Referring to letter Dato’ VC sent to Dato’ Seri Khalad @ Menteri KPT which I received from the Vice Chancellor’s office ‘recently’, MPP UPM dibubarkan secara rasminya on the 2nd of October 2008. Hence, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my fellow UPM’ers for all the support, positive criticism and everything we’ve done together to make UPM a better place. At the moment, until the campus elections would be announced, administration of MPPUPM 08/09 would be handled by the ‘executive caretakers’ as stated in the letter.
At least ‘executive caretakers’ have a program under their belt already, the soon to be held South East Asia Children Charity Performance (SEACCC) organized by then-MPPUPM 07/08
on November at the Palace of the Golden Horses. I am proud of my Exco Jason Yong Yoon Chee, he’s one of the few leaders in MPP who exploited the opportunity given to him and organized something from zero to soon to be ‘hero’. Like I’ve always reminded, all Excos have been given opportunities under my administration and of course I do push for them to host events which differs from others and I am proud to say at least UPM Students Council managed to host an international event. It’s the first in UPM and I am sure these are the seeds towards culture of excellence in the future.
Nonetheless, let bygones be bygones and let’s concentrate on the future.
At the moment, the ‘executive caretakers’ are planning to compile all the work done by all the Excos as an annual report for our shareholders-students. That’s right, we’re trying our best to get this up so you know who you voted for and what have they given back to you.
Looking into the previous ‘penyerahan memorandum pro mahasiswa upm’ to UPM Vice Chancellor, there are certain things which I would like to respond as I believe lots of students are not aware of this;
The tuntutan are;
1. Pihak pentadbiran universiti mengembalikan kuasa dan hak MPP yang sebenarnya kepada MPP yang telah menang.
2. Semua peruntukan untuk aktiviti pelajar mengikut persatuan diserahkan kembali kepada kuasa MPP.
3. Beberapa pelajar yang telah menjadi MPP supaya bersidang bersama dalam SENAT UPM.
4. MPP merupakan badan bebas yang tidak perlu dikawal oleh mana-mana pihak terutamanya pihak Bahagian Hal Ehwal Pelajar.
I’ll provide my inputs based on my experience as all of these issues were touched before in our monthly meetings with TNC and VC + monthly meetings with MPP.
- Item 1 : MPP has lots of provision under AUKU. What we did was for all our letters and where UPM do not underline any pre-requisites in any ruling, we utilized all the akta-akta extensively. I believe it’s more towards you exploring what your powers are as an MPP as stated in the law, as with those that people say ‘cannot do this and that’, challenge them in the court of law. Mahasiswa must be intelligent. Since the akta in laws are hak. I love it when someone says I can’t do this and that and there I go blabbering about the laws and they say, ok fine. Use it, I found that lots of my exco members don even understand AUKU and the hak they possess. Don’t start saying any of your representatives in the council representing any ‘political camp’ know better, I know everyone and what they spoke during our monthly meetings. For those that win… hmmmmmmmmmmmm…. let’s see very interesting. How about I change it to: ‘kembalikan hak pengundi yang telah mengundi MPP yang telah menang?’. My excos… *wink wink* how many of you be it from any political camp have fulfilled ur responsibilities from the manifestos, executed things you agreed in our meeting, even to attending meetings and organizing events together? If you have done all this then I believe it has been wrong for the university should they deny you any ‘rights’. otherwise, vice versa.
- Item 2: Ok we brought this up during my monthly meeting with Dato’ Nik Mustapha, we asked that MPP be given the rights to conduct financial transactions as have been stated in AUKU. I believed that by acquiring financial leverage, MPP would expand it’s influence by sponsoring student programs for a start. It was successful for certain student projects we sponsored where we forked our own money. Nonetheless Dato’ VC did not agree as there were ‘financial responsibility’ problems in this sense: the troublesome audit. Solve the audit issue as the current laws in Malaysia is very complicated and should student organizations do not provide a true and fair view of accounts, you can get jailed.
- Item 3: Dato’ VC agreed on this during our meetings and during the APEX university discussions. We would like to get students into the senate but I have firmly believed that student leaders which enter the senate must be students who could discuss and debate on the future of the university in the sense of academia, not just student issues. Having said that, I do hope the next MPP pursue this uncompleted task.
- Item 4: Wow.. metaphorically I feel like I am being controlled. Perhaps maybe the disagreements MPP had before with certain HEP officers were because we were controlled? If we were then we should already have ONLY agreements. It’s up to the MPP really to ensure they are NOT controlled by anyone. MPP is very much free as stated in the AUKU laws. It’s up to the exco members really. Kalo walk the walk, talk the talk, orang x berani nak control. But if you talk the talk but you don’t walk the walk, then senang ah orang control. Anyone who possess knowledge will be feared and not controlled.
I have lots of good memories in MPP UPM, much better during the years when I was an MTM.. thank you my excos, I do cherish it. Good luck all, and Allah bless:)
