By Nurul Hanani Hasmin
“A leader is a dealer in hope”.
Great leaders should know that they will never have a motivated team unless they exhibit a positive attitude themselves.
In the recent Students’ Representative Council (SRC) election, students of Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge (IRK) had given their votes to Shafiyah Iqlima Mohd Nadzri and Muhd Zul Majdi as their representatives.
I had the opportunity to interview one of the winning candidates, Syafiyah Iqlima Mohd Nadzria, who was born and raised in Kelantan. Humble and confident, she is very generous with her smile. She believes that being a student is not an obstacle for her to be more engaged and to contribute to the campus community.
Before being elected as one of the SRC candidates, she has contributed in many programmes related to SRC such as Biah Solehah Campaign, OPS Jumaat, and i-Defence.
Syafiyah Iqlima has been working in SRC for two years and was Faten Nabila’s (previous SRC) personal assistant, and the task has helped her to develop confidence.
She was very thankful to those who had voted her. “When I got to know that I am one of the winning candidates for IRK constituency, I felt that I have a chance to repay those who have given me their support.”
Three manifestos were proposed by Syafiyah Iqlima. She wants to promote the beauty of Quran among IIUM community. She said Quran is the revealed word of Allah and is the main source of every Muslim’s practices.
“I want to help the students to understand more about Quran and at the same time they need to understand that Quran is the guide that every Muslim should have in their heart,” Iqlima stressed.
She added, “Although there are some clubs in IIUM, such as Jamiyyatu Khadamatil Quran (JKQ) and Quranic Youth Club (QYC) that focus on highlighting the importance of Quran, having collaboration with the SRC will help making it more effective.”
According to Iqlima, they have planned to make a programme called “Quran Week” for the students. During this “Quran Week”, students will get to read one page of Quran each and they have targeted that by the end of the programme they will have a Khatam Quran ceremony for the students.
Besides reciting Quran, they will also organise a talk that focuses on the beauty of Quran every week.
The second manifesto suggested by Syafiyah Iqlima is to offer wider access for the disabled students in IRK building. The reason why she chooses to focus on the minority is because even though all parts of the IRK buildings can be accessed by the disabled students but there are certain places that these disabled students can’t access which is on IRK 13, 14, and 15 classroom.
She said, “We want to emphasise the value of human responsibilities to the students. If we, the majority, do not help the disabled students to voice out their concern, who will?”
According to Iqlima, it is very hard for the disabled students to attend classes in IRK 13, 14 and 15 when they have to leave their wheelchairs and go up and down the stairs using their hands. Her plan includes helping students not only from IRK but also all the disabled students from other Kulliyahs.
Iqlima said, “The issue of disabled students has already been discussed by the previous SRC and the university’s administration. The only problem is that it is not yet implemented.”
“Now, as being part of SRC, I’m the one who is going to continue to do my best to help the disabled students,” she stated.
Syafiyah Iqlima’s last manifesto focuses on exploring new talents of students and promoting unity through sports. In IIUM, students who are active in sports usually take part in Inter-Kulliyyah Sports Festival (KUSEF) where there are sports competitions between Kulliyyahs.
Those athletes who have won the competitions in KUSEF were only acknowledged by their friends, this time they plan to register the students’ name under Sports Development Centre (SDC) to represent IIUM in sports.
“Besides students, we also want to give benefits to the staff. The SDC’s staffs do not have to spend their energy to look for athletes since the winners of KUSEF will be registered into the SDC,” said Iqlima.
“My only hope is of course to fulfil my manifesto. I really hope that I can improve and perform well in SRC.” ***