the real picture of orientation programme in local university

I refer to the letter Respect Freshmen, too by Malaysian in Foreign Land (StarEducation, Aug 21).

I would like to clarify that when I stated that all orientation programmes are similar in my previous letter, I am positively aware that local universities do organise their formal orientation activities similarly to the experience Malaysian in Foreign Land had in his university.

I will share the kind of experience I had when I was studying in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). When I arrived in UKM, seniors were the ones that greeted all freshmen and parents. After registration at our hostel (college), we were equipped with a case full of necessary information we needed for the one-week programme. Then the seniors directed us to our respected rooms and ensured we were happy with our new living spaces.

During the first day of orientation, we were introduced to the seniors whom we addressed as facilitators. We went through proper ice-breaking activities which were all indoor activities. We formed groups of multi-racial members and each group was lead by a facilitator who shared with us about the life in university. We were constantly reminded by the facilitators to be grateful to our parents and not to take things for granted after all our hard work to enter the university.

We were asked to wake up at 5.30 a.m. every day. Before morning exercise, we were given speeches by facilitators who sounded tough and serious. The real challenge throughout the orientation programme was that we needed to be physically fit to jog in the morning and to go through tough activities in the evening. We also had to walk to the library, faculty or main hall to attend seminars or social meetings. We were told the places around the university that we can go and the transportation service available. These facilitators sacrificed their time and energy to guide us throughout the week. They had to be tough to jog along with us too. Every day we would sleep at 1 or 2 a.m. As for the facilitators, we knew some of them never sleep at all just to prepare for the orientation on the next day.

The problems occurred when some freshmen ignored to instructions or show no respect. They overslept, lack of cooperation among the freshmen, did not greet the seniors, forgot to wear their nametags, played truant, etc. Hence seniors will resolve to scolding or humiliating them in front of everyone. The worst punishment would be from facilitators who were in the Palapes (Reserve Officers Training Unit).

I have family member and friends who studied in UM and USM and they never complain about their orientation programmes. Instead, the UM friends and my brother who studied in USM said they were pampered by their seniors throughout their first year in university. Everything were nicely planned and prepared for them, from second-hand textbooks and notes to assisting them in the PTPTN loan applications.

In my opinion, whether it is orientation programme or even regular motivational activities, there are always some participants who are not interested to get involve and often end up labelling the activities as silly. Some of the activities carried out by the seniors might not be as creative as we want it to be. Perhaps when these freshmen become seniors they can reinforce creativity in the orientation programme. It is more proper to show their leadership skills and pro-activeness to change for the better rather than just complaining and painting the wrong pictures to their parents and public about local universities. Let us not forget that orientation programme is run by students themselves.

hugging issue and what we can learn from AF

Najib created a big fuss about the hugging trend on our local reality tv show which I believe is referring to Malaysian Idol (particularly last week when Azzam was voted out).

Now I begin to see the positive side of Akademi Fantasia whereby the contestants would salam or kiss each other hands instead of hugging like what we normally see on Malaysian Idol. AF is no doubt more localised in terms of values.

Perhaps Najib himself is a big fan of AF3 (and Mawi who is a religious model) and wants Malaysian Idol to take the show as a role model.

wear mask, please........

I was lucky to avoid the worst haze in PJ a couple of days ago. When I came back from Penang this evening, I expected a lot of people to wear masks (as seen on newspaper) in KL and PJ. However, a lot of people are still ignorant and avoid wearing one. I presume these are the reasons why people still have not get a mask for themselves.

1. Wearing mask is not cool and embarassing.
2. Still have not decide which mask is better, the conical mask or the surgical mask. (Perhaps the SDU mask is even better, but where to get?)
3. It's out of stock!
4. Waiting for Malaysian Crescent Society or health ministry to distribute free mask rather than buying the pricey mask at pharmacy or 7-Eleven.
5. There's not much difference between the normal (polluted) days and the hazy days in KL.
6. Smoking is more hazardous because it kills. That's why our government campaigning for anti-smoking but not anti-haze although we suffered from it every year since 1997.
7. ONLY two districts are in the state of emergency. So, we are still safe.
8. We do not receive any wide coverage from the international media or support from WHO. It means our condition is not that bad.

nightmare orientation? come on!

I laughed when I read in The Star, a comment by a worried parent about her son's "nightmarish" orientation in UM.

The funniest part was her rather sarcastic bout the seniors in the medical faculty.

Life in UM is not what he thought it would be – it's been rather like living together with a group of gangsters or in a secret society. Medical faculty students are future doctors.

I did not do my undergraduate programme in UM but I can guarantee you that almost all universities have the same kind of orientation. Come on, there is no big deal with about seniors trying to intimidate the freshies just to show them what respect and the real life away from parents might be. The one-week orientation week is just a small challenge to the mostly pampered freshies.

I've been through humiliation as well during my orientation week; I was asked to sing in the public, then being laughed because of my 'Kuantan-Cantonese' (which is slightly different from KL and Ipoh. Not to mentioned the torture of wearing the same orientation t-shirt for days, waking up at 5 am having to jog for hours, having swollen feet, and lecturing from the seniors who never failed to remind us not to be cocky. And yes, we only went to bed at 2 am. And for the guys, there were room service waiting for them every night.

When I looked back or chat with my friends about our uni experience, we loved to talked about the funny and intimidating moments during our orientation. We laughed the fact that we were so naive and weak.

To the worried parents, she just need to let her son to be on his own and learn to be independent. If she wants her son to be involved in motivational activities, asked him to join camps or society. Orientation week is definitely not similar to national service.