By Annisa Mirandasari
GOMBAK, 6 April 2021: Candidates from IRKHS for the IIUM Student Union (IIUMSU) Election, Hafizah Miszairi (IRK) and Izzati Zakariah (HS) revealed their manifestos during a manifesto forum held on Monday (5 April) organised by the Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences Students’ Society (IRKHSSS).
Both candidates, however, have won the seats unopposed when the results of the student union election were announced on Sunday afternoon. Nonetheless, the platform that has been organised by IRKHSSS gave them the opportunity to explain what they wanted to bring to benefit the students they represent.
“The role of student is not to just study, but also learn to engage with the community,” said Izzati Zakariah, a candidate representing HS.
Her manifesto started with the first project named “Balik Kampung Project” (translated to English means “Going back to hometown project”), a crowdfunding project to help the underprivileged students financially, in regards to their travel fees upon going back to their home origin.
She mentioned that the funds can come from anywhere, be it students, lecturers, or corporate companies outside IIUM.
“Unlike the previous Students’ Representative Council (SRC), the IIUMSU has its own bank account number. Because of this, there will be no issue of transparency, and the external parties will not doubt it,” Izzati explained.
Asked how it can benefit the international students, she explained the main goal of this crowdfunding project is to help students on the journey from IIUM to the airport.
Her other manifesto was to establish a website for students to market their preloved original books to other students.
“The main point to be highlighted is that students will get access to original materials with cheaper price,” she said.
The other point she highlighted was that this programme aimed to encourage students to use the original materials or textbooks instead of a photocopy.
It is then followed by the candidate from IRK, Hafizah Miszairi, revealing that her manifesto revolved around the terms of marketability and women empowerment.
She initiated a project called “Islamic Content Creator Project” aimed to turn students into Islamic content creators, through a series of workshop on creating posters and editing videos to equip students with those skills.
“We will start on IRK students first, and will continue with other students from other kulliyyahs,” she further said.
Hafizah mentioned the aim of this project is also to improve students’ industrial marketability and to contribute back to society.
The project will be done starting with holding the workshop, then create a group for those who joined, thus this group will further be used to support each other to post contents consistently on their social media, she explained.
The other manifesto she mentioned was to establish a platform to empower female students among IIUM students as a support system to help build their confidence, by holding writing and public speaking workshops.
Furthermore, she mentioned the creation of Telegram channel to express ideas among the female students.
She added that this process will be supported by collaborating with other societies that focused on women empowerment in establishing “IIUM Sister Day” series of various small projects to uplift this movement.
IRKHSSS’ Candidate Manifesto Forum was conducted online through the IRKHSSS Facebook Page, hosted by the President of IRKHSSS 20/21, Anas Hayyan, and co-hosted by former Head of Education Bureau, ISRAK 18/19, Ameer Faiqal. It attracted more than 80 people. ***