Series of New Things.

Prologue: Phew, with the dust settled for the election, I can move on and concentrate on things which I should be concern about right now…assignments and FYP for example!

First and foremost, a few random updates about me:

I went for my first and most probably the only and the last dental check up through my 3 years in USM. Despite the fact that dental service is provided free for campus community (students and staff alike) but I only did when I am already in my FINAL SEMESTER in my FINAL YEAR of university. But as usual for free service there’s always a little catch which you need to sign up for a timeslot at least a week earlier to secure one. Anyway, I went for dental check up as well as a very well needed cleaning/scaling for my battered set of teeth. My first experience of scaling: kinda scary with the high-pressure water jet chipping away all the plaque buildup and you don’t want that to hit any meaty part of your teeth. It is still going to make you bleed when the high-pressure water jet hit the root of your teeth to clean up the plaque but you don’t really realized it much because they use small vacuum pump to suck all the residue away but when you flush your mouth each session it is still going to be pretty gory. And with two tools in your mouth at the same time, it is bound to be tiring to your jaw muscle. But results of scaling was quite amazing: my teeth is so much cleaner plaque-less and it feels like it going to sparkle! *ding* The doctor reminded though that I must brush at least two times a day especially the one before sleep…which I fail to do despite knowing about it LOL. Anyway, kinda ruined my set of clean new teeth when the breakfast I ate (I went there before I had my breakfast. I know, kinda of bad choice) are Nasi lemak with Teh Panas. Looks like clean teeth won’t last long! And please, ignore my ever growing nostril hair in my photo up there and pay attention to my sparkly new teeth!

I got myself a new student smartcard as well! My trusty old student card was pretty battered after being with me for the past 3 years in this university including going into the river with me when I brought it along during PPMS camp in my 2nd year and getting my face wiped off from the card due to condensation in the plastic tag for my student card. It hang on very well…until my final semester of my final year, when I went for my dental appointment timeslot booking and they can’t scan my card. When to library to use their self-service machine: FAIL. And at that moment, my old student card had finally gone to a better place. *sniffle* Anyway, I think it is better for me to replace it with another card even though I need to pay RM60 for replacement fee than staying till graduation. I don’t encounter situation in which I want to borrow book/going through the security gate/etc etc without a functioning student card. So let me introduced to you, my student card Mark II! Comes with new APEX uni design. Hmm, the orange colour does look better. It only took around 15 minute for them to come up with a new replacement card but there is one snag that kinda boggles me: the service is only provided on Monday and Friday. Hmm, don’t want to keep the card stamping machine running huh? lol It’s a colection of its own now with cards the bear different design!

Last but not least, the last of election coverage.

Yesterday (Thursday 29/1/2010) was the voting day for campus election. For those who are staying in hostel will vote in their respective hostel while those staying out-campus will have to vote at the Konkos/Concourse at Dewan Budaya. As I mentioned the previous post, each students will have at most two votes, one for the general constituencies (choose 6 out of 11 candidates nominated this time) and another one for respective schools (but there are only 4 schools that had competition which is Communication, Education, Biology and Industrial Technology). The voting time started at 8:30 and ended by 5:00pm and the vote counting starts at 8:00pm, taking place in DUP. Those who were involved in the vote counting besides the usual Student Affair Department Staff are lecturers and deans from each school to ensure some sense of just and trustworthy in the democratic process. I was there for more than 6 hours just to capture some pictures for my blogging material as well as anticipating for the result for general constituencies, with Vincent contesting for it. Here’s some pictorial summary:

Dewan Utama Pelajar (DUP) was jam-packed with vehicles parking outside, mostly belonged to the staff involved in the vote-counting process as well as all the supporters for respective candidate.

Vote counting very well in process with observers from respective candidate observing, hoping to grasp a better image about how much vote did their candidate get.

Ballot box, sealed on top and transparent to ensure some sense transparency of democracy.

That’s Prof Omar, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Affair at the podium, observing the school candidates to verify their result. And that’s already 11pm. Now’s there is only the general constituencies left…

11:15pm Almost all the boxes were already emptied and counted with a few most boxes counting.

…and the anticipation went on well until 1:20am already. Why is it taking so long!

The one table that had to be recounted so many times because the number didn’t tally. No wonder all the observers give a round of applause when the FINALLY counted everything. We are inching closer in obtaining full results!

  All the supporters as well as the media are already feeling edgy waiting for the full result to come out.

The counting officially ended around 2:00am and it’s the general constituencies candidate to verify the result.

And with that, Prof Omar finally revealed the result around 2:15pm. He start off by going through all the schools’ candidates that won without contest.

I am not much concern about the candidates that won without contest. Life must have been very easy for them. This is my school’s Student Representative for 2010/2011. I know of them are in Persatuan Pelajar Ilmu Kemanusiaan as AJK. Hmph, looks like he have to let go his duty then since he got a better but somewhat more tedious position to be as a MPP member. Ok, now let’s move on to those schools that have competitions.

First up are the School of Education. School of Education were allocated 3 seats in MPP and there are four candidate competing for it. And the results are as shown here. The top three candidates are all Aspirasi member, signaling for the first time that School of Education, the once stronghold of Pro-M has fallen completely into the hand of the Pro-Aspirasi.

School of Biology. Again, the winner is a Pro-Aspirasi Candidate.

School of Technology Industry. WTF that tiny midget of a name-repeater won. Those Aspirasi yellow monkeys must have jizzed in their pant when the result is out.

School of Communication. Now here’s a surprise. Teng Teng Teng my foot, the Pro-Aspirasi candidate lost by quite a margin with one digit difference. The checkered suit won 158 vs Teng Teng Teng 78. Hmm, what an interesting turn out it is… but some resources smell some conspiracy with him as he is…a tad bit too close with those Aspirasi head-honcho like boy-toy Azhar and Rama-Drama.

And finally, the moment that all of us in the hall are waiting for: the results for general constituencies. One by one, number pop up beside the candidates portrait lifting the anticipation higher than ever. Vincent, is the last one to be revealed in that list. *drum-rolling…*

..and crap my camera didn’t take good picture and I can’t see well from where I stand.

And when the full list is out only then I know what happened. Vincent is out of the top 6. Oh, Vincent… while the victors remained in hall immersed in congratulations and cheers (of Aspirasi-tard, in which Prof Omar remarked: “If you guys want to cheer, there’s the door right there.” Nice one, Prof.), those who lost went packing silently, heading back to respective room to get some rest after a grueling week of campaigning and such. The journey to be a MPP for Vincent has ended that night.

To end this election snippet report, here’s the full list of the upcoming Student Representative Council members for main campus (source: USM website)

KONSTITUENSI UMUM
Mohamad Nur Hazim Mazlan
Ahmad Wafi b. Sahedan
Aishah Mohd Marsin
Abel Benjamin Lim
Bazilah Mohamad Zaki
Sivaneswari a/p Muniandy.

KONSTITUENSI PUSAT PENGAJIAN
PP KOMUNIKASI
Mohammad Faiz Omar

PP TEKNOLOGI INDUSTRI
Kelvin Ying@Tang Shee Wei

PP SAINS KAJIHAYAT
Nadia Ab Razak

PP ILMU PENDIDIKAN
Muhd Juraidi Mat Yusoff

Siti Raznee Mansor
Nur Ilham Mohd Nor

PP BAHASA, LITERASI & TERJEMAHAN
Veraneeta Jumat

PP SAINS KOMPUTER
Goh Eng Keat (MTB)

PP SAINS MATEMATIK
Lim Shu Yi (MTB)

PP SAINS KIMIA
Muhamad Husni Mohd Rusli (MTB)

PP SAINS FIZIK
Muhamad Hafiz Abu Kasim (MTB)

PP ILMU KEMANUSIAAN
Mohd Anuar Mat Daud (MTB)
Wan Mazita Wan Dir (MTB)

PP PENGURUSAN
Ang Ling Xiang (MTB)
Devendran a/l Rajagopal (MTB)

PP SAINS FARMASI
Farah Hain Misuon (MTB)

PP SAINS KEMASYARAKATAN
Nik Mohamed Hussein Nik Ali (MTB)
Sara Ayuni Hamdan (MTB)

PP SENI
Mohd Farid Wajidi Abdul Latif (MTB)

PP PERUMAHAN, BANGUNAN & PERANCANGAN
Ooi Say Jer (MTB)

Nota: MTB – Menang Tanpa Bertanding

Breakdown according to ideology/student faction: Pro-Mahasiswa 0, Independant Candidate: 2 (Aishah umum and Faiz Comm.), Pro-Aspirasi – Virtually EVERYBODY ELSE WTF. Hence, an extremely loopsided election similar to Singapore with the opposition totally wipe-out from the Minden Campus. Another interesting piece of information to note is that the voting rate for Minden Main Campus is only 65%, even lower than the previous election’s 76%. I think the remarkably low voting rate here can be attributed to 1) The university’s lack of enthusiasm in actually promoting the election including a totally inadequate campaigning time for the campus population to digest and scrutinize the candidates manifesto (and indeed, some of the candidate actually have little manifesto whatsoever apart from “continuing the effort from the previous term of MPP.) and 2) the general apathy of students toward such things. Yeah, since it is already insignificant and we all know that it will be one-sided forever with so many school not contending, there’s no point to fulfill the duty to vote too. And who’s the loser right now? We, the voter. Hence, the basis of the implementation of proper compulsory voting has made its point very clear. Do it like Australia. The university should do their part in making the election looks very important while us, as a student should at the same time heed the call and fulfill our duty. There are so many other things which I can actually scrutinized especially with those who won without contending (you guys had it so easy. Dick.) but I will keep it in for now. The only thing that I hope right now is that the current lineup of the MPP can actually be serious in outlining and detailing the already approved Student Parliament proposal which should reflect intelligence and spirit of democracy as well as involvement from all campus communitu or otherwise I will keep on screw them in my blog even when I am in Post-Graduate. Hmph, be prepared, fellow YBs.

Prologue: Phew, again long post is long. And now it feels like my asthma is back due to all the standing in the middle of chilly after rain air listening to the election rally and waiting in the ever chilly DUP hall for more than 6 hours. *wheezing* Need to really take care of my health now!