with the company. The day ended when briefing sessions regarding games and reimbursement were held at around 6PM.

 

Day 4: MASA Games (23/4/2014)

 

MASA Games started where various games were held at different venues. Sports such as basketball, badminton, table tennis, and volleyball were held at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) while Tennis was at Albert Reserve. Handball was at Futsal OZ while soccer and ultimate frisbee was at Royal Park Ovals. The results so far showed that most of the winnings were snatched by Victoria followed by Queensland.

 

Day 5:- Closing Ceremony (24/4/2014)

 

The Closing Ceremony was also attended by few Malaysian Officials based in Australia (Education Malaysia, PDRM, Tourism Malaysia, Matrade), as well as two Victorian International Education Unit Officers (Ms Rebecca Hall and Ms Jane Keedle). Representatives of Sponsors for the MASA Summit such as Shell Malaysia and Monash University were also in attendance.

 

The event which commenced at 6.50 pm ended by 9 pm and among others saw the closing remarks by Consul General Malaysia in Melbourne as well as the prize giving ceremony for winners of the MASA Games where participating students from Victoria emerged the overall winner for the said games. Attendees were also served with food prepared by the organiser of the event.