Objective, Independent: On The Controlling Committee
“Help me sign up as a controlling committee, would you? It’s not gonna be that big of a deal, I promise.”
Little did I know what I was signing up for. It’s not as serious as I make it out to be, all we did was supervise according to the legislated rules and receive complaints. It was eye opening, nonetheless. For that I’m grateful to the executive members for entrusting me with that task, and especially to Tita for offering me the job in the first place.
It was a means to revisit CEREBRUM, the orientation period that left a scar on everyone. Like every other trauma, this one should also be confronted. In the process I realized it’s not as bad as it seems. A few dozen of people screaming all kinds of questions all at once is physically nauseating but any faulty answers the process hold no serious repercussions. It is all an act, the people performing such dictatorial tasks are hypocrites
Coordination with the other divisions made me realize that me and my colleagues are more flawed than I thought we were. Everyone seems to avoid addressing problems for whatever reason until they realize it’s too late and that neglected issues actually have consequences. That led me to believe that us seniors can be just as clueless as the freshmen, and as the freshmen we used to be.
As clueless as we are, we have to pretend that we know, to seem convincing and believable. For that I don’t blame my colleagues for being hypocrites. “Just look like you know what’s going on even if you don’t. They can’t tell the difference anyway. You gotta be convincing enough for them to trust you.” I too had to be like my colleagues, a hypocrite.
So, to think the freshmen would ever trust me, is very much out of reach.
"My leg hurts from all the standing," "Can we know the reports the committees wrote about us?" "Can we hold another adjudication session? I missed the last one," "Wow the adjudication session was really cool I wanna attend another one," "I wanna be one of the lawyers, how cool would that be!" "The toilet is too small, sometimes it reeks of feces," "What will the medics do to us if we're unwell?"
I still think it’s out of reach, there are many interpretations to some silly non-legal-related feedbacks, but I had the most pleasure of recieving all kinds of complaints from the freshmen I was assigned to.
One of the more serious cases got me wondering whether the threat of penalty for attending external religious activities within the designated schedule of the event, was done out of ignorance or discrimination. Ignorance stems from discrimination anyway, I’m not surprised. Still, I appreciate the effort to facilitate to some on-campus religious activities.
In the process I learnt a bit more about law and how adjudication sessions run, I learnt how politics work, and how it is inevitable. I discovered how passionate my peers are about law and justice, and that was very inspiring, and I hope they keep it up. Although law didn't end up becoming my interest, I believe it is still important to understand its roundabouts especially considering how both fields are intertwined.