Ms Kho Sok Kee giving her speech at the ORIKAMI TAR UC event

From left to right: Ms Dearna Kee June Chen, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science, Arts & Humanities (‘FSAH’), Ms Cynthia Yeoh, Mr Lim Tze Cheng, Ms Kho Sok Kee, Bryan Nathen, Mr Desmond Cheng, Jeffrey Cheng, Dato’ Yap Kuak Fong, Mr Jay Chai Synn Yii and Ms. Annai Kriyalakshmi during the launching ceremony.

Jeffrey Cheng (second from right) participating in one of the games organised by the students alongside Ms Kho Sok Kee (rightmost)

The sponsors taking a look at one of the exhibits at the event

In today’s constant hype towards the Western culture especially when it comes to the arts and production scene, our very own local talents in these fields have often been underappreciated despite the quality of their works. The ORIKAMI TAR UC event by TAR UC’s Final-year Bachelor of Public Relations (Hons) students is therefore a commendable effort by the students to uplift and reignite the appreciation towards Malaysian local productions as well as to showcase TAR UC’s many accomplishments in various fields.

Held in collaboration with NTV7 and 8TV, the lively three-day bazaar took place from 6 to 8 January 2017 at TAR UC Main Hall with an array of exciting activities which included exhibitions on successful local brands, performances featuring local guest celebrities, lucky draws, games and so on. It was mainly inspired by the idea of the ‘ORIKAMI’ a.k.a. ‘Original Kami’ movement which is an initiative of the industry.

The official launching ceremony of the event took place on 6 January 2017 with encouraging support from TAR UC senior officials, staff, students as well as the media. Attending the event were Ms Kho Sok Kee, Vice President of TAR UC, Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Yap Kuak Fong, President of TARCian Alumni Association who was also one of the sponsors of the event, and Mr Desmond Cheng, General Manager of Media Prima TV Networks Consumer Communications Group with TAR UC’s very own alumni, Jeffrey Cheng (currently an accomplished Malaysian artist) and Chrystina Ng (currently a host for 8TV) as the Event Ambassador and Emcee respectively.

The event began with a speech by Ms Kho Sok Kee. In her speech, she remarked, “TAR UC has always been devoted to bringing a face and voice to originality. Educating students both academically, experientially and industrially, we have nurtured young and brilliant minds for over 48 years." She then added, saying, "This campaign serves as a reminder for every Malaysian to take pride in their origins through their support of locally produced artworks and productions; and for TARCians to be proud of their very own alumni who have made a mark in various industries such as businesses, technology, mass media and film."

Ms Kho then officially launched the event, followed by the presentation of certificates and plaques as tokens of appreciation to the sponsors of the event who are as follows:

1. Ms. Cynthia Yeoh, Marketing Manager, J3 Marketing Sdn Bhd
2. Mr. Lim Tze Cheng, General Manager, Inter Pacific Asset Management
3. Dato’ Yap Kuak Fong, President of TARCian Alumni Association
4. Mr. Jay Chai Synn Yii, CEO, Vegagi Web Celebrity Sdn Bhd
5. Ms. Annai Kriyalakshmi, Founder, KMMSG Charitable Society
6. Adrian Yeo Chartered Accountant
7. Salutica Allied Solutions Sdn. Bhd.
8. BNG Global Property Sdn Bhd
9. HSB Enterprise
10. O&G 8Lectricals (M) Sdn. Bhd
11. Pleiades Thesaurus
12. Shopee
13. Polygon Property Sdn Bhd

Bryan Nathen, the Organising Chairperson of the event, found the entire experience of organising the event together with his fellow course mates as challenging yet extremely beneficial in preparing them for their future careers. He said, “We definitely gained many useful skills from people management skills to event management skills; learning how to plan activities, launching gimmicks and so on. What we experienced was, in fact, the whole essence of Public Relations – communicating an idea to a target audience - which in this case is promoting local Malaysian productions.”