Fulbright Makes A Difference To Bruneian And Malaysian

Washington - Meet two men from two countries who want to make a difference in their own way under the same programme that has benefited more than 250,000 since 1946, Bernama reported.

Ong Kian Ming, 30, from Petaling Jaya, Selangor, and Pengiran Dr Hishamuddin Pengiran Datuk Paduka Badaruddin, 33, from Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, have been studying here in the United States for the past seven months under the Fulbright Programme administered by the State Department.

Ong, a policy analyst, is currently studying ethnic politics at Duke University at Durham, North Carolina.

Coming from a multi-racial background, Ong would like a deeper understanding of race relations and politics in the US and compare it to his experience back home through his doctorate programme, which he hopes to complete by 2009.

"Both the US and Malaysia could exchange their experiences and learn from each other," Ong told Bernama in a joint interview with Dr Hishamuddin at the Foreign Press Centre here over the weekend.

Ong is currently co-authoring a book with an American professor on the Malaysian elections held in 1999 and 2004 and hopes to publish the book before the end of the year.

He was previously a policy analyst at Sedar, a Gerakan party think-tank and also Insap, an MCA think-tank in Kuala Lumpur.

Ong wrote for the Star newspaper during the elections where he said he gathered a lot of interesting data.

Meanwhile, Dr Hishamuddin, the first ever Fulbrighter from Brunei, is undertaking a two-year Masters programme in Public Health (epidemiology - a study of trends in infectious diseases) at the. Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

While studying at the university, he also does part-time research at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) located across the street from Emory.

Appointed the contact person for Brunei in the Asean+3 committee on infectious diseases in the region, Dr Hishamuddin plans to use his knowledge to good use when he returns home especially with the recent outbreak of SARS and the Avian flu in the region.

He currently works at the RIPAS Hospital in Bandar Seri Begawan.

He said that with contacts he has developed in the US, he hoped to develop programmes to collaborate and coordinate efforts with regional experts to combat and control infectious diseases in Southeast Asia.

Since its inception, 255,000 Fulbrighters - 96,400 from the US and 158,600 from other countries - have participated in the programme. The Fulbright Programme awards approximately 4,500 new grants annually.

The Fulbright Alumni include Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, governors and senators, ambassadors and artists, prime ministers and heads of state, professors and scientists, Supreme Court Justices and CEOs, according to the State Department.

The US Congress appropriated US$ 122.9 million for the programme in fiscal year 2003. Foreign governments contribute an additional US$28 million directly to the programme. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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