Page 29 - IDFR-Diplomatic Voice Vol 2 2014

FORUM NEWS Excellence Service Award On 14 May 2014, a total of 110 officers conducting their responsibilities and Sebastian Anak Dio, Mr. Mat Basir from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs achieving their Key Performance Jaafar, Mr. Alif An Naz Nazaruddin and Malaysia including the Malaysian Indicator. In his speech, Dato’ Sri Mr. Ibrahim Nor from Corporate and Missions Overseas received the Excel- Anifah Haji Aman hoped that this Management Services Division. lence Service Award. The ceremony award would not only give motivation was officiated by the Foreign Minister, to the recipients but also serve as an Dato’ Sri Anifah Haji Aman in the Audi- inspiration to others to increase their torium, Ministry of Foreign Affairs quality of work as well as perfor- Malaysia. mance. A better group of officers will lead to a better ministry and service. The purpose of this ceremony was to Seven IDFR officers were among the acknowledge the hard work of the award recipients; Ms. Rahimah Yeop officers who had shown excellent from Academic Studies, Research and performance throughout 2013. It was Publication Division, Ms. Azmah also to acknowledge the dedication Mahmud from Training Division as well and commitment given by them in as Ms. Nor Azura Mior Daud, Mr. My Experience as a Diploma in Diplomacy Participant Contributed by Choo Hwai Jeng fortunate that we got the opportunity to be attached with the biggest Malay- sian Mission abroad, our Embassy in Jakarta. Other than siteseeing, we also attended briefings in our Embas- sy, as well as KEMLU (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia) and the ASEAN Secretariat. Thank you to our Head of Delegation, Ambassador Aminahtun Hj. A. Karim for giving us the opportunity to have a dialogue with the prominent industry captains of Malaysia in Jakarta. On 3 February 2014, I arrived at the were aware that many pairs of eyes Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign were looking at us and assessing our One thing I would not forget about the Relations (IDFR), Kuala Lumpur to performance. Therefore, we had done DiD programme was the teamwork start the new phase of my career as a our best in order to perform in all the and team spirit that was formed Malaysian diplomat. It has been three modules. Since most of us had among the participants over the years, nine months and 30 days since worked in the Ministry for three to four course of the programme. Every one I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, years, the academic modules were was required to perform certain duties Malaysia on 3 April 2010. In between useful as we could relate it to the tasks for many events in DiD namely, this period, many of my seniors were that we had performed, namely draft- becoming masters of ceremony, talking about their lives being a diplo- ing reports, meeting minutes, note speech writing, programme master mat, but never once did they fail to verbales, speeches and others. Not to and others. None of us shrugged from highlight that the Diploma in Diploma- forget that the module on Defending our responsibilities. Eventually, all cy (DiD) is the prerequisite for a Malay- National Interest also created many events were completed without any sian diplomat to be considered for sleepless nights among us, knowing hiccup. posting. that we will be grilled by international journalists and senior officers for half The DiD programme definitely is a With such expectations, 16 of us an hour on delicate issues. stepping stone for a Malaysian diplo- arrived and registered ourselves with mat to obtain necessary skills and Ms. Rosida bt Ismail, Mr. Haris Syar- Other than academic modules, the confidence to embark on an exciting wani bin Razali and Ms. Shermawaty attachment programme in a foreign and demanding career. I personally bt Awang Sahari, our course coordina- mission was useful and interesting for cherished the moments. tors to start the DiD programme. We everyone. This time around, we were DIPLOMATIC VOICE 29