Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen Awards in Speech Writing

The Award is named in honour of the Founding member of UNAM, YBM Tengku Sri Maharaja Tengku Tan Sri Ahmad Rithauddeen Ibni YAM Tengku Mek Haji Ismail. Tengku Rithaudeen served as Minister in several portfolios in the Malaysian government and was named an Ambassador for Peace in 2005.

Students in SPM, A Levels or Foundation Programmes are eligible to enter.

The questions and criteria for this Award are:

Topic: Should Malaysia accede to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees? 

A refugee, according to the 1951 Convention, is someone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country
of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.

Malaysia is not party to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951, amended 1967). Yet, it shows good will. Recently it has agreed to accept 3,000 refugees from Syria. And nearly 150,000 refugees recognised by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees already reside here. Many more seek refugee status in the country. Many fear that accepting refugees will place a burden on national resources, while others see that refugees could assist alleviate Malaysia’s labour shortages. Others simply believe that Malaysia should abide by international norms regarding the treatment of refugees, while others fear that major refugee intakes could alter the country’s ethnic composition, and lead to greater crime and insecurity. Do you think it would be Malaysia’s benefit to ratify the 1951 Convention?

Criteria: 

• Why people seek asylum in foreign countries;
• Concrete examples to suggest solutions or improvements;
• Role of the UNHCR is protecting people;
• Arguments for and against ratification;
• The situation of refugees in Malaysia;
• Acknowledges other people’s ideas by of bibliography; and
• Creative and bold.

The competition is open to all first year and pre-university students (including those currently enrolled in A level, STPM, UEC, international schools, foundations and other pre-university programmes) in Malaysia. Submission must be by a single author.

The following prizes will be awarded:

• First prize: RM 1,500.00
• Second prize: RM1,000.00
• Third prize: RM500.00

• The winning submissions will be selected by a panel of judges from the University of Nottingham and the United Nations Association of Malaysia. The judges will also name for commendation five (5) further entries.
• Only one (1) entry per student is permitted. Each School or programme may only submit a maximum of three (3) entries. The student entrant is required to get the signature of a relevant authority at the School before submission.
• Entries to the competition must be unique (i.e. not published elsewhere or submitted to other essay competition) and original in content. Entries found to contain plagiarism will be disqualified. A bibliography acknowledging references to existing work is required.
• Submissions as well as a completed entry form signed by the author and a relevant School authority should be sent via email (as attachment in word or pdf format) to [email protected].

The deadline for submission is 24th August 2016, Wednesday.

The terms and conditions and entry form for the competition can be downloaded by clicking on the links. You can also download the competition flyer here.

Note for teachers: An activity plan to introduce the Speech Competition, prepared by Nottingham’s School of Education may be used in classes or in independent study groups.
Download speech competition lesson plan 1 and speech competition lesson plan 2.

诺丁汉大学（英国大学马来西亚分校）The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
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