Rizal Kamal, founder of The Comedy Club KL, talks about supporting Malaysian comedians

Sreedhar Subramaniam, founder of The Malaysian Insider, talks about spreading ethical values

Kuala Lumpur, 22 September 2010 - It was an evening of inspiration Wednesday during UCSI University’s TEDxUCSI Talk. The event, based on the international TED Talks’ spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” showcased three live speakers and two TED Talk videos to a crowd of more than 40 people. With the subtheme of media and entertainment, the speakers shared their thoughts on “Ideas to Transform Malaysia.”

UCSI University organised the event to expose students, guests and the general public to new ideas and new ways of thinking. As an institution of higher learning, UCSI University is committed to serving as an avenue to generate critical thinking and positive action. With the theme, “Ideas to Transform Malaysia,” UCSI University aimed to promote the interests of the nation to benefit its people.

The speakers included Rizal Kamal, founder of the KL Comedy Club, Sreedhar Subramaniam, founder of The Malaysian Insider, and Fahmi Fadzil, host of PopTeeVee’s Fairly Current Show.

In his speech, Rizal said stand up comedy, though still not as well-established as in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, is the next big thing in Asia. He said since laughter is universal and transcends all language barriers, more needed to be done to support local comics, especially in Malaysia, where the material would be more relevant to the country.

“The way I see it, to raise the standards of comedians or comedy in Asia, we have to breed good comedians from here,” he said. “Live life to the fullest, and learn to laugh, because laughter makes the world go round.”

Sreedhar spoke about transforming Malaysia by spreading ethical values and responsibility through the use of models. He said everyone is a model for those around them and positive models in key pillars, including family, education, business, government, arts and entertainment and faith, could change the country for the better. He believed it was the media’s job to communicate these positive values, especially through the Internet.

“I believe if we would just choose and pick the right models, we can transform each of these key pillars,” he said. “Our biggest failure is having people with skills but with poor character.”

Fahmi spoke about forming friendships to transform the country. He said Malaysia suffered from a tremendous amount of trust deficit, especially with regards to institutions, politicians and news sources, but friends still remain a source of trust. Using the example of the success of his weekly PopTeeVee web talk show, The Fairly Current Show, which he created with friends, he said people should continue to network with each other to share ideas and make a positive change.

Those who attended the event said they were glad they came.

Kuala Lumpur resident Jasmine Ng said she liked the concept of “Ideas to Change Malaysia” and had learned a lot from the event.

“I really enjoyed Sreedhar’s talk,” she said. “I think a lot of the things he said really made sense, how all of us are born with truth in us since we automatically recognise what is right and what is wrong.”

Leanne Tan, a first year UCSI University student said she was particularly moved by Fahmi’s talk.

“I thought it was a cool concept, that you can do anything with friends,” she said. “I’m glad I came, I thought it was truly worth it.”