Sunday August 16, 2009

Fitting salute to national icons

By JOSEPH LOH

A sum of RM500,000 and national recognition. This is how three oil and gas companies want to reward those who have made their mark in a significant way and will be icons for the younger generation.

HOW do you reward someone who was instrumental in transforming the palm oil industry in Malaysia, turning the country into one of the biggest palm oil producers in the world?

Or a team of medical experts who discovered a new strain of virus when other worldwide experts assumed it to be something else?

Khalid: ‘We want to inspire young people to achieve and strive for excellence’ – NORAFIFI EHSAN

These are two iconic winners of last year’s inaugural Merdeka Award.

In the first case, Datuk Leslie Davidson introduced a type of weevil to aid in pollination – a process that was previously done entirely by hand, resulting in a dramatic increase in palm oil yield.

The other winner is the Nipah Virus investigation team, who discovered the then unknown virus when other medical experts thought it to be Japanese encephalitis. As a result, we have the perhaps dubious honour of having the new strain named after a Malaysian location.

“These are the type of individuals we want to recognise and see in the community. We have to search for these people and give them the recognition so they become icons, otherwise they will be out there and we will not know about them,” says Datuk Khalid Mohd, executive director of the Merdeka Award Secretariat.

For the second-year running, individuals or organisations that have made outstanding contributions to the greater good and advancement of Malaysia and its people will be eligible to receive the prestigious Merdeka Award.

Come Aug 19, the recipients of the Awards will be announced in five categories, namely education and community; environment; health, science and technology; outstanding scholastic achievement; and outstanding contribution to the people of Malaysia.

Besides receiving national recognition for their achievements and service to the country, recipients also stand to receive a cash prize of RM500,000.

“We do have other awards in the country, but the three founders wanted something of a higher stature. That is why the cash prize is RM500,000 – the highest prize given for any award in the country,” says Khalid.

The award is the initiative of Petronas Malaysis, and was co-founded with two other oil and gas companies – ExxonMobil and Shell. Khalid says this is their way of giving back to society after having a presence here for so many years.

The concept for an award such as the Merdeka Award is not a new one, he says, citing the example of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Philippines and the internationally-renowned Nobel Prize.

The Merdeka Award, Khalid says, is modelled on the Nobel Prize but is separate and distinct from the latter. He says that when the Merdeka Award was being formed, a team was sent to Oslo, Norway, to understand the mechanisms of setting up such a body.

When asked if it was meant to match the Nobel Prize in stature, Khalid answers with a laugh.

“How can we match them? They are over 100 years old and have candidates from all over the world. It has a totally different standing altogether.

“We only wanted to study the structure and learn how awards like these are done – the procedures, processes, nominations, the various committees, and more,” says Khalid, adding that its continued success is something to be emulated.

According to Khalid, the award is a lot more than just recognising achievements – it aims to create icons that the younger generation can strive to emulate.

“We want to inspire young people to achieve and strive for excellence,” he says.

He cites the example of the joint recipient in the health, science and technology category, Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Kadir, who has been instrumental in spearheading the research of diabetes and endocrinology in Malaysia.

“Despite coming from a well-to-do family, he worked in the Government until his retirement. He could have joined the private sector but did not; instead he dedicated his life to teaching and research,” says Khalid.

One challenge that the Merdeka Awards faces is the somewhat poor recognition by Malaysians. But this, Khalid believes, is due to the fact that the award is still new and only into the second year.

“There is no point in having this kind of award to please ourselves. We have to connect with the people, make them understand what it is about so that they can be proud of it,” he says.

To create more awareness of the award, several activities and initiatives have been set in motion. The key event is the lecture series – where past recipients are invited to give public lectures on particular topics related to their expertise.

Khalid says the lectures are held at universities for easy accessibility to the target audience – the younger generation.

Another plan in the works, done in tandem with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, is to invite students to produce and perform short theatre productions.

“We want to give them the opportunity to express themselves through the power of acting and dialogue. We also want to know what they think of Merdeka, and what it means to them.”

They will be approaching the 22 film schools in Malaysia to get them to produce short films with a message about Merdeka.

“It will be just like what (the late) Yasmin Ahmad used to do and the best ones will be aired on television,” says Khalid.

Another planned activity is a series of performances by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

“They will perform, for the first time, all the evergreen Malaysian patriotic songs. It will be a full orchestra and will run for three nights. We may get a TV station to broadcast the performance.”

Khalid says that such activities will ensure the longevity of the Merdeka Awards.

“We don’t want to be like other awards – where it is held once a year and that’s it. We are trying to sustain awareness through these events, so there will be something going on throughout the year,” he says.

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