The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2012 04:46 PM PDT OCT 23 — I spent three years in London. The first year was uneventful. I spent my time exploring this new city and learning to adapt to the lifestyle of a university student. Life was simple, and I didn't care about things beyond myself and my interests — not my fellow students, politics back home, or even Malaysia. Then came the second year. It was when I started to get involved in student activities there, especially with my fellow Malaysians. I enjoyed a year organising events for my fellow Malaysians at my university, and also attending events organised by other Malaysian societies such as Malaysia Night and Malaysia Games. It was also that year that I started to know more about UKEC. UKEC stands for the United Kingdom and Eire Council of Malaysian Students, which is the umbrella body for Malaysian societies in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is an organisation which works year in, year out to serve Malaysian students through a variety of channels, including career development, intellectual stimulation and student activism. It was not until I became part of the team that I saw how motivated my predecessors were in trying to achieve the objectives of this organisation. They tried their best to balance their academic responsibilities while working hand in hand with respective Malaysian societies' leaders to provide avenues of self-development for the students in the UK and Ireland. What impressed me most about the organisation is how progressive it is, especially in terms of how it elects its leaders. The UKEC consists of two councils; the executive council which plans and executes its activities and strategies, and the supreme council consisting of student leaders from societies affiliated with the UKEC. The supreme council elects members of the executive council on an annual basis. The concept of the supreme council voting in the executive council is, in my opinion, a good democratic process to uphold the organisation. Though ideally it would be best if every Malaysian student in the UK and Ireland is able to vote, this is impossible logistically given the geographical dispersion of the Malaysian student population. By giving the supreme council — which is made up of representatives elected by their respective Malaysian societies beforehand — the power to vote, this creates the best possible flow of power to give the executive council the strongest possible mandate to run the organisation. During the campaigning period, candidates will travel to most Malaysian societies to discuss their manifesto and the concerns on the ground. What makes me optimistic is the fact that all of these leaders of Malaysian societies take their responsibilities seriously. Discussion mostly revolves around co-operation, improving communication between the two councils, and bringing both the UKEC and the Malaysian society forward. Negative campaigning and vote buying were never issues from my experience. The candidates take their campaign seriously, while the members of the supreme council take their responsibility to represent their members as, if not more, seriously. Another interesting aspect of the election process is the chairmanship debate. Introduced last year, it allowed for greater opportunity for the public to get to know the candidates for chairman and to put forth their concerns and queries. Moderated by the outgoing UKEC chairman, most questions focused on the candidates' experiences and ideas in their manifestos and steered away from personal attacks. It was like Obama-Romney without the Obama-has-failed or Romney-is-a-corporate-puppet rhetoric. This year's debate happened last weekend and you can check out the video on UKECtv soon. The UKEC elections will take place this weekend. The members of the supreme council will be given the chance to scrutinise last year's executive council, vote for the incoming executive council and, most importantly, the chance to forward, debate and vote on any motion related to nation-building during the floor debate. This session has seen issues such as AUKU, Menara Warisan, overseas voting and many more being brought up, debated and voted on with the results compiled for submission to relevant organisations. It might seem to be a petty show of democracy by a group of over-enthusiastic youngsters compared to our Parliament, but hey, you have to start somewhere. This healthy culture of democracy and debate is not unique to the UKEC — I have seen it in other organisations in other parts of the world, and I hope that this culture will flourish and perpetuate healthy and clean politics as people grow to expect this sort of quality of the system, of politicians, and of themselves. I think that this sort of culture should be developed at as early a stage as possible (i.e. at school), and maybe one day this will lead to a healthier and more productive political scene in Malaysia. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2012 04:36 PM PDT OCT 23 — Having won the English Premier League in dramatic circumstances on the final day of last season, the logical progression would be for Manchester City to become an even more dominant force and to start regularly performing with the confident self-assurance of champions. So far, it hasn't happened. If anything, in fact, City have gone backwards, with Roberto Mancini's team looking disjointed and relying on a series of late goals to maintain an unconvincing unbeaten start to the new campaign. The latest of those came on Saturday at the Hawthorns, where Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko further enhanced his burgeoning "super-sub" reputation with a pair of late goals to defeat West Bromwich Albion. City have now scored nine goals in the last 10 minutes of games and, although Mancini can be pleased that the late-goal habit suggests there's nothing wrong with team spirit, it has to be a concern that his team are repeatedly finding themselves in dire straits towards the latter stages of matches — against lesser opposition, champions should already be two or three goals ahead by then. But at least the points have still been coming, and City are very much in contention to retain their Premier League crown with so much of the season remaining.  Mancini can't decide which is his best team. — Reuters pic City have started their European campaign with a 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid and a 1-1 home draw with Borussia Dortmund, when they needed yet another late goal — Mario Balotelli's last-minute penalty — to secure their first point. Ajax have fared even worse, losing 1-0 at Dortmund and then suffering a 4-1 thrashing by an excellent Madrid performance that would have led to an even more emphatic victory but for a string of fine saves by entertainingly erratic Ajax keeper Kenneth Vermeer. The Dutch champions always looked the weak link in this group and an exit at this early stage would not be too much of a surprise or disappointment, but City have a stated mission to join the continent's elite and therefore desperately need to start making regular appearances in the latter rounds of the Champions League. Last season, their first foray into the competition, ended with group stage elimination at the hands of Bayern Munich and Napoli, and City's failings as nervous new boys on that occasion can be excused. But that's no longer the case — if City are good enough to win the Premier League, they should be good enough to see off the challenge of Dortmund, who have been in poor form domestically and are already 12 points off the scorching pace being set by Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. For that to happen, I feel City need to adopt a far more purposeful approach than they've displayed so far this season — and by that, I don't necessarily mean a more attacking approach. I strongly believe that the most successful teams are those that have confidence in their system and play with focus, purpose and intent. That doesn't have to be a recklessly attacking mindset — defensive counter-attacking teams can be just as effective — but players need to collectively feel that they're in an environment where they understand how their team functions and how they should go about the task of winning the game. A week ago I wrote that the French national team was lacking that sense of confident self-assertion (although they might have found it with their subsequent second-half display against Spain), and the same applies to City. What kind of team are they? How do they play? What are their methods of creating chances and scoring goals? At the moment, the answer to those questions is: "We don't really know." Aside from the consistent excellence of Yaya Toure's driving runs from midfield, nothing seems certain about City's tactical approach at the moment. So far this season they've flitted between three at the back and a conventional flat back four; sometimes they've had two holding midfielders, sometimes just one; occasionally they've played with wingers, in other games they've tried to get width through full backs; sometimes they've played with one up front, at other times with two and even occasionally three; none of the midfielders or strikers seem to be sure of a place in the team, and Dzeko is their top scorer even though he's only started three games. Indeed, Toure is the only outfield player to have started all 10 competitive games this season (I don't include the League Cup), and the myriad of changes imposed by Mancini (even though some have been enforced through injury) add up to suggest that there's been some confused thinking from the manager — perhaps over-thinking — when it comes to deciding his best team. All of that uncertainty makes a big difference to players, preventing them from establishing a confident rhythm or developing the almost telepathic mutual understanding that can only result from regular and consistent playing time together. Mancini has more than enough quality within his ranks to create a highly effective team. Indeed, he did exactly that at the end of last season — in April and May, we all knew exactly what City were "about" as a team: they had a discernible identity and pattern of play. Now? Everything seems up in the air and even Mancini doesn't appear to know how he wants his team to play. If he doesn't decide fast — starting in Amsterdam tomorrow night — City could soon find themselves making another early Champions League exit. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan