As the year comes to a close and classes begin to prepare for examinations in various levels, the god of drama has pierced his talons once more into the fabric of reality surrounding IFUMSAites. And, oddly, the target of his spell is a yearly release with almost no trigger element before this year: the giving (or lack thereof) of the Annual IFUMSA awards. But, like everything the god of dramatics touches, it all starts with minor disagreements and erupts into massive gouts of violence.
It all started with the release of a list of all the winners of nominated awards. The same trivial exercise produced a blend of indifference and muted congratulations as it had every year. The class groups closely followed the predictable pattern of activities. However, the beginnings of the issue were not in the usual places. Instead, the spark that started this fire came from the IFUMSA publicity body’s normally quiet and secretive WhatsApp group page.
This group page handles the dispensation of raw information to the entire body of medical students in the college. Cries alleging adulteration of the original votes and their totals began to circulate. Investigations and accusations soon followed, revealing a deep involvement of the president of the just past IFUMSA administration.
The chairman of the Awards Committee last touched the original document with the vote results on the 8th of September. However, photographic evidence reveals that the previous president alone had many modifications. And he made most of these modifications after the end of his administration. The pictures released and three separate documents depicting various prize winners and statistics percentages portray a dismal picture. One that hugely goes against what the association believes in.
Also, statements, including one from the immediately preceding General Secretary, claim that a culture of results adulteration has plagued the association since his college entry. This followed the charges leveled at everyone from the committee chair to the former administration.
Interestingly, this was just the beginning of the show. A Part 3 student released another document and claimed it was the original document. He even went so far as to accuse the award committee of results forgery openly. This, unfortunately, casts doubt on the integrity of the whole awards committee. Additionally, he encourages total disregard for all figures that have been made public. To him, they easily may have been falsified.
Along with his declarations of innocence, Mr. X, the head of the Awards Committee, has also called for criticism of the activities of the former president. However, the unwillingness of individuals directly involved in the details of the drama to discuss what happened is a rather unexpected development. As of the time this article was being written, several others declined to speak. This also includes the accuser who brazenly libeled the whole awards committee.
No one has said anything so far, suggesting a call for peace or a choice made internally to ignore the situation and let the unfortunate occurrence die naturally. At the SRB sitting on Friday the 16th, many honorable members expressed their displeasure at the situation and discussed the way forward. The consensus was to constitute a committee for further investigation.
Who is at fault? There is obviously no one candidate to blame for everything, but the Awards committee definitely had its faults. The results’ lack of protection started this cycle of adulteration, even though they had no direct role in the modified results. A better approach would have allowed the president, who also contributed to the widespread falsification of results, restricted access.
The absence of transparency also contributes. And although it has mostly gone unnoticed until now, it shouldn’t happen again. For the time being, the onus lies on IFUMSA leadership to carry out all they said in the last sitting. This will allow them fish out the unscrupulousness in our prestigious association.
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