By Mahadhir Monihuldin
The IIUM student election 2016 is already down to the wire”an election where weve seen flyers of candidates fluttering about, booths filled with people flocking all over, and just random strangers coming at you out of nowhere trying their best to convince you to vote for their campaign.
However, strangely enough, outside of IIUM, an increasingly similar environment is beginning to appear around the town and residential areas where we live in. Indeed, while were busy having an election here in the confines of our university, outside of our doorstep is a nation-wide general election ready to happen very soon.
To tell you the truth, if one were to look closely enough, one would see that many parallels actually exist between our IIUM student election and our countrys general election. Of course, any Tom, Dick and Harry can see that the word ˜election is written in both, but what are the other subtle similarities not many people know exist between the two?
Well, I was able to sit down with the newly former president of our Student Representative Council (SRC), Aiman Azahan, to discuss exactly that.
Important role of SRC
First off, lets start with the basics. The SRC is one of the student bodies in IIUM that plays a vital role in protecting and advancing the welfare and well-being of our students. As Azhar puts it, œWe represent the students of IIUM and fight for their rights.
To contrast this, lets look at what a government is defined as. A government is a group of people that governs the state of affairs of a particular society in a particular land through various governmental instruments.
Basically, the most defining feature of the government is the relations it has with the people that they share a common ground with, and so too between the SRC and the entire student body of IIUM. œIt’s all the same. The difference is only in the level, Aiman shared.
To go even beyond that, most of you would know that our country has a Malaysian parliament. Its basically a platform where all the political candidates that we’ve vote for would assemble in a monumental building and legislate or amend laws in our country.
Well, in IIUM, we don’t have a legislative platform for students, but what we do have is the IIUM Student Leaders’ Assembly (ISLA), something that is known by some as the student parliament. Its purpose is to congregate all 140 student leaders from all student groups in IIUM including the SRC, the Kulliyah-Based Society (KBS), the Mahallah Representative Committee (MRC), and others.
Together, they will discuss the big issues affecting our students, ultimately bringing them forth to the Rector of IIUM. Both the Malaysian Parliament and ISLA function to unite leaders from every fold, and both are crucial for us to progress forward.
Now, lets get into the correlation between IIUMs electoral system and the electoral system that we use for our whole country. When it pertains to the similarities, Aiman mentioned that both elections involve voters voting for their candidate based on their respective constituency.
For IIUM students, it would be according to the kulliyah of their studies, whether it’s the Kulliyah of Human Sciences, Medicine, Architecture, and so on. The same applies for the voters of our general election, only that the citizens of Malaysia would vote according to the district that theyve registered under, districts such as Gombak, Subang, Puchong, Kelana Jaya, etc.
Voting process
Another thing that Aiman pointed out is that the voting process between the IIUM election and our countrys general election is also very similar. Instead of taking the alternative route of casting votes online, a system known as e-voting, we would cast our votes manually.
The e-voting process is actually something that has been implemented in universities like Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), even countries like the United States, Australia, India, and more. But because manual voting has its own benefits that e-voting doesn’t have, our university and our country has stuck to it.
What that means is that we would all gather up at a designated spot, physically mark down who we would like to vote for, and from there, the voting committee of that kulliyah or region will do the counting.
Thus, we’ve covered the similarities between the main parties associated in both elections–the SRC and the government–as well as the voting process that takes place for the two. But another resemblance that exists is the independent bodies that are involved.
Regarding this, Aiman alluded to the SRC Election Commission, an independent body that conducts and manages the whole student electoral process of our university from start to end.
As for our general election, we instead have the Election Commission of Malaysia, and it bears the daunting task of making sure all the electoral procedures go according to plan for each and every constituency from one state to another. Both bodies make up the rules for our election, and they’re also the ones to enforce them.
Election Tribunal
However, if anyone isnt satisfied with how the election is being carried out, for our university, Aiman stated that we have the Election Tribunal of SRC. It too is an independent body with the purpose of listening to complaints and taking action for the betterment of the election.
When it comes to our country, there is the Election Court. It deals specifically on any legal cases related to the general election. In short, the Election Tribunal of SRC and the Election Court are there to make sure that no foul play ever crosses the line.
So, after all that weve gone through, you can see how the similarities between the IIUM’s student election and Malaysia’s general election are pretty uncanny. But, to be honest, if you simply strip away the complexities that make up the surface of both elections, just put them all aside and observe whats truly within, you would see that behind it all, the one indistinguishable element that makes up an election, the size of a university and an election, the size of a vast nation, is the act of voting.
Unbeknownst to some, but the act of voting, this simple undertaking of making known who youd like to see representing your voice, your beliefs, your rights, is a privilege that not many people in our world get to enjoy.
It is what differentiates an inclusive democracy from a tyrannical dictatorship, and it would be a shame if such an opportunity gets thrown away, regardless if it’s for our university or for our country.
Voting as an obligation
To leave you with words of wisdom, as Aiman had put it best, œVoting is our obligation as human beings, because voting is what defines our future. Therefore, lets not put our votes to waste, people! ***