By Siti Aisyah Mariam Abdul Wahab
GOMBAK, 21 March 2021: Campus democracy is a way to bring out students’ voices on their needs and issues affecting them while studying in the university.
This answers the reason why students should exercise their rights to cast their votes in this upcoming IIUM Student Union (IIUMSU) election scheduled to take place on 9 April.
An online forum held by Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences Students’ Society (IRKHSSS) Academic and Intellectual Council was intended to give students an insight into the practice of democracy on campus.
This forum witnessed the panelists giving their views on the need and importance of campus democracy in various aspects focusing on both the local as well as international.
IIUMSU is a student body set up to benefit the students of IIUM itself, according to Zamzamil Amin, the IIUMSU’s Officer on Welfare and International Affairs said.
Zamzamil emphasised that IIUMSU is a stand-alone student organisation that is separated from the university management.
IIUMSU is different from the earlier Student Representative Council (SRC) as everything in IIUMSU is being led and controlled by the students themselves, Zamzamil explained.”This allows the student representatives in IIUMSU to bring up any issue or need faced by the students straight to the university’s administration and discuss it.”
Commenting on the importance of having an international student representative in IIUMSU and voting in the next election, Rachel Noorajavi, who is the President of the Indonesian Student Association (PPI-IIUM), said that at the international university, there are still gaps between local and international students relating to culture and other things.
Unfortunately, they might have the chance to voice that out before, however, they did not and things are left unsettled.
However, now having IIUMSU had open the door for students to voice out what is happening around them. Having a representative for international students allows the students to voice out all the things directly to the office.
Having all the international students to vote in the election will help the students to fix all the problems as voting allows them to choose a qualified candidate who will bring all their worries and issues to the higher-ups.
Rachel mentioned that eventually, no one knows what is happening in our surrounding. It is up to us whether we want to make a change through voting.
The Deputy Dean for Student Development and Community Engagement KIRKHS, Dr. Mohd Noh, supported campus democracy very much as he believes that having democracy shows the office manifestation in providing autonomy to students’ organisations.
It helps the management put together views of both management and students as it is essential to do things together involving all three critical stakeholders in the university: the staff, lecturers and students, to make things work.
Dr. Mohd Noh was also involved in the Student Union during his university years and for him, there is no better option except for democracy to ensure the one elected is responsible for their decisions and promises, where at the end of their tenure, their manifestations will be questioned if it is not done as promised.
That is why students have to include their votes in the upcoming election as they elect their next representatives. However, to vote, students need to register themselves as a member of IIUMSU to ensure that they did not miss any update as the IIUMSU believes students are living in different backgrounds and conditions, and hoping that they can reach students through students’ group.
To make a step as a voter, Muzammil mentioned that it is a need for the IIUM students to register themselves as one of the IIUMSU members to be updated from time to time. The students can register themselves by filling in this form bit.ly/JoinIIUMStudentUnion. At the same time, he continuous that to nominate an IIUMSU president, you need to see the candidates in three ways;
1. How in touch are they with issues on the ground
Are they in contact with both local international students?
Are they in touched with students in all kulliyyah?
Are they in touch with all kulliyyah managements?
2. How well they conceive plans on how to move forward with advancing the university.
3. History of implementing their manifestations
This forum was conducted live on IRKHS’ Students Society IIUM Facebook from 9 p.m to 11 p.m on Friday (19 March) and had attracted more than 400 participants. ***