The Sunday Times, January 3, 2010
A Malay-Muslim charity group is taking a novel approach to solving problems faced by the Malay community.
The Prophet Muhammad's Birthday Memorial Scholarship Fund Board (LBKM) is organising a competition for undergraduates to look into problems faced by the Malay community and to offer solutions. The team with the best submission will win a cash prize of $3,000.
The competition, called LBKM Socialive! Challenge, is open to all undergraduates. They include non-Malay undergraduates as well as Singapore undergraduates who are overseas.
But LBKM, which is organising the competition with the Malay- language daily Berita Harian, said it hopes to see more Malay undergraduates take up the challenge as they have a greater stake in the community.
Said the charity's president, Mr Wan Hussin Zoohri: 'It is good to get different perspectives from non-Malay undergraduates. But more importantly, we want to see the Malay students giving more thought to the issues faced by the community.'
For many years, the community has been trying to solve long-standing issues such as dysfunctional families, teen marriages and students lagging behind in their studies.
This latest effort to engage the Malay elite follows recent pleas by Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim to Malay- Muslims who are better off not to turn their backs on dysfunctional families within the community.
Instead, they should 'make it their mission in life to think about it, to write about it and explore solutions', said Dr Yaacob, who is also Minister for the Environment and Water Resources.
Mr Wan Hussin said LBKM had planned for the competition months before Dr Yaacob's calls.
'We could see that not many young Malays were coming forward to contribute to the community. This will lead to the future problem of leadership renewal within the community,' he said.
As a result, the charity - which traditionally focuses on helping needy Malays and students - decided it had to do something to engage the younger generation.
Through the competition, LBKM also hopes to identify bright students who can be groomed into community leaders, said Mr Wan Hussin. He added that if successful, LBKM will consider organising the competition annually.
Undergraduates are encouraged to form three-man teams and focus on a problem faced by the Malay community. They are required to present their findings, analysis and recommended solutions in a 3,000-word paper.
The best five teams will be invited to to present their ideas and defend their solutions before a panel of experts.
Interested students should contact the LBKM on 3152-0998 or e-mail socialive@bursary.org for more details. Registration closes on Jan 18.
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