Volume 4, Issue 3, March 2017
From the Editor’s Desk
Dear scholars,
As I remember
growing up, I
found
myself
fascinated and
often infatuated
with all things
beautiful. In the
eyes of a small
girl, beauty to
me was in the form of perfectly manicured
lawn of a huge white-washed house with a
verdant garden, the chiselled face of a movie
star, a lanky runaway model, a brilliant Math
professor and a man in Spider-suit who saved
the world. What a pretty life they had, murmured me as I only saw the jacket, the necklace, the shoes, the exterior and everything
nice.
But, as I grow older, I started to realize that
beauty is just skin deep. What I failed to see
then, I began to understand better now. I see
flattened hopes, struggles to belong, bruised
egos, lifelong disappointment, accident scars,
loss of parents, chronic pains, low self-esteem
and many other life’s failures and resentment.
These hidden stories do not often portrayed
on the surface and are often left unseen. Only
until I glide deeper and deeper into such matters that I understand that these issues are
real, genuine and what matters the most are
how well they have coped and bounced back
into life stronger and better.
derstand the breaks, the crevices and loosened cords and celebrate the learning and
survivals that come with it.
Let me spill the beans – I count 1 to 10 in
German whenever I want to turn the knob of
the stove just to be sure that the boiling soup
is appropriately cooked, I have a tic (nose
twitching) that I have now passed on to my
son (hope he forgives me for that!) and my
right ear is a tad bigger than my left one. Yes,
It did matter to me then that I distanced my- I am far from perfect but I am pretty sure I
self from someone who studded her tummy am beautiful inside out. Can I see some show
with a golden ring, having the preconception of hands here? :) :)
that she was promiscuous. I was certain that I
could never be friends with her. I was proved Sincerely,
wrong as I found she was utterly funny and
honest – she has been one of my friends with
a heart so pure that I could rely on for some
help and advice until this very day.
Intan
My dear scholars, we shall never assume and
don’t go around making judgments based on
only what we see. In this issue, we are sharing
articles on this very topic – beauty is just skin
deep. Look at people and things around you
with a fresh mind and perspective, and look
into them deeper and find the real truth. Un-
In This Issue

Scholar’s Studio
Highlight of the Month
 Rayshein Rajvarma
 Sarah Salahudin
 Tuan Izuddin
 Nur Amalia

In the limelight

Alumni’s Studio

Activities & Happenings

YKPSP Corner
Beauty is
Just Skin
Deep
1
Recent researches have shown that
Beauty is Just Skin Deep
the rate of plastic surgery in the US
By Rayshein Rajvarma
2014. Most people that are per-
Year 12,
Marlborough College Malaysia
alone has risen by 3 percent in year
ceived as ‘ugly’ in their society are willing to do just about anything
to achieve the “dream, model-like, perfect” look. Some are willing to
even take uncertified creams and pills for weight loss without realis-
“Beauty is just skin deep”. This meaningful axiom stated by the
once famous English poet, Sir Thomas Overbury is still highly relevant in this modern world today. In short, it implies that physical
beauty is merely a façade that an individual exhibits. It’s their intel-
ing the long-term health risks. I don’t have to go far; a distant relative of mine was a victim 3 years ago.
In conclusion, I firmly think that, if in the bigger picture, doing this
is going to save a few innocent lives, each and every one of us is re-
lectual, emotions, personality and spiritual qualities that truly defines
sponsible in terms of educating the younger generation to love
quote that are offered from all walks of life. Plainly, it goes down to
look. After all, beauty is just skin deep.
a human being. There are many interpretations out there to this very
themselves and that they should not worry so much on how they
whom you are as a person as a result of how you’ve been brought up
in this world.
Some argue that love at first sight is legit and has reunited many,
now happily married couples and subsequently even that has grown
Beauty Lies Within
largely to become families, community and society. Others argue that
By Sarah Salahudin
PHD in Business Administration
(Economics)
IIUM
outward beauty is purely superficial because it can only impress for a
short amount of time due to its extensive amount of vulnerability and
flaws that comes in a package with that beauty. A rather bizarre
group of people proclaims that if an individual agrees with this saying, then there is a high probability that, that individual is ‘ugly’. I
personally don’t entirely concur with their standpoint but I think it is
to some degree an interesting thought.
We are all different and unique in our own ways. One of meiosis
I often wonder if the words of Margaret Wolfe Hungerford,
“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”, have lost its weight in this
era of modernization where the society has managed to stereotype
pivotal role in cell division is to promote genetic variation in planet
the meaning of beauty to a set of dictated features. Women nowa-
beautiful or ugly. Someone or something, which seems appealing to
out by the society in order to gain the respect and attention of others.
Earth. All of us have our own definition of what we precisely call
our particular sense of sight, may not necessarily be attractive to
someone with a similar belief system to yours. In the end, if a super-
model can live a luxurious life from solely advertising their external
being then it’s a fair play to them because they might dispute that it’s
not easy becoming one due to its health complications that arises
with.
Moving onto my next point, it personally got me thinking as to
what extent and in what ways have the stereotypical idea of beauty,
the classic “ flawless skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, pouty lips and
curves” bring harm in the real world.
days strive to modify themselves to fit the definition of beauty laid
This immense need to be stereotypically beautiful arises because of
the way it impacts their lives, self confidence and the ability to find a
job or even a life partner.
In the sub-continent or most of Asia, beauty is equated with being
fair and slim. A women’s level of acceptance in the society depends
on such superficial and shallow aspects which I find as quite demeaning to humanity. The stereotyping of beauty causes many
women to resort to extreme methods, to attain the predefined features, which are extremely unhealthy. Many women regularly use
skin bleaching creams to be fairer, some rely on Botox and few even
undergo facelifts and plastic surgeries.
2
Such desperation to be attractive according to societal norms is
further catalyzed by various forms of television and print media. To
illustrate, the advertisements broadcasted by Fair & Lovely glorify
beauty through fairness of skin tone and slender body with sharp
features. The advert depicts darker skin tone as a major deformity
crushing to confidence of many teenagers and young women. Furthermore, the movies and TV shows nowadays also depict similar
comprehension of beauty. What seems to be more destructive is that
However, the good sign is that people are now gradually getting more
cautious and are slowly breaking
free of the norms that are causing
harm to the human race as a whole. Change is in the air and I hope
that it spreads like wildfire to once again instill the ethics of humanity above all.
these broadcasts exemplify dark and bulky characters as objects of
comedy. It is quite alarming that in order to gain marketing success,
many companies across the globe are playing with human emotions
unethically.
However, my take on beauty is not in coalition with the societal
Beautiful You
imagery of beauty. I believe that beauty lies deep within the soul.
Beauty lies in character; beauty lies in personality. No matter what
By Tuan Muhammad Izuddin bin Tuan
Hassan
Bachelor of Science (Mathematics)
Universiti Malaya
color, what race, whichever ethnicity you belong to; you are only as
gorgeous as the purity and innocence of your inner soul. Nonetheless,
I believe it is vital to carry oneself properly in order to be presentable;
but to exercise torture on oneself through the aforementioned methods in order to fit the bill of societal aesthetics is harmful and disturbing. We should not forget the saying that “beauty is just skin
deep”, meaning that outer beauty does not give you any idea regard-
ing how a person is from inside. It does not tell you if a person is
It would be a lie if a guy says that he is not attracted to a girl
with perfect eyes, thin legs, long hair, etc as depicted by celebrities
nowadays. Such outer beauty is seemingly important as the first
kind, compassionate or cruel, it does not allow you to judge their
impression that one would have on a person. Sadly, that is what
without providing any insight of the charisma or personality of that
that most of us would have the same thought that real beauty sur-
skills and knowledge. Hence it is only limited to external splendor
person. Thus we should forever remember not to judge a book by its
cover but by its merits.
On a brighter note, an awareness has been observed in very recent
times regarding the materialization of beauty that has taken place
over the past few decades. Few powerhouse brands such as Dove has
majority of us believe in of late. Despite that, it would be agreeable
passes the common societal expectation on beauty. In disagreement
with the topic, I would like to emphasize that the depth of beauty is
beyond skin deep for several reasons.
First and foremost, one’s physical appearance does not last for-
ever. It is a fact that no one could deny. How long will your skin stay
come forward taking initiatives through TVCs and social campaigns
as stretched as in your twenties? The black hair will turn white and
activities are structured in way that urges women to define beauty for
that personality will make people stay. Eventually, the beauty of
to break the shackles of predefined features of beauty. Their recent
themselves and thus restore the lost confidence among women who
are not exactly the same as societal prescription of being pretty.
One heartbreaking fact in this whole scenario is that, it is the educated group of community who are differentiating and discriminating people based on their looks only to achieve business gains by
playing with human sentiment. It would have been much more hu-
manistic if the powerhouse brands would attract more concentration
of the people on being fit and healthy rather than being beautiful the
way they define.
the ideal shape would not remain forever. Thus, we need to realize
personality is what we search for to remain with us.
For example, a girl could be physically beautiful and has
flawless complexion but is a snobbish. Consequently, people would
have the tendency to dislike such person for her negative attitude.
With the presence of virtuous and good personality, the environ-
ment would also be filled with the outer and inner beauty of one’s
personality.
Continue to next page>>
3
Besides that, it is undeniable that the beauty of physical appearance is
subjective. Different people have different ways of perceiving things.
Therefore, the style and preferential would also differ. In other word,
people would commonly have distinctive opinions on what they believe as attractive. It is illogical to assume that people share similar
interest as us. For instance, some people may favour dark-skin rather
than fair-skin individual. Some may also prefer curly hair instead of
You Are Beautiful No Matter What
They Say!
By Nur Amalia Khairulanwar
A-Level, UEM
straight hair. The different preferences proves that the subjectivity of
beauty acceptance is tremendously distinctive among individuals.
Hence, it is not reasonable to apply the idea that everyone shares the
same thought on beauty.
Since the moment we were born, we have been brainwashed by
Moreover, I believe that the mind-set of our society is being influ-
the media that you’re only beautiful if you have flawless skin, per-
panies set a specific beauty standards among women. Women would
beautiful is informed by cultural preferences and swayed by images
enced by the fallacy in beauty advertisement. These advertising comthink that they must be exactly like what the media has portrayed as
beautiful women in magazines in order to be beautiful.
The setting of beauty standard automatically ruins the beauty of imperfection among human being. Furthermore, due to the increasingly
immense preposterous beauty standards, teens and young adults are
being mentally and emotionally polluted with depression, self-hate
and severe insecurities. They fail to see the lies hidden behind the
super imposed images which make women look ‘perfect’ in the media. Thus, the fallacy that these companies have made are definitely
contradicting to the reality of beauty. Humans, realistically, are per-
fect eyebrows, big round eyes and a perfect body. What we find
in the media. All this while, we were manipulated into thinking that
there is a certain style and way for you to be beautiful. We watch
things like Victoria Secret Fashion Show and instantly go into a deep
depression while dragging our body to the gym in hopes of achieving that model-like physique. Is being beautiful really just that or is
there something entirely different that we have forgotten? Make up
and photo shop can distort an image so much that the girl in the
magazine doesn’t even look like the real her. I think it is time for
society to stop obsessing over looks and realize that personality is
much more important. After all, beauty is only skin deep.
“You are beautiful no matter what they say”, were the lyrics that
fectly imperfect and are beautiful in their own ways.
Christina Aguilera sang in one of her famous song claiming that
As a conclusion, I would like to emphasize that beauty is beyond skin
portant for you to love yourself and accept yourself for who you
deep through the arguments. Do not hesitate to just be yourself be-
cause you are beautiful just the way you are. Without a doubt, we are
all decorated beautifully with our imperfections, rather than the façade beauty standard which has been set up by the media.
Learn to walk with pride, be confident and prioritize the beauty be-
yond the skin rather than skin deep.
what other people think of you doesn’t matter. It’s much more imreally are rather than someone else. Sure, the people around you
may say otherwise, saying that the only way for you to be beautiful
is for you to be like a walking breathing piece of art. These type of
people should be disposed from society as they are the ones crushing people’s self-respect towards themselves because they do not
realize that being beautiful is much more than having an hourglass
figure. They feel as though as beauty is based on appearance alone
whereas I on the other hand think differently. Beauty from my understanding is all about what is in the person’s insides. Inside beauty
consists of the person’s love for themselves, their love for others and
finally their personality. These characteristics help shape a beautiful
person as their beauty from within will be reflected on their face no
matter how they look like.
Continue to next page>>
4
Being beautiful means knowing you are beautiful and not allowing your surroundings to put you down by making you feel and think
as though you aren’t. A beautiful person, in my eyes, loves the person
that they are and will be. They accept who they are no matter what
others say or do. They value their life and cherish each breath taken.
Beauty requires having self-respect towards yourself. Displaying
self-respect shows that you love your body, your mind, your spirit,
and your soul, and be grateful with what you have been. They carry
YK 10th Anniversary Special
Interview with Teoh Hong Ken, Economics, University
of Pennsylvania
Taking up the YK scholarship
themselves in a respectable manner. Beautiful people think, say, and
was a rather straight forward
do positive things and try to deflect any negativity that comes their
decision for me, given the
way. Being able to love others as well as your self is also another way
of displaying beauty. A beautiful person notices the beauty in some-
opportunities that come with
self or herself. Showing generosity to others, even to those that mis-
biggest benefits is the oppor-
being a YK scholar. One of the
one else-without taking account their appearances- as well as him-
tunity to connect with YK’s
treat you is not only a beautiful thing but also an honourable thing to
do. Showing love to others takes courage and sometimes strength
when the person is not treating you the way you should be treated.
Being kind hearted and helping others who are less fortunate than
you depicts your beauty as well. Beauty is beyond skin, it's in the soul.
Another way to portray that beauty is only skin deep is by ac-
knowledging that your beauty does not define your worth. A close
example can be clearly seen by looking at all the successful people in
the world. Albert Einstein would not be considered beautiful based on
the society’s standard, but the memory of him still lived on even
though he passed away ages ago. What he had contributed to the
society was beyond beautiful that his name will never die no matter
how he looks like. This shows that just because you don’t have the
looks, it doesn’t mean that you are not valuable. It all comes back to
how you are as an individual and not your appearance. You can look
like a homeless guy, but if you contribute back to the people around
you, the memory of you will always be beautiful in the eyes of the
people that you have helped. Once again this proves that beauty is
just skin deep.
In a whole, I would like to once again clarify that beauty is just
skin deep. Take beauty and the beast for example. The prince was a
beast yet Belle still fell in love with him because she didn't fall for his
appearances; she fell in love with the guy beneath all that exterior
look. If you take a beautiful person and an ugly person then remove
all of the skin, you’ll be left with the same thing. The only way you
can differentiate them then, is by their character and personality. If
that happens, then only will people appreciate the true meaning of
beauty.
vast network of scholars and
alumni. Over these past few years, I’ve had the opportunity of
meeting and interacting with these individuals through various
YK events. Many of them have now become close friends, mentors,
and working partners.
I mostly enjoy events where scholars have the opportunity of
meeting up. It is always such a pleasure to meet and get to know
these really amazing people who are doing great things in their
lives today. It is no doubt a privilege to be inducted into a family
of individuals with such tremendous potential as well as over-
whelming humility and unquenchable desire to serve the country.
I would most definitely recommend Yayasan Khazanah to family
and friends. YK has certainly lived up to its potential as one of the
best scholarships in Malaysia.
Being part of the YK family has given me a concrete vision for
how I can contribute to the country’s growth and development. In
the short to medium term, my primary goal is to develop skills to
become an adept financial analyst. In the subsequent next 5- to
10- years, I hope to build a meaningful career in in KNB’s investment division, helping to guide the company’s key investment
decisions in the country’s core sectors and industries.
My experiences over the past five years have only been possible
because of the YK scholarship. The YK team has been very helpful
and understanding throughout the process, providing support and
encouragement that has guided me both in my academic as well
as personal growth.
Continue to next page>>
5
If I were given a chance to lead an
organization, I would like to be a
leader who inspire others to see
and achieve things greater than
themselves. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity of
getting to know many individuals – teachers, mentors, friends – who
have encouraged, rebuked, and inspired me to dream and persevere
towards bigger things, and I certainly would not be where I am today
if not for them. My greatest honor and responsibility as a leader in
any organization would be to do the same thing for those around me.
YK — Creating opportunities everyday.
Getting to Know The Alumni
Meeting with Mdm Yu Mei Ying, International
Admission Dept of Beijing Learning and Culture
Syed Malek Syed Mohamad - Committee Member, Khazanah Scholar
Alumni Association (KSAA)
University (BLCU). Together with us are Pn Zam
from Khazanah Beijing Regional Office and our
scholars at Beijing.
A green technology advocate, Syed
Malek Faisal is the Chief Operating
Officer at COMOS, a smart mobility
solution company which introduced
the first Electric Vehicle Car Sharing program in Malaysia. He
spearheaded the development of COMOS business models to promote green mobility in various sectors including tourism and education, as well as for corporate and government fleets.
Syed Malek has vast experience in the automotive and mobility
industry, technology and product development. He started his
career in Proton in the R&D and Engineering division, and was
instrumental in the development of various Proton engine and
vehicle models. He served as a panelist for the MOSTI Technofund
and is a member of the Board of Engineers and Institution of Engineers Malaysia.
En Kamarul Bahrein Sharif with H.E. Dato'
Zainuddin Yahya, Ambassador of Malaysia to the
People's Republic of China.
Syed Malek holds a Masters in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge under Khazanah-Cambridge Scholarship.
He graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Mechatronics
Engineering from King’s College London.
6
"Learn How To Learn" Programme by SuperCamp to our
Form 1 & 2 Scholars at KYS.
At UNITEN Open Day
At MMU Open Day
Briefing on Yayasan Khazanah Asia Scholarship
Programme to Form 4 & Form 5 students from South
On-boarding session with our new UiTM scholars
Thailand who are currently studying in Malaysia.
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Yayasan Khazanah
Leadership Conference
YK Leadership Conference (YKLC) is our annual event serves as a platform to gather our scholars at an identified venue. YKLC UK this year was held on
25th March 2017 @ Hilton Paddington London Hotel. The Conference was aimed to provide the scholars with an understanding and appreciation that
leadership traits and qualities are pivotal for them. This is essentially for their own personal development and career later, after the completion of studies.
This year’s theme was “ Leadership Challenges—Navigating and Shaping the Future” which was very well attended not only by YK scholars but also invited scholars from other scholarship programmes— YTM, YTN, MARA and Yayasan UEM.
8
YKPSP Activities 2017
Undergraduate Programme
Postgraduate Programme
6 - 8 May
YKPG Elective: Business Management Skills (BMS)
9 - 15 July
YK CBL: Community in Me (UG Group 1)
9 - 15 July
YKPG Core: Community Based Learning (CBL)
29 - 31 July
YKPG Elective: Strategic Leadership Development (SLD)
30 July - 5 August
YK GBR: Getting the Basics Right
20 - 24 August
YK FOR: Facing Organisational Realities
9 - 15 September
YK CBL: Community in Me (UG Group 2)
24 - 30 September
YKPG Core: High Impact Leadership (HIL)
22 - 24 October
YK WJM: Winning in the Job Market
From YKPSP Team
YKPG (Elective 1)
6th—8th May 2017
@ Dorsett Putrajaya Hotel
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