WHEN UiTM diploma graduate Muhammad Hasrul Haris Mohd Radzi took a selfie of himself onstage on graduation day during the ceremony two weeks ago, he set off a social media debate storm on protocol, decorum, university bureaucracy and whether his act had taken the selfie craze too far. In his defence, the graduate said he did not know there was a ban on taking selfies and, being a photography major, it seemed the most natural thing to do. Seen from that perspective, then, the selfie seems less an act of provocation or rebellion than a spontaneous act of joy. Capturing the smiling graduate with the entire hall, red carpet and glare of spotlights in the background, and a bemused Pro-Chancellor Tan Sri Dr Arshad Ayub in the foreground, the picture is, in modern-day parlance, pretty awesome. Pro-selfie opponents to the universitys censorious stance uploaded picture and video selfies of Malaysians graduating overseas and the permissive reaction of university officials there, which goes to show that appropriateness is a cultural thing; which side of the fence one stands on depends on whether one expects graduation ceremonies to always remain solemn affairs that never evolve.
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