In this podcast, we speak to Dr Helmy Haja Mydin, CEO of the Social & Economic Research Initiative (SERI) and Head of the Lung Centre in Pantai Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. The discussion revolves on the unequal access to health in Malaysia, and how the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated this. Tune in to find out about the many ways different community needs cannot be attended to due to structural and social barriers in Malaysia.

In this episode of BICARA, we talk to Wilbryan Reyes, a current second year law student in the University of Malaya. He shares some deeper insight on the plight of underprivileged students in public Malaysian universities, the lack of social and financial support for their attainment of education, and the background discrepancies that affect the quality of their student experience.

As part of our Youth Representation campaign, we have Dr Norshamshida binti Razak, Senior Assistant Director of the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA), Department of Statistics Malaysia. We interviewed Dr Norshamshida on the the causes and impacts of youth unemployment in Malaysia, the impact of the pandemic on unemployment and the possible skills young people need when entering the labour force in the future. 

As a part of our Youth Representation Campaign, we have a returning guest, Aroe from Klima Action Malaysia to speak to us once again! In this episode, we talk about matters regarding youth awareness, mobilisation, and the challenges Malaysian youths may face while engaging in environmental activism. 

In conjunction with the Gender Inequality : Balancing the Scales campaign, for this episode, we talk to Prof. Dato’ Noor Aziah Hj. Mohd. Awal, a professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) who is also the Child’s Commissioner for SUHAKAM about the current laws on child marriage in Malaysia, the problems in implementing wider legal protection as well as the relation of child marriage to marital rape. 

In conjunction with our campaign on Mental Health as well as World Mental Health Day, we had the honour of interviewing Dr Nurashikin Ibrahim who is a Public Health Physician and the Sector Head of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Violence Injury Prevention under the Disease Control Division, at the Ministry of Health. Tune in to our discussion on stigmatisation in mental health, crisis management, as well as accessibility to mental health care in Malaysia.