Impressive Speech on Muay Thai Social Business

Azra Ayue Abdul Rahman

The founder and CEO of Discover Muay Thai (DMT), Mr. Imran Harith shared his experiences on Muay Thai social business in Johor Bahru. He was one of the keynote speakers in the International Conference on Social Sciences, Management and Accounting (ICSSMA) 2019, held from 24-26^th September 2019 at Holiday Villa, Johor Bahru. The conference was intended to embrace various fields and disciplines in social sciences and management.

ICSSMA 2019 was organized by the School of Human Resource Development and Psychology (SHARPS), UTM and collaborating with Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Makassar, Bongaya Indonesia (STIEM), with the cooperation from UTM Talent Development Section, Human Resources Division Registrar’s Department.

Audience at keynote speech by Mr. Imran Harith

Mr. Imran has established the first sports social business in Malaysia in 2014. Mr. Imran himself is really passionate with Muay Thai and learned the martial art in Chalong, Thailand. He was then inspired by the Chalong Village efforts in developing underprivileged youths.

Taking this idea back home, Mr. Imran started a social enterprise with Muay Thai as a platform for youth empowerment. For Mr. Imran, learning martial arts, like Muay Thai, is actually teaching these youths the important of values in life: respect, discipline, self-confidence, resilience, leadership, care and appreciating knowledge.

Through his motivational and inspiring speech at ICSSMA 2019, Mr. Imran took the audience into looking at Muay Thai in a new way, emphasizing on how sports-related social-businesses are able to address issues like poverty, unemployment and many other social issues. Through his entrepreneurial mind, Mr. Imran kept moving to find ways for his success as a social entrepreneur and social business.

His target is to “help underprivileged kids and youths, especially those expelled from schools; I want them to know it is not the end of the world yet”.

He explained that what he was doing “is not a charity work. This is social entrepreneurship. The participants involved in our business within the training program.” Mr. Imran continues to have high hopes in teaching the youths the values and benefits of the arts of Muay Thai.