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The Forum on “Preventing Extremism by Leveraging Impactful Tailored Approaches (PELITA)” and Handbooks Launch was held on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at Element by Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
The first part of the program was the launch of 2 ‘handbooks (handbooks for the media and civil society as a culmination of roundtable discussions and workshops held with these respective stakeholders in Q4 of 2021) and another training manual by Dato Ganeson Sivagurunathan (Director-General, SEARCCT) and Mr. Niloy Banerjee (Resident Representative for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei) as well as Prof. Datuk Dr. Denison Jayasooria, Head of Secretariat, All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia for Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG).
Publication 1 : The Role of the Media in Preventing Violent Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion: A Practical Guide (a guideline for reporters and media practitioners to enhance the capacity and role of media practitioners in Malaysia in reporting PCVE issues and at the same time promoting social cohesion in the country); and
Publication 2: The Handbook for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) in Malaysia (a guide for community actors to incorporate P/CVE programming into their existing focus areas, and provide them with the skills and knowledge to effectively plan and implement programmes); Both publications were part of the SEARCCT-UNDP-EU collaboration.
Publication 3: ‘Building Inclusive Communities Training Manual ‘by Dato’ Denison Jayasooria, was the result of UNDP’s collaboration with the All-Party Parliamentary Group of Malaysia on Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG).
The launch was followed by a forum which provided an introduction to the topics discussed in the three ‘handbooks’.
Preventing violent extremism (PVE), through addressing the drivers and conditions that give rise to it, is an approach that has continued to gain momentum globally, particularly among UN Member States. Recognising Malaysia’s commitment to PVE under the global framework on the Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, UNDP Malaysia has focused its efforts on developing multi stakeholder partnerships on the ground to develop and implement evidence-based PVE initiatives, using a development approach.
In this regard, the Forum highlighted the concerted efforts by UNDP and its esteemed partners in preventing violent extremism through interventions aimed at strengthening community resilience and promoting social cohesion, leveraging on multi stakeholder participation which includes civil society, media practitioners, as well as the youth.
Moderated by Asrul Daniel from SEARCCT, the first panel session – Multi-Stakeholder Approaches in Peacebuilding & Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) had experts Zan Azlee (Fat Bidin Media), Dina Zaman (IMAN Research) and Thomas K. Samuel (Consultant, UNDP Malaysia). Among the topics discussed in this panel session were The Role of the Media in Fostering Community Resilience, Partnering with CSOs in Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) and Peace Journalism and Conflict-Sensitive Reporting.
Thomas K. Samuel returned as a panellist to speak on Building Peace Through Youth Communities during the 2nd session: Investing in Communities for an Inclusive and Resilient Society. Dr Nurul Miza Rashid from IIUM moderated this session; 2 other panellists were Ms. Lilianne Fan who spoke about ‘Empowering Marginalised Communities’ and Mr. James Ryan Raj who spoke about achieving the SDG 16 goal Through Building Inclusive Communities.
His Excellency Timo Goosmann, Deputy Head of Mission, European Union Delegation to Malaysia joined Dato Ganeson and Mr. Niloy to deliver opening remarks while Ambassador Khairi Omar (Deputy Director General I, SEARCCT) and Prof. Datuk Dr. Denison Jayasooria closed the ceremony with their insightful and impactful remarks.
