JULY 10 — In light of the recent articles and allegations in the past few weeks, it is important to fully understand what UKEC is and why it was formed in the first place.

Founded in 1995, UKEC was established to change the landscape of student activism: From one that was partisan to one that promotes openness, intellectualism and the spirit of volunteerism (not elitism).

Fast forward to today, the organisation has witnessed its share of highs and lows.

The leadership of the group changes every year through the Supreme Councillor electorate, and it is natural for us to bear the fruits of our predecessors’ successes and failures.

Dwelling on the past will not serve us any better. What is more important is how we choose to respond and do what is best for the students. This statement is framed by answering a few questions: How is UKEC still relevant today? How is this year’s MSLS going to be different? And how are the funds allocated?

How is UKEC still relevant today?

Student activism has evolved in recent years. In the past, for most of the time, UKEC had been the only organisation that organised summits such as Projek Amanat Negara (PAN) and Malaysian Students Leaders’ Summit (MSLS).

It was very centralised in London, and it received large receptions from the students. Today, with the proliferation of student organisations, UKEC has been striving to move from being just an event organiser to taking a new approach by decentralising further to reach out to more students and act more as a platform for Malaysian student organisations to congregate.

This is done while staying true to UKEC’s core competence as an umbrella body for student organisations and Malaysian students. For example, to collect the opinions of a wider and more diversified student audience, UKEC has organised a three-part Projek Amanat Negara held in three different cities, namely Leeds, Manchester and London.

In conjunction with Education Malaysia UK & Ireland, the first ever strategic meeting was organised to scrutinise a few pressing issues in student activism such as the proliferation of new societies, the impactfulness of Malaysian Night and the relevance of an umbrella body.

Results of the strategic meeting can be accessed here. This initiative signifies UKEC’s shift from being mainly an event organiser to a platform for Malaysian student organisations to congregate and this will also be continued by the next committee.

On disproportionate representation in Ireland: Effective representation only happens through a two-way street. This year, UKEC has attempted to gather student leaders in Ireland and create platforms for them to voice out their concerns.

While there are a number of improvements to be made, UKEC is proud to say that its regional chairman from Ireland this year has done a great job in getting the Supreme Councillors together through meetings and organising a few events including Dublin South East Asian Sports Day (around 100 participants and 20 committee members of different Malaysian societies were involved), Sharing the Kindness, a strategic meeting among student leaders in Ireland, and there is also a plan to organise a TN50 discussion in Ireland soon.

Besides, UKEC always makes an effort to bring the leaders of Malaysian societies down to London for our general meetings by fully reimbursing their cost of transportation since it is part of our commitment as an umbrella body.

Kalsom Movement and Charisma Movement were both parts of UKEC initially, and they were made independent a few years after they were formed. The primary reason for making them independent was because they were growing rapidly and had incredible potential in the UK and Malaysia.

Tying them tight to UKEC was restricting them from expanding to their maximum capacity. Therefore, it was only right for UKEC to make them independent but it was done gradually as UKEC was still funding the Charisma Movement in the first few years after they were made independent to ensure their sustainability.

UKECares still collaborates with them in organising events and this year, UKEC worked with the Kalsom Movement for the UKEC-Kalsom Charity Raffle during Career Fair and with the Charisma Movement in Inspire Initiatives.

How is this year’s MSLS going to be different?

The Malaysian Student Leaders’ Summit is the main point of contention as UKEC’s main flagship event.

Last year’s MSLS attendance does not imply that the event is irrelevant and out of touch with the students.

The cause of the poor attendance was mainly due to shortcomings in marketing and unforeseen clashes.

The feedback on the content was positive, and UKEC still receives a lot of support by the audience at subsequent intellectual events. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement.

UKEC recognises that Malaysian youth yearn for a platform to express themselves in hopes to make the country a better place.

Back in 2006, MSLS was first organised as a platform for Malaysian student leaders from different countries to meet and critically discuss local issues with experts and distinguished public figures.

Therefore, MSLS this year is reverting back to its primary mandate by inviting Majlis Perundingan Pelajar Kebangsaan (MPPK) Malaysia as well as democratically elected student leaders from more than 35 local universities and pre-university colleges together with 16 Malaysian student umbrella bodies around the globe such as Namsa, Masca and Masaf to gather on August 19, 2017 to critically dissect the issues and bad publicity surrounding our country.

Also, UKEC has requested Kementerian Belia & Sukan, Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi and Jabatan Perdana Menteri to send representatives to sit in and be part of the discussion to grasp the issues and ideas brought forward by the youths better.

On top of providing a channel for youth voices to be heard, the structure of MSLS this year is re-designed to be more outcome-centric.

The afternoon session of MSLS which is a resolution debate will be an unprecedented attempt to systematically gather youth opinion to be debated upon and summarised onto a single resolution that demands our words be put into action.

The resolution and MSLS entirely reflect the opinions of not only individuals passionate for change but the endorsement of entire Malaysian student unions globally.

How are the funds allocated?

Many steps had been taken to reduce expenditure. For instance, last year’s two-day MSLS only cost RM36,000 in total, and this year we are limiting it to only a day which reduces the venue expenditure.

There has been an allegation about 2013/14’s council and the RM80,000 KLCC deposit that was supposedly "lost.” This is mere speculation, and the deposit was recovered shortly after the venue change.

Expenses are made according to the budget, the audited accounts are presented in general meetings, and we make sure to leave enough funds for the new council.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the UKEC AGM and question UKEC without discrimination.

Generally, UKEC does not receive any government funding. This is to ensure UKEC’s stance of being non-partisan and neutral.

Despite this, a sum of our sponsorship is allocated to Supreme Councillors to help manage their Malaysian student societies as previous UKEC councils had done before us, one sixth of which is reverted to Ireland-based Malaysian student organisations.

It is important to clarify that UKEC’s core competence is acting as a coalition of Malaysian student organisations in the UK and Republic of Ireland and not as a charity.

UKEC has helped individuals who needed support with financing by directing them to EM or MARA or at its own capacity, but UKEC has expectations to meet for its corporate sponsors as an umbrella body.

Allegations of corruption while serious are baseless and until proven otherwise, UKEC urges that personal opinions not be shared publicly. UKEC is against corruption in any form and will fully co-operate should anyone choose to investigate further on this.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.