Merdeka is just around the corner and we at RAAGA are going for a 24 hour celebration revolving around this sovereign country we call Malaysia and all her people! Here are 24 personalities from our homeland that you should know for their contribution to society and all they have done to put our beloved home on the map while on the endeavor of growing themselves! Let’s aspire to be more like these heroes shall we?
Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan
A prominent Malaysian lawyer and human rights advocate, Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan graduated, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law, from the University of Exeter in 1979, admitted to the Malaysian Bar in 1982, and is one of the eight recipients of the US International Women of Courage Award in 2009, which she received from Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. From 2007 to 2009, she served as the President of the Malaysian Bar Council.
Ambiga is also well-known for her involvement in Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections looking to change the current electoral system in Malaysia. The United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton commended Ambiga on her “remarkable record of accomplishment in Malaysia” for being “a resolute advocate of women’s equality and their full political participation”.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes
“Now everyone can fly,” is the famous tagline for AirAsia. And the man behind the successful low-cost airline is non other than the Malaysian-British entrepreneur, Tony Fernandes. Fernandes, the founder of Tune Air, is responsible for introducing Malaysia’s first low-cost airline, AirAsia, and has turned it from a failing government-linked commercial property into a highly lucrative public-listed airline company. Fernandes also lobbied the idea of open skies agreement with Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore to Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed in the mid-2003. He is also involved in a reality TV series: The Apprentice Asia, is the founder of the Caterham F1 Formula One and the Chairman of Queens Park Rangers. As of February 2014, Forbes Asia’s Malaysia’s Richest valued Fernandes’ net worth at $650 million, ranking him 28th on the list. Not only had he made a name for himself, he has definitely put Malaysia on the map.
Joel Neoh
Joel Neoh is the founder of Groupon Malaysia. He is listed as one of the top 10 youngest entrepreneurs in Asia. His first successful business venture was a student agency set-up which helped to match fresh graduates with employers. In 2007, he was the youngest among 10 contestants to win Malaysia’s first corporate reality television programme “The Firm”. Neoh then co-founded and expanded Youth Asia (a social technology company) into a group of award-winning internet companies. One such company is GroupsMore, which mirrored Groupon’s business model. Four months later, the company joined Groupon and re-branded itself to Groupon Malaysia with Neoh as the CEO. Neoh has also been named as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) Class of 2013, out of 200 nominees, based on his professional achievements, leadership and commitment to society.
Sazali Samad
Sazali Samad is Malaysia’s premier bodybuilder. Born in Batu Pahat, Johor, Samad is a father to three boys and one girl, and loves to lift weights at the Royal Malaysia Police PDRM bodybuilding training centre located in Bukit Aman, where he worked as a sub-inspector. Sazali Samad has represented Malaysia in the Asian Games in 2006 at Doha, Qatar. He has won numerous titles; Mr. Universe in Jeju, Korea (2007), 9-times winner of the World Bodybuilding & Physique Championship, 8-times winner of Mr. Asia, the Sports Man of the Year award (2006) by the Malaysian Sports Council.
Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
This orthopedic surgeon was the first Malaysian to travel into space. He was launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on 10 October 2007. Sheikh Muszaphar flew under an agreement with Russia through the Angkasawan program, and returned to Earth on 21 October 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10 with the Expedition 15 crew members. Dr. Sheikh made history, bringing Malaysia’s name into space!
Dato’ Lee Chong Wei
Dato’ Lee Chong Wei is a Malaysian Chinese professional badminton player. He recently retired after 19 years of service to the country to care for his health and spend more time with his family following a bad case of nose cancer. Chong Wei’s journey in national badminton began at the age of 17 when he was absorbed into the national team by Misbun Sidek.
He was ranked first worldwide for 199 consecutive weeks from 21 August 2008 to 14 June 2012. He is the third Malaysian player to achieve such a ranking (since official rankings were first kept in the 1980s), and is the only Malaysian shuttler to hold the number one ranking for more than a year.
Datuk Nicol David
Datuk Nicol Ann David ranked world number 1 in women’s squash. She is the first Asian woman to achieve this title. Nicol is a seven-time World Open Squash Championship record holder and a five-time British Open Squash Championship record holder. She has also won the World Junior Squash Championship title twice and is an eight-time Asian Squash Championship record holder. This is a woman’s record that equals Pakistan legend Jansher Khan. To get an idea of how far Nicole has built her career of 14 years just imagine Michael Schumacher winning 170 world titles in a Formula One career that spanned 19 years. Nicole has been at the absolute top for 112 months in comparison to number one female tennis player Steffi Graf who managed 90 months and world champion badminton player and fellow colleague Lee Chong Wei who managed a stunning 73 months.
Siva Nagappan Visvesvaran
Siva is the co-founder of Project Paplet, an initiative that reuses and recycles used paper to benefit NGOs and orphanages. The team turns one-sided printed papers into booklets, which are donated to more than 50 refugee schools through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. He was chosen to receive the Queens Young Leaders Award in 2018.
The electrical power-engineering student has also created many innovations to help people recycle, including the Linear Water Storage system that helps to store rainwater more efficiently.
When asked about how he feels about winning this prestigious award, Siva said, “It’s such an honour to be chosen and be part of a community of young people who are making a huge difference in their communities. I can’t wait to learn from them all.”
Stay tuned to RAAGA for part 2!
Source: ExpatGo, nicoldavid, SAYS