Temptations & Ambitions

As the university election is around the corner, university representatives are vying for the votes by making all sorts of amusements for the public. Been experiencing some election atmosphere for the past two years, here are some general thumb rules that should be heeded by some university representatives.

1. Never barge in during the middle of the lectures. I know politicians can be quite some monkeys at times, but it is always rude to interrupt lectures, being disrespectful and foregoing the 20 over years of manners your parents have instilled in you.

2. While giving your campaign speech, be specific on your approach. Many times the candidates emphasized on "Menjaga kepentingan para pelajar" or "Merapatkan hubungan antara pelajar" or sometimes to the absurd of "Menjaga keamanan dunia" (For world peace). You are just a university candidate and not US fancying of being the world police, so be straight to your point, such as the facilities or university issues. Never ever involve national politics in this small scale belittled event. And please, no weird inaudible Malay accent, just be yourself. You sound like an idiot when you try making up those accent.

3. Never try to intimidate the students to vote for you. Every year, there will be gatherings, such as a Chinese rep calling together all the Chinese students and threatening them of the consequences of voting for the opposition party. There, they go all out on personal attacks and intimidating the students with all sorts of stuff. Never did they know that the quite a number of students hated this and voted for the opposite all because of this action. And there is one here telling of the past experience, and the credentials of the reps have gone down the drain.

4. Take care of your karma, even before you had wanted to be involved in an election. Your actions are judged from the day they knew you till the day of election itself. You can be as nice as a Godfather on election day but your days as a jerk is still fresh in the minds of your fellow friends. Good deeds and virtue are essential here. (And that is the reason why I am not even thinking of being a rep. :P)

5. Be courteous in your campaigning efforts. Visit your friends and don't take them for granted to vote for you. Meet each and every one of residents in the hostel or faculty mates. Give a wide confident smile and leave a courteous message if they aren't there. Here's a example of a poor effort done:
Coming back from home, these pile of papers seems more like meant to be decoration for the soe rack or what they call "alas kasut". It gives off the suggestion that we are supposed to follow the Chinese tradition of using a shoe and whack at the person in the picture to ward off the jinx. Imagine the jinx the person in the photo have to suffer, which may amount till the day he dies.

6. No bribery unless its lucrative. A token of appreciation does not come with chocolate wafer or any candy. Having it stuck on your manifesto paper can turn it into a evidence of bribery. But luckily, it must have been too cheap to consider it as bribery, so this may escape unnoticed.


7. Design a proper manifesto flyers. I know that university has its protocole, but do understand that all such flyers looked like orbituary. There was even a Calon number 10 stuck up covering the address of my hostel unit, making it looked like a tombstone for memorial. Of course, I took it off and it went straight into the bin.

8. Be specific on the constitution spot you are contesting for. Are you going for the faculty level or the varrsity level? In the flyer above, there seems to lack the specificity, and replaced by the candidates results. No one really cares of your results anyway. However, I think it is a good idea if we implement this at national level. I'm sure most of our politicians would be redfaced by then. :P

However, I'm sure academic results does not reflect a candidate's performance, so there's no point having a top student up there as an elect.

9. Never leave your current duty just because you are vying for a higher level. This reflects your personality and your ability to juggle between responsibility. If you'd manage to manage it well, it will go down well in your credentials.

I'm sure there's more of it, but I'll leave it to this for tonight. Any future candidates may heed my advice and propel towards their dreams. All the best!