- Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Siti Hasmah binti Mohd Ali,
Chancellor of Multimedia University
- Chairman of the University
- President of the University
- Your Excellencies, Distinguished guests
- Fellow academics, Parents, Graduates
- Ladies and Gentlemen

Yang Amat Berbahagia, Tun Canselor, izinkan saya memberi ucapan ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

It is my privilege to speak to you the graduates of 2008, on behalf of the entire MMU academic community.

This is one function during Convocation that gives us all assembled here great pleasure. Our graduates, right now, feel justifiably proud of their achievements. The teaching staff – all the professors, lecturers and tutors – have a sense of fulfillment, having menotred and transferred their knowledge to a new generation ready to meet with world.

At MMU we are blessed with a very diverse student body from many lands and cultures. In 2008 students from close to 80 countries populated our lecture halls, labs and university grounds. The staff as well – come from more than 20 different countries, myself amongst them originally from Canada I am now here in Malaysia. MMU is indeed not only multi-media, we are multiracial, multinational and multilingual. We truly represent the world and the best of humanity.

So for now…. enough about us and let me focus on you, our proud graduates. You have worked long… very long in some cases, and certainly hard to get here today. It is your day. You have embraced the philosophy of one of my favorite “people” who said: “Do or do not… there is no try”. You did… and today is a testimony to that doing.

What will your degrees mean to you from here on? They will be a testimony to your work for sure, your knowledge and your abilities certainly. They will get you a job, and for that I am sure all of your parents will be thankful. But more than that, they have, I hope, given you tools that will serve you well in the future, for indeed the future does belong to you. Whether you go on to a higher degree, here at MMU or overseas, you go to work for multi-national or local company or you choose to go into business on your own, one thing is for sure… your learning will contiue. I hope while here you have done one of the most useful things you can do at a University, you have learned how to learn.

I will, if you allow me, digress to a anecdote from my past, distant past now, when I was sitting in my convo, not unlike this one way back in…. XXX. Well let’s say back in BC, “Before Computers”. I graduated from Communication Arts, the first and only such programme in Canada, way back as we say here… “in the day”. I took courses in theory, in practical media production work, in science, but above all that I learned in my fours years was to look toward the future and to keep learning. That is one skill that has never left or failed me, and certainly served me well coming to MMU and Malaysia. In B.C., computers were things the size of a refridgerator…. and far dumber than your handphone for sure. We had to programme them with punched cards and they took a long time to do not much, by today’s standards. For a young “arts” student, computers of those days were not particularly interesting and I would have to wait a decade more until 1984. Then things got exciting… but that is another story and you allowed me only one.

Times have always changed. All of you sitting before us do not know a world without a mobile phone, personal computers, You Tube and Google but to name a few. Many of you will go on to further change the information landscape, shaping what humankind will become through new tools and applications not yet dreamed of. In that process, remember what you have experienced at MMU. Take our spirit with you in all that you do and always remember to see the good in others. Use your hard earned knowledge well, as we have put great faith in you!

To bring my address to a close, all of the MMU academic community congratulates this year’s graduates. We are proud of you. In the words of our inspiring song, you are permata dunia. With a total student population of more than 20,000 you have the power to be a significant force in society. With that force comes a burden – the responsibility to demonstrate to the professional and commercial community that this university can offer them a quality product. YOU are that “product” in the best possible meaning.

Please take with you our sincere wishes for your personal lives and your careers. It has been our collective pleasure to have known you, and to have helped you gain new knowledge while at MMU. Use it all wisely and constantly seek to make life on this planet better. It is our only home as we have nowhere else to go.

Boldly, proudly, and with great spirit, go… where no one has gone before.

ILMU PENYULUH HIDUP!