Malaysian Students Key Players in South Korea's New Southern Policy

From Mohd Nasir Yusoff SEOUL, Dec 20 (Bernama) – Khairul and Ain, two Malaysians in their early twenties studying in Seoul maybe oblivious to South Korea’s New Southern Policy announced recently by President Moon Jae-in. The two University Malaya undergraduates on international students exchange and credit transfer programme at University of Seoul in Dongdaemun-gu here were too engrossed preparing for their semester examination. Khairul and Ain, along with their 1,177 Malaysian counterparts currently studying full time at various universities in South Korea and the 2,000 South Korean students in Malaysia, will contribute to the success of the policy based on ‘People’, ‘Prosperity’ and ‘Peace’ (3P). South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun told Bernama at his office here recently that the Korean Government is very serious in introducing the New Southern Policy to enhance South Korea’s relations with ASEAN at par with that of four major powers around the Korean Peninsula. “And, Malaysia being a founder member of ASEAN is one very important component in this matter,” he said. President Moon when unveiling the New Southern Policy during his recent visit to Indonesia was reported to have said personnel exchanges linking the lives of the people would serve as a strong basis for supporting all kinds of cooperation. Elaborating on the policy, Chung said South Korea and Malaysia have maintained very good relationship in various fields since long including in trade and education, apart from sharing similar stance on many international issues. DEEPENING THE RELATIONSHIP All that is needed to deepen the 60-year old diplomatic relationship, he added, is to strengthen the relations with closer cooperation in fields much needed by Malaysia and all the 10 countries in the ASEAN regional grouping. “Our President himself has declared the New Southern Policy,” he said, adding that; “Our government wants more Korean companies to invest in ASEAN in areas which are most needed by member countries.” “More mutual and regular visits among leadership and members of the legislative will also help. We want to further develop and progress together,” said Chung adding that he was in Kuala Lumpur in March 2017. In enhancing people-to-people relations, tourism plays a big role with more Malaysians visiting South Korea every year, with the number growing steadily to more than 220,000 in 2016. In the same year, about half a million South Koreans spent their holidays in Malaysia. Tourists would come and go without even having enough time to really get to know the people of the host country. However students who spent some years in the host country will learn more of the people there. They understand each other’s culture better as they dance to the K-Pop music and thread gracefully to Malaysia’s Zapin and Inang dance. They better appreciate aspects of life that is important to one another to the extent of learning what halal is all about. LEARNING FROM THE KOREANS At present among the 1,177 Malaysian students here, 22 are doing their doctoral, 70 masters, 640 bachelor, 216 language students, and 219 studying other short-term programmes. From available figures on students from ASEAN countries, 495 are from Myanmar, Vietnam (14,614), Indonesia (1,334) and Thais (635). (figures from other ASEAN countries are not available) Khairul, whose full name is Muhammad Khairul Zulkifli Ng, 20, said he learnt a lot about Korean culture from his buddy Lee Jae-yun, 19, with whom he also learnt the Korean language, Hangeul. “While Jae-yun learnt and practiced Malay and English with me,” said the English Literature student. Ain or Nur Ain Rashid, 22, also English Literature student, considers herself lucky to have Park Ji-young, 23, as her caring buddy. Khairul and Ain said they would share what they have learnt, their knowledge and experience about Koreans and their country upon their return to UM. Already plans are afoot for their buddies to visit and stay with them in Kuala Lumpur during the coming summer holiday. The buddies are so fascinated and excited about Malaysia from what they heard from the two. Maybe this is the kind of people-to-people relation that is expected by President Moon and Speaker Chung that will further develop and quantum leap Korean-Malaysian relations in line with the republic’s New Southern Policy. -- BERNAMA