The Malaysian Bar - Budding lawyers presentation on broadcast of high profile cases bags their win

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Budding lawyers presentation on broadcast of high profile cases bags their win

Monday, 05 September 2011 08:59am

©The Sun (Used by permission)
by Pauline Wong

UiTM Shah Alam students (l-r): Mohd Shafiq Ahmed Bazari, Emelia Mohd Shariff, Maizura Mokhsein and Atiqah Zaki. theSun/Anwar Faiz

PETALING JAYA (Sept 4, 2011): A keen grasp of the current political landscape, sharp wit and a well-reasoned presentation of public policy changes on transparency and accountability won four budding lawyers from UiTM Shah Alam the inaugural Malaysian Public Policy Competition.

Mohd Shafiq Ahmed Bazari, 24; Atiqah Zaki, 22; Maizura Mokhsein, 21; and Emelia Mohd Shariff, 21, beat three other teams to walk away with RM4,000.

Their presentation on implementing a policy to mandate live broadcasting of high-profile court cases (especially involving politicians and policy-makers) to promote accountability and integrity, blew the judges away.

"We identified a problem with the negative perception of people towards the judiciary, its independence and transparency," said Mohd Shafiq, adding that having the judiciary under scrutiny by the public would promote accountability and transparency.

This is in keeping with the competition's theme of promoting transparency and accountability.

Organised by the International Council of Malaysian Scholars and Associates (ICMS) and UCSI University, it is aimed at giving students a chance to learn about the intricacies of policy-making, and then put this knowledge to good use.

The competition, which saw participation from hundreds of student from all over the world, was held last weekend at UCSI University.

Participants were put through a rigorous process before finally making it to the semi-finals for the residential challenge.

The residential challenge consisted of a one-day crash course on public policy, after which semi-finalists were asked to identify areas in the civil service which lack transparency and find its causes.

After deliberation by judges, the finalists would then have to propose a plan to alleviate the problem which they had identified earlier.

The four winners were keen to join the competition from the get-go.

"The gravest mistake youths make is to not realise how much of a difference a single individual can make," said team leader Maizura, on the reasons why youth should, and must take an interest in policies that affect the people.

The competition also saw participation from judges both from the government and academic sectors, including Malaysian Anti Corruptiom Commission deputy chief commissioner Datuk Sutinah Sutan, Selangor state assembly speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim, London School of Economics Professor of Economics Prof. Danny Quah, and UCSI Faculty of Economics and Policy Science dean Dr KJ John.

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