What is in your mind whenever you hear the word “Democratic
Party”? Does it fly you to that moment when over-17-aged people lining up to
cast their ballots behind those voting booths, donating their voice to the
election of the leader who will later be their guidance? Well, it should do
because that’s what is happening at that time.
Yesterday was the election of the new head of dormitory committee
substituting the old head which is held by Mas Son Ardhynata. Yesterday’s
election was a bit different with the previous elections. No, its so much
different with the way Mas Son was chosen. The reason why it’s not applied at
that time, one year ago, is because Bp. Muslich, the pioneer to the idea to
make it more democratic, was not here yet so that it can only run this time
when he Is here. The whole process of recruiting the candidates was organized
by the captain of the 9 houses.
The first stage of election was that, each house from the 11 grade
had to send their representative or the candidate they applied for this
selection. The 9 representatives then went through a tight process of selection
judged by the president of the 9 houses. They were interviewed, asked some
questions whose the answer were so abstract I guess. One of the questions I know
is “Why do they (the dorm residents) have to choose you as their leader”. Is it
me who is so stupid to think about this or they just made no sense? Hey why
should the no-need-to-answer question be questioned? The candidates already
proposed their vision and mission. My question is, didn’t the judge listen to
their target’s outline. They’d known their mission and that’s what the
candidate will sell to their chooser, right? Why do they still question what
they will sell? Why do they have to be chosen? If the expected answer is how
they judge themselves, it’s rather difficult I think. Each of us cant state
what kind of people we are, the ones who can are other people. 6 candidates
successfully passed this stage. They are Mela (Rhino), Bahrul (Hornbill), Afif Pandu
(Dove), Nando (Komodo), Tedy (MantaRay), and Iqbal Caraka (Dolphin). The second
stage was the challenge of collecting the faith tag. Each dorm residents should
give their faith tag to the one they believe in. After being accumulated, the
big 3 candidates with the most faith tags won. They are Afif Pandu, Nando, and
Tedy. They then picked their vices and their official teams to go together to
the real election and the tension reached its peak right yesterday. After
yelling and banging the campaign, they confidently took their step to the
public skill stage where they were asked directly by the whole dorm residents.
The day ended up with the election. And the winner was Nando with 113 voices.
He’ll start becoming the real Head of Dormitory Committee after he’s
inaugurated.
It’s cool right? It’s so cool. The system my dormitory is running
is so damning perfect. It’s the first time I cast my ballots. Its only in SMAN
10 Malang, the kids under 17 can participate in such a democratically
democratic party. Even I didn’t vote for the winner, I’m still satisfied with
the whole fair process done. No nepotism.
