Kota Kinabalu(Thu): The Institute for Development Studies (Sabah) organized the first series of Sabah Talk on Wednesday, 16 January 2019. YB Jannie Lasimbang, Assistant Minister of Law and Native Affairs and YB Senator Adrian Lasimbang also attended the event in IDS’ Centre of Excellence, Wisma SEDIA.
Sabah Talk is a new approach initiated by IDS’ CEO Datuk Dr Johan Arriffin Samad to establish the Institute as a learning organization to benefit the society, in line with IDS’ new objective in promoting general and professional discussion platform on important national and international issues. “Sabah Talk provides an avenue for its audience to exchange views and ideas on variety of topics concerning the development of Sabah and its people,” said Datuk Dr. Johan in his welcoming remarks.
Dr. Mohsen Mirza from United Kingdom was the invited speaker for Sabah Talk: Pursuing Happiness, in which his main presentation focuses on improving the quality of happiness as an individual and collectively as part of the community and society. According to him, happy communities are created through the influence of positive and productive individuals. Dr. Mohsen, former IT Director with a Phd. in Computer Aided Engineering, have been studying and teaching the Science of Happiness for the last 10 years in the UK.
The open dialogue session gave the participants an outlet to share their ideas and practices on happiness in other countries, and also a discussion on the concept of happiness within specific discipline such as gender, equality and security. Datuk Dr. Johan said that the topic of happiness is often forgotten within the Malaysian society, especially with the circulation of sad and morbid news daily in mass and social media. Hence, having an open discussion on the topic, could generate ideas in making Sabah’s local communities the happiest within the nation, through shared cultural practices with other countries and creating a positive news outlet.
Datuk Dr. Johan added that relevant ideas and views generated through Sabah Talk can be used as a reference point and expanded further through research, hence providing IDS with the opportunity to contribute back to society by producing research outcomes and recommendations to the state government.
Picture Caption: (From left) YB Senator Adrian Lasimbang, YB Jannie Lasimbang, Tan Sri Simon Sipaun, Dr. Mohsen Mirza, Marshid Afshar Naderi, Datin Fazar Arif, Datuk Dr. Johan Arriffin Samad, Datuk Adeline Leong
