Kisah Semalam [Yesterday's News | What happened yesterday]

Yesterday we went to number 3's university to register (for their new semester) and was told to turn back, because the Ministry of Higher Education has just released a circular that all registrations are postponed. 

Students who have registered in the morning and moved their things in the dorms were asked to vacate the premise and recommended to go home. 

... and almost immediately, the social media platforms blew up with various comments and brickbats: why were we not informed earlier, what about our costs of traveling, we have paid for accommodation deposits, why must we pay for online lessons when we cannot use the labs & everything (I heavily generalise). [Incidentally Parti Muda collected a little over RM50,000 to support the affected students, but they have yet to announce how to claim for the compensation]

I asked my daughter not to participate, to be patient, to not be a member of the keyboard warrior clan.

However yesterday and until this morning she was uncharacteristically quiet. She was so looking forward to meeting her friends and starting classes again after a long hiatus.

As a parent, I had a hunch that maybe the registration could be cancelled. Never had I been so disappointed to be proven right. And from the perspective of crisis management, the university's announcement could have been made a little earlier. Perhaps even the night before at the latest? Pandai aku cakap, sebab aku tak handle masalah ni.

Whatever it is, this is the situation and we will move forward stronger.

It is probably sad to see our students being treated this way, however the bigger picture is: national security/ health hazards need to be handled before it gets worse. [By the way, yesterday's infection has increased to 287 people, our highest ever since the MCO started on 18 March 2020 😰]

I will not comment further. The parties involved (in MOHE) have their own reasons to make the announcement the way they did & the universities probably do not have much say anyways.. and students even more so.