Forum On
Social Harmony

Spiritual Values Of Buddhism, Christianity, And Islam In Nation Building

7 June 2022 (Tuesday)

2.00 pm to 4.30 pm

Auditorium GG08, Ground Floor, Block G, UCSI University KL Campus

ABSTRACT

In multi-racial Malaysia, religion plays a key role in forming mind sets, perspectives and narratives in social, economic, political and educational spheres. Since independence and the formation of Malaysia, citizens are guaranteed freedom to participate in any religious faith under the Constitution and the values of Rukun Negara. However, after seven decades, religious conflicts still threatens the goal of social harmony because of the nation’s outdated isolationist education policy on how Malaysians should relate to each other.

The main goal of this forum and others like it is to identify values, practices and perspectives of every religion in Malaysia that has important spiritual values towards forming the Keluargaku concept of nation building. The Tan Sri Omar Center believes that the time has come to appreciate each other’s religion through a more meaningful engagement of social and spiritual discourse in nation building. The discussions and content of the forum series will be published in a book that will be used to reeducate the rakyat in the near future about inclusive and participatory engagements at houses of worships and other community affairs.

Forum Program

2.00 pm - 2.10 pm Opening address by Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi
2.10 pm - 2.35 pm CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY AND ITS PLACE IN BUILDING MALAYSIA
Dr. Andrew Khoo
2.35 pm - 3.05 pm BUDDHIST VALUES AND NURTURING THE NATION’S COMMUNITY SPIRIT
Mr. Ooi Hean Beng
3.05 pm - 3.30 pm ISLAM AND ITS COMPATIBILITY IN MODERN NATION BUILDING
Dr. Rozhan Othman
3.30 pm - 4.00 pm Question and Answer Session
4.00 pm - 4.10 pm Closing Remarks

The Speakers and Panelists

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Professor Dr Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi

Professor Dr Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi is a prolific writer and speaker in architecture, politics, social issues, religious matters and education. He was educated in the USA at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where he obtained his Masters and Bachelor of Science in Architecture. He was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a columnist for several news media such as The Borneo Post, Freemalaysiatoday, Sinar Harian and Utusan Malaysia. He is currently a columnist in The Star and Sin Chiew Daily. Recently he received a Civil Society Award by the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall mainly for his critical writings in the media. He was also a Council Member of the Majlis Perundingan Keharmonian Rakyat appointed by the PH government. In 2021, Prof Tajuddin also received an award for National Unity from EDUCOOP which is an organization of all private universities in Malaysia.

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Andrew Khoo

Andrew Khoo graduated from King's College London in law and history and philosophy of religion, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in November 1991 and the Bar of the High Court of Malaya in Malaysia in May 1995. He has been in active legal practice in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for more than 26 years. He was a member of Bar Council Malaysia from 2009-2020 and is currently Co-Chair of the Constitutional Law Committee. He was Co-Chair of the Bar Council Human Rights Committee from 2009-2018. He has represented the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM), the Malaysian Bar, the Council of Churches Malaysia, the Diocese of West Malaysia and the Bible Society of Malaysia in watching briefs before the Federal Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court in cases involving election petitions, constituency redelineation, child custody, citizenship and freedom of religion. His articles have been published in The New Straits Times, The Sun, Malaysiakini, The Nut Graph, Micah Mandate, the Wall Street journal and on the website and journal of the Malaysian Bar. Since June 2020, Andrew has been a consultant with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative's freedom of religion project in Malaysia.

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Ooi Hean Beng

  • Ooi Hean Beng is a retired Physics Lecturer of Institute of Teacher Education, Ipoh Campus
  • Involved in:
    • developing the Dual Language Program module for teachers and also was a national trainer for DLP
    • the development of the new KSSM Form 4 & 5 Physics syllabus
    • co-author of the Form 4 KSSM Physics textbook.
  • Current Chairman of Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia, Perak Branch (Formed in 2019).
  • Involved in Buddhist Dhamma propagation for 30+ years in schools and Buddhist Societies.
  • Only recently involved in Interfaith activities and dialogues through BMSM (2 years).
  • Conduct motivational and leadership courses for youths and school societies.
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Rozhan Othman

Rozhan Othman started his career in academia in 1983. He later on became a Professor of Management in 2003. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1999. His research work during his time in academia included various studies on leadership, strategy and human resource management. He left academia in 2016 and joined HumanCapient Consulting Sdn Bhd as a Senior Partner. His consultancy work included projects on Change Management, Leadership Development, HRM and Strategy. His past clients included Petronas, Qatar Steel, Sime Darby Properties, MTDC, CIDB, PERNEC, SME Bank and Brunei’s Ministry of Development. He was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MyIPO from 2018-2020 and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia (2019-2021). He earned his BBA and MBA from Ohio University and his PhD from University College Dublin. His most recent publications are “Prophet Muhammad: Hallmark of Leadership” which he co-authoured with Dr Azman Hussin and Dr Tareq Suwaidan in 2018. He is a HRDF certified trainer. He runs a blog on leadership at Rozhan’s Leadership Café.

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