Assalamualaikum
Happy studying!
I'm not that eager to give my comment on the MSC. Basically, there are already people who would like to do so. Thus, I would rather stand behind them and look if there is anything else I can do.
Things change. If Obama won his election with the theme of 'Change', and Anwar won his struggle with the theme of 'Reformasi', I believe that change is the best solution for now. Then, I've changed my mind. I think that it is a need for me to do something to elevate the status of MSC with my own way.
Before this, I've done my best to uphold the Faciteam and to me, alhamdulillah, we have succeded. The focus is now shifted to MSC. We have to do something since the baton is now in our hand. MSC should make a paradigm shift, a big step should be taken and the nightmare we had before should be left behind. We have to move forward with a new plan and a new agenda.
The Problems
As all of us already know, MSC is having a typical problems faced by all other societies. We have not enough second-liners who will be our successors in the future. The lack of those people probably due to inability of us to provide them platform and to make them feel that there are a part of MSC. They cannot feel and experience what MSC has done for them. This is common in all societies.
However, in previous years, this issue was not taken seriously. Every time new students come in, no serious focus given to them. Finally, they will feel left behind. Although some of action have been taken to make them involved with MSC, but the effort is minimal. They still cannot feel the beauty of friendship and brotherhood in MSC. This will then contribute to the fragility of the relationship among batches of medical students.
Other than that, students of medicine, who are also known by their self-centered attitude, tend to neglect everything happening around them as long as their life is not affected. Even if their life is affected, somehow, they still don't bother to do anything. This is probably because they don't know what to do. Clearly, negligence will finally affect their life in the future! But unfortunately, many of them are not aware of it.
From the statements above, I can shortlist the problems faced by MSC:
1) poor inter-batch relationship;
2) poor intra-batch relationship;
3) attitude of medical students who are self-centered;
4) inability to optimize the resources available;
5) communication breakdown;
6) wasted programmes (not mission-oriented).
Suggestions
Some of us probably have given-up and just accept all the above as a 'fact', because they are tired of it. Actually, the fact is that, we need to change! Many things can be done if we can plan properly, rearrange the strength, restructure our organization, and optimize our resources.
1) Rearranging our strength.
The strength is in all of us. Basically, this idea is based on the belief that the strength in us should be used wisely by the leaders of society. Everyone of us has his own strength. The President is the one who should know what is the strength of each member and arrange them into the suitable position.
Basically, the strength of a team is measured by the ability to shape and move according to the goal and objective of the team. The more focus the team, the sharper the ability of the team. Thus, the first thing the leaders have to do is to set the goals of the society so that all of us will move towards it together.
I think, the goal of our society should be to “Mengakar, Merimbun, dan Menjulang” (rooting, spreading, and skying).
“Mengakar” means the benefit should be felt by all members, including their voice being heard, their sense-of-belonging growing, and their welfare being catered.
“Merimbun” means the link between MSC and all other societies within and without the university, which will benefit the members now and in the future. It includes the relationship with PPIM, Mercy, GPM, AMSA, MMA and societies from other universities.
“Menjulang” means the comprehensive excellence that should be achieved by the society and its members. The society should have its own standard in everything. In this way, MSC will be seen as an executive society and the status will be upgraded.
2) Restructuring our organization
The organization of a team should be as flexible as possible. This is depend on the need of the society on the particular time. It is also depend on the goals set by the leaders at the first place.
To enable the goal of “Mengakar” achieved, welfare berueu and information berueu should be strengthened. This includes giving more subcommittees for this berueu, forming the task-force for the urgent cases, and many more.
For the “Merimbun” goal, Public Relation Unit should be formed just to cater about the protocols, the advocative issues, and to maintain the relationship with other organization. Few joint-venture programme should be organized and the members should benefit from it.
The “Menjulang” goal basically need the reformation or fortification of the education berueu and documentation berueu.
3) Optimizing our resources
We have many resources that can be used in order to lead our society towards a better future. Some of the members are full of experience of organizing programmes, some are leaders, some are IT specialists, and many more. The resources that we have should be utilized well, or otherwise, the brain-drain phenomena will occur.
In every batch, there will be leaders formally or informally. These leaders should be channeled so that they can bring their friends to help MSC. In fact, helping MSC means helping themselves. Batch Leaders Council should be formed so that the responsibility of upholding MSC will be felt by all students. Then, the batch leaders should be empowered with election and their say should be prioritized. In payback, they have to uphold the responsibility to be the enforcers in the batch for all the policies of the society. They will have to update everything to the members in their batch about the things happening around them everyday.
Other than that, all members also should be recommended to join the subcommittee of each bereue. Privileges should be given to them in any way that are possible. Tuition and Peers programme can be started to promote sharing and to strengthen ukhuwwah, at the same time to upgrade the level of knowledge among members. Medical checkup programmes and health education programme should be reconsidered to give platform for the members to practice their knowledge and help the community at the same time.
4) High impact programme
High impact programme is very important to build the sense of belonging among members. This is also to rebrand the MSC with a good branding. At the same time, society can educate the members on certain issue related to the programme.
A high impact programme is the programme which covers many aspects of training. It includes management skill, communication skill, stress management, academic excellence, and many more. It is a matter of 'killing two birds with one stone'. It also will uphold the name of MSC in the eyes of community within the campus or without.
Among the suggested programmes are:
- IIUM Medical Students Conference on Triple ICE
- National Medical Student Conference, etc.
Conclusion
It is very important to all of us to believe that MSC can be the leading society in this university. The society should be able to shape the mentality of the students and develop their inner strength so that the quality of the product of IIUM will be produced as expected. The expectation of the ummah is not only based on the knowledge of our product, but also the attitude and experience. This is the big burden held by the leaders of MSC. They have to instil the big picture of our mission and vision into the members’ selves. This task is a big task, and will not be achieved if the leaders themselves don’t understand about it, and the members from the ground-root refuse to give cooperation to them.
The ummah outside there is waiting for us. They have been waiting for a long time, like a pregnant mother waiting for her delivery. It would be unfortunate if the newborn baby possessing some sort of disability. How frustrated the mother would be…
Hence, we have to upgrade ourselves to the apex of everything, knowledge, attitude, experience, activism, and idealism. We have to believe that if we do things because of Allah, He will defenitely reward us with something greater than what we did. May Allah help us all…
