Many of us know the famous motto from George Orwell’s literary classic, Animal Farm. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Looks like that has become quite a personal motto for some students. On Saturday, Aug 31, the NUS Political Association (NUSPA) Returning Officer decided to suspend elections on the day itself, after the floor successfully passed a motion to abolish the 50% special voting rights given to the previous Management Committee (MC) a day before elections.
According to the Facebook page of Voice of Students, a group of candidates currently running for positions in the 39th MC, 77 of non-candidates (Singaporean NUS students, as specified) had turned up to listen to the 25 candidates’ speeches and vote for their preferred candidates. None of them managed to do either of these, as the decision was made even before the speeches could be given.
One of the candidates, David Wong, a Year 4 Political Science major, started a Facebook movement on Saturday for those who found NUSPA’s actions unfair. He asked people to like and share an image of a pig in what looks like a Communist hat, except without the logo – Animal Farm, indeed – and set the image as their profile pictures. As quoted from his Facebook post, “This is no longer an issue of winning the elections. It is a matter of justice, and the right for all people to select their own leaders”.
The movement was short-lived, but its point was made.
Previously, there were no rules on how the elections were to be handled – which meant that MCs could allocate themselves 100 per cent special voting rights. They could simply choose whoever they wanted to take over their student society. Last semester, NUSSU restricted this to a maximum of 50 per cent special voting rights.
This is a small victory for those who want general members of a club to have a say in the candidates that make up their MC. But it’s still a compromise for both camps.
Now, all eyes are on NUSPA to set the next date for the elections, ahead of the first NUSSU Council Meeting on Sept 14 – and to see whether they keep the 50 per cent special voting rights, or allow to consider abolishing it. When that debate is over, maybe then can the new MC finally be elected.
- http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=19657
Looks like that has become quite a personal motto for some students. On Saturday, Aug 31, the NUS Political Association (NUSPA) Returning Officer decided to suspend elections on the day itself, after the floor successfully passed a motion to abolish the 50% special voting rights given to the previous Management Committee (MC) a day before elections.
According to the Facebook page of Voice of Students, a group of candidates currently running for positions in the 39th MC, 77 of non-candidates (Singaporean NUS students, as specified) had turned up to listen to the 25 candidates’ speeches and vote for their preferred candidates. None of them managed to do either of these, as the decision was made even before the speeches could be given.
One of the candidates, David Wong, a Year 4 Political Science major, started a Facebook movement on Saturday for those who found NUSPA’s actions unfair. He asked people to like and share an image of a pig in what looks like a Communist hat, except without the logo – Animal Farm, indeed – and set the image as their profile pictures. As quoted from his Facebook post, “This is no longer an issue of winning the elections. It is a matter of justice, and the right for all people to select their own leaders”.
The movement was short-lived, but its point was made.
Previously, there were no rules on how the elections were to be handled – which meant that MCs could allocate themselves 100 per cent special voting rights. They could simply choose whoever they wanted to take over their student society. Last semester, NUSSU restricted this to a maximum of 50 per cent special voting rights.
This is a small victory for those who want general members of a club to have a say in the candidates that make up their MC. But it’s still a compromise for both camps.
Now, all eyes are on NUSPA to set the next date for the elections, ahead of the first NUSSU Council Meeting on Sept 14 – and to see whether they keep the 50 per cent special voting rights, or allow to consider abolishing it. When that debate is over, maybe then can the new MC finally be elected.
- http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=19657
