By Danial Yusof
For the past three semesters, students from the Department of Communication have been asked to participate in a research project at a certain village. It is compulsory for those who are taking subjects like Public Opinion and Persuasion and Communication Theory.
Apart from being tasked to complete an assignment by carrying out a survey research in the village, the visit was intended for students to gain exposure in field work. Recently, another group of students had the opportunity to visit Marang, one of the beautiful places in Terengganu.
Marang is well known for its fishing villages where most of the people there depend on the sea for their livelihood. However, we did not manage to witness for ourselves the interesting moment of fishermen returning to the shores with their daily catch as it is monsoon season now.
Most fishermen during this time have to refrain from going to the sea as the weather condition could be too dangerous and risky. But, for a person like me who lives in Kuala Lumpur, the excitement of seeing fishing boats by the river mouth and the seaside was more than adequate to adore the scenic view and to discover more of the lives of fishermen.
In Marang, we were divided between the three villages; Kampung Rhu Muda, Kampung Bharu Rhu Muda and Kampung Seberang Marang respectively. These were among the biggest villages. We were first gathered at a mosque near Kampung Rhu Muda which became our ˜checkpoint before we moved to the villages.
I was assigned to Kampung Seberang Marang with my lecturer, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Che Mahzan. We walked to the place where we saw the houses there that look quite old and the village filled with green plants.
We visited one house where the owner was one of the oldest persons still alive in that village. We asked him to tell us about the village after the country achieved Independence especially on the changes that have taken place. The man responded and told us his story which we managed to record all his words.
We took the time to experience the beautiful sceneries in the village which gave us the energy to capture some other interesting moments not found in Kuala Lumpur. There were many stalls that sell fish crackers and we noticed that during our journey to Marang earlier. We stopped at the stalls to buy some fish crackers. We found the fish crackers were made from different kinds of fish and we could taste the real fish instead of just plain fish mixed with flour like what we experienced in Kuala Lumpur.
Marang is scenic and has a beautiful sea view facing an island called Pulau Kapas. The villagers told us tourists love to go to the island for holiday. I managed to capture the view of the sea during the early morning hours as well as before sunset. It was a fantastic image captured which I would keep forever.
I knew that I am not the only one who felt happy and satisfied with the visit to Marang. A close friend, Mustaqeem, shared his thought saying, œIt was a fantastic experience although we are here for an assignment, yet we did not miss a chance to feel like we are on holiday.
Meanwhile, Dr. Che Mahzan shared his view that it was a good experience for students to carry out research at places outside Kuala Lumpur to gauge some feedback and findings especially on how people face their living nowadays compared to the life after Independence then.
œThere are some things that students do not know about living in the village and the only way they can learn about it is by going to the field to observe for themselves,” he said. ***
