Please be warned. This is a very long post ;)

It all started with this letter in the STAR education section on 7th August, 2005…

Nightmare of orientation

AFTER years of struggling and hard work, my son’s dream of becoming a doctor finally paid off when he was offered a place to study medicine at Universiti Malaya (UM).

The registration for the new students at UM began on July 3, followed by the orientation programme. To the best of my knowledge, the orientation programme is meant to provide information to the new undergraduates pertaining to their studies, to familiarise them with life and the facilities in campus, the rules and regulations, and most importantly, to get to know the senior students. However, instead of a warm welcome from the seniors, the orientation programme has proven to be a nightmare.

The new students were made to perform various silly acts such as bowing to the seniors. They are not to look into the seniors’ eyes or patronise the mini-market for their daily necessities, etc.

Their hand phones were kept by the seniors and they were not allowed to contact their parents, family members, and friends. All these so-called orientation programmes go on until 2am or 3am, and they have to get up by am the next day. They have barely three hours of sleep and no time to do daily chores such as washing clothes. My son is not feeling well now and I am worried about his health both physically and mentally, if this continues.

Life in UM is not what he thought it would be – it’s been rather like living together with a group of gangsters or in a secret society. Medical faculty students are future doctors. The university should provide a conducive environment to mould these young, ambitious and energetic people to become thoughtful, considerate, dedicated and patriotic citizens.

They should not live in fear of their seniors and pass on this attitude to the subsequent year’s freshies. I wonder whether these are the traditions of all universities?

Could the UM authorities or someone in the Higher Education Ministry seriously look into this problem and put a stop to it before it becomes worse?

The university should organise educational and motivational programmes for the orientation week which both senior students and fresh undergraduates can look forward to.

UM should prohibit orientation programmes initiated or organised by senior students which could tarnish the good image of this top 100-ranked university.

WORRIED PARENT
Via e-mail

Then many replies ensured.

However, in my humble opinion, I feel that this is the best response so far…

In defence of orientation

I REFER to the letter “Nightmare of orientation” (StarEducation, Aug 7) where the writer urged the relevant authorities to prohibit orientation programmes for medical students in a public university. I would like to voice my opinion on several issues.

Firstly, the writer felt that bowing to the seniors is a very silly act. Does this mean that he will never bow to his professors or his patients, irrespective of whether they are old, young, poor or even mentally retarded? Does this mean that he will never bend down to touch and examine his patients’ feet?

The writer was also unhappy about the fact that he had to stay up till 3am with very little time to sleep!

Didn’t anyone inform him that sometimes a doctor does not sleep for days, especially when he or she is on call. Forget about doing daily chores – there might not even be time for meals.

The writer was also extremely worried about his son’s mental and physical health as his son was already not feeling well because of the long orientation programme. Then, I think he had better reconsider whether he is fit mentally and physically to under go the medical training for five years or even embark upon a career as a doctor.

If he is unwilling to sacrifice his sleep and his time, then it is still not too late to withdraw from the programme.

Please remember that to be a good doctor, it is not enough to be intelligent – there must be lots of dedication and sacrifice too.

MARGARET
Via e-mail

I’ve been through orientation in UM (obviously) and as much as I did not particularly like it then, looking back, it did serve some purpose of some sort. In the end of it all, I guess, I did get to know almost all my seniors in the span of 2 months. We had to memorize all their names, which school and state they are from etc. Can’t say I remember all of them until now and vice versa, but it did help to break the ice as we were all essentially living together in the same hostel. If I was not forced into it by the so-called orientation, I doubt I would have made the initiative to get to know them on my own. Now that I’m a senior, I realised that the seniors also had to memorize the juniors names, as well as to make the effort to get to know the juniors. It’s a two-way thing.

The aims of orientation were also apparently to eliminate pride and to train the newbies to handle mental stress. It may sound like a lame excuse to bully the freshies and on reflection, I don’t quite agree with some of the methods applied by certain seniors. Nevertheless, it is not fair to generalise all seniors as being mean or fierce as there were also many seniors who were very nice to us. The silly, crazy and somewhat humiliating things we had to do were alright in moderation, and were even fun at times. However, the unnecessary scolding, mental ragging and intimidation were not.

The orientation nowadays have mellowed so much compared to that in the past. Although it’s hard to irradicate it once and for all, at least some things are improving for the better. Funny that it is only recently that we hear parents calling up the university authorities, writing to the papers etc. Are kids nowaday getting more pampered than before? Can’t they survive a little pressure and discomfort without whining and complaining? Can parents protect their kids forever?

The world out there is harsh. There will always be good and bad, altogether in the same basket. It is our own choice to filter out the bad and to make the best out of the good. If one has a right mindset and approach to orientation, it can definitely be turned into a learning experience. If one can’t handle the stress of orientation, then I would suggest really reviewing one’s decision to study medicine. As a 4th year medical student, the stress I went through during orientation is nothing to what I am facing now, and will face in the future.

It’s not just in the university. Bullying/Ragging/Whatever-you-want-to-call-it, can and will happen anywhere, especially in the working world. Banning it is not the solution. Heck, ragging is already banned anyway. Those who were severely ragged, tend to end up being mean raggers due to the quest for revenge. But can you completely remove this perpertual cycle? Not unless you kill all those people once and for all. Thus, the only thing you can do, no matter what you went through, is to vow to yourself to be a good senior and to not be a victim of these ragging cycle…