By Ariani Mohd Nor
GOMBAK, 9 December 2021: With the Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences Students Society (IRKHSSS) elections commencing its polling day on 9 December, four aspiring students fought to defend and uphold their Presidential manifestos last night (8 December).
The event, hosted by IIUMtv “ Political Insights Iylia Marsya Iskandar – was aimed to familiarise AHAS KIRKHS students with their future leaders and understand their manifestos for their presidential tenure ahead of the polling day.
Three candidates will be fighting for the Presidential seat. Among them were two Psychology students, Faris Jafri (Candidate 02) and Musab Hermee (Candidate 03), and one Arabic Language and Literature student, Amiratul Huda (Candidate 01).
Below are the key takeaways from their manifesto debate:
Graduate employability
All three candidates advocated for graduate employability in their manifestos. With plans of career employability workshops, the desire to enhance employability within students and mentorship programmes, all three candidates were at an agreement that job opportunities come scarce when it comes to fresh graduates.
Candidate 01, Amiratul Huda, even added that the Counselling and Career Services Centre (CCSC) IIUM have stated that AHAS KIRKHS students had difficulty finding jobs after graduation.
œA conversation with CCSC have led to a conclusion that graduated students from AHAS KIRKHS are not employable and do not have a stable job, Amiratul Huda added.
She then suggested workshops such as resume building and mentorship programmes be held in the Kulliyyah.
This is also agreed by Candidate 02, Faris Jafri, who talked about job security in order for graduates to sustain themselves in the future.
With his prior position in IRKHSSS, a framework has already been in the works to ensure graduate employability where one of the matters discussed were skill enhancement programmes.
He also added that a collaboration with CCSC and an expansion of the existing framework is very much needed to achieve this goal.
Lastly, Candidate 03, Musab Hermee agreed with the matters mentioned by his fellow competitors “ with an addition that he also believes that the involvement of all secretariats to equip students with employability skills and industry readiness could help them in the future.
Welfare
Welfare was also a common denominator that was advocated by all three candidates. Similarly, they also believed that financial aids should be given priority in order to help and cater to B40 students.
Amiratul Huda suggested that as welfare is needed, a ˜jualan amal or charity sale can be held, and profits will go to those who needed. She claims that with the novelty of this system and idea, students would be able not only to inculcate empathy to help one another but also gain entrepreneurship that can be helpful in their future.
Faris Jafri had a different idea, however, and that is through department secretariats in AHAS IRKHS by integrating ideas in order to aid those in need, as well as a monthly meeting with welfare offices to discuss and further avoid redundancy and create centralised platform.
Faris also added that as KIRKHS is the first IIUM Kulliyyah based society that has acquired a website domain under IIUM, he supported the notion of utilising the website to gain exposure and communicating with students in terms of their welfare and needs.
On the other hand, Musab Hermees welfare manifesto appears to be more holistic, by integrating the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of the students. Then, financial aids will be compiled to cater to each sector, and also by increasing the advocacy of mental health.
Gombak Sejahtera Committee
The Gombak Sejahtera also known as G-Set was mentioned by two candidates, Amiratul Huda and Musab Hermee.
Amiratul Huda included G-Set in her second manifesto that mentioned volunteerism and the importance of community engagement, encompassing the fact that AHAS KIRKHS has signed a MoU with 11 villages from the Gombak community.
Similarly, Musab Hermee has a plan to empower the Greater Gombak community by improving social wellbeing under his welfare manifesto through bonding activities.
Other manifestos that were mentioned by the candidates were the importance of academic excellence by Musab Hermee and embracing diversity by Faris Jafri.
The debate was attended by 480 viewers on YouTube and 212 viewers on Twitter Live as per IIUMtv’s final count.
For voters, the polling time today will begin from 9a.m to 5p.m. Similar to the previous election, voting will be conducted online.
Updates regarding the polling day will be posted from time to time through IRKHSSS and IIUMToday social media accounts below: