Ramah Mesra

An example of how films can be used to serve a purpose

The long weekend was spent at a leadership camp (the biggest gathering of IIUM academic/admin leaders in the history of IIUM yakni seramai 250 orang).A family member said leadership ke hapa benda...mesti kempen pre-election.

True enough..we had people from PM's office, BTN but my uni pun smart juga...(cos' this is the first time org BTN masuk uni selepas berpuluh2 tahun I kerja kat UIA...bukan salah ibu mengandung..sudah tentu ada di kalangan kami yg menjemput mereka dtg - which is not an IIUM tradition, really), management filled up most of the days with strategic plan kita so takda la nmpk sgt mcm pi nak dengar kempen pilihanraya. I heard kat campus pun bdk2 dah tanya soalan2 panas to tne BTN rep (the DG himself! Oh he's smarter and funnier than those we met or heard of before but I terpaksa raised issues after he showed us satu film propaganda..apa...dia lupa he's with a group of academics? Then Kak Oni pulak bangun menambah..it's not a personal attack on the funny DG..we loved him..he made us laugh...but approach lama BTN tu spoilt his credibility)

Many of us found the film which tried to establish ada campurtangan asing in all the street demos...antara indicators nya lambang penumbuk, topeng misai tu, etc etc.I do not doubt this but to imply tht bdk2 kita turun berdemo cos' they mengikut2 je is to evade real issues.I mengeryam nak tanya soalan walaupun kerap sgt bertanya but could not let this one go.I said yah ok..so maybe betul ada strategy jahat tapi itu isu yg lain.Isu sebenar ialah mengapa anak2 muda kita tertarik akan pergerakan sebegini ( byk movements lain, kan?) What's so appealing to them? Sebab terlalu byk kekangan di sekolah and uni.Takda kebebasan.Walhal mereka di universiti..meant to discover things.The DG said contoh..apa contohnya.I said nak organise a simple talk pun byk prosesnya..nak kebenaran itu ini.I said kena tau apa pasal bdk2 ni marah sgt.

Then Kak Oni stood up and said kita jgn sakitkan hati pelajar2 kita..udah naluri perangai mrk di usia ini begitu..and she went on explaining how a well intentioned gesture might backfire.Mr DG guy said you mean do not show the film cos' it's a propaganda? Kak Oni said yes.But I have to salute la the guy for keeping his cool ( he has a cert from Carnegie) and it was smart of him to quickly end the session.Ketidak ramai lagi bangun menibai ( discussions at tea showed that many shared our stand on the film)

I enjoyed our Prez's presentation and IGP's (our alum).And the best part of the weekend camping was the treasure hunt (teambuilding)... members were from different Kull and Division.One chap from Pharmacy, one from Science, one from Finance, Architecture,Aslam mengelat tak dtg (was in the same group)... Mcm group mafia je.Haha.