Uzbekistan Student Emerges International Category Champion At 2026 PABM

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Bernama) -- Abdullayeva Madinabonu Nizomiddin Qizi from Uzbekistan clinched the international category title at the 2026 Prime Minister’s Cup International Bahasa Melayu Public Speaking Competition (PABM) at the Malaysia Tourism Centre (MaTiC) here tonight.

The 20-year-old student of Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies made history by securing Uzbekistan’s fourth victory in the prestigious competition.

“I am very happy, Alhamdulillah. I am the fourth champion for Uzbekistan,” she told reporters after the ceremony.

Abdullayeva shared that she initially felt nervous to the point of almost forgetting her prepared speech, but managed to pull herself together and was eventually crowned champion.

On her preparations, she said she had spent the past two months in training, focusing on improving her pronunciation and speech delivery.

Sergei Ermakov from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, finished second in the international category, while Qiu Ziyi of Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, came in third.

Aiena Batrisyia Sulaiman of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) clinched the Alam Melayu category title, with Mohamad Iqbal Sopian Saputra of Tanjungpura University, Indonesia, finishing second and Khairul Nur Ayuni Rodzan Khairul of Universiti Malaya taking third place.

The international category in Malaysia saw Amna Masood from Pakistan, a student at the University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), crowned as champion.

Aisyah Hikmah of Burundi, who is studying at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), secured second place, while Amr Ibrahim Yusuf of Egypt, a Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) student, placed third.

The winners of each category took home a trophy, RM10,000 in cash and a certificate of appreciation. The runner-up received RM8,000 and a certificate of appreciation, while the third-placed winner walked away with RM5,000 and a certificate of appreciation.

Themed “Bahasa Melayu: Jambatan Peradaban Global”, the 16th edition of the competition serves as an important platform to expand the use of Bahasa Melayu as a language of knowledge, communication and diplomacy that transcends cultural and civilisational boundaries.

The competition received 174 entries from 21 countries, including Malaysia, with 99 participants making it to the screening stage before the top 50 were selected for the preliminary round.

The 2026 PABM grand finale was officiated by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.

In his opening address, Zambry said that Bahasa Melayu was not only a means of communication, but also a vehicle of thought and a bridge to civilisation that needed to be continuously strengthened amid the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and today’s information explosion.

He said history had proven that Bahasa Melayu had once been the lingua franca that united the region, and that language was inseparable from manners and civilisation-building.

“Good language fosters orderly thinking. Orderly nurtures a dignified civilisation,” he said in a virtual address.

-- BERNAMA