 ESU - Scholarship
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CONFERENCE REPORT
BY NIK NURHIDAYATI
The ESU Malaysia had organized an essay competition in April
2007 to select a representative to attend the International
Relations Summer Conference from 15 to 21st July 2007 at Oriel
College, Oxford. I was so lucky to be the chosen one! Not only
that, being informed personally by Tunku Dara that I had won
the competition was indeed priceless! I would like to thank
ESU Malaysia, ESU London and the sponsors for giving me this
opportunity.
The moment I arrived in Oxford on Sunday, July
the 15th I was totally impressed by its city which is rich
with cultural and historical values. In fact, I wonder how
they managed to preserve the colleges which were in existence
since the ninth century! The Oriel College is situated very
close to the main street that, the city is just a few walks
away.
The event started with a Welcome Reception with Lord Hunt – Chairman
of ESU followed by the Opening Dinner at the dining hall that looked similar
to the Harry Porter’s dining hall! Lord Hunt delivered his speech and
among his key points is about the importance of English language as a global
language and a medium for communication among different countries.
The next day, we had a photo session taken at the Front Quad. The weather was
fine and it was sunny, so perfect to snap photo. Right after the photo session,
we had a 2 hour Oxford tour by foot. We were taken to a few places of interest
and the tour guide explained about the history behind the historic buildings
such as the Radcliff Square, Bodleian Library, Sheldonian Theater, Museum of
Science and so forth.
The afternoon session commenced with a lecture on “International Relations
Today” by Sir Leonard Appleyard. He mentioned that geography and history
determined how we run the country. He also highlighted some critical issues
which are still unresolved for instance, issue on Iraq, Palestine and Israel
conflict as well as terrorism that was aggravated by the issues with regard
to Iraq.
The session for the day ended by a lecture on Peace Keeping and Peace Enforcing
delivered by Prof Alan Lee. He explained the difference between peace keeping
and peace enforcing is that peace enforcing requires more than just enforcement.
For example, the Kosovo war, the Bosnia vs. Croatia war where 7000 bodies were
found and it was the worst situation ever. Among the examples of peace keeping
operations in the past are – the North Korea vs. South Korea war, the
Cold War, and the Vietnam War. The Security Council takes part in peace keeping
in United Nation (UN) and it is also possible for UN to delegate to other body
in peace keeping operations but it’s rarely undertaken like Kosovo, the
peace keeping operation is delegated to NATO.
Day 3: Lectures were still covering topics related to International Relations.
The first speaker was Mr. Mark Simmonds – a shadow minister from Conservative
party concentrating on International Development issues. He pointed out his
concern on the developing countries’ level of education among children,
and according to World Bank –education is the key to reducing poverty
and improving economic growth. He brought up the challenge on international
aid is to ensure it is not corrupted and didn’t reach the wrong hands
.Thus, he suggested that an independent body be set up to look into this matter
and ensure the aid is utilized in a productive manner.
The lecture session continued with a topic on East Europe and European Union
(EU) by Mr. Ralph Land. Issues highlighted basically pertaining to outstanding
challenges within EU such as immigration and emigration –its social and
economic impact, EU governance and the constitution as well as defining borders
of EU. Currently EU consists of 27 countries and they have successfully integrated
12 new members. They are Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia and so
forth to name but a few.
The afternoon session ended with a lecture by Ms. Elizabeth Padmore who talked
about Enterprise & Economic Development. She focused on the role of Youth
Business International (YBI) which was created by the Prince of Wales. Among
its programs is lending young people money without collateral or security and
they also provide mentoring. Another organization that supports the growth
of small-medium enterprise is Enablis. It provides training and networking
which are fundamental towards the development of entrepreneurship.
Day 4‘s lecture was about International Trade & Industry. Mr. Mark
Rhodes from Glaxo Smith-Kline mainly talked about the responsibility of corporations
towards environment. Glaxo Smith-Kline being one of the leading pharmaceutical
companies has always been trying to find balance in manufacturing their products
whilst saving the environment, for instance a proper waste management.
The lecture session was continued by Mr. Andrew Fraser who presented his slides
on challenges with regards to Globalization. He quoted “Globalization
is a fact not a policy”. Examples of globalization are: the establishment
of World Trade Organization, IT revolution, foreign direct investment and English
as a lingua franca. Globalization will create competition in a way that local
company has to compete with the multinationals and to be competitive in terms
of cost of production, technology, product differentiation and service of the
product.
He also highlighted that globalization will set new challenges that need governance
such as climate change, terrorism, cultural identity and financial regulation.
I figure every delegate must have been looking forward for the activity after
lunch. It was the trip to Stratford-upon –Avon where we had a chance
to watch Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theater. The Play was magnificent
with its outstanding casts and excellent sound system. We had a sumptuous dinner
before the play at Falcon Hotel located quite close to the theater.
Day 5th lecture was about British institutions. The first lecture was on harmonization
of private law by Mr. Oliver Radley-Gardener, a barrister at Falcon Chambers.
It was learned that in 1998, the Labor party who brought human rights law to
the British law but there were problems because they intervened government’s
action. He explained that there are two legal systems namely English law which
is also known as the Common law and the other is Civil law which derived from
the Classical Roman law.
The session continued with Lord Watson of Richmond who delivered his lecture
on British parliament and the parties. There are two Houses in parliament namely
the House of Lord which examines and amend the bills and the other is the House
of Common, also known as Elective House. He questioned the current trend whereby
issues debated in parliament are widely discussed in the media. Hence, they
are trying to raise the importance of parliaments’ say against the media.
Apparently, economic issues are not the main issue in the UK but now it’s
more on security issue that is terrorism.
The afternoon lecture was about the long-term impact of internet on the media
by Mr. Tim Gardam who is the principal of St. Anne’s college. Among the
key points in his lecture are: media has been focusing on their interest instead
of the person they are writing about. Thus, it is important to have a regulation
on printed media to ensure the integrity of its information. Internet is indeed
the most dynamic medium to spread information but its authenticity, reliability
is questionable as it has no boundary of territoriality.
Later in the evening, there was a closing dinner with Mrs. Valerie Mitchell
the Director General of ESU. She delivered her speech during the dinner and
she shared with the floor about a brief history of ESU on how it has progressed
internationally. In fact, currently there are 52 ESU worldwide! I, myself was
impressed to learn about ESU’s development since I first got to know
about ESU Malaysia a few years ago.
The next day was the final lecture session and the morning lecture was about
British Culture and Education, starting with Dr. Alastair Niven who talked
about Art in Britain followed by Mr. Edward Gould on Education in Britain.
Dr. Niven mentioned art is regarded as luxury so, government prefers to spend
money more on other projects. Nevertheless, tourists come to Britain normally
because of its historical and cultural reason! He ended his speech with a saying
that “art does matter, not marginal”.
Then, it was Mr. Gould who highlighted that government should worry less about
politics when it comes to education. He also said that now, they are looking
into free education which on a flipside might make people take education for
granted.
Later in the afternoon, most of the delegates took the opportunity to do their
own activities. I had a chance to experience punting in Oxford with a few delegates.
One piece of advice, punting is not that easy and please hire a chauffeur if
you would like to really enjoy the moment without having to maneuver the boat
yourself!
The next morning was the day we had our last breakfast together at the Oriel
College dining hall. Then, it was time to say good bye to each other which
was quite hard as most of us had known each other quite well by then. I would
say, having attended the conference was worthwhile as it opened doors to more
opportunities of making friends, knowing each others’ cultures /values
and on top of that learning more about the host country that is Britain.
Lastly, I would strongly recommend that the essay competition be opened to
all range of age as I found out that, the delegates’ age group was not
confined to 30-35 years of age only.
PREPARED BY: NIK NURHIDAYATI ZAINAL
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