I was tasked to draft Tan Sri Dr. Salleh Md Noor speech for the Summer School ‘Program Saintis Agenda Nobel PSAN UTM’s closing ceremony. I have prepared speeches for various occasions previously, thus the ‘speechwriter’ job is not any novel at least for me. The tricks are; you have to imagine yourself as the speaker, know their background, postulate their existence knowledge and study the audiences-in other word put yourself in their shoes. Surely, your knowledge in certain areas are most helpful. ‘Googling’ efforts with the right keywords and further data analysis would expand the gathered information.
Tan Sri is known for delivering his speech impromptu. The text is needed as the brief guideline and to ensure the speaker will accord to the given time. During that night, the speech’s theme lingering around the keywords of nobel and science which i am expert at most. Tan Sri has been associated with countless hats, amid that night limited as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia UTM Pro Chancellor and Akademi Sains Malaysia ASM Council Member.
Overall, Tan Sri have elaborated so many interesting points added to the given speech lines. In the speech, i have highlighted the ASM dinner event on 1998, which our Prime Minister at that time challenged our scientific community to produce a Nobel Laureate by year 2020. Apparently, Tan Sri said he have aired the similar challenge albeit as early as 1978 and have MalayMail newspaper cut to prove that! Well, it seems we are approaching year 2020 and the target is nowhere yet. Nevertheless in line with the same issues, ASM have strengthening their efforts which i briefly mentioned in the text, such as participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (which Tan Sri said he is the one who pioneer in sending our local talent to Lindau!) or hosting Nobel Prize Winner in diverse scientific area. Due to the limited time, i have forgotten to include the current ASM initiative related to Mega Science Agenda 2050. In respect to the Lindau Meeting, Tan Sri has challenged UTM (again?) to host the local similar event which may involve Merdeka Award Winner or other science towering personality. We at PSAN UTM have proposed similar event to host a forum affiliating all the Merdeka Award Winners in Science & Technology, however the event still not be realized yet. In tandem with Tan Sri proposition, it seems Langkawi Meeting (also begin with L letter is the way forward!
In the speech, i have selectively mentioned Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail as i knew he came to Malaysia several time. He was also appointed as ASM Honorary Fellow in 2005. This is spot on as Tan Sri have many personal discussion with Prof Ahmed Zewail, among other which he have noted to Tan Sri regarding the need of supportive facilities and ecosystem. This was referred to the difference between his native Egypt and USA where his works are very well supported at the later.
The speech was extended further with the traits of Nobel Laureates which Tan Sri is well-versed. I heard Tan Sri repeated the honesty and integrity words for quite number of time which addressing everyone concern nowadays. As for the Nobel Laureate characters, Tan Sri have nicely put the wisdom of ‘bend the law, not break the law’. I kind of agree with Tan Sri point as it will allows a free roaming for different thinking and innovative doing- in other words ‘daring to change’ as Tan Sri has highlighted, but within the integrity landscape.
Tan Sri’s speech is always mesmerised and inspired; as seen throughout night. Our students were blessed to be in the hall, listening to a nation laureate and even wefieing with Tan Sri! This is a first step for our students in dreaming big along the very long journey. We will holistically continue to guide them which beginning with inculcating the nobel mindset as the main objective in this summer school program.
