The best thing I ever had this year...the glamourous stars are here and we are the blinking stars up in the sky. MDS (minggu destini siswa) surely marked as the best event I had had in my life ever..at the moment..hehe. The whole week was fantastically awesome although the gruesome night without proper sleeps for almost a week was a bit frantic, but the whole idea of joining MDS for UiTM Puncak Alam and having a post as PM (pembantu Mahasiswa) for bureau of SDK (sahsiah, disiplin dan keselamatan) left me no regret. I never thought I would ever join this kind of people and working like them..together, as a team. Firstly, the only reason for me to join the MDS was just to kill the boredom at home besides trying my luck for the PM selection this semester. The original plan was to join either the bureau of registration or SDK and stay in Shah Alam catering all the laid works for us. On the night that they were announcing the splitting team for the coming MDS in Shah Alam and Puncak Alam, I was very sure that I will be placed in Shah Alam for I am an education student, the one and only PM presenting faculty of education as to handle the asasi tesl students there. It turned the other way around when MPP (majlis perwakilan pelajar) kak wahida called out my name from the list, made me squeal in shock to hear that. I was uncertain and doubtful If this is a charm of luck or a bad omen.
I knew Allah had planned HIs best for me and Allah always knows the best. Sure yeah, I am lucky to be in Puncak Alam..new place, new people and the new beginning. Hello Puncak, here I come~!
On the first day of the week, we spent a night at Seroja's for PM registry and several briefing about the coming program. I shared a room with kak farah zahidah, najwa, kak mai and kak ain. Surprisingly, we were all selected to join MDS at Puncak Alam..wow, what a coincidence eh. I am really bad in mixing around with the unknown if they are the opposite sex of mine. It just I feel a bit awkward and afraid mingling with them. Insecure, actually. I joined SDK, consisted of 15 members and headed by a guy whom they called super senior with many experience handling MMS (minggu mesra siswa) before this. I am pathetic in the group and only speaks when needed to, my gosh..the shy girl ever. haish. Anyway, the next day, we packed our things and move to Puncak Alam, I was thrilled to make the new adventure there.
Puncak Alam- With the slightest knowledge about this place, I try my best to let you know a bit about this grand UiTM campus. Puncak Alam is the place where it has becomes the biggest campus ever built to settle UiTM students residency and campus as well. It is the biggest UiTM branch in Malaysia, enough for me to say it’s three times bigger than the main campus, Shah Alam. The project launched stages by stages and divided to 3 phases of construction. The first phase is the one that have nearly completed which placed 4 major courses here namely Pharmacy Faculty, Office Management Faculty, Applied Science Faculty and Health Science Faculty. There are 2 residency colleges; Angsana and Rafflesia. Angsana was originally a home for all boys only but due to excessive female students in Puncak Alam Angsana 1 & 2 had to change the owner. The rest of Angsana blocks remained for the boys. Whilst for Rafflesia, all the 5 blocks belong to the girls. Their hostel apply the concept of condominium residency where students live in a condominium with 5 @ 4 rooms;each for 2 persons. It is a cozy condo, modern design with green architecture landscape which is nature friendly. Even their lift got a mini tv inside. You can watch a pooh bear cartoon over and over again (it’s the only cartoon shown). A life of luxuries here. Puncak Alam campus managed to placed over 20,000 students at one time in its faculties and it will soon become a hub for UiTM students that will replace a hectic and over-crowded population in Shah Alam main campus. The second and third phase are under the plan of construction and overall, the cost for the entire project costs about few billion ringgit (can’t remember the exact amount). One unique feature in this campus is the staircase… OMG~! We called it ‘tangga batu cave’ a.k.a tangga neraka. Lord, you got to experience using this staircase. It has 244 steps with a killing angle of the slope and more interestingly, this is the only route to connect the road from college to campus. Another path is the main road which is way down the hill and that takes a very long distance to reach the faculty. I guess I have told you something about Puncak Alam right.
Talking about my experience, there is many to share, seriously. Our MPP, Abg Ridhwan Mohd Salleh discussed with us about the planning of the program for the next day. He said that there are three possibility for the new coming students to asasi. Firstly, we predicted that there will be at least 1.600 students to be registered tomorrow, if not it might be around 2,500 students and the most to be expected is the maximum number of students, 3,000 but he said that it won’t reach that number, just be prepared to welcome the huge waves of students tomorrow. My bureau is the most important component in the team tomorrow. With the total strength of 75 PM, it is a heavy duty for us to cater like 3,000 students which gives us a ratio of 1:295. Our bureau consists only 15 members to control the flow of the students to be registered tomorrow from the entrance up to the college, to ensure the smooth running of the vehicle which is a collaboration with UiTM safety department (their guards). Anything to do with the flow of students, leave it to us. We only hope for the best. All the MPP voiced out their worry on us to handle the task but we believe we’ll be fine. Kak Wahida, the deputy project manager was really concern to us. The other important and the hectic bureau of the day besides us is the program and registration. The malfunction of either these two bureau will ruin the whole system. We experienced the heat of tension on the first 3 days. Believe me, the face of tension already tell the tales.
The first day- 2,859 students registered on the day which was beyond the margin of our expectation. One big problem aroused. The super killing worst flow of traffic from the gate entrance till up the hill to Rafflesia. Lots of parents threw their madness and tantrum due to the bad traffic control and the selfish attitude from many VIP parents that think only their sons are going to be registered on that day and assumed that with the power in the palm they have, they can do anything as they please. Owh, lord…this is sickening. At first, vehicles are not allowed to enter the college. For the early few hours, traffic was fine but then the traffic got worst because some took vehicles up to the colleges. Many parents can’t tolerate with the long hours of waiting for the bus to take them up decided to use the Hell staircase to reach Rafflesia. One parent rushed to the PK due to the High Blood Pressure resulting climbing up the stairs with the massive boxes and bags. PM from health bureau lend their hands to help them. We are all really bushed and extremely tired.
Second day- Students college registration was at worst management due to sudden changed of plan and the massive miscommunication between the head of bureau registration and the higher authorities. SDK also almost worn out everything, pulling the best effort to cater students movement from one hall to another which is a bit far away. The management was very messy and confusable. The post mortem on the night at 1am lashed out the dissatisfaction of the sudden changes of plan and miscommunication. Abg Fizee stand out his plan and behold us to maintain to what had he planned to avoid the same humiliating problem tomorrow. Anyway, he and Meor (our SDK head bureau) almost collapsed because of dehydration and skipped meals during practicing their duty. Many of us missed out our meals as well. Insufficient time and always on the go make us only manageable make up time for prayer only. MPP reminded us and the rest of the PM to take care of ourselves to avoid bad thing happen later. As SDK, we also need to get all the students up early in the morning at 5.00am to have a jemaah prayer at Angsana hall. We slept at 2.45am in the morning and many woke up late-6.30am. Luckily, some early rise SDK members woke up PB (pelajar Baru) in the college. I can see the big panda eyes on my face.
Third day- students registration. We continued the unfinished registration and by hook or by crook it has to be settle before the sun fall or we’ll be a dead meat. Abg Fizee laid out a perfect plan and he is the savior of the day. Registration ran smoothly and with rapid flow from both girls and boys students with the extra strength human resources from SDK and program bureau. SDK members did many multitask okay, and they really made a good use of our army, which left us be ready to drop. Salute to all PM, you have done really well. Good job then!! There’s no seniority boundary between us. All were treated the same, equally and the charm of affection works in every soul of the members. I am really touched with their care and words of wisdom curled with thoughtful advises. Owh yeah…I almost forget, as we worked for UiTM, we needed to punch in our cards at 7am and punch out at the time when we finished the post mortem. I think you can understand the mathematics here, we worked almost 15 hours per day. Very proud to say that none of us ever grumpily complaint of the long working hours and the tiredness. We did feel tired and exhausted but the day flew by with the fun and joy surround us, it just a little mental and physical challenge right. Huhuhu…
Before I forget, with Meor initiative, he opened a group in Fb for the MDS this session. You can search it in fb by typing PM MDS asasi Puncak alam. This is a group about the MDS and updates from us to PB and also as a linking communication with all the PB from asasi science and Engineering after the end of the MDS later. Both asasi program also have their own group and You can find it in our page. There are lots of pictures to share and comical and wonderful videos from us as a farewell gift to them. Hopefully they will do well in the program and make it with flying colours.
The best thing I ever had here is the close bonding between us. The faded and cloudy relationship evolved into something that is really strong and juicy, heavenly fun and crazy. This is the platform for me to start knowing others, not the people in my air only and this would suggest a better milieu of socialization in the future. I have several good friends from MassComm, Medicine, APB, sport rec and more. Not only that, I am now manage to talk with our respected UiTM MPP abg wan, being friends and hang out together with the others. He really is one big brother to us that hold the umbrella of security. Like before this, I try my best to avoid his presence and completely muted when he is around, shyness and scared perhaps. Despite all the difference between us, our relationship does not stop here. All the PM have a stamp on our head being the PM for MDS I’ve still known as the SDK till now. We also having a good time with the PB despite I’m being stern and strict with them. Sorry lads, that’s not my true color, I have to, I don’t bite okay. The PB are all good and it’s a bit a melancholic feeling to leave them after a week together. The last day at Puncak Alam filled with sorrowfully gloom atmosphere between us. I am the kind of girl with cuddles and smooches with friends and tones of pictures were captured to document the moment. I was sad, they were too. I could see in Abg fizee’s eyes the gleam of sadness and grey. This will be his last MDS program with us as this is the final semester of his study. He and the other MPP admitted that MDS at Puncak Alam have created the great bond between us like no other and they are proud to see us mingling together. We are close, really.
On the next day, with Abg Fizee proposal, most of PM and MPP had a gathering together at PAS (plaza alam sentral) for a bowling time. Most of our SDK members were there and this included Abg Wan and Kak Wahida. We were touched to see their willingness to spend their little time with us for bowling game. Above all, I love you all and shall we meet again in MDS Julai later.
*SDK- Sayang Dekat Kamu
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