Democratic SRC Requires Mobilisation: Analyst
J-on
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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By Eugene Kok Li-Jin
Kampar, June 6 (J-On)- Currently the Student Representative Committee (SRC) of University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) is going to hold an election to elect candidates to represent students’ voice for Kampar campus.
As we know now the SRC candidates can choose either - from two types of election system - one is team based, and the other is individual based.
The next question we should ask ourselves is; is this system suitable to be used?
What are the possible outcomes? Is this method effective as this was allowed by the DSA (Department of Student Affairs)?
Would there be a better recommendation or a better alternative?
Some background info:
Previously, it was only elected based on individuals that come from different teams with different ideologies and aspirations and just recently in June 2010 that candidates are allowed to come forth as individuals or even to represent as team and still be elected individually.
So, there would be a mix bag of elected individuals coming from different ideologies and aspirations. Now if let’s say; candidate A, B and C have good ideologies that are well supported by varieties of students who is going to elect them.
On the other hand though, A, B, C are all from different teams with different ideologies and aspirations. Wouldn’t conflict arise from there and how would they resolve it?
To answer for the question above J-On consulted UTAR lecturer Por Heong Hong’s expertise:
“ It goes back to the very basic question of ‘what is the purpose of student election?’
“If the purpose is "democracy" or building sense of "empowered engagement by the students in the campus", I suppose we should all think out of the SRC framework.
“Following SRC framework means you are playing the games at election level. But democracy is more than election, it requires active participation and mobilization. It is only realized in the interaction and organization level, where students really actively engage in activities like ideas sharing, policy debates and action planning. Getting a person with democratic literacy, who knows the very spirit of active engagement of democracy, to be a student leader is more important than reforming the election framework,” commented Por.
The democratically informed student leader, if there is any, could even mobilize his or her constituencies by organizing activities outside the SRC framework, as grass root organization empowerment is more important than nominal office election,” she ended with an advice.
(Por Heong Hong is a social science lecturer from UTAR Journalism Department. She is active in public debates of current issues.)
The nomination date is on June 14, 2010 from 9.00am-5.00pm.
The election date is on June 24 & 25, 2010 from 8.00am-8.00pm
Venues: DSA Office, C113, B202
