For decades, the West has been putting pressure on developing nations like Malaysia to go down the path of zero deforestation via sanctions and trade restrictions. The latest is the European Union regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) which stipulates that for seven commodities (including palm oil) and their derivatives to be sold in the EU or exported from it, they must be deforestation-free. Given pressures like these as well as for the greater good of the environment, should Malaysia adopt zero deforestation? Or should we continue with our current practice of sustainable forest management?
Come 26 August, the youths will debate on this in Parliament. The motion topic of Malaysia for Sustainable Forest Management Over Zero Deforestation is brought to you by Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC). The session is part of a series of this year’s Youth Parliamentary Debathon, a programme that simulates a parliamentary seating where participating debaters play the role of a member of Parliament (MP), either as a government MP or as an opposition MP. This session will be chaired by YB Syerleena Abdul Rashid, a Member Parliament for Bukit Bendera, and joined by MP YB Datuk Larry Sng as a politician speaker to give his opinion from a policymaker’s stand. The Best Debater Award will be given to the debater deemed most outstanding by our panel of judges.
We encourage all interested parties to attend and participate in the discussion. Members of the audience will also be able to vote for the statements they agree with through a voting platform – this is symbolic, to show that in a democratic society, each citizen’s vote counts. This debate will be one of four youth debate sessions to be held in Parliament on the 26 August. There are only 100 seats in Parliament, so do hurry and book your seat here today. Alternatively, you can also watch the session LIVE on Malaysiakini and KiniTV Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
The 2023 Youth Parliamentary Debathon is organised by Malaysiakini, and KiniEvents. Event Partners include The Body Shop Malaysia as Changemaker Partner, and Taylor’s College as the Youth Empowerment Partner, Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia as Sustainable Energy Partner, supported by the Parliament of Malaysia and Ministry of Youth and Sports, Experiential Design Team (EDT) as the Metaverse Partner, Malaysian Institute of Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP) as the Soft Skills Training partner, Undi18, UndiSabah, The Risers, Institutes of Research and Development of Policy (IRDP), and Malaysian Youth Association for Diplomacy and Policy (MYADP) as Co-Partner.
Through this programme, the youths have the opportunity to increase their awareness and knowledge of the law-making process, while exposing them to the rules, procedures and ethics that need to be adhered to in every parliamentary proceeding. The YPD series was also held in 2019 and 2022.
For any enquiries or partnership opportunities, please email us at [email protected].
