USM Students Form Shadow Council

By Simren Kaur, simren@thestar.com.my 

A group of defeated candidates in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) campus elections has formed a Majlis Mahasiswa Bertindak (MMB) 2012/2013 to act as a shadow Student Representatives Council.

MMB president Mohd Syafiq Alamsah said they would continue to fight for the rights of the students even though they failed to form the majority in the recent elections. The MMB consists of four committee members and about 20 other Penggerak Mahasiswa candidates who lost in the Sept 26 campus polls. Only four candidates from Penggerak Mahasiswa won their seats and made it to the Student Representatives Council. 

Mohd Syafiq said the MMB would cooperate with other USM agencies as a check and balance, to ensure a more democratic campus for the students. 

“We believe that critical engagement is important to ensure a student council in a university can function effectively,” he told a press conference outside the Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra in USM yesterday. 

He said they would also present a list of suggested improvements for the campus elections to the Majlis Pemilihan Siswa chairman Prof Adnan Hussein. 

Their suggestions includes changing the campaigning and elections date so as not to clash with the university’s convocation. 

It was reported on Sept 27 that the pro-establishment group, Pro-Aspirasi, won at least 40 out of 45 seats in the election. 

The 45 seats comprised 36 faculty seats and nine general seats in USM’s main campus on the island, the engineering campus in Nibong Tebal and the Health Sciences medi-cal campus in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan.

Pro-Aspirasi won 15 seats uncontested while one seat remained “open” as nobody contested it when nominations closed. 

A total of 74 students submitted their candidacies, and the voter turnout was 47.12%.