As I was doing some research on the internet (for my
dissertation of course), I came across an article in the Sun. It was a very
interesting reading and when I scrolled down, I found out that the writer is
actually my deputy dean, Assc. Prof. Dr. Azmi (or Encik Azmi whe called him)
who’s also an environmental law lecturer. He’s a very nice man with a laidback character,
and all students love him. Most students always aim to be in his class,
including me. In his class, everyone can speak their mind unlike in most classes. Dr. Azmi is a bit of a rebel (he has a beautiful, shiny LONG hair in
resemblance of the hair in Pantene advertisements) and can be a bit sarcastic
at times, but who can blame him – just look at our society, and university. His
article (http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=11948)
criticizes UM’s err, poor management and the over-boasting of being in the 89^th
place in the last year without analyzing the ways to improve our ranking in the
THES ratings. As we all know, UM dropped to no. 169 this year. It wouldn’t be so
bad if UM didn’t sing its own praises by putting flyers at every lamppost available
and put up big billboards around the campus to make sure that everyone notices
this achievement. Looks like UM has to pay the price for dropping from its previous
spot now.

Dr. Azmi offered several useful tips and suggestions on how
to improve UM as a good university. However, the most interesting and true
remark that he made is this:

The hard fact of the matter is that,
by and large, our graduates do not have the sort of qualities that would make
overseas employers want them, nor do our graduates have the qualities to go out
beyond the coconut shell to offer their services to the world.
This is because Malaysian public universities treat
students like children.

Oh how true!!! Sebenarnya, bukan universit di Malaysia sahaja yang treat students macam budak-budak, tapi rakyat Malaysia secara keseluruhannya. I still remember when I was residing the newly finished 12^th
College. Pada satu malam, ada 2 lelaki ketuk pintu bilik. Bayangkan, I wasn’t
ready and pakaian pun tidak berapa sopan. Bila aku tanya diorang tu sapa dengan
suara yang sungguh lemah lembut, lelaki yang muda sikit tu tengking aku!! Dia
kata “awak tak kenal sapa dia?!!! (sambil pointing his stupid finger to the
older man)” Lepas tu dia membebel2 siap celik bijik mata macam nak tercabut
keluar dari soket mata dia. Rupa2nya lelaki tua tu PEMANGKU pengetua kolej.
Lepas tu siap ugut2 nak keluarkan aku and my roommate from that college,
macamlah kolej tu dia yang punya. The younger one was one of the penyelia. Berlagak
nak mampus. The best part is bila kitorang masuk kolej yang baru siap tu, diorang
dah siap ada ‘angkatan’ students yang jadi tukang ampu/bodek penyelia and
berazam nak pegang semua jawatan di kolej untuk control hidup semua orang lain.
Bila aku tanya apasal takde tukang cuci toilet kat kolej, diorang kata kena
pandai2 la bersihkan bilik air pastu siap buat duty roaster paksa students cuci
bilik air, sedangkan every college patut ada pekerja yang buat semua tuh. Bayangkan,
itu baru politik kat kolej.

 
I lived outside UM before – at the stupid, overpriced Pandu Puteri building
outside gate UM yang menghala ke KL/Bangsar. Makhluk-makhluk yang kerja kat situ laaagggi
bangang. Mentang-mentanglah most of the tenants there are students,
makhluk-makhluk tu buat undang-undang sesuka hati, kemudian dia sendiri yang
langgar sesuka hati, lepas tu kick out orang sesuka hati. Nama aje Pandu
Puteri, tapi diorang hidup macam orang takde panduan langsung. Samalah tu dari
ketua diorang sampailah ke pembantu ofis, perangai orang biadab yang suka
salahkan students just because we were students. Pastu mulalah pakai formula
kononnya ORANG TUA SENTIASA BETUL, ORANG MUDA/STUDENTS SENTIASA SALAH. Pada
aku, kalau dah tua kerepot ala ‘rumah kata pergi kubur kata mari’ tapi perangai
jahat, hati busuk dan suka memfitnah orang, takde maknanya berapa banyak birthday
yang dia celebrate. Tak bermakna kalau kita muda, maka apa yang kita cakap atau
buat tu semuanya salah belaka. Orang-orang kat situ memang aku tak akan maaf
sampai mati atas apa yang diorang telah buat. Aku berdoa biar Allah sahaja yang
balas perbuatan mereka, dengan hukuman di akhirat kelak. Orang-orang lain aku boleh
maafkan, tapi mereka kat situ terlalu buruk perangai mereka. Cikgu kat MRSM aku
cakap (cikgu Disdi to those who know her), staf Pandu Puteri kat situ memang selalu cari hal sejak cikgu aku
belajar di UM zaman 70-an lagi, can you imagine that??? That place is cursed
with bad people. Cursed…

It is so true that we students were treated like a bunch of
small kids. At UM, we were constantly ‘blackmailed’ by UM. Cannot do this….cannot
do that…sign surat akujanji…kena
undi parti ni masa pilihanraya…bla..blaa..bla..and the consequence kalau
langgar is of course kena kick from the university. Memang susah nak berkembang
kalau belajar di local university. Sebab tu, most students tak heran dengan
pilihanraya ataupun berebut-rebut nak jadi wakil pelajar, sebab sekarang semua
itu tak ada makna. Kalau ada masuk pun, sebab nak letak benda tu dalam resume’,
and most so-called ‘pemimpin pelajar’ tu tak berkaliber langsung. Bukan kat UM
sahaja, tapi di mana-mana universiti. Sorry if it’s too harsh, but it’s true.
The students’ representative council doesn’t have a real purpose besides
occasionally protest for the delay in releasing the students’ PTPTN money. Even
if a good student with good leadership quality becomes a student rep, there’s almost nothing he or she can do. I’m not being pessimistic, I’m just telling the truth. Our hands are tied and the university is so
determined to sack any individual who disputes their authority, just to serve
as a warning to others.

 
With all these things going on in out society, who can blame
the students for not being able to speak with confidence and voice out their
opinion? Who can blame them for not being able to protest for every single new ridiculous
rule being legislated to control them? Who can blame them for slouching (maklumlah dulu zaman
sekolah bawak beg galas 20 kilo-30 kilo sehari sebab tiap2 hari kena bawak
dictionary 5 kilo dan cikgu tak bagi tinggal buku-buku bawah meja sebab takut
buku kena curi sebab kerajaan tak nak sediakan loker sebab nak jimatkan bajet
kementerian pendidikan nak buat apa ntah apa-apa…)???

It is a wonder why the authority keeps on wondering…