Pre-Summit Series

Be the catalyst of the collective voice.

The Pre-Summit Series is an initiative under the MMI General Assembly (GA) to provide exposure and foundation of soft skills to our delegates. The workshops are especially important if you are a Member of the Table (MoT) as you are directly involved in the process of drafting a memorandum which is the centrepiece of the MMI GA. However, we have designed the Pre-Summit Series to be beneficial for anyone who seeks to upgrade your soft skill, to be involved in palatable discussion and to network with others.

It spans for 3 days (18th, 19th & 25th July) and consists of 3 workshops and 1 keynote session aimed to prepare all delegates for the MMI GA:

  • Keynote Interview with Galen Centre

  • Public Speaking Seminar

  • Policy Writing Workshop

  • Briefing and Drafting Memorandum

Day 1: Public Speaking

Public speaking is the art of performing a speech in front of a live audience. Public speaking requires speakers that present a speech with eloquence and fluency. Soft skills such as public speaking will help you gain more confidence in speaking in front of a group while being coherent and clear in communication. For this workshop, we have invited the Malaysian Institute of Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP) to deliver this art.

Speakers:

+ Emellia Shariff

Emellia Shariff is a lawyer by profession and a speech coach by passion. With her expertise as a litigator and coaching experience for the past 8 years, Emellia is one of the most renowned speech trainers in Malaysia. Emellia is also Malaysia's national champion in 2012 and was awarded the top 10 best speaker awards 6 times in both Malaysia and Singapore. Internationally, Emellia was a semifinalist of the Asian British Parliamentary Debating Championship 2 times in a row and a quarterfinalist of the United Asian Debating Championship. Emellia's passion in education has led to her appointment as CEO of MIDP in 2019.

+ Ain Aissa

A Cambridge law graduate with corporate litigation experience, Aissa understands the value of advocacy and the importance of being able to express yourself in a meaningful and effective way. Champion of 3 national public speaking competitions and 6 national debating tournaments, she is ever eager to educate others on how to speak up. Over the years, Aissa has conducted various speech-related classes, competitions, and workshops locally and abroad for a wide range of students. She is the founder of Seek to Speak, an online platform dedicated to public speaking resources and a columnist with the New Straits Times where she shares her views on education. Participants can expect engaging topics and great feedback from the one and only Ain Aissa!

 

Day 2: Policy Writing

According to WHO, health policies are decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society. 

Policy includes making recommendations from an organisation standpoint to relevant parties who have a role to play in the vision outlined by the policy. In the context of change in a national healthcare system, this is no small feat and has to begin with a small change that propagates toward the community and then to governmental and legislative bodies.

We each have a voice as medical students who will soon be a part of the healthcare system and learning how to use policies is a way to project our voices.

In light of the contract system in Malaysia, the workshop consists of learning how to source for the information needed, and how to write a meaningful policy brief.

Speakers:

+ Datuk Dr Teoh Siang Chin

Datuk Dr Teoh Siang Chin is a public health specialist with health systems and hospital management experience gained from a career with the Ministry of Health Malaysia. He has uniquely worked in all 3 main pillars of the MOH - medical, research and technical support and in public health retiring as State health Director Melaka. He has been active in MMA, with SCHOMOS, state branch and was the president of MMA 2005-2007.Presently, he consults on issues focussing on holistic health and ageing well as well as advocating on health reform.

+ Thilaga Sulathireh

Thilaga is a community organiser and researcher. Their, her (or other pronouns) work largely focuses on gender, sexuality, LGBTIQ+, human rights and social justice. They are a founding member of several LGBTIQ++ campaigns and initiatives, including Justice for Sisters and Queer Lapis. Thilaga is a member of Seksualiti Merdeka.

+ Travis Lines

Travis Lines is the National Policy Officer at the Australian Medical Students' Association and a final year MD/MPH student at the University of Melbourne. He has been involved in policy writing for a number of years and is passionate about using policy to generate advocacy outcomes. Travis' background in public health has seen him develop special interests in health economics, health policy and the use of evidence to support clinical decision-making.

+ Dorian Wilde

Dorian Wilde is a human rights defender focusing on gender identity, expression and sexual orientation minorities. He is the founder of Transmen of Malaysia, the largest online community of transmasculine people in Malaysia. He is also a core member of Justice for Sisters. His main areas of focus are trans-specific healthcare, inclusive and respectful healthcare access for gender identity, expression and sexuality orientation minorities and legal gender recognition.

+ Dato' Dr Amar-Singh

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS, Cert Theology (Aust, Hons), MBBS (Mal), MRCP (UK), FRCP (Glasg), MSc Community Paediatrics (Ldn, distinction), is a Senior Consultant Paediatrician. He served in the civil service for more than 35 years and was formerly Head of the Paediatric Department at Ipoh Hospital and Head of the Clinical Research Centre at Perak, Malaysia. He is active in research and has a long standing interest in children in the community, disability, family self-help groups, NGOs, child abuse, adolescents and disadvantaged & marginalised children (especially the Orang Asli/Indigenous People). He has assisted the MOH to revise the child health services and introduced a number of national programmes for children. With his wife, he is also offers spiritual direction and counselling. He is an active Child Advocate and is the recipient of the “Outstanding Asian Paediatrician Award” 2012 and “SENIA Advocacy Award” 2016.

 

Day 3: Drafting a Memorandum

A memorandum, or memo, gives a short brief of a policy that has been written. The memorandum drafted during the Pre-Summit Series will be presented during our MMI General Assembly and submitted to government policymakers or relevant stakeholders to ensure that our voice is accepted, prompting a change of action.