SHAH ALAM, April 2 — Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman does not believe that speaking English has made him less Malay.

The country’s youngest minister who had been speaking mostly in Bahasa Malaysia abruptly switched to English during his speech at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) last night.

“That should be the idealism of the youth here, we can afford to make mistakes, but we must work ridiculously hard in order for us to move forward.

“We cannot be complacent. And yes, I am speaking to you in English in UiTM because I believe that all Malaysians must at minimum be bilingual,” the former national debater told a crowd mostly composed of university students.

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“Because when I speak in English, that does not make me any less of a Malay,” he added.

Syed Saddiq also urged the youth to “be brave” and not fear new challenges.

“Because if we fail to take on new challenges, if we fail to upskill and reskill, we don’t dare to think out of the box, if we don’t want to learn new things or ideas when we become a graduate, we will be left far behind,” he said.

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Among other things, Syed Saddiq shared with the youth his experience working with 93-year-old Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, saying that there is “no shortcut” in the latter’s work ethic.

“From back then, he would enter the office no later than 8.30am and would not leave earlier than 5.30pm,” he said, also describing Dr Mahathir as being a stickler for punctuality.

Syed Saddiq told the youth that they have to work hard as there is “no shortcut” to success in life.

He was speaking at the “Rise of the Asian Tiger” convention jointly organised by the Akademi Harimau Asia, Idris Association, the Youth and Sports Ministry, and UiTM.

Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan were previously dubbed as Asian Tigers, and had experienced rapid economic growth in a phenomenon known as the “Asian Miracle”.

Malaysia and three other countries ― Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand ― were previously known as Tiger Cub economies due to their similar economic growth rates.

In an interview with Malay Mail in 2016, the then 24-year-old Syed Saddiq spoke of his weak grasp of the English language in the past.

“If you met me five years ago, I’m like a totally different person. I could speak English but my English wasn’t good. I never got As for my English papers and English papers in Malaysia are not difficult. My knowledge was shit. I thought Africa was a country, Egypt was a continent. I still remember pronouncing recipe as ‘reh-sip’,” he told Malay Mail then.

Syed Saddiq has thrice won the Asia Best Speaker award at the Asian British Parliamentary Debating Championship.

He was also the highest scored debater in the history of the World Universities Debate Championship in English as a Second Language category.