KUAMuniti.com

Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik and the KUAM Committee 2010

The new and old committee members of Kelab UMNO Australia Melbourne (KUAM) had the opportunity to attend an intimate meet-and-greet dinner with Dato’ Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik on his official visit to Melbourne on the 23rd of October 2009.

Tan Sri Rahim and his team very kindly took the KUAM committee out for dinner, and over dinner, imparted little nuggets of wisdom about Malaysian economic policies. His speech, while having a very strong tendency towards the oratory, was flavoured with moments of surprising candour and provided an insight into the working policies behind the economics of Malaysia. There was a very strong sentiment towards encouraging businesses to not just focus on their profits, but also instilling a sense of giving back to communities and helping to build up the country. Tan Sri Rahim also spoke at length about the past leaders and their contributions to Malaysia as it is today – a well reminded history lesson in a time where Malaysia is struggling to assert itself on the world stage.

It was a very insightful yet inspiring speech given by Tan Sri Rahim, taking us on a historical journey right from the Malaccan Government and its aftermath upon the arrival of the Portuguese in 1511 right through the struggle towards independence by Tunku, followed by the different objectives and approaches by Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir, Tun Abdullah Badawi up till Dato’ Seri Najib’s vision today. Touching on various aspects and views as a former leader himself, Tan Sri Rahim lived up to what he is known for, economics. Believed to be currently pursuing a Doctorate in the mentioned field, most of his statements had a factual backing in terms of percentage and ratios. Together with his charismatic way of delivering, we found ourselves attentively nodding to each of the points made. Tan Sri was the Chief Minister of Melaka from 1982 till 1994. During that period, he transformed Melaka, which was second from the bottom among the poorest states in Malaysia, into becoming the 4th richest state. Statistics and track records define an individual, so to say; it was much of an honour to be able to exchange our views with a man of that calibre.

We thank Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik for taking time out to spend time with the KUAM committee and hope that we will remember the lessons of history and our roots today.

“We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.” –Gerda Lerner

Written by,
Aida Zabidi & Shamir Hameed

KUAMuniti – a catchphrase initiated in October 2007, and finally implemented in 2009; it was never meant to replace the original abbreviation of the club name, but instead to expand on the abbreviation to a catchphrase of sorts, thus adding value to the branding of the club. The aim was to increase the appeal of KUAM, by making it fresh, new and appealing to another generation. The play with the word ‘community’ and ‘unity’ gave birth to the original KUAMunity, mooted by Izaz Zainal and Khairul Idzham Musa, KUAM committee members in 07/08, which eventually led to the current catchphrase as implemented by Mohd Izhar Moslim and his new committee of 08/09.

Naturally, the second step was to deliberate on the design of a new logo – and it was suggested that the letter ‘M’ in the catchphrase should be highlighted, both to emphasize our Melbournian connections, and also to represent an image of 2 people of different races shaking hands and reaching out – an image symbolic of our aim to reach out to others in our mutual aim for unison.

Conceptual KUAMuniti logo designs

Why embrace other races when UMNO (which KUAM is affiliated to) is about the Malays?

When the committee of 2008 were elected, the need to find a new approach to attract more members to the club was essential as UMNO and Barisan Nasional did not fare well in the 12^th General Election on the 8^th of March 2009.

Despite KUAM being a social club, and not a political one, this still affected KUAM. When KUAM held its annual barbecue session on the 9^th of March, 2008, phrases such as “Are you celebrating UMNO’s downfall?” “People come here for the food, not for UMNO!” and also “Soon KUAM will become irrelevant” were whispered throughout the session.

It was time for a change, even for us at a micro level.

KUAM will never be able to avoid the fact that we are affiliated with UMNO, a political party known for its strong Malay ties. It is even more important to note that non-Malay individuals cannot become KUAM members, as discriminatory as it sounds. However, it is important to state that leaders and good leadership should not be elected based on race, and just because our entire committee is made up of one ethnic group, it is essential that we prove ourselves worthy of these posts, and that we will excel in our roles.

Even more imperative, we need to differentiate that despite a purely Malay membership, we do not close our events to other ethnicities.

We want to prove people that we are worthy. We want to break the stereotype. We want to be relevant to all. We want to lead by example and show that us as Malays, are capable of many good things. Hence we encouraged more participation from non-Malays, involved the wider community in organizing our activities, and tailored the contents of our programs to appeal and benefit the community as a whole.

By end of 2008, we were able to see that we were becoming more accepted, and participation in our activities swelled in record numbers.

The Chosen Design

In 2009 with many fresh new faces in the committee, KUAMuniti was pursued with more action.  The KUAMuniti.com website was created and the KUAMuniti logo was finalised – another more tangible chapter to the branding of the club.

Our activities grew by leaps and bounds as we continued to involve others in our activities, and actively continued to work together with other student clubs to promote unity.

In addition, the KUAMuniti concept was explained to prominent politicians visiting Melbourne, such as YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, YB Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, YBM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, YB Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, just to name a few and the concept was greeted with a strongly positive response and our goals for working towards unity were supported. On Sunday, 9th August 2009, a landmark and also history for KUAM as the KUAMuniti logo was launched by YBM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah followed by the launch of the KUAMuniti.com website by YB Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

KUAM can be proud to state that at least a third of our event participants are non-Malays in a large majority of events, something we hope to continue to encourage in our effort to become more relevant to a larger community. We can be proud of our active involvement in other club’s activities, and we can be loud and proud in our support for activites that support unison, such as MASCA’s ‘Road to Unity’. We can be proud for taking the lead in many prominent Melbourne events, such as Fiesta Malaysia, and Malaysia Week.

Best of all, we can be proud that at the end of the day, we are able to look at ourselves in the mirror and say that we have done our best.

May these efforts be continued in many years to come as we believe that a small change can make a very big difference.

And it is in our hopes and prayers that something as small as KUAMuniti can become the start of that big difference.

KUAMuniti ‘Hall of Fame’

Written by Mohd Izhar Moslim (gtizhar[at]gmail[dot]com)

Edited by Aida Zabidi (ace_krusher[at]yahoo[dot]com)

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