We are on Vbuzz. We find out together on how Power Shift Malaysia is empowering and engaging with Malaysian youth on tackling climate change.
Co-Founders Adrian Yeo and Aisyah being interviewed by Roshan and Jay on @Vbuzz recently.
Our vision is empowered youth taking action on climate change for a sustainable future for all.
Our mission is to amplify the voice of youth movements in climate change through education and mobilisation.
The Solution > Make The Conversation Mainstream – Shaping public opinion with comprehensive climate change education at all levels, especially young people.
The year 2016 has kicked off with great news for Power Shift Malaysia as our Malaysian Youth Delegates return from a 3 week mind opening experience at COP21 in Paris. Having witnessed the gathering of leaders from all over the world sign a legally binding document on climate change, the youth of Power Shift were later pleasantly surprised to be given the opportunity to meet with our very own youth minister and Member of Parliament, YB Khairy Jamaluddin.
YB KJ accepting the MYD Youth Statement on Climate Change
(L-R) Sze Ming, Sheena, YB KJ, Aisyah, Adrian Yeo
During the meeting, KJ expressed his appreciation for the work carried out by Power Shift Malaysia in educating Malaysian youth on the effects of climate change and the urgency to take action for climate justice. He expressed his thoughts on the awareness level of the Malaysian youth, saying “we are still far behind on our knowledge about climate change and how it is affecting us”.
Khairy went on to add that Malaysians, including himself, still find it hard to change our behavioral patterns when it comes to placing the needs of the environment before our own. However, he understands the challenges that we are faced with especially in the transportation areas such as the current lack of public transportation which he hopes will improve by a ten fold once the new MRT lines are running. Khairy says, he would personally like to have the opportunity to travel to work by train someday soon.
Sharing Climate Change Plans to YB Khairy Jamaluddin
The meeting reached its peak when the members of Power Shift Malaysia handed the Youth Statement on Climate Change to Khairy Jamaluddin. The document had previously been sent to the Prime Ministers prior to COP21. Khairy said that while the statement was ambitious, it carried weight and was a necessity due to the ticking clock of climate change. He understands that this is the voice of the concerned youth of Malaysia and will continue to support our cause.
#PowerShiftMsia, with the support of the Malaysian Ministry of Youth and Sports, hopes to bring the Malaysian youth together in developing more publicly available resources about climate change and its affects on Malaysians. A lot more research is required to develop the right policies to effectively tackle the climate crisis whilst creating awareness and educating the general youth about these policies. Our government’s initiatives will only go as far as being paperwork without the action of the people. The youth should be at the forefront of these actions, demanding a cleaner, better future for all Malaysians.
Written by: Sheena
To read the Malaysian Youth Statement on Climate Change (2015), click here.
During Promulgation Ceremony of the Malaysian Youth Statement on Climate Change towards COP21, I met Winnie from Jaringan Orang Asli SeMalaysia (JOAS) or The Indigenous Peoples Network of Malaysia. JOAS is the umbrella network for 21 community-based non-governmental organisations that have indigenous peoples’ issues as the focus. As the focal point for indigenous rights and advocacy in Malaysia, JOAS provides the indigenous communities with representation not just nationally, but regionally and internationally as well.
From chatting with her, I found out that she will be going to COP21 too, as a representative of JOAS. Hence, we stay connected via whatsapp prior to the trip so that my team and I could contact her or we could take care of each other in Paris in case of any emergency. After all, there is no harm in making more friends.
Before we depart to Paris, she contacted me for assistance in helping her in her Sumazau Dance performance during Asia Day on 9 December 2015 (Wednesday). Sumazau dance is a popular traditional folk dance of the Kadazan Dusun in Sabah. It is often performed during the harvest festival celebration every May. I cannot find a reason why I should reject her offer, so I informed the team and they agreed to help out too. Deep in my heart, I was so excited because this will be my first ever dance performance and it will held at Paris.
During COP21, Emily and I met her on Monday (the same week as Asia Day) to learn the dance at Indigenous People Pavilion located in the Climate Generation Spaces (Green Zone) in Le Bourget. For your information, green zone is one of the officiate zone by COP21 that open to both public and accredited persons. It provides a huge space for debates, knowledge-sharing, discussions and conviviality. The IP pavilion will be focusing on indigenous people from Asia to showcase their cultures, ways of life and knowledge that provide solutions to climate change.
While learning the dance, Winnie explained to me that the dance was inspired by eagle flying patterns, symbolising freedom. For a first timer like me, the dance was not as hard as I expected as some of the moves are repetitive.
Asia Day was held on Wednesday with a variety of programme from morning till evening. Winnie was one the speakers for the panel discussion on Indigenous Peoples’ Contribution to Climate Change. She shared successful environmentally- friendly initiatives such as micro-hydro and community-led fisheries management system. The dance was arranged at the end of the programme which is “Asia Reception and Cultural Night”. Normally when I hear about cultural night, my first thought is that I can try food from different regions. My dream did come true and I will explain in a while.
My team and I arrived in the late afternoon for rehearsal. We met a youth delegate from Taiwan when we were walking from Blue Zone and he joined us for the dance performance as well. *applause*. Since the team is completed now, a clearer picture of the dance move can be seen. Still, practices makes perfect. After a few round of rehearsals, we were confident that we will be able to deliver the dance smoothly.
The cultural night was packed with a few traditional dance performances by indigenous people in Asia regions such as Mongolia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bhutan. Each of the performance was unique and impressive. Our performance, the Sumazau Dance is arranged at the closing of the event. As a result, everyone, including the audiences and other indigenous people started to dance together with us. At first, I was very nervous but after a while I felt nothing but joy. That moment had indeed became one of my emotional anchors from now on.
As mentioned above, cultural night is normally linked with food. Yeap, traditional food from different Asian regions were served after the performances ended. To name a few, there were momo (dumplings) from Nepal, Hivana (Fish salad) from Malaysia, Salad Tea Leaves from Myanmar and Dim Sum. All of them taste really delicious. That made me felt a sudden pang of homesickness. I miss char kuey tiao, satay, laksa and bak kut teh back in Malaysia.
After the meal, we headed back to Blue Zone to attend Comite de Paris.
Written by: Thomas Lai
Edited by: Merryn Choong
Tun Jeanne A
When Tun Jeanne Abdullah met the three MYD members (Jolene, Thomas, Emily) in Paris Declaration, we ended up chatting passionately about our tropical rainforests (I felt pity for the people waiting in line to talk to her though, we chatted for such a while).
The three of us were presented with the golden chance to meet our honorable former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi and his spouse, Tun Jeanne Abdullah in The Declaration launching ceremony on the 7 Dec 2015. We were very lucky to get Tun Jeanne’s attention and that was how we ended up being invited by her for a casual chat on the same table. From there, we got to know that Tun Jeanne is the chairman of the Board of Trustee of Tropical Rainforest Conservation Research Centre (TRCRC), who had been working on forestry conservation for the past few years.
She was telling us the beauty and richness of our very own tropical rainforests, specifically on the valuable woods that we have, such as the precious Gaharu timber. Due to many of the illegal loggings and uncontrolled deforestation to make way for palm oil plantation, Malaysia’s timber production has been dwindling. It is a pity when we resolved to importing timbers when our fertile land could produce better quality ones.
Tun Jeanne also pointed out that we could acquire many new insights through learning from the forest, this include the indigenous people’s knowledge on forest management. Hence it is very essential to raise more awareness especially among the people in the urban areas who are quite disconnected with the nature so they will appreciate this golden national asset we have. It is as if there is an entirely untouched chapter on natural rainforest and indigenous knowledge that our people are missing. I understand that more need to be done in this matters and vowed to be doing more in this.
The day we had this conversation became even more meaningful when it was the same day where our Minister of Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) , YB Dato Sri Dr. Haji Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar pledged to preserve 50% of our national land as forests with healthy forest and zero deforestation in the COP plenary this morning!
Oh let me share with you an awesome initiative by Tun Jeanne’s founding organisation- Landskap Malaysia, called the “3313” . Anyone can have a tree planted on behalf of them for just RM33 in the organisation’s living collection sites which are either in forest reserves or national parks. The coordinates of the trees planted will be revealed to their contributors and we can visit our trees ! I love this idea as it must be an exciting journey to revisit your own tree and watch them growth throughout the years. Imagine watching it looks so fragile and new and the next time when you come back, it is all tall and hard, offering shade for you (of course that depends on the species).
I found this particular initiative stood out from other tree planting events where they are normally a one-shot session and rarely let people to trace back the trees that they have planted. Plus, if I were to choose, I would prefer to plant my own tree in a real forest than in a city to be honest. To me, replant a forest is more important because of its higher biodiversity value and rich ecosystem services. But of course, fragmented forests and those urban forests should also be retained. As more population is going to stay in cities, it is essential to create more green space which is near to us. Remember, we are also part of the nature!
It was an inspiring evening for me, after all. Tun Jeanne inspired me by her down to earth attitude on doing all these amazing forest conservation work. Most importantly, she is very keen to share her knowledge generously with us- the youth. I am happy to get her acknowledgement and encouragement on what I want to do for the environment. This is definitely a booster for me. I would love to have more conversation with her back in Malaysia later! On a side note, she is a very caring and patient wife to Tun Abdullah Badawi. I found both of them really cute and loving even at this age
☺
Written by: Emily
Edited by: Wanji
Spot me at Youth Forum in Indonesia Pavilion, COP21
While I was still in Malaysia preparing for COP21, I received a short email from Adrian and Lastrina asking if I am keen to share my climate initiatives and experiences for the coming Youth Forum event organized by Indonesian Pavilion in COP21.
Well, the moment I say “Yes” is the day I am glad I did it.