MY FULL SPEECH DURING THE #SSNC LAUNCH
TITLE - WE ARE WHAT WE PAY ATTENTION TO
Yang Berhormat Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh
Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi Malaysia
YBhg. Datin Paduka Ir. Dr. Siti Hamisah binti Tapsir
Ketua Pengarah Pendidikan Tinggi
YBhg. Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad,
Canselor, UCSI University
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Musa Mohamad,
Pengerusi, Kumpulan UCSI
Dato' Peter Ng
Pengasas dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Kumpulan UCSI
Senior Professor Dato' Dr. Khalid Yusoff,
Naib Canselor dan Presiden UCSI University
Selaku Penaja Tempat Perasmian Kempen #SaySomethingNice 2017
Dato' (Dr.) Hj. Mohd. Karim bin Hj. Abdullah Omar
Pengerusi, UCSI University Trust
Azree Anis Zubedy, Pengarah Zubedy - Rakan Kongsi Saya
Dif-dif jemputan, klien-klien zubedy, rakan2 seperjuangan perpaduan, Ahli Jawatankuasa Kempen #SaySomethingNice 2017
Serta
Hadirin dan hadirat sekalian.
SALAM SEJAHTERA.
PENGENALAN
1. #SaySomethingNice (#SSNC) merupakan sebuah kempen perpaduan.
2. Ia merupakan sebuah kempen tahunan yang dianjurkan oleh Zubedy dan rakan-rakan kami sejak tahun 2011. Kempen ini bermula dari 31 Ogos (Hari Kebangsaan) sehingga 16 September (Hari Malaysia) selama 17 hari.
3. Kempen ini bermatlamatkan membina negara Malaysia yang positif dengan ‘mencipta jutaan detik perpaduan’ atau dalam Bahasa Inggerisnya ‘creating million moments of unity’.
4. Di negara Malaysia, kita sering berbolak-balik antara detik-detik perpaduan dan detik-detik perpecahan. Lebih banyak detik perpaduan yang kita cipta, lebih tenggelam suara perpecahan yang ada. Inilah cara kita maju ke hadapan.
5. Untuk membawa visi dan impian ini lebih jauh, slogan kempen kami tahun ini ialah ‘MELALUI PANDANGAN SEORANG RAKYAT MALAYSIA.’
- ‘THROUGH THE EYES OF A MALAYSIAN.
’
6. We want Malaysians to choose how we see Malaysia, that is to see Malaysia as Malaysians. Not just as a Malay… not just as a Chinese, Indian, Eurasian, Kadazan or Iban… not just as Orang Sabah, Orang Sarawak, Orang Semenanjung, etc. but the sum total of all the above and perhaps more.
7. This is very important because at the end of the day, we are what we choose to pay attention to.
WHY ARE WE WHAT WE CHOOSE TO PAY ATTENTION TO?
8. It is about consciousness. It is about awareness. When we are conscious of something, it becomes more real. It becomes a bigger part of our daily living. Let me explain.
9. Have you experienced when a friend or a family member buys a new car, say, a Proton Iriz and the very next day you noticed many Proton Iriz everywhere you go?
10. Before that, we seem to be blind to that particular model. It is the way our minds work. Until we are conscious of something, we are not mindful of it. But once we are, we start to pay attention to it and it becomes more prominent and more relevant in our lives.
11. When we choose, a particular experience becomes more real and assumes a larger position in our lives. Thus, a small matter can become big and a big issue may become small – based on what we choose to pay attention to.
12. A teenager who pays attention to a pimple on his or her face may go through a complete breakdown and refuse to meet people. At work, a staff who choose to pay attention to a small cut on his finger will not be able to perform the whole day through.
13. On the other hand, our national cyclist Azizulhasni Awang managed to complete his race with a giant splinter going through his legs because he was focusing and paying attention to winning.
14. The former becomes a lousy employee, Azizul went to become a world champion.
15. In short, our reality and experiences in life are governed by this simple patterning system. When we choose, we pay attention. When we pay attention, it becomes our reality.
16. This makes what and how we choose to pay attention to central in making our lives full of happiness and laughter or otherwise - sorrows and misery. Key in making our organisations like UCSI a success or a failure. Our country MALAYSIA, united or broken.
17. What we choose to pay attention to becomes even more crucial because as shown in the examples above, as we choose, we act… as we choose we act!
18. The Quran at chapter 39 verse 18 tells us that,
“Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.”
… Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it.
19. As such, to make Malaysia great and united, the Government and people of Malaysia must choose what we pay attention to. New and old media must choose how much airtime we should give to moments of Unity as opposed to news that creates disunity.
20. Semantically, we need to choose FOCUS WORDS that can create semantic fields in our daily vocabulary that promotes the culture of UNITY. We used to have a FOCUS WORD that facilitates this – it was the word MUHIBBAH.
21. A focus word like MUHIBBAH has the ability to pull together KEY WORDS in our daily living like BERSATU, HORMAT MENGHORMATI, TOLERANSI, EMPATI, GOTONG ROYONG, KASIH SAYANG etc and make them relevant to our daily practise. At the same time, a focus word like MUHIBBAH has the ability to show us the ‘anti-muhibbah’ key words that we must avoid like PENDATANG, PI BALIK KAMPUNG and PARIAH.
22. At Zubedy, we hope to play our role in shaping the culture of our nation by introducing and promoting positive FOCUS WORDS and KEY WORDS through campaigns like this #SaySomethingNice campaign.
23. We plan to bring forward and promote words, action and thoughts that can help Malaysians pay attention to UNITY and GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
24. An example of a FOCUS WORD that we seek to promote is RUKUN NEGARA. We are working together with JPNIN with a poster contest specifically towards making the RUKUN NEGARA a FOCUS WORD through the #RukunNegaraSomethingNice campaign.
25. Thousands of this poster will be distributed via KELAB RUKUN TETANGGA, KELAB RUKUN NEGARA IN SCHOOLS and all the other charges under the JPNIN. We ask Malaysians to #SaySomethingNice about the RUKUN NEGARA.
Ladies and gentlemen,
26. RUKUN NEGARA as a FOCUS WORD can generate important keywords like UNITY, PROGRESSIVE, JUST, DEMOCRATIC, FAIR, EQUITABLE and LIBERAL … yes in RUKUN NEGARA liberal is a good word.
27. Slowly but surely, RUKUN NEGARA after being paid adequate attention, will act as the pillar that unites us.
28. I would like to take this opportunity to ask a little help from YB Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh if he can forward some kind words about the campaign to all the charges under his Ministry namely JABATAN PENDIDIKAN TINGGI, JABATAN PENDIDIKAN POLITEKNIK AND JABATAN PENDIDIKAN KOLEJ KOMUNITI and help us ensure each of the higher institute of learning under them carries at least one or two giant posters as like the one UCSI’s example here. YB Menteri, please make it not just for this year. Please make this a yearly event.
29. It is our hope to take this campaign to our schools in the coming years. Imagine #SaySomethingNice Campaign is celebrated from standard 1 to form 5, 11 years of UNITY filled 17days each year.
PENUTUP
30. Sebelum saya mengakhiri ucapan saya ini, ingin saya mengucapkan ribuan terima kasih kepada Yang Berhormat DATO’ SERI IDRIS JUSOH kerana sudi melancarkan kempen ini.
31. Kepada pihak UCSI yang menaja perlancaran ini. Terima kasih banyak-banyak. Pehak media, tolong jangan lupa berikan UCSI liputan yang positif. Tanpa pertolongan dari pihak2 seperti UCSI, kami di Zubedy tidak akan dapat membawa projek2 perpaduan begini kepada Malaysia.
32. Terima kasih kepada kawan-kawan seperjuangan Perpaduan Zubedy yang termasuk pelanggan2 kami, NGO-NGO, individu-individu dan geng-geng dari media massa ..”old and new media”.
33. Tidak lupa terima kasih kepada team saya dari Zubedy Ideahouse dan Zubedy Sdn Bhd yang telah bertungkus lumus menjayakan projek ini terutamanya kepada Encik Abdullah atau Aby dan Cik Syairah, yang mengetuai kempen tahun ini.
34. Ingin saya mengakhiri ucapan ini dengan mengulangi ayat Al Quran, Surah 39 ayat 18 tadi dalam Bahasa Malaysia.
“ Yang berusaha mendengar perkataan-perkataan yang sampai kepada-Nya lalu MEREKA MEMILIH DAN MENURUT akan yang SEBAIK-BAIKNYA; mereka itulah orang yang diberi HIDAYAH PETUNJUK OLEH ALLAH, dan mereka itulah ORANG YANG BERAKAL SEMPURNA.”
We are what we pay attention to.
Salam sejahtera dan terima kasih.
