KUCHING: The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) and the Department of Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) will be launching the National Lecture Series called ‘Re-Imagining Malaysia’ today.
This event will take place at the Unimas Centre for Academic Information (Cais) starting at 2.15pm. Entrance is free of charge and opened to the public.
The lecture series, which feature distinguished speakers from various backgrounds, aim to present critical and informed perspectives on issues of key national importance, a press statement said yesterday.
“We hope that through this national lecture series, we can elicit public debate, deepen policy discussion and spark the imagination of Malaysians as to how our country could be and should be,” it said.
The lectures in this series will be held each month in Unimas. This year, the lecture series will see speakers presenting their views on corruption, alternative histories, liberal education and economic development.
The inaugural Lecture for 2012 is entitled ‘Imagining Malaysia Without Corruption’ to be delivered by Associate Prof Dr Syed Farid Alatas from the National University of Singapore. Syed is Head of the Department of Malay Studies and Assoc Prof in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore, where he has taught since 1992. He also serves on the executive committee of Unesco’s International Sociological Association.
Syed previously lectured at the University of Malaya. A Malaysian national, he obtained his PhD in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1991.
On Oct 23, at 2.15pm, the lecture series will feature speaker Dr Cheah Boon Kheng, former professor of History, University Sains Malaysia. He will present a paper entitled ‘Imagining a Malaysia at peace with its alternative histories’ at Unimas here.
On Nov 21, at 2.15pm, the lecture series will feature speaker Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who is Deputy Minister of Higher Education. He will present a paper entitled ‘Ke arah pembinaan sebuah universiti yang liberal di Malaysia’.
And on Dec 21, at 2.15pm, Datuk Dr R Thillainathan, former president of Malaysian Economic Association will present a paper ‘Economic Justice for the bottom 40 per cent’ at the same venue.