Jelajah Janji Ditepati: A Side Way Look.

...well to be precised, an About-850m-off-from-Ground-Zero-Way Look (from the comfort of my cloister). For the past one week, Universiti Sains Malaysia has been operating in a state of suspended judgment and blissful ignorance about one particular event that has taken place in our otherwise uneventful campus. What better way to begin the fleshing out of details than rewinding the clock back to the previous weekend when the event begin to slowly bubble up...

As mysterious structures of gargantuan scale began to rise and taking shape in humdrum over the marching ground, piqued interest turned into torrents of speculations across campus. What are these structures for? Plain commentary: It has to be one of the largest unsupported temporary tent structure that I have ever seen. In terms of gross space, I think it's actually larger than DUP/Exam Hall Buildings.

As the event slowly unfurl, USM netizens has taken to cyberspace with those selected actors postulating various conjectures in various USM Facebook groups (especially the official Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar Universiti Sains Malaysia group) but with most of the clues seems to pointing towards ONE usual suspect. The official position of USM Student Representative Council on that particular juncture (as stated by the President of SRC himself, Ammar on their official Facebook group.) is that "they were not informed about the purpose of the event and they will be seeking clarification from the official or waiting for briefing." So far, so mysterious.

Comes mid-week however and the truth about the scheduled event has finally came to light. It is indeed the usual suspect: Jelajah Janji Ditepati roadshow organised by ICU, PM Department which has been touted as "a different approach by Federal Government of Malaysia to reach out to the grass root and delivering information about various government policies, measures and actions that will improve the life of ordinary Malaysians." On the other hand, Jelajah Janji Ditepati has also been alleged by detractors as wasteful extended PR campaign by the (currently Barisan Nasional held) Federal Government ahead of the coming 13th General Election. (To be frank though, I do think the Ubah Dream Machine is actually a much more blatant PR *in both sense understood within advertising and Malaysian politics* campaign but that's other story.)

As soon as the cat's out of the bag, the netizens (but especially those selected...active individuals...and occasionally me.) has took the Student Representatives to task about a couple of contentious issues that may occur (and DID in other occasions) in the course of the roadshow. The politically inclined (or in the very least, anti-establishment inclined) has (justifiably and rightfully) alleged this roadshow is essentially a political campaign vehicle by Federal Government and holding it within a public university's ground may actually violate provisions within AUKU/UUCA especially when federal government leaders or PM himself deliver speeches that contains blatant reference or denigration to the federal opposition, teetering towards political campaign speech and thus putting university and its students in a difficult position. The ever panicking, fun-hating, self-appointed arbiter of moral and vice (OK, it's those orthodox conservative in PMIUSM who would prefer to rewind progress of humankind as a whole by a millennium.) has claimed that the music concert performed by celebrities is hedonistic and will ultimately leads to loose moral (in their usual parlance, "melalaikan" and downfall of civilization. Me? Along with a few others, I am poking fun on how the organizer failed to recognize the difference between kawat and kawad (just see it for yourself.) despite being a government-sanctioned event done in mostly Bahasa Malaysia, the official and national language. As for constantly pestered Student Representative Council themselves, they're all on defensive mode dodging bullets with their recurring and painfully predictable justifications for the events while answering questions from pressing netizens centered around "it's an official federal government event and as a public university, we should give our cooperation to the organizer" or "ambil yang jernih, buang yang keruh" or "it's your own freedom whether you want to come or not." or "it's rare to have Prime Minister visiting our campus hence we should welcome him with our open hand."

Comes Friday on the eve of the actual event with preparation work has gone into full-swing with trucks coming into campus clogging up the already congested space around Padang Kawad. Without any physical announcement (apart from the hastily written notices pasted around various USM Facebook communities' groups hence essentially operating mostly on word of mouth and observation), the campus commuter bus service has been altered to avoid the congested Padang Kawad by not going to pass through the end terminal at the pedestrian bridge on the far corner of Padang Kawad that serves students staying in RST. Besides that, the limited commuter bus service on Saturday will be cancelled for the event as all the buses will be moved to the parking lot at PHSII to provide extra parkings for incoming public. What happens subsequently is confusion and travel mayhem. Now if there's anything with unquestionable veracity that has emerge of this event is how woefully unprepared and uninformed USM is for this frankly last minute event of such large scale and how the organizer (ICU, PM Department) has failed to work in tandem with USM by not providing any contingency plan that minimizes the effect of the event towards the daily running of this campus and acting mostly on their own aside from appropriating campus property for own usage. Of course, the debates remains quite heated over Facebook groups with MPP and selected vocal netizens trading barbs with each other even until wee hour of the night.

Saturday. The campus road is buzzing with buses ferrying people across the northern region to come for the event, cars honking indiscriminately and occasional sirens and motorcades zipping through delivering VIPs including Prime Minister himself. As I venture out of my room, going about the close proximity of my hostel, the campus is litteredstrewnsoiled adorned with buntings and banners of different flavours that has been spruced up overnight.

Official Jelajah Janji Ditepati buntings by the organizer proclaiming various schemes and initiatives by the government  that has improved life of ordinary Malaysians.

Welcoming banners ostensibly by students of USM (with legitimacy through the official USM coat of arm attached to it) along with the moniker of Anak Muda Sayang Malaysia. A few questions that surfaced almost immediately: are these banners actually officially sanctioned by USM? I am certain that it's freshly made, so professionally well-made that it doesn't have the usual inexperienced, wonky, rustic design sense common among student-designed banners and Anak Muda Sayang Malaysia is certainly not one of the usual names of student bodies in USM that always sucks up to the establishment (like MPP for example.) If it's true that Anak Muda Sayang Malaysia is not one of us, I am pretty sure the usage of USM's official coat of arm must have violated some copyright rule which would definitely render these banners illegal. Then again, rules can always be bended and "tak apa" attitude as usual prevails.

On the subject of banners with questionable legality, the one prepared by UMNO Penang State Liaison Committee is definitely a cunning example on how to exploits legal loopholes (open display of political party logos is still a big no-no according to UUCA/AUKU): the banner was hanged on the outside facing wall of USM over Sungai Dua Gate hence LEGALLY not within the campus compound where UUCA/AUKU is enforced. As for the second banners by PIDO (Penang Indian Development Organization) which was set up adjacent to Padang Kawad hence within campus compound, it definitely breaks the university rule of outsiders putting up banners in campus. Then again, a smiling portrait of our PM means that banner is probably immune from university rules. 

As for the event itself, I didn't went there during daytime when it's in full swing simply because it's Saturday, the weather's ridiculously hot for the past two days (despite frequent rain at the end of the year), bus service has been cancelled and I am just too lazy to walk that 850m. Only when the night falls and it's cooler that I made my trip over there after my onlining and pasar malam dinner session but almost every booths has closed and packing up at that point and the concert performed by Malaysian celebrities that I have no idea about (probably product of those reality shows) to massive tent which is only half filled.

Malaysians being Malaysians, any place that played host to events with large crowd will be immediately befouled by third world mentality Malaysian with their indiscriminate littering. And how indiscriminate indeed, leaving paper bags of fine quality filled with plastic bottles and empty food containers on the ground, on the field, on a fire hydrant, any place in which the orange shirted plague of bused in public went and camped. Looks like a daunting task for whoever task of cleaning up this mess.

Talking about rubbish, New Straits Times Press which is one of the participating company in this roadshow has dumped piles of newspaper originally intended for public distribution over my hostel, calling it a freebies to give away for the tenant. Initially I thought it was alright if it is New Straits Times because it has been a while I've been reading newspapers. Upon closer inspection however...

It's actually Berita Harian. While I certainly have no problem reading news in BM, those NST Press obviously didn't know that my block is postgraduate block in which at least half of the tenants here are international students with no knowledge of BM thus rendering the intended freebies pointless. At one point, I do wonder whether other block around Bakti Permai actually receive New Straits Times and perhaps can exchange a pile or two. Oddly enough though, the pile of BH was cleared by today (Sunday), most likely ending up as being recycled or re-purposed. As for me, my reading mood was certainly turned off by the frankly BULLSHIT front page story of idiotic public being amazed by pile of UNPROCESSED rare earth (which is indeed inert and harmless) that has reached our shore for LYNAS Processing Plant. As much as I occasionally hate the incoherence and hysteric of LYNAS opponents (ok specifically idiotic Facebookers with their relentless and error prone sharing), I do hope these punters who appeared in this BS story will take a cup full of residual by-product of rare earth processing enriched with yummy Uranium and Thorium and bottoms up. BS aside, apparently LYNAS is still have no idea what to do with the residual by-product except it WILL NOT go back to Australia and it's more convenient to leave it here. The saga continues...

As the day drawn to a close, any mentions of the event (especially those labelled potentially provocative by the admin of Facebook groups) will be summarily purged while calling for a return to normalcy and humdrum of assignments, blissful ignorance and unconditioned LOVE for this university. But hey, at least USM students got to show off all those volunteer work done by USM student as well as securing verbal commitment from PM himself of RM500,000 to Gaza/Palenstine Education Fund. Let's show the best of our university and stop harping on those petty issues (despite evidences) because the event's already over. The end.

Epilogue: Blogging quota fulfilled but suspended progress in actual writing while currently increasing unsolvent  financial state necessitate austerity measure...am I going to give the Sushi buffet a miss then?