The Last Post

Well it has come to an end... Good times, bad times, in IMU, in SRC, and in Malaysia, everything has come to an end and its time to start a new journey. The good news is, I am flying to Scotland next tuesday! A year ahead which promises lots of exciting surprises, as we venture into the unknown territory. Excited? Definitely, but fears come with it as well, as everything ahead is so unpredictable. A big farewell to everyone, and also marks the end of this blog, which I started during my campaign for SRC and the time has come to end it.

Retirement from SRC happens bout a month ago, but I always fail to find time to write this post, till now.. I just wanna say that it had been a great experience working in SRC, together with 10 other great people... Leslie especially, despite facing some frequent negative comments (some from me I admit), he is a person that I really respected, for someone to work so effectively despite needing to handle studies, pressures from admin and students and also family responsibilities, it requires a superhuman effort.For him to handle them in such grace and effortless manner is a feat that is impossible for anyone, including me to achieve.

And bout myself, I can proudly say that I have given a hundred percent effort in everything I do, despite not having much to show. I can even say I give more to the SRC than to my studies (its lucky that I survive the final exam). And hey, looking back at my campaign manifesto, I guess I gave it all a try, and managed to achieve at least 50 percent of it, not good enough for me, but thats all I can do, and hopefully my successor will do better.

Of course since this is the last post and I don't expect many to read this, I would like to be really honest about things that I might not say during my SRC days. First of all, I feel we were not good enough, not good enough as individuals and certainly not good enough as a council. It doesn't mean that we didn't try hard enough but in terms of working as a unit, we were not up to the mark. Compared to the previous council, we lack unity and at times might be taking things a little too lightly, thus I can understand why some students complain about our council, I would have done the same if I was a student myself. We might be able to work lots better if, like some Western colleges, we are a body which are given a year off from study to work solely on student affairs day in day out, but I am not using studies as excuse, or blaming anyone, its just that I felt lots of things could be better. And to Leslie, despite all the respect I have for you, you had it wrong in some decisions you made, and some of us were really disappointed with that at times.

But pass is pass, we have a new council which look good, but looking good alone is not sufficient, delivering the final product is the vital part. And I wish the new council best of luck. I just wanna say thank you everyone for all the support in the previous year and with the experience I gain from this job I hope to go further. So till then, see you guys in Scotland!

SRC..retiring...

You know what... I feel old...not just coz I m sick, but every signs seems to point that way:I am leaving IMU, I am leaving SRC, and I am erm... 23 ( hmm... some people are already dads at 23) But before I leave SRC, there is something I need to do, something I did two weeks ago and I am still excited bout, husting!!

So whats husting? To be honest I have no idea since I heard bout it, didn't feel like searching the dictionary. When I joined SRC last year I mistook it as "hustling", which I thought is something like Kung Fu hustle, where all the candidates beat up each other (in a more polite way), and the last man(or woman) standing wins. Well apparently not.. this,is the real husting:

Yes, it is the time where all the candidates get a once in a lifetime chance to sit on the very stage in IMU atrium and have a chance to deliver a speech to audience. But for us old people, its a chance for us to drill them with questions, or if we decide to be evil, a chance to embarass them on stage and expose their weaknesses to the crowd ( hmm...that actually came across my mind too for some time... but i think my angelic side prevails)

For the candidates, I am happy with some of them, for showing great enthusiasm and ambition, for some of them, not so.. for various reasons, ability wise, intention wise, effort wise ( not going to mention names though ) As for my candidate, I have all the reason to be proud of her, for not taking the uncontested position for granted, and really try her hardest to impress.

Ashvini the Social Concerns rep candidate

What I am not so happy bout is the lack of candidates. With more than half the amount of posts uncontested, one can't help but wonder why.. Is it because the previous SRC is not good enough and did not set good examples? Is it because students feel they can't change IMU even if they get into SRC? Or is it because we lack leaders among these group of juniors? Whatever reason that is... I can't help but to think back the good old days, two years ago when all the posts are evenly contested and last year... when we had to fight tooth and nail for our position, can someone tell me what is wrong out there? I am a fan of election, but what is election without competition?

So I will only feature positions with contest, giving my opinions as honest as I could, without being biase to anyone. First of all, PR rep, Ashnina vs Pei Jin. It will be a tough choice, for me and for IMU students. Well Pei Jin was in my mandarin class before, she seems like a sweet and sincere girl. But this girl Ashnina, she display superb courage by contesting even though she came from a health sciences batch and do not expect to garner much votes if IMU students decide to vote according to batch. So.. this will be a tight competition

In the Pic, Ashnina (forgot to take Pei Jin's photo)

Next we have secretary, Natasha vs Nirmal. Nirmal had a great speech during husting, very fluent and somehow she has the secretary look, reminds me of the previous SRC secretary, Swarna. Hmm... but Natasha had a very unique way of campaigning and hey, here is a little secret, I use her campaign bookmark during my study for exam!! ( so she gave me something useful, which is a plus), again.. undecided.

Nirmal (left) vs Natasha (right)

Next we have two positions which I have nothing to do with, VP for medicine and VP for dentistry (a new post). But as a current SRC, I have a chance to vote for them too... So need to pay full attention. VP for dentistry, both Joshua and Jin Lin has huge fan base, I can hear girls yelling their name when they took stage, more like a concert than election, should be a close fight, will Joshua has the advantage as a batch rep? We shall see... As for VP medic, it is the most tightly contested position in past election, Ben vs James, Mezhen vs Aveena, those are nothing short of spectacle. So this time, between Manlo ( a guy from Hong Kong) and Jodie ( a girl who put tissue boxes all over cafe), who will come up top?

Manlo (left) vs Jodie (right)

Joshua (left) vs Jin Lin ( right)

And... last but not least, the president... Zia is an amazing person, I have to say, I worked with her on few projects, and she has always been really helpful and nice.. Murresh, a good debater, with sharp and provocative answers during the husting... but... I guess I know who I am voting for...

Murresh (left ) vs Zia (right)

Well, I am still sane enough to know SRC members have to be professional, that is why I am merely offering my review for husting and do not favour any candidate, with hope to attract more interest on this election, with hope tat more people will come out and vote, my vote shall remain confidential. With 5 votes for each SRC members, we might be potential kingmakers if the competition is tight, so everyone please register and vote k?

And there you go...nothing is impossible!!

I will start with a big Thank You note:

"Thanks to Andrew, Siva, Amira, you guys fought hard throughout the week"
"Thanks to Devi, for turning the tide around and help us stage this amazing comeback, you are a true great" (oh ya, n ur dad too!!)
"Thanks to You Zhuan, even though you are emotionally not so stable just like me, but you did your best to help"
" Thanks to all my supportive friends, other non-JPA classmates for understanding our situation"
" Thanks to all fellow JPA comrades, we stood our ground and never succumb to unreasonable instructions, and we got what we want and what is right"
"Thanks to IMU, especially Miss Liza, for ur effort in helping us phone and write letters, definitely won't forget that, SAD is the best department in the world!!"

and finally...
" Thanks to JPA, and BTN, for teaching us a lesson in this incident. For making us realize that if you have the right intention, if you have the will and spirit, if you never stop believing, nothing is impossible..."

And the final verdict is......

" We do not need to go to the BTN!!"

Human Rights

This was supposed to be a blog writing bout SRC, life in IMU and all that, but today I am going to write something real personal coz I just can't stand it anymore. If I don't write it out I am going to explode anytime. Before coming to IMU I was well known for my fiery temper and stubborness, I thought I got a lot more "gentle" when I got here, but this situation just reignite the flame in me, a RAGING flame.

So here is a brief explanation of the situation:

Pharmacy Practice class test initially is on 15th (thurs), Drug & Disease class test 19th (mon)... N suddenly JPA scholars are informed, " you all are going to pack ur stuff and attend a 5 day Kem Bina Tatanegara (watever shit is tat) starting from 14th... which means we will miss our PP class test and take our DD class test immediately when we come back, in the process missing lots of classes, despite IMU agree to reschedule the PP class test, the situation look bad for us students... I will tell u why

1) We need to take PP and DD class test back to back once we return from the camp, despite being tired and demoralised (i suspect it might be due to the attempted brainwashing talks in the camp). And we have exams in the camp as well, so how are we suppose to remember so many things?

2) BTN versus class test and all the classes ( which include classes tat are examinable in the class test), which is more important? Hmm... I feel even 3 years old know the answer. Oh ya, dear government, I thought ponteng class is against the law? Are you asking us to do tat?

3) There are lots of BTN lots throughout the year, why can't we be arranged to other slots, when we do not have class and exams? Yes they might argue they prepared everything for us d can't be changed, but why such a late notice to us? And as far as I know our government is damn rich ( not to mention those who took rasuah everyday ), so arranging another camp for us isn't a problem.

What really pissed me off is despite us students, parents and IMU authorities called to ask them to postpone the camp, giving good reasons, with all the pleading and begging, those stubborn and dumb-headed people insist we will go to the camp or face actions.

Here is the thing, if I go to the camp, I am going to do badly in the class test (possibly submitting a blank paper, which is something I did before), and end up failing my final exam, losing the scholarship. If I don't go to the camp they will probably suspend my scholarship ( worst case scenario), so either way I will lose it, so why not do something I feel its right?

And furthermore its not just bout results, even though we are under your scholarship my fren, we are not your slaves, forcing us to do unreasonable stuff like this is totally unforgivable. We are human and we have our human rights, me n few left standing (most of others already gave up hope and will prepare for the camp) will fight till the end on what we feel is right for us.

So we will see what happen on monday, I was tempted to phone JPA but looking at the situation now, I probably will burst and say something rude to them, making things worse, so lets let the cooler headed colleagues settle the matters. But if they persist, I would not hesistate bring this issue to higher authorities and make it public, in newspapers (again its not something i haven't done before)

And before I end, this is a warning: if the BTN camp dares to say a word that insult us students regarding racial and religious matters, I would not keep quiet.

http://cuculow.blogspot.com/
http://wy-wene.blogspot.com/
http://renly911.blogspot.com/2009/01/btn-versus-pp-and-dd.html
http://starrysy.blogspot.com/2009/01/doomed.htmlersus-pp-and-dd.html

These are blogs which share the same thoughts.. JPA students are not to be pushed around like this!!

p.s. and also some different point of views

http://cynthiahee.blogspot.com/