My experience with education has been very coloured by the way I've been brought up. I've been brought up in Malaysia, and in Malaysia our access to tertiary education in particular is often limited by the colour of our skin. So for example, in state universities, which are often the cheapest option, our access is limited to the position of quotas which allow the majority races to benefit while the minority races like me are sidelined.

So I believe that this sort of upbringing has coloured my perception of democracy because I've been taught since young that I am less because I was not born a Malay or not born a Muslim, and I don't like this idea.

How do I respond to it? I have responded to it directly and indirectly. So I respond to it directly because I believe there is a gap in education. Even though we follow the same syllabus, certain schools are better at teaching than others. So I've tutored at institutes for underprivileged kids.

Indirectly, I've been involved in campaigns to overcome this information gap because there's a lot of issues like drugs and such can be attributed to this information gap between rural and urban areas and the like.

Malaysia primary school girls. Wikimedia commons/Caverose. PD.

I believe that education can be improved through technology, because technology ensures that a student in the smallest village in Africa can get the same education as a student studying in MIT. I think that is wonderful. The equality of information is unprecedented and it's the magic key to solving our education and democracy problems.

I'm motivated to join this conference because I've been part of the problem for so long and I yearn to be part of the solution. And there's no better way to be part of the solution than this campaign because you have the most experienced people and I can adapt and assimilate their ideas.