SRE-YMAC Experience
Nur Amilah Fadhlina Binti Haji Abd Wahid, a FASS student on the Geography, Environment and Development programme, attended the S Rajaratnam Endowment – Youth Model ASEAN Conference (SRE-YMAC) in Singapore from 1 till 5 October 2017. Below is her account of the experience.
"There are quite a few things – or rather, knowledge and skills that I have been able to gain over the course of the five days in Singapore for the S Rajaratnam Endowment – Youth Model ASEAN Conference (SRE-YMAC). This conference brought together delegates from all of the ASEAN member countries who were acting as diplomats discussing on current regional and global economic, security, social and cultural issues. Delegates were required to carry out an in-depth research on the respective issue or problems that they were assigned to and try to come up with feasible solutions to tackle them. In my case, I was assigned under one of the Political- Security ASEAN Community Vision 2025 with the given issue of Narcotics. More specifically, the problem that I was assigned to was with regards to the question of ‘How ASEAN can pursue its aspirations of a drug-free region’. Throughout this conference, I was placed in a room with 26 other delegates passionately debating and arduously trying to come up with solutions that all delegates would agree to.
"Outside the confines of the formal setting, delegates were able to build good relations with each other. This conference acts as a good platform for the delegates to get to know more about one another, to ask questions not just on personal matters but also questions with regards to the situations and other information in the delegates’ respective home countries.
"As a result of my involvement in this great conference, I was able to extract new knowledge, acquire and improve important life skills such as decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, interpersonal relationships and more. It also made me aware on the importance of knowing thoroughly the current situation and information with regards to my own home country – to have a stand, to be able to promote and show good values as a Bruneian citizen."