There has been a lot of criticism of KPUM as a representative body, and I guess for good reason. Most of the law students have not heard of us, and those who have don’t know what we do.
I quote our website: “KPUM is an umbrella body for all Malaysians studying law in the United Kingdom”. This is a strong statement to make. Firstly, like I said, a large proportion of Malaysian law students here don’t even know about us. Secondly, even if they did, there was no expressed consent to be represented by KPUM. Thirdly, because of geographical problems, and the lack of publicity of the AGM’s and other events, even if you did want to be involved, you either can’t or wouldn’t know how to.
The United Kingdom Executive Council (UKEC) faces similar problems. (If you haven’t heard of UKEC, well… I’m not surprised). But in their case, it’s not too bad because students don’t directly become members of UKEC. Instead, the Malaysian Societies of each university become members. So even though there is no direct consent by the students, there is indirect consent through the Malaysian societies, and that, I guess, is better than nothing. Of course the societies should individually vote on whether they want to be represented by UKEC, but that’s the societies problem, not UKEC’s.
So KPUM in on sticky ground. I understand the concern of all the law students. I was once very critical about this fact, and although it would be inappropriate for me to say this as a committee member, I still am. But in our defence, we have tried building a name and contact list of all the law students, but there has been little cooperation. They either couldn’t be bothered, or are sceptical about us. The committee of 2006/07 inherited a society with no money and no members and a bad reputation.
We have tried addressing these problems, but its easier said than done. We obviously can’t charge members fees. We no longer receive funding from the Malaysian Student Department. And as for sponsors, most are not willing for some reason or other. As for our reputation, we are seen to be lacking independence. This, i regret to say, is true to an extent. I assure you, the committee has no allegiance to the government, but matters are not as simple as that. We tried organising talks by controversial figures, but that was shot down. We could have gone ahead with it, but it would mean either losing our privileges in the Malaysian Hall, or losing our connections with people who can get things done. And even if we didn’t mind giving all that up in the interest of full independence, it would be a decision which will not only effect this committee, but the next. We are stuck. (and it would not only threaten the society, but the committee personally, since many of us are sponsored, if you know what I mean)
We are trying to achieve our objectives through other means. This forum is one way, and even this is on precarious ground. The issues are a little too controversial for the governments liking (as watered down and stale as they may be). My approach to these issues is not that of indifference, but of care, and although it was seem lacking in ‘conviction, zeal and passion’, I feel it’s a compromise I need to make to keep on doing this. It is you, the readers of this forum who are in a better position to say what has to be said. Someone brought up the issue of our logo (refer previous post), but even that was shot down by many for reasons I personally still don’t understand.
What I am trying to say is that we know what the problems are. I feel we are doing what we can, given our situation. Please feel free to criticise our approach. You can call us ineffective or immature or whatever, and we will swallow it and work on it, but just so that you know, it hurts when people say we are bias, because that couldn’t be further away from the truth.
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14 comments:
given all the brouhaha about nothing, perhaps, just perhaps, it's time for kpum to disband.
(if indeed its interests are that closely connected to us, and not the exco itself.)
-basil
Basil,
what you mean brouhaha about nothing? And sorry to say, your sweeping statements are not only annoying, its non-constructive.
I feel you have not contributed to any discussion in any meaningful way, and your points and suggestions are normally a waste of our time.
I would normally say don't take it personally, but from what i gather, everything you do is for and about yourself...
Comment above by Rosy Cheeks
do you feel slighted over what could be the truth?
if indeed you are as powerless as you say, keeping your head high at all times under torrential currents trying to make you sway, and then failing, would it not make any sense for you to stop being so closely tied to the government?
simply putting it, you might as well channel your resources into starting another society free of such inherent allegiances, other than continuing with a club which is near defunct and subservient to the whims and fancies of, oh, i don't know, everybody.
and your feelings, neglect them, since my points are perennially some of the most potent of the bunch.
i would normally say don't take it personally, but from what i gather, you happen to be rather short-sighted.
-basil
basil, you're better off agreeing to disagree.
if the current excos are serious about injecting some life into this forum, i don't see why there is a need to stir a storm over what it has been, hasn't been and will not be.
as far as my opinion goes, there isn't any need for KPUM to explain itself or the actions of its predecessors as long as it proves itself worthy of its claim of being a representative body in the future. that, in itself will be incentive for people to WANT to be part of KPUM ( or set up a group on facebook for publicity and to pimp this forum ). you don't have to be a well-funded, mega organisation to make a point. no point sitting around whining over the lack of this, that.
just get the show running, for crying out loud. more posts please!
rose
ah, rose, but you see, life can only be injected if this were really a forum free of all political slants; as has been established - it isn't, and their activities will be tainted by coerced allegiances.
if both ideas (that this is a free, unbiased club, and that they face a lot of opposition in the form of political censorship) cannot be reconciled, then maybe kpum should be left in the dust, and another club started to finish what these new batch of leaders want to do.
-basil.
Dear Basil,
The problem is not that of historical bias or allegiance. Like Rose said, no one cares about who the committee used to be. The problem is that we can’t do what we want now, because we will be shut down (and I assure you this is a genuine threat). We can disband KPUM and start a new club with a new name, but the problem remains. We can’t invite controversial people for talks, we wouldn’t have a premise to operate and have our meetings because we wouldn’t be able to use MSD, we wouldn’t have access to members because we’ll just be this random student movement. The only reason you people know about this forum is because we somehow got to you, and the reason we could do that is because of our current links. To start with a new association would be to start from scratch, to start with nothing. More than likely, we will achieve nothing. It’s like getting your friends together to try to change the world. Sorry to say, just a waste of time.
At least now with KPUM, there is some credibility, even if not with the students. Law firms, potential speakers etc, still consider us a real organization, the representatives of the law students. At least this gives us some room to do some things, even if limited. Sending a resolution under KPUM, Student Representatives would be more credible than sending a resolution under Basil, Random Student. (we still haven’t done this yet, but hopefully soon) So limited as it is, KPUM helps us reach more people, do more things. The reason the speakers even considered a talk with us is because they know who we are.
The question is given our limited scope, what can we do?
Also you mentioned something about us being subservient to the fancies of the government. Just to clarify, we don’t do what the government wants us to do. We just can’t do what the government doesn’t want us to do. Subtle difference maybe, but I feel an important one.
but if you are only allowed to work within the parameters set by the government, you'll always be bogged down by the weight on your shoulder. in any case, when your boundaries are so confined, you have to admit that not only the credibility, but the reliability of the club as a representative of malaysian students in the uk is diluted.
what this basically means is that you can't have your cake and eat it too; you can always say that you represent us, but if you don't stand up for the things you're studying (regardless of why this is so) you really cannot be said to be doing your job.
i know what you are trying to say, but your assurance is only that you can toe the line, and this, sadly, is one promise which carries no benefit with regards to learning. what will happen is that you will relegate yourself only to the position of a club which can only provide fiduciary benefits to its member, as opposed to intellectual benefits.
this wraps the issue up somewhat, doesn't it - this forum now seems like a bad idea upon hindsight; it's implementation was noteworthy, but that's all that can be said when considering the achievements of this forum.
that is truly a sad thing.
-basil
Hmm... yes indeed, Basil. Time for KPUM to disband. Why? Since they can't prove independence, they can't prove they can affect change, they can't do anything! While we're at it, let's disband Keadilan and DAP. They can't do anything, neither can they prove independence or anything else.
On a more serious note, while there is truth in the fact that there's no way KPUM can do the things that will cut them off from public (read: government) support, unless they strike oil, they CAN do certain things to maintain their credibility. I think the best thing to do now would be to show transparency. Put down who your sponsors are (and I mean personal) so we can tell how restricted you are. Tell us of your other affiliations (Kelab MCA/DAP etc). Put up minutes of your meetings, etc. This sort of thing. Show that you're better than UKEC. We have no idea who those buggers are, to be quite frank. They might all be UMNO members, for all we know. And no, you are not entitled to personal privacy since you are in public office.
But I must say that so far, the moderator has done a good job in being impartial. Clinging on to that scholarship, eh, Rashid?
-Marcus Spartacus
Dear Mr Spartacus,
If you must know, out of the 7 in the executive committee, 3 of us are on scholarship. I’m on JPA and two others on Bank Negara. None of us have any political affiliations. We could publish the minutes of our meetings, but I assure you, you wouldn’t want to waste your time reading it.
The thing is that having a committee consisting of sponsored students is not the problem. For example, for the talk we were planning to organise, I had to personally withdraw from negotiations, but I was not required to resign if the committee wanted to go through with it. KPUM could have still organised the talk without me, except KPUM was not able to due to pressure by other groups.
So there you go. Screwed either way.
perhaps the problem is that apart from you, we have not seen any evidence of the existence of other committee members.
when this forum is your pet project, why are you lacking the support of your other exco members?
we understand that you are fighting for transparency, but at this point you're only fighting for your transparency, and not the club's. we don't even know if anyone else on the board shares your enthusiasm of being ethical.
-basil
perhaps the problem is that apart from you, we have not seen any evidence of the existence of other committee members.
when this forum is your pet project, why are you lacking the support of your other exco members?
we understand that you are fighting for transparency, but at this point you're only fighting for your transparency, and not the club's. we don't even know if anyone else on the board shares your enthusiasm of being ethical.
-basil
Dear Mr KPUM,
Please, call me Marcus. Also, please don't get pissed off. At least what I ask is reasonable, unlike some guy who demands the world, and damns you even when you try to give it.
Now, you can say that it's not a problem or people will never read minutes, but that's not the point. The point is transparency. There will be one idiot who will read the damn thing, maybe a decade from now, and notice that the commitee at his time has agreed for a motion for unlimited Krispy Kreme at meetings. And he will save us all...
Besides, now we now there are 2 bank guys there, in addition to you. Who are they? How will they vote on important matters? The minutes will tell us, and then we can decide whether they were voting impartially (not everyone will be so sporting like you) or not. It's these little things. Of course, if they lie about it, and we find out later, being lawyers, I'm sure we can find some creative way of naming and shaming.
Give it some thought. And don't just put it here. Try the OFFICIAL WEBSITE. I assume that still works. And I agree, you should keep reminding us to never publicize such events, as they clearly contradict the spirit of oppression.
-Marcus Spartacus
Just wanted to put in a word of support: Regardless of what KPUM has been in the past, the fact that you're now trying to bring law students together, and now have this excellent forum for discussion, deserves our kudos, and our support.
Just shout out if you need an extra hand, or have some menial task that needs doing, or an issue that needs discussing - it isn't easy, rebuilding from almost nothing, but at least you're trying - thank you for that.
Whatever I can do to help, I will.
Hang in there, KPUM!
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