Happenings 10 - Kolej Yayasan UEM

ISSUE 10-2012
Muslim Youth Camp
2012..................... 5
KYUEM Bangsawan
Night..................... 9
The Mooncake
Festival......... 12
Sports Carnival
Report............. 15
Awards Day
2012
22 June 2012
Kolej Yayasan UEM (KYUEM), one of Malaysia’s preeminent pre-university colleges, has once again nurtured a
group of Malaysian students who will head to well-known
universities around the world to further their tertiary education.
Kolej Yayasan UEM marked the continuing outstanding
success of its students at its Awards Day ceremony on
Saturday, 23 June where once again it was able to showcase
the university destinations of its students. Five have gained
offers of places at Cambridge University, 16 at Imperial
College London, 22 at the London School of Economics, 30 at
University College London and no fewer than 48 at the
University of Warwick.
About one half of KYUEM’s
graduating students have gained at least one offer from the
UK’s top ten universities.
Headmaster, Donald Wilkinson, remarked that, “The
proportion of students gaining offers from some of the most
competitive universities in the world is testament to KYUEM’s
strength.” 96% of the graduating batch this year has received
offers from universities in the United Kingdom, United States
of America, Canada or Ireland. Students go on from KYUEM
to take a wide range of courses. Medicine is strongly
represented with 51 students going on to study the subject,
together with 6 dentists. 31 hope to study Engineering. There
are 15 students intending to read Economics, 11 going on to
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Actuarial Science courses and 28 taking Accounting and Finance.
Eight will read Law. Other courses are increasingly represented, such
as Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, PPE (Politics, Philosophy and
Economics) and History.
As Donald Wilkinson added, “The range of courses that our students
take at university illustrates the breadth of the education they receive
at KYUEM. We really do emphasise the importance of all–round
education.”
None of KYUEM’s students demonstrate the truth of the
Headmaster’s statements more than its major prize-winners.
Scholar of the Year, Ramaraj a/l Sundraraj, who has a place at
Churchill College, Cambridge, to read Engineering has been Head of
his House. He has competed at international level in Scrabble. He is
a keen sportsman, a singer and a star beatboxer. He said that “The
drive for perfection, the passion for learning and the hunger for
success are part and parcel of an engineer’s life and I am looking
forward to facing the challenges ahead. KYUEM has prepared me
really well and tremendously enjoyably for the next stage of my
academic career.”
Similarly, Rachel de Cruz, the winner of the Academic Excellence
Awards for Arts, and an accomplished musician and writer, said,
“KYUEM has been the most fantastic experience. I have been
challenged and encouraged at every turn. My teachers could not have
been more supportive.” Rachel has a place at Newnham College,
Cambridge, to read Law.
The Academic Excellence Award for Sciences went to Akmal Hidayat
bin Sabri.
He scored A grades in every formal and informal
assessment throughout his time at KYUEM. One of the top ten SPM
scholars in his year group, he is going to Nottingham University to
study Pharmacy. Nottingham is the UK’s top-rated university for that
subject. He says that his ambition is “to write pharmaceutical books
and articles which can help people understand drugs better and use
them correctly.” His interests include art, poetry and natural history.
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Guest of Honour, YBhg Dato’ Sri
Abdul Wahid Omar, President
and Chief Executive of
Maybank, commented upon the
importance of adaptability as a
quality for successful people in
the future.
He noted that
KYUEM’s students had had the
best of starts in their pursuit of
excellence in the future.
205 students graduated
from KYUEM on Saturday.
They are all destined to
study at leading
universities, mainly in the
UK, but some in Australia,
Canada, Malaysia and the
USA. Around half their
students are sponsored by
bodies such as JPA, KPM,
MARA,
Ya y a s a n
K h a z a n a h , Ya y a s a n
Te r e n g g a n u , P N B ,
Petronas, and Yayasan
UEM; the other half are
private students.
19 June 2012
Wida’
By : Siddiq Husainy B. Hasbullah
Wida’ is an annual event organised by
MUSCOM to honour the departing seniors who
are soon to embark on a more challenging
journey overseas. This year, Wida’ was held at
Musolla As-Saad on 19th June 2012.
As usual, we invited super seniors to attend the
programme and, as always, they supported it:
more than ten alumni of KYUEM came to the
event.
We started with speeches from Puan Norshila,
Ustaz Maliki, Imran Rasid, as the representative
of the seniors, Hijaz, representative of
MUSCOM and Hazim, who represented the
juniors. To signal the end of the event that night,
the audience formed a salaam circle to give the
opportunity for students to say their final wishes
and apology.
The centre of attention for Wida’ is always the
food
and much was prepared for the audience,
ranging from satay, ‘roti jala’, to ‘dadih’ (from
bonda) and Alhamdulillah. Everyone managed
to get their share, including the guards and the
cats!!
Time flies so fast. Our seniors’ two years here
had flown like a breeze. All the sweet and bitter
memories spent together with them are
moments to be cherished. The feeling as we see
them leave the college is just indescribable. The
only thing we can do is treasure their final
moments here and keep them intact deep down
in our hearts.
The event ensures that they depart with
everyone’s best wishes as they move on to the
next hurdle of university life.
28 June – 2 July 2012
KDU 2nd KIDSBP 2012
Team numbers: 3 pairs
Debate type: British Parliamentary (BP)
By : Kumaradevan Rajadevan
The recent Kids BP debate at KDU was one of the highlights of
my second semester at KYUEM for a number of reasons. First,
as I had never been in a debate competition it was a brilliant
experience. Second, as I plan to pursue a career in law, or
another humanities course, it would be brilliant for my personal
statement to universities. Third, it helped me to understand more
accurately how a society functions, through the mechanism of
role fulfilment and division of labour.
Albert Einstein once said that, if you never made mistakes, you
never tried anything new. This was definitely the case when the
KYUEM debate warriors ventured into KDU. I remember the
first comment the adjudicator gave us was “You were all
terrible. I had to decide who the least terrible was”. However, as
the competition progressed there was a marked improvement in
all of us. We grew more confident, more composed and we
absorbed information like sponges. Using examples that had
been used to demolish our arguments in previous rounds, we set
about our opponents in the later ones. At the conclusion of the
competition, we had all transformed. From caterpillars to
butterflies, from Clark Kent to Superman, from a regular truck to
fully-fledged autobot or decepticon.
There is one
paramount law in
debate, role
fulfilment. In this
way, I realised that
this is true in our everyday life as well. Just as a fisherman must
catch fish, a fish monger sells the fish and consumers purchase it
to eat. One could not survive without the other, i.e. if the
fisherman did not catch fish, the monger could not sell it and we
would not eat it. Similarly, in BP style debating, if the first
speaker does not fulfil his role, the second will be lost at sea
without a paddle.
The fact that we can go from an eight-to-five working day in
KYUEM and then set off to represent our college in a
competition of this kind highlights the college’s beautiful blend
of academic and student development. This along with the
dedication of teachers like Ms Kalirenawati, our debate teacher,
are some the many reasons why, ‘If you want to fly, you go to
KY’.
Debate helps nurture our ability to reason. It makes us construct
solid arguments along with improving an individual’s command
of the English language. Thus, participating in a debate
competition is a valuable weapon to add to one’s arsenal whilst
trying to penetrate the fortress that is UCAS, LNAT, UKCAT,
TSA or any other of the alphabet soup of pre-university tests.
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24 – 27 June 2012
Biology Ecotrip 2012
By : Tan Wen Ying
The Biology students of KYUEM went on an
Ecotrip organized by the Biology department. As it
was the first time for most of the students to visit
the state of Perlis, we were a little apprehensive.
Moreover, our anxiety increased when we found
out that we would be staying in the Perlis State
Park. Cue: much groaning and moaning from the
majority, who are city dwellers. However, I guess,
as a Biology student, there’s a point in life where
we need to stop reading books alone and actually
venture out to appreciate nature, to LEARN instead
of merely to STUDY.
Arriving at the picturesque Park after a bus journey
of approximately 8 hours, we wasted no time
getting started with the myriad activities planned
for us. Having been divided into groups before the
trip, we immediately went off into the jungle to set
up insect pitfall traps, willing our traps to be able to
capture interesting specimens. My group had no
such luck during the entire 3 days however, as all
we collected were ants, ants and more ants. Other
groups fared better, as some managed to find a
scorpion in their trap.
We also did a study of butterfly diversity in the
area, where we captured butterflies using a giant
butterfly net and after that, recorded into our files
their relative size, colour and flight pattern. It made
for a comical sight watching people running up and
down to chase butterflies using their nets, often
coming back empty-handed. Character-building, I
suppose! When we managed to capture them, it
was particularly hard
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trying to place these butterflies into their different
categories. Was it small, white banded, and
fluttery? Or was it medium, black and white, and
fast? Sometimes we had debates within our group
about how to categorise the butterflies, but we all
agreed that we had a lot of fun and that we had
come to appreciate Mother Nature more through
this exercise.
There were also other activities: chromatography to
compare sun leaves and shade leaves; measuring
tree diameters at different times of the day;
collecting soil samples and also observing how
different flowers attract different insects. The night
walk on the second day was definitely my favourite
part of the trip. With experienced guides and
torchlight to guide our path, we managed to see a
whole variety of insects we wouldn’t have seen
during the day.
Fortunately, it was not all work and no play for us
as the Biology department also organized a trip out
to Wang Kelian to allow us to do a spot of shopping
on the third day. Nearly everything could be
negotiated down to a lower price and, I must say,
haggling is definitely a sport made for the ladies.
We had a BBQ later that night, prepared by the
staff members there.
As we bid farewell to Perlis State Park, I could
definitely say it was an enjoyable educational trip
for all who went. It gave us a chance to marvel at
nature at its most beautiful and not just learn about
it in the confines of a classroom.
21 July 2012
Happenings During
Ramadhan 1433H
By: Siddiq Husainy b. Hasbullah
People say that there is always a special
day or special moment for everything:
“Happy Birthday”, “Happy
Anniversary”, “National Day”,
“Mother’s Day”, “Father’s Day” and so
on.
champion for this year. This year’s
tournament was a blast, and no doubt next
year the event will be as awesome as this
year.
But often, we forget there is one month
that is so special; that it is better than any
other months and people are guaranteed
blessings during that month. Indeed, the
special month is none other than
Ramadhan, when Muslims are required to
fast the whole month. What makes
Ramadhan at KYUEM more special is
that some of the non-Muslims also fast
together to experience the feeling!!
MUSCOM BOOKSALE
Every year, MUSCOM holds a book-sale.
The books are all second-hand and the
super seniors donate books to MUSCOM
to sell. This year the event was held once
again in the dining hall on the 31st July
2012.
As you would expect from any secondhand book-sale, the price of the books was
way cheaper than the first hand edition.
Discounts per book were as high as 90%.
Boy, you could see the beaming faces of
the students when they bought the books
at such cheap prices.
Indeed, seniors are delighted to help
juniors in any way they can and we hope
that the juniors are going to benefit from
this book sale in particular.
With this understanding, the Musolla
Community (MUSCOM) organised a few
events to make sure that Ramadhan this
year was beneficial to the fullest, whether
that was spiritually or intellectually.
KHATAM AL-QURAN
One of the targets of Muslims during
Ramadhan is to finish reading the Quran
in one month, a feat that not many people
would be able to do. To appreciate those
who have managed this amazing feat, the
Musolla Community (MUSCOM)
organised “Khatam Al-Quran”.
These are the events that we were
organised throughout Ramadhan month.
Qiamullail every weekend
Smart Circle
Tadarrus Al-Quran
Makan Dalam Talam
Fajr Talk
Ramadhan Cup
Nuqaba’ Training Course
Muscom Booksale
Bazaar Ramadhan
Khatam Al-Quran
Gaza Talk
RAMADHAN CUP
This is an annual event organised by
MUSCOM to promote the need for
exercise, even during fasting. 7 teams
registered for the event this year. They are
divided into 2 groups and the top two in
each group proceed to the knockout stage.
Ironically, this year, the winner of each
group crashed out in the semi-finals! The
two teams, KKB and JMJ, locked horns in
the final. These two often feature in the
final of Ramadhan Cup.
The final was filled with much intensity.
JMJ scored 2 goals in the first half, both
thanks to Haniff. It looked as though this
year would be a repeat of last year’s final,
when JMJ also led by 2 goals at half-time
and won the game 3-2. However, this
year, there was a twist of fate. Izzat Anuar,
or Tiger John as he is dubbed, scored 2
goals for KKB in the second half to tie the
score at 2-2. The match became much
more dramatic when Farhan, from JMJ,
beat the keeper only to find the bar
denying his attempt. Eventually, Shahir
scored a magnificent goal after a great
team effort by KKB to make it 3-2 and
help KKB to be able to boast the title
NUQABA’ TRAINING COURSE
On 22nd July 2012,the Musolla
Community organised the Nuqaba’
Training Course at Musolla As-Saad.
Leaders require personality. Personality
requires charisma. To achieve charisma,
one needs to have good public relations
skills and be able to communicate and
influence other people. The aim of the
course was to help would-be leaders
achieve this.
BAZAAR RAMADHAN
One of the cultural features of Malaysia
during Ramadhan is the organisation of
the Bazaar Ramadhan. Malaysians love to
eat and this is another proof of our love of
food. The fact is that food unites people,
regardless of nationality and race or
religion.
The KYUEM bazaar is organised every
week on Thursdays and everyone is
invited to open a stall to sell their food.
Various foods are sold, ranging from
McDonald’s burgers and hot dogs to cakes
and bubble-tea.
GAZA TALK
A representative from Palestine came to
Musolla As-Saad and gave us a direct
insight into the current happenings in
Palestine. I might be biased here but I
should admit that listening to other people
talking in a foreign language makes me
awed, particularly when that language is
Arabic. Nevertheless, putting that aside,
we were delighted to have a special guest
from Palestine to update us on the
situation.
All in all, this Ramadhan has been a very
memorable and busy month. All the
activities are not just for the sole purpose
of spiritual needs, but also to meet
intellectual and economic requirements.
We hope that this Ramadhan will have
directed people towards realising the quest
for meaning of life.
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28 August 2012
Hari Raya Celebration 2012
By : Siddiq Husainy b. Hasbullah
Ahoy!! Eid Mubarak to everyone!!
Ramadhan has left us; Syawal greets us with blessings and good
tidings. With it comes the Eidul Fitri Celebration, where everyone
gathers together and gets to know one another better.
As we are accustomed to do every year, the College celebrates
Hari Raya. This time around, though, we organised it in a different
and more special way for everyone. The Musolla Community
(Muscom), the Student Council and the college staff collaborated
to organise this massive event on the 28th August 2012 in the
Great Hall. Students, college staff, teachers, alumni and Lembah
Beringin residents, an immense number of people, joined the
celebration that night. Approximately 800 people attended the
event, wearing the best attire from their wardrobe.
Malaysians love food and our guests were no exception. They had
a more than pleasant surprise. 5 lambs, freshly cooked on the spot,
were served. The meat was so tender and juicy and the sauce
amplified the taste even further. Just thinking about it causes one
to drool. Furthermore, the menu also included “satay”, “rendang”
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and “ABC”. These mouth-watering foods are so good and the
guests loved them. Feedback from the teachers was also very
positive. Mrs Marina Bull described the food as the best she ever
had. Dr. Bano, Miss Jessie and Mrs. Foord also made flattering
remarks about it. Special thanks to the dining hall chefs and the
staff for making the event so memorable.
To add to the excitement of the night, the Raya Committee staged
a special musical theatre which focused on the typical happenings
during the Eid Mubarak celebration in Malaysia. The
performances, particularly the songs, were amazing. Thanks to the
three singers who left everyone speechless - Nik from batch 14.0,
and Hariz and Jalaluddin from batch 15.0.
To wrap up the performance for the night, the super seniors of
KYUEM also staged a special performance, singing Raya
celebration songs. All in all, this year’s Raya Celebration was
celebrated with pomp and pageantry and everyone was delighted
by it. We would like to specially thank the college staff, the
Student Council, MUSCOM and everyone who was involved
directly or indirectly for making the event such a success.
31 August – 2 September 2012
Muslim Youth Camp 2012
By : Siddiq Husainy b. Hasbullah
A weekend of pure awesomeness!
That is how easy it is to summarise the Muslim Youth Camp 2012,
which was organised by the Musolla Community (MUSCOM) in
conjunction with the Alumni of KYUEM at Kalumpang Training
and Resort Centre, Kerling, from 31st August 2012 till 2nd
September 2012.
The scenery of the place is breathtaking; the water can easily
literally freeze anyone – hard though this might be to believe in
Malaysia - and the activities organised were well-planned and full
of quality.
With the theme of producing professional Mukmin, the camp
focused on nurturing students who are not just equipped well
spiritually, but also intellectually. To do this, we needed to start
from the basics, which are to ensure that participants realise what
is the purpose of their life and how they should balance the needs
of living and the needs of the hereafter. These key points were
duly delivered by the renowned speakers, Brother Hilal Asyraf and
Ustaz Hasrizal Abdul Jamil.
Brother Hilal Asyraf induced our thoughts to think about the future
ahead and the importance of planning at least 5 years in the future
and in realising the true meaning of life. Indeed, the current trend
nowadays encourages people to be too focused on materialistic
values, as they neglect the importance of the spiritual and
emotional quotient in life.
Ustaz Hasrizal Abdul Jamil gave a 4 hour talk on the topic of
producing Muslim Syariatullah and Scientific. Ustaz explained in
detail the correlation between and the importance of both traits.
One will not be complete with only dependence on spiritual
assistance, he argued, but also requires hard work to achieve its
goal. 4 hours might sound like a long time, right? But Ustaz
managed to give an interactive and thorough explanation so that 4
hours did not seem long enough!!
To further satisfy the intellectual curiosity of the participants, the
next session allowed participants to ask many questions.
Talks were not the only activities of the weekend. There were lots
of fun events! One of the specialities of the Kalumpang Resort and
Training Centre is the freezing river. Guess what? It was river time
for us! However, the chilling water was very refreshing, and a far
cry from the usual shower at KYUEM.
In addition, there are other interesting activities like “the 360”,
“the Einstein”, and HAQ. To sum up the camp: it made our
weekend a blast!!
For the seniors, surely, next year we will be happy to attend the
camp again, but as facilitators, of course.
For the juniors, next year will provide another opportunity for
them to attend this marvellous programme.
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11 September 2012
Adventure KY Natural History Club
Bukit Tarik Forest Night Walk & Testing Out The Moonlander Light Trap
By : Junrui Lee
It was around 8.30 pm that three members of the Natural History Club and Mr
Boler set out to the heart of the Bukit Tarik Forest Reserve in a college van, eager
to try out the brand new state-of-the-art Moonlander Moth Trap paired with the
Goodden Gem Light, which Mr Boler had recently acquired. The light trap is
surprisingly compact and lighter than the conventional light trap which we had
used for many years.
After a few minutes travelling on the bumpy forest path away from the lights of
KY, we finally reached a suitable place to set up the light trap - a patch of forest
which was less dense and open to the skies. There we assembled the light trap
with the van’s headlights as our only source of light. The job was swiftly and
easily done. It was magnificent watching as the Gem Light lit up the darkness in
colours of green and violet after we placed it out of the light beside a bush. There
Mr Boler explained to us that the green and violet light emits lights of green
wavelength and ultraviolet wavelength which moths and other curious insects are
attracted to; however, it is harmful for humans to look directly into the light.
We let the light trap work its magic as we ventured out deeper into the forest
armed with butterfly nets, pots and torches to capture and study nocturnal insects
and anything we could capture. At first, we relied on our torches to see and
negotiate the forest but then at one point we all decided to just turn off all the
lights and let darkness engulf us. It was quite frightening initially as everything
was pitch black, but slowly our eyes adapted to the darkness and switched to
‘night vision’ mode enabling us to see the slightest amount of light in the dark reflections of light off the water puddles on the path, the dimly lit skies and
shadows of trees - which was enough for us to navigate through the forest. During
the walk, we managed to catch three fireflies which were relatively easy to spot
since their glow wasn’t drowned out by any other light source, two were from the
small species of firefly while one belonged to a slightly larger species. We also
spotted a bush cricket, jungle cockroaches, a variety of moths and two click
beetles which made loud clicking noises in the pot when trying to escape. One of
the most interesting catches was the predatory lacewing which is small and
delicate with glassy transparent wings.
After walking to the edge of the forest, we went back to check on the light trap.
Sadly, it hadn’t trapped a lot of moths inside it as it was placed quite close to the
ground. However, it attracted a lot of moths of
different shapes and sizes and other insects to the
outside of the light trap, which included some
spiders trying to get an easy meal and also giant
ants on the jungle floor. We then put what we could
catch in the pot, which was quite a lot, and
photographed them on the van before releasing
them, although we kept some for further study. The
trip ended around 11 pm and we returned to KY
safe and sound. It had been a tiring trip but it was
without a doubt one of the most memorable and
exciting Natural History Society’s jungle walks.
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16 September 2012
KYUEM Bangsawan Night
By : Nor Aqiliah
On the 16th September 2012, the Malay Cultural Club (MCC) in collaboration with the
Student Council (SC) organized Bangsawan Night for the year 2012.The prestigious night
started with the arrival of the CEO of KYUEM and the opening speech by the Director of
Bangsawan 2012, Muhamad Khir bin Abdullah. The judges were specially invited from
ASWARA to determine the winners of the awards. Puan Nor Rubaiha, KYUEM CEO was
invited to officiate the event.
Sapphire, the House of Glory, produced a mind-blowing performance which got the event
off to a flying start. Next, the House of Courage, Diamond toughened the competition further
through their own fine acting and wonderful sets. After the interval, Garnet, the House of
Enthusiasm, managed to shock the audience with the unexpected twist in their
plot. Last, but not least, the House of Rock, Topaz, ended the night with their
distinctive show. Each House gave of their best on the night making the
competition very fierce and giving the judges a challenging task.
The winners are:-
The committee would like to thank the College
administration for helping to make Bangsawan Night 2012 a
success; huge and warmest regards to our advisers, Pn
Halijah Ahmad and Pn Nor Ain A. Manaf for helping the
committee every step of the way. And last but not least, to all
committee members of Bangsawan Night 2012, thank you
for all the support and effort that you have put into making
this event successful and truly memorable.
24 October 2012
PRIZES
HOUSE
Best Costume
House of Rock, Topaz
Best choreography
House of Glory, Sapphire
Best Technical
House of Glory, Sapphire
Best props and backdrops
House of Enthusiasm , Garnet
Best Supporting Actor
Muhammad Norhashim (Topaz)
Best supporting Actress
Afifah Ahmad (Topaz)
Best Actor
Mohd Zuheir (Diamond)
Best Actress
Siti Nor Diyanah (Garnet)
Best Villain
Nurul Hanani (Diamond)
Best Script
Nur Aliah Rosland (Garnet)
Best Director
Anis Majida Kamaruddin (Topaz)
Best Drama
House of Enthusiasm, Garnet
By : Nurul Wahidah Othaman
Inter-House Cooking Competition
All four Houses were in action on the evening of
October 24th to compete in the annual inter-house
cooking competition organized by the culinary arts
club.
Representing Topaz, Diamond, Sapphire and Garnet,
each team showed their best cooking skills.
This year’s theme emphasized healthy and nutritious
food, and the competitors were required to use
mushrooms and citrus fruits as their main ingredients.
They were given ninety minutes to prepare their meal
before presenting it to the four “professional” judges.
The decision was based on criteria of cleanliness, taste,
presentation and time-management.
The group from Diamond House was declared the
winner with what the judges described as “a superb
meal”.
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KYUEM Natural History Club
Day trip to Sungai Dusun Malay Tapir Conservation Centre
16 September 2012
Tapirus Indicus
At 9.00am, with 11 students and 8 college staff, we departed in
two vans to Sungai Dusun, which is about an hour’s drive from
the college. When we first reached there at the museum in the
lobby of the centre, the manager of the conservation centre,
Mr. Amir, briefed us on the role of the conservation centre and
we looked at the skeletons, skulls, shells and skins of tapir,
rhino, snakes, crocodiles, civets and turtles. The Tapir
Conservation Centre is actually a part of the Sungai Dusun
Forest Reserve that constitutes an area of 10,000 acres. The
river, the Sungai Dusun, is the natural border of the nature
reserve. We were told that the Conservation Centre currently
has 7 Malayan Tapirs (Tapirus indicus). The Malayan Tapir is
the largest of the four species of Tapir found in the world and is
the only one in Asia. The conservation status of Malayan Tapir
is endangered. Besides tapirs, the conservation centre also has
3 marbled cats (Pardofelis marmorata) and 2 flat-headed cats
(Prionailurus planiceps). The role of the centre is to rehabilitate
tapirs especially those that were caught in snares; the centre
will also respond to tapir rescue missions.
After being rehabilitated, the centre will
release the tapirs into the forest
reserve where they can live
without the threat from human
civilisation.
After the briefing, we
proceeded to the tapir
enclosure where there were
two tapirs, a male and a
female. Tapirs are gentle giants
and they are actually larger than
they appear in the pictures. The
Malayan Tapir is a browser; it feeds
on leaves, from about the 115 species
of trees and shrubs that are available in
the Malaysian Rainforest. They are
crepuscular animals (active at dawn
and dusk mostly). Other than
rehabilitating the tapirs, the
centre also has a captive tapir
breeding programme. Up to
date, 3 tapir babies have been
successfully bred. Malayan
Tapirs have a gestation period
of about 350-390 days and so
have one baby every two years
on average. This is why
unintentional poaching of tapirs will
lead to its extinction. Tapirs are not
usually poached but are sometimes
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found caught in snares and mistaken for other animals. They
are also susceptible to be victims of road kill. Next, we visited
a larger tapir enclosure in part of the forest; we were
very lucky to spot the 3 tapirs in the enclosure,
a mother and father and their youngster – a
very rare sight indeed.
Following the visit we had an
opportunity to jungle trek into the
forest reserve, where on our way we
stopped at a hut housing 2 flatheaded cats. According to Wikipedia,
there are fewer than 10 flat-headed
cats in captivity. This means that we
saw 20% of the flat-headed cats in
captivity! Above the cage we also
spotted a nimble squirrel running up a
tree and along its branches. Along the
track, we experienced the change between a
rainforest and a peat swamp forest, trees and
palms gave way to swampy ground. In the peat
swamp forest we were really lucky because
there was an enclosed pond which has 7 False
Gharials (Tomistoma schlegelii) in it. These
are BIG, thin-snouted, freshwater crocodiles
and we managed to spot three of them.
Fortunately the pool was safely fenced off!
After the jungle trekking, we headed back to
the reception where we ate our packed
lunches.
After lunch, some of us walked around the
compound to try our hand at catching some
butterflies. We caught a few, just a few - due to
the hot afternoon sun. There were some very
interesting butterflies, however, such as the
Common Jay (Graphium evemon) which flew
too fast to catch, the Royal Assyrian (Terinos
terpander) with contrasting deep purple
upperwings and pale blue/orange speckled
underwings and the male Striped Blue Crow
(Euploea mulciber ) with iridescent blue wings
when it catches the sun. But the most amazing
was the blue streaked and tailed hindwing of a
rare Blue Nawab butterfly (Polyura schreiber)
that Mr Boler found! At around 2.30pm, we left
the conservation centre after a fantastic day. I have
to say that we were very lucky to have had the
chance to visit the Tapir Conservation Centre as it is
not open to the general public.
The Inaugural KYUEM Sumit 2012
“Malaysia In Retrospect” 22 September 2012
We are delighted to report that the
Inaugural KYUEM Summit 2012 which
took place on 22nd September ended with
generally positive reviews from the VIPs,
guest speakers, participants and members
of the KYUEM community. The day long
summit was designed to cater for preuniversity students and was organized by
KYUEM students under the guidance of
Puan Jaswati Esmael, who acted as the
event adviser. With the theme of 'Malaysia
in Retrospect', the participants were given
a platform to engage with their
contemporaries on critical Malaysian
issues, with specific focus on economic
policy, social development and the
philosophy of politics. This was done
through rigorous analysis sessions, which
were designed to facilitate intellectual
discourse and which were moderated by
ambassadors, most of whom were proud
KYUEM alumni.
To generate ideas and discussion prior to
the analysis sessions, talks were given by
notable representatives in their respective
fields. Amongst them were Dato' Noor
Rezan Bapoo, the former Deputy General
of the Ministry of Education, Dato Mahani,
CEO of ISIS and Yang Berhormat Nik
Nazmi, a current member of the Malaysian
parliament. Unlike the analysis sessions,
which were limited to 25 delegates per
council, the talk sessions were open to a
public audience. Participants comprised
students from Kolej Tuanku Jaafar, Taylors
College, INTEC, to name but a few. In
total, almost a hundred participants
registered and were present for the event.
honour, YB Khairy Jamaludin, during the
closing ceremony. It is hoped that this
Declaration will eventually be handed over
to representatives of the Higher Education
Ministry for their review and subsequent
action. Dato Nor Khalid (more popularly
known as Dato' Lat) also graced the event
with his attendance. The closing ceremony
was supplemented by the staging of a
Bangsawan performance by the House of
Garnet and several acoustic performances
by KYUEM students.
The success of the summit was due in part
to a considerable amount of effort from the
organizing committee. However, the
initiative would have been in vain if it were
not for the keen support of Puan Rubaiha,
CEO of Yayasan UEM, who consistently
offered her advice and kind
encouragement, and, of course, of all
members of the Student Management
Team, for their cooperation and incredible
hard work put into ensuring the best of the
event.
Beyond being an event focused on the
future of Malaysia, it also did much in
training the students in effective
organisation and time management, albeit
the end result of the latter is very much
identical to the former: that the future of
Malaysia is secured through the moulding
of a generation of intellectual leaders,
capable of rising to the challenge of the
shifting socio-political background of the
country.
The aim of the summit was to produce a
set of resolutions, entitled the Declaration
of the KYUEM Summit. Within this
declaration are proposed solutions,
collectively agreed upon by the delegates,
to address issues raised throughout the
analysis sessions. Congruent with the spirit
of democracy, a voting system was used as
a means to shortlist the resolutions, to
ensure that the greatest satisfaction was
achieved by the delegates. An example of a
resolution pertaining to the Social
Development Council is as follows:
The majority of the Council believes that
the issue of the Quality of the Malaysian
Education system must be resolved, and
the solutions put forth are as such: to adopt
a Montessori approach to educating school
children.
The Declaration of the KYUEM Summit
was officially handed over to the guest of
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24 September 2012
The Mooncake Festival
The Mooncake Festival is a very important day for Chinese
people to celebrate the unity of family. The Chinese Cultural Club
organizes this event annually to enable KYUEM students to
understand more about Chinese culture and have fun together.
Usually, the July intake students are responsible for the event.
After 3 weeks of preparation, the Mooncake Festival finally
arrived at KYEUM on 24th September. It was held at Saad
Square and in the Japanese Garden.
At 5.30 p.m., everyone started preparing for the Mooncake
Festival. Technical things, like the PA system, were set up. Some
committee members were involved in the preparation of chairs
and tables. Volunteers also helped out in decorating the place in
traditional Chinese fashion. The riddles were hung around the
Japanese Garden. Game booths and food stalls were set up. With
everyone working together, the team managed to finish their job
in an hour. The Japanese Garden and Saad Square were
transformed with decorations of red ribbons, colourful cubes
around the stage, lanterns as well as candles.
At 8 o’clock, many students started to arrive at Saad Square and
were amazed by the wonderful decorations. After the arrival of
VIPs, Mr. Donald Wilkinson, teacher advisers Dr. Foord and
Mrs.Foord and other teachers, this fantastic event started with
warm greetings from the emcees, Debra Tang and Amirul Hakim.
They welcomed everyone and explained the meaning of the
Mooncake Festival. Short speeches were given by our
headmaster, Mrs. Foord and the director of the committee, Angela
Teo. Two videos were played which illustrated the culture of the
event and some funny photos of the committee members
provided some humour. The opening ceremony was concluded by
Mr. Wilkinson and Mrs. Foord who lit up the extra big lantern
specially made by the decoration exco.
The first performance featured the director herself, Angela, and
Kivan who presented a short interview and some singing. Kivan,
even as an Indian, could sing a few sentences of the song entitled
“Longevity”: credits to him! After that, Marina Tan’s angelic
voice captured the hearts of the audience with the song ”The
Moon Represents My Heart”. The seniors performed by playing
the songs “Chrysanthemum” and “Promise” on guitar, cello and
pipa. All the performers won many students’ support and cheers.
The most attractive performance, the ribbon dance, was presented
by 6 lovely juniors to the song entitled “Glory”. The yellow and
purple ribbons were truly eye-catching and created a mesmeric
atmosphere, enhanced by the girls in their pretty, white dresses.
They certainly drew the warmest of applause!
At about 8.45p.m., the co-director of this event, Ashley Ng
introduced the games by using a slide show. After that, the food
was served and the audience started to fill their hungry stomachs.
Brown-skinned mooncakes, icy mooncakes, glutinous balls,
herbal eggs, pamelos and other items of traditional Chinese
cuisine were available. The reasonable prices and beautiful
appearance of the food attracted students to spend a lot! Some
who had never tasted mooncakes before had their first wonderful
experience of these delights at this event. The history and the
reasons for eating mooncakes attracted a lot of interest. At the
same time, by way of contrast, some traditional Chinese songs,
and some more recent popular songs such as Oppa Gangnam
Style, were played by the DJs. This made the atmosphere in Saad
Square loud and lively.
In this exuberant fun fair, there was a vast sea of games’ booths,
each filled with excitement and mystery. Whirling in
contradiction and confusion, the participants never ceased in
pondering their next move. The highlight of the games was the
nerve gun. The main prize, which was another nerve gun, really
motivated the participants, creating a very lively atmosphere. The
Chinese Calligraphy stall was a golden opportunity to introduce
this amazing aspect of traditional Chinese culture. The
perseverance of many participants was revealed when the
chopstick challenge was introduced. Using a chopstick to grab a
table tennis ball wasn’t as easy as you might imagine.
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Concentration and resilience were the major factors in success.
Mooncake pictures, puzzle games and memory games enhanced
both imagination and memory. The best part of the memory game
was that it wasn’t any ordinary memory game, but a game full of
Chinese words. It was quite astonishing that many participants
could complete it without any grounding in Chinese. The Chinese
chess match was quite mind-boggling. The intelligence to think
differently was obviously seen throughout the game. The final
contest was the rope and water game. In spite of the difficulty in
producing a solution to it, enthusiasm among the participants
wasn’t fading. Even a child managed to fulfil the requirements
within 10 seconds. How amazing!
It was a splendid night, which everyone enjoyed to the full,
regardless of race or religion. While some people danced happily
to the song “Oppa Gangnam Style”, others prepared their lanterns
for the lantern parade. The committee members formed a group
singing “The Moon” which is a traditional Chinese song.
At about 10 o’clock, Angela gathered everyone at the Japanese
Garden to carry out this last but most meaningful activity, the
lantern parade. Teachers and students followed her with their
colourful lanterns. In the dark black night, the beautiful lanterns
with their varied colours of blue, red, green and others, lit up the
road for people to see and walk. The “journey” started from the
Great Hall to the guard house. After 20 minutes, the parade ended
at Saad Square. The event eventually ended at about 11 pm. The
helpers and the committee members cleaned the place up together
- tables and chairs were carried back to the Great Hall and the
Dining Hall, and the decorations (and rubbish) were cleared away
for another year.
This was a splendid event in which everyone enjoyed their night
happily. The co-operation between and the contribution of the
committee members and the helpers deserved great credit. They
were all very satisfied by and happy with the outcome of this
event. On this night, the Mooncake Festival gathered everyone
together and completed its main mission - unity.
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29 September 2012 – 5 October2012
Charity Outreach Sabah 2012:
Curahan Budi di Bawah Bayu
By: Siddiq Husainy b. Hasbullah
There is a saying that goes; the best people are those who
contribute to others. This philosophy goes well with the quest
for meaning for human beings on this Earth. Indeed, to get the
answer, by no means we have to commune and understand life
in different perspective, not in just our own dimension.
In the effort to understand the true meaning of life, Musolla
Community (MUSCOM) of Kolej Yayasan UEM (KYUEM)
organise a Charity Outreach Trip; Curahan Budi di Bawah Bayu
2012 at Sabah from 29th September 2012 until 5th October
2012. The program is joined by 39 participants, including 11
teachers. The objectives of the program are to give exposure to
the participants regarding the life and culture of the Dusun
community and also to give various aid and assistance in
various aspects to the people.
There are 3 main target groups for this charity outreach; SRI AlHafiz at Bandar Sierra, Menggatal, Kg. Nawai Kiulu, Tamparuli
and Kg Kundasang Lama, Ranau.
SRI Al-Hafiz is a school focuses on producing students who are
not just academically-excellent, but also spiritually. We are up
for a pleasant surprise upon our arrival. The students prepared a
special performance for us! It was such a welcoming reception.
Here, we focus on beautifying the school by drawing mural and
also providing them with Rehal (Quran Stand). In the same
time, some of us became the facilitators for the Leadership
Camp. Even though it was tiresome, but the students gave an
encouraging and active response. It was an awesome and fun
experience!
For the charity outreach program, we have chosen Kg.
Kundasang Lama and Kg. Nawoi Kiulu since the population of
the villagers are from the Dusun. Dusun tribe is the most
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common in Sabah. Even though they are from different tribe
than us, their living style is more of a common to us. However,
there are two facts that should be highlighted; they are very
friendly and keen to participate in any activities. To further
understand the culture and life of the community, participants
live together with their foster families throughout the program.
Indeed, the participants managed to learn and understand their
culture and also learn their language too!
In addition of giving financial aid to the villagers, we also
organised motivational talk, health awareness campaign,
kenduri festival and also sports carnival in order to achieve
integration between the villagers and the participants.
I feel that all the participants and the villagers have created a
close bond between each other. At the end of the program, the
students and their foster families shed tears and showed
unwillingness to separate from one another. People say that
every meeting has its end and no one can refute that, but this is
a painful one to bear since we are so far apart from one another.
This could be the first and the last time we met.
6 days is such a short period for this event and the experience
that we obtained during this charity outreach is amazing. We
would like to thank all parties who are involved directly or
indirectly in making the program a success. One word is enough
to describe this program, priceless.
[ We realised that the villagers and the school could still do
with some assistance and aid. If you are interested in
contributing, you could contact Encik Anuar Ali
[013-8560679], who is the headmaster of SRI Al-Hafiz and also
the coordinator of the program. Any means of contribution is
hugely appreciated. ]
20 October & 17 November 2012
Open Day
The second year-end college Open Days were organised on 20th October and
17th November 2012.
The Saturday morning occasion attracted many prospective students
accompanied by their parents who converged on the college as early as
9.30am to get first-hand information about what our residential A-level
college has to offer.
The turnout was certainly an encouraging one, and many felt it was among
the best experienced at the college.
Parents and students were equally very pleased about paying the college a
visit. Certainly they discovered many aspects of KYUEM that they would
otherwise not have known.
They were then escorted to Lecture Theatre 2 where at around 10.45 am an
informative presentation was provided by Headmaster, Mr Donald Wilkinson,
and Guidance Counsellor, Pn Kasthuri Thilaga to a near capacity crowd.
During the Question & Answer session which followed parents and students
were equally keen to find out more about the college.
Soon afterwards, they were taken in groups led by representatives of our
Student Council for a tour to get a feel of the college.
Their overall interest was an absolutely positive indication of the popularity of
KYUEM as we strive to boost our new intake of students in January.
29 October – 8 November 2012
Sports Carnival Report
By: Foong Xiang Ming
Rain and more rain best described the weather for
this year’s sports carnival. However, despite the
gloomy evenings and violent thunderstorms, the
cheers from the crowd and the adrenalin in the
participants pumped up the atmosphere of the
whole event. KYUEM sports carnival was held
from the 29th October 2012 till 8th November
2012. This year, there were 8 sports being
contested which took a period of two weeks to be
completed because many outdoor sports had to be
postponed due to the weather.
KYUEM Sports Carnival was organised to
provide a platform for integration and fostering
unity among house members and between the 4
competitive houses in this college. Furthermore,
the carnival aimed at discovering the hidden sport
g e m s o f K Y U E M b es id es en co u r ag in g
participants to pick up sports they have never
tried before.
Thus, from the objectives initiated at the
beginning of the programme, a league system
replaced the usual knock-out system for all of the
8 sports being contested. In addition, more
categories and participants are listed to compete
in each sport so that a much greater participation
from all the houses in KYUEM is achieved. This
was met also by limiting the number of events
each participant can sign up for. A greater
collaboration between club presidents and the
sports council in managing and ensuring the
smooth success of the whole carnival was also
witnessed this year.
In a nutshell, the carnival was a success despite
some slight hiccoughs along the way. With
the advice given by the sports directors and
collaboration with the club presidents, we believe
that future sports carnival will achieve greater
heights and achievements.
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4 November 2012
Motivational Camp
SK Lembah Beringin 2012
By : Siddiq Husainy B. Hasbullah
Sitting for all three of the so-called toughest examinations in
Malaysia, namely the UPSR, the PMR and the SPM, and gaining top
notch results in all of them is something big. But to inspire others in
order to get the same results is something bigger. Realising this,
MUSCOM organised a motivational camp for students of SK
Lembah Beringin on Sunday, 4th November 2012 in order to
encourage all the students there to achieve the best results in all they
attempt.
The programme was divided into 3 categories
with each having its own objective. The first part
was for standard 1 to 3 with the aim being to
ignite the potential of the participants. The second
group was for standard 4 and 5. The objective for
this group was to spark their interest in learning.
The last category was for standard 6 with the aim
being to expose them to the challenges in
secondary school and the challenges of the
transition to adolescence.
A lot of creative modules were designed in pursuit of these
objectives. From playing explorace to scrabble, and through group
activities designed by the facilitators, the participants enjoyed a lot of
fun and some hilarious gimmicks put on by the project leaders.
Even though it was tiring, all the facilitators enjoyed the whole
programme and this is surely one event that will be treasured in their
hearts.
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