ISDEV ECHELONS

Not much happenings after coming home from Ban Nua, Thailand on the 9th December, except a meeting on Zakat Asnaf Revisited at De Palma Hotel in Shah Alam organised by Selangor Zakat Council (LZS) on 19-20th December, a Post-Mortem Meeting on ISDEV Research University Team (RUT) Report Presentation on 21st December, and a meeting on Evaluation for MAPIM Book Award on 27th December.

While I was on my way to Shah Alam on the 18th, a group of lecturers and graduate students of Faculty of Economics and Muamalat (FEM) of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) visited ISDEV and a meeting of Management Committee of the School of Social Sciences was in progress. On the 20th, while I was in the midst of the meeting on the Zakat Asnaf Revisited in Shah Alam, researchers of the ISDEV RUT presented our one-year achievements of the research project to assessors of the Social Transformation Research Platform.

I was supposed to have involved in all the three porgrammes. But since I was away, I have to delegate the tasks to other ISDEV members. The visit by USIM was handled by ISDEV PhD student Shereeza Mohd Saniff, while the meeting at the School of Social Sciences and the ISDEV RUT presentation were handled by Dr Mohd Shukri Hanapi, with the help of Dr Zakaria Bahari and other research members, including ISDEV Academic Staff Training Scheme Fellows.

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah SWT, all the three programmes were handled successfully, manifesting that ISDEV could be sailed smoothly, even though if I am no more at ISDEV, InshaAllah. ISDEV is not a one-man show business indeed. It is a collective business with trained-next-echelon prepared to handle  future challenging tasks, InshaAllah.

LESSONS FROM BAN NUA

Three days in Ban Nua were really an experience. I had a chance to discuss with and pray behind Dr Tobrani, the Head (Imam) of the Ban Nua community himself. He is a simple but knowledgable and determined young man. I was also honoured to be invited by him and to speak in a dialogue with his guests - community members of Gunung Condong, Bentong, Southern Thailand - who, like many other guests to Ban Nua, came to share Dr Tobrani's experience in developing community from below.

From the experience, four important lessons perhaps could be shared here. Firstly, in any organisation, knowledge is the fundamental pre-requisite. Dr Tobrani has gathered his knowledge from al-Azhar University for his Bachelor degree, International Islamic University Malaysia for his Master degree, and Thaksin University for his Phd degree.

Secondly is the management of knowledge. He disseminates the knowledge to his community to ensure that they understand what should be done in their community. Thirdly is the leadership. One with knowledge and endeavours in disseminating it would not be effective unless he has leadership skills, one of which is manifested through the trust of the people on him as well as his ability in mobilising the people. Dr Tobrani undoubtedly possesses such a skill. Fourthly is the sacrifice. Both leaders and people of Ban Nua could not have developed their Ban Nua village without the sacrifice in every sense. They have the real sense of sacrifice indeed.

Knowledge, management of knowledge, leadership and sacrifice definitely have to be in ISDEV fraternity if ISDEV were to realise its ambition.

VISIT TO BAN NUA, THAILAND

As scheduled, together with 36 other ISDEV fraternity (lecturers, graduate students, and Fellows of Academic Staff Training Scheme, I am now in Ban Nua, Province of Songkhla, Thailand. We arrived yesterday and had a visit to Hatyai Floating Market, heard a briefing from Ban Nua's Community Head Dr Tobrani, and held a dialogue with colleagues from Walailak University, Nakhorn si Thammarat.

At the moment, 3 community engagement programmes are in progress. They are cleanliness and health awareness, library management, and computer lessons for zakat and cooperative managers. ISDEV graduate students, in particular MISDEV12, are in charge of the programmes.

This evening would be a football match between Ban Nua community and ISDEV+Walailak University. This would be followed by an Islamic cultural show by ISDEV, Walalilak University and the children of Ban Nua community. We will be leaving for home tomorrow, InshaAllah.

PRESENTATIONS, BRIEF HOLIDAYS AND MUSLIM VICE-CHANCELLORS' FORUM

Last week was full of ISDEV graduate presentations. The first group was Master Mixed Mode batch 2011 (MISDEV11) and the second was Master Mixed Mode batch 2012 (MISDEV12) students. It started with a whole day dissertation presentation by MISDEV11 graduates on 26th, followed by proposal presentation by MISDEV12 on 27th and MISDEV11 again on 29th November.

As a whole, the quality of MISDEV11 graduates disssertations is significantly good, thanks to the close and dedicated supervision by their respective supervisors. The relatively shorter time taken by MISDEV12 graduates to find their research topics and prepare their proposals for presentations too is also commendable. They have proved to be able to adjust themselves with and fit into ISDEV academic culture.

After the presentation, I rushed to Kuala Lumpur to have a short weekend holidays with all my 4 children at Equatorial Bangi. We had dinner at Ana Ikan Bakar and breakfast with nasi belauk at a restaurant in Bangi,  tasted the popular durian creepe bought by Akif at Mid-Valley, lepak-lepak at the hotel swimming pool, and watched Malaysia-Thailand football match on tv in the hotel while having dinner with sup keting and asam pedas bought earlier at a restaurant. On Sunday we drove to Jengka to send Taariq to his Universiti Teknologi MARA, without Akif who has to fly back to his Universiti Sains Malaysia and Afirah who has to drive back to her Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.

Later in the week, I participated in a Muslim Vice-Chancellors' Forum at Royale Chulan KL. Organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia's Institute of Higher Education Research (IPPTN), and  Malaysia's Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT), the Forum witnessed the participation by various Vice-Chancellors and their representatives from around the globe, with an aim of formulating an injection of Islam into their respective universities.