By Marissa Nazeera
GOMBAK, 5 April 2021: A debate was held Monday night (5 April) at 9.00 p.m. to showcase the manifesto of the candidates and their credibility for standing in the IIUM Student Union Election for the Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED) seat.
KAED is among the three constituencies that will see a fight among candidates for their seats as other Kulliyyah seats have already been declared as winning uncontested. The other two seats contesting will be the Kulliyyah of Pharmacy and the Kulliyyah of Science.
The seat for KAED constituency is being contested between Zaim Mustaqim and Sauban Ismail and the debate is held to prove their credibility and seriousness to represent the voice of every IIUM student. The polling day has been set on Saturday (10 April).
Zaim Mustaqim, who is the Vice-President I of Wawasan Club IIUM, is active in charity work called ˜Dapur Jalanan for the urban poor or the homeless, or even keeping himself up-to-date with current news going on in Malaysia such as the issue of #Undi18.
On the other hand, despite being a newcomer, Sauban Ismail is determined to compete in the election as he believes everyone deserves an equal opportunity to be chosen to represent the constituency.
A Natural Born-Problem Solver
Zaim Mustaqim had had an experience in real problem-solving situation of Metro Prima Programme. Through the said programme, he had succeeded in solving many problems and proved his ability to come up with solutions.
He wanted to ensure an equal access to all facilities in the Kuliyyah such as studio, GIS lab, and many more for all students in KAED. He was confident that students would agree with the first manifesto as he presents the only solution for the problem faced by all students in the kuliyyah. The manifesto that he presents is totally representing the voice of other KAED students in IIUM too, according to Zaim.
Zaim said he had contacted the General Manager of the Printing Service Centre beforehand to negotiate for a printing discount for all KAED students. It is because, he said, he understood that not all students can afford to pay the huge amount of money just to print assignments. “Hence, this is a great initiative to overcome the expensive printing service charges faced by almost all students.”
Last but not least, Zaim highlighted, a 24/7 food tube availability will be provided for the KAED students as not everyone manages to eat before studio hour ends. Zaim had raised the fact that the only vending machine in their kuliyyah now cannot be used and broken too.
He reaffirmed how he is a true problem-solver and everyone in the kuliyyah can rely on him if he were given the opportunity to become their representative. Therefore, he reaffirms how he should be holding the KAED seat.
The New Unpolished Gem
Sauban Ismail is bringing a different role as he focuses on both IIUM students in general and also KAED students. His fight will be done for all students regardless of their kuliyyah because there is already a kuliyyah-based society.
However, Sauban genuinely wishes to review and reduce the credit hour workload for all KAED Kuliyyah students for university-required courses. He believes that the 0.5 credit hour for university-required courses has an inequivalent workload and contact hour. Thus, a review is needed to solve the said issue.
Sauban wishes to rejuvenate the social media platform used by IIUMSU if he were given the post to handle Public Relations and Media. Not only that, he will also create a new platform called IIUM podcast to be used as a channel for other students to voice out their feedback, problems, reports and etc. The recording will be reviewed first before uploading it on IIUM podcast for the campus community.
An IIUM new studio services with essential equipment which will then be rented to students at reasonable price is also one of his many manifestos. Also, he wants to provide rental premium online platform such as Zoom premium or even Stream Yard premium for anyone who wishes to use it. He believes that this proposal will and can be used as a great help to generate income for IIUMSU too.
Sauban also senses miscommunication among IIUM students on social media platforms due to communication barrier and disruption in information-delivering process.
It leads him to aspire for an exclusive platform for students with a paid-membership. A newsletter system will also be used to convey any official announcement straight to the students inbox to avoid a prolonged confusion.
The IIUM Student Union Election for KAED constituency will be taking place this Saturday (10 April) through an e-voting system called iTasweet.***