Biz Council Redux : The Beginning of the End.

Biz Council Redux : The Beginning of the End.

It’s not the best feeling in the world when someone leaves your society citing being tired of it as the motivational factor in doing so. It’s twice as painful when that same person joins another society twice as quickly. I suppose that I can complain about how John butted in straight after Melissa’s post-mortem for the ball was underhanded and showed a total lack of respect. I suppose that I can complain about how he took advantage of me not being there to the extreme. I suppose that I can complain about him not having even the courtesy to tell me that he was planning to give a presentation about his idea after the post-mortem was done. I suppose that I can complain about him taking my own members away from me. I suppose that I can complain about the amount of trouble he gave all the other divisions during HELP Idol. Truth be told, I can’t be bothered anymore.

Before I go on, I’d just like to tell you that I’m not one to slander anyone on this blog. Granted, I’ve poked fun at the occasional acquaintance, but I’ve never meant to do anymore harm. And I still don’t. But I suppose that there’s nowhere else more convenient to vent out my grief and worry because this is just me, another anonymous blogger on the internet. And that’s how it stays, I suppose.

I first met John Chang back in 1999, when he was in Sri Cempaka. He had transferred from Sri KL earlier. I met him thru the old Cempaka bunch that I used to be close with (that’s another story for another day). I was dating Sandy at the time, and somehow or rather, we bumped into him at KLCC. So, technically, it was Sandy, me and John. Maybe it was sort of my fault, but Sandy and I were exhibitionists. Just that I didn’t expect John to tell my friends in Cempaka about it. I think he had a thing for my friend Christine back then (who didn’t?). That was the past. I just didn’t feel comfortable around him. We lost touch up til the Taman Negara trip last year. Now comes the funny part.

He was part of the 2002 BC committee, as the head of Sponsorship for the Cristo’s event. Helen told me that he had walked out, and that even when he was in the committee, he was barking orders more than helping out. Her fear was that he wouldn’t be productive during his second time. I tried to assure her that that was the past, and John confided in her that he had his reasons, but he’d do better with the new Council. No problems there, really. For a while, everything was good. Then HELP Idol came along.

I’ve heard the story from all angles. Firstly, from John’s own Logistical/Technical division. Secondly, from our adviser/project head Ms. Grace Lee. It’s quite hilarious, but sad at the same time. Some of the members believed that John was protecting them from doing too much work and from being used. Grace said that it was unfair in the sense, because she was the head, and she also felt let down in the way that John wasn’t communicating her ideas to his people. And that by undermining whatever authority she had, it was just plain rude. Things were much easier when she removed John and put Nicole (his deputy) in charge. Trivial things, like providing her with a name list of the committee that hadn’t been done at all were done within a day, thanks to Nicole.

Trivial things. My own memory of the kind of person that John is was after the Miss HELP Photogenic event (which was a fucking popularity contest, thank you, Lezel). I just asked him help take down one flyer off the wall. Just one. Really. Not all the flyers. Just one. One. I didn’t get the look of disgust on his face. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t do it. There’s no such thing as a small job. Something like that told me enough about him.

By this time you’re probably asking why I decided to let him stay on if I could ‘foresee’ whatever was going on. I couldn’t. I honestly trusted him. He voluntary decided to help out, which said loads. Not a lot of people would do that; not a lot of people do.

The Red Carpet. A few days before the event. We needed names and student ID numbers of the people going for the ball. We’d reminded him constantly for a month. He didn’t take them. Lena asked him if he could get some people to call up the guests during the day, with the Department phone. Nothing. In the end, Lena chided him. John screamed at her, threatening to bring his parents and their lawyer the next day. Helen screamed at him. Melissa slapped herself. Mary Ann rolled her eyes. And I just laughed. Because I’d let myself get fucked over. Brilliant, yea?

John Chang is arrogant. He’s egotistical. He doesn’t know humility or respect. He stares at himself in the mirror after working out (hey, this didn’t come from me). He isn’t that open to ideas other than his own. Which, in some cases, can be a good thing. He has the self-confidence to get things done, but at the same time, he doesn’t get into the business of being hands-on himself. An eclectic combination. I respected him and his ideas, because they were good, and most importantly, they worked. I still do. His NSO, New Student Organization (which needs a new name badly because it reminds me of a wrestling faction), sounds like a great idea. Friendly competition is fine. But the underhandedness of grabbing my own members from me behind my back is going a little too far. I can’t do anything about it. His proposal was solid. You can say that he’s a lot more deserving than me, in this regard.

I live by the mantra of he who lets himself get fucked deserves it. And in this case, I do. I wish him luck, though. I just wish things wouldn’t have to be this way. I guess I am a pacifist.

As for the Council? We’re down to 11 members. Slash off the sleeping members and it’s down to about, what, 8? Numbers are dwindling. And they might even dwindle further. It’s kind of sad to see that after much success, failure is inevitable. But when I think about how the Council was made of a skeleton crew last year, I don’t really feel that bad. I guess that I only feel sad because I’m fighting a losing fight. My vision for the Biz Council was to offer students a chance to enjoy their life in college, as opposed to just going through their academic paces. It still is.

This quasi-political stuff, this whole thing about whose proposal for events is better and all that, that’s utter bullocks. I just want students to enjoy their time. It’s nothing to do with power. It’s everything to do with fun. The word “professional” has been thrown around a lot of times during the organizing of the events for this year and last. Fuck the professionalism. We’re here to have fun. Everything that’s happened these past few months has made everything more complicated. People can’t get along. People acting like dicks. People thinking too much of themselves and too little of others. People not listening.

People are people. You’d say that I should deal with it and let it be. But being united’s a good feeling too, isn’t it? I guess that in the end, I couldn’t create that unity. A slacker president and a control freak vice. Maybe things were meant to be this way.

My vision was just to have fun in doing everything we do, and that we’d do it right. I’m starting to feel that I’m the only one with that vision.