GMSN creates hub aimed at creating positive and balanced perspectives for Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: TO encourage a deeper understanding of Malaysia among communities around the globe, the Global Malaysian Studies Network (GMSN), a centre serving as a network platform developed under the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) was recently introduced.

Led by Distinguished Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, The Founding Director of KITA and Datuk Anis Yusal Yusoff, the Principal Research Fellow of KITA, the centre carries the vision that is to create a richer and nuanced understanding of Malaysia with a positively balanced narrative at the local and international level.

Malaysia, a nation that has been under the spotlight for its diverse culture, food, language and heritage, deserved to be further explored and discussed by experts around the globe.

"There have been a lot of methods applied to analyse Malaysian's narrative and plenty of competing paradigms that are used to further investigate Malaysia, but the main questions will be, how do we frame all of these findings and debates? And how do we share our theorization?" said Distinguished Professor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharudin, the Founding Director of KITA during the introduction of GMSN with KITA members, recently.

To enable this, GMSN believes a platform functioning as a hub should be established to create opportunities and function as an avenue for many voices to share and debate their perspectives on Malaysia.

By having a mission that continues to showcase the Malaysian Studies Programs worldwide, GMSN is committed in seeking partnerships and collaborations with international academic institutions and other interested organization.

The centre also aims to be highly active in conducting academic activities with their potential partners and by establishing this academic diplomacy; it will create an opportunity for the network members inside and outside Malaysia to discuss further on Malaysian studies.

GMSN is currently building a collection of Malaysian Studies resources both physical at UKM and in the digital domain.

This is one of their strategies to help to enhance the study of Malaysia.

GMSN is planning to be officially launched to people around the globe in September.