The Story of IIUM as-Siddiq Awards

One of the best decisions I made as the President of IIUM as-Siddiq College was to establish and institute IIUM as-Siddiq Awards at the end of 2015. Those Awards comes with at least three purposes: to acknowledge achievements made by College residents for themselves and their College in various arena, to reward students who have served the College and its People directly and indirectly, and to recognise extraordinary contributions made by students towards the University.

These Awards comprise of five classes, namely Star of As-Siddiq (SAS), As-Siddiq Gold Medal (ASGM), As-Siddiq Silver Medal (ASSM), As-Siddiq Bronze Medal (ASBM) and As-Siddiq Certificate of Honours (ASCH). However, no one has been honoured by the College Principal to receive SAS since its introduction in February 2017. Therefore, the highest class of these Awards has been ASGM.

The introduction of five different classes of Awards are not meant to classify who is the best and who is the worst among recipients, but to recognise everyone based on longevity of services they have rendered to the College, type of achievements they have recorded in various levels and fields, and amount of contributions they have made towards the University, and directivity of implications of those achievements, contributions and services to the People and the Nation.

Based on the mentioned criteria, 235 students who are residents and non-resident collaborators and supporters of the College was chosen to receive one of four classes of Awards offered during Muizz and Bukhari Administration. I was bestowed with ASGM in December 2015 though I was not supposed to receive it due to my position when the Inaugural Investiture took place.

Even so, it is not only me who received ASGM. Two of my closest comrades received ASGM in December 2015. More have received ASGM in the following investiture ceremonies. One of them was selected as the Overall Best Student for his Faculty in the recent University Convocation Ceremony. When I try to confirm such recognition, I discovered that ASGM was one of grounds that cause the University to bestow him such high recognition.

In fact, he received ASGM not for the close comradeship we have shared and enjoyed since October 2012, but for the collaboration between a youth society he represents with the College in making one of segments of the last College Festival successful. He was the leader for such collaboration; the segment he led on that time outshined other segments contained in such Festival. Such collaboration has even strengthened the reputation of the society he represents on that time at both headquarters and branch levels.

It is not only a proud time for me to see him receiving such great recognition, but also to watch him standing as one of six Valedictorians in the recent University Convocation Ceremony. That’s the reason I mentioned previously that, even though my College was seemed as “a new Sultanate that offers orders and decorations to selected people”, my decision to establish and institute those Awards was right. No College in my University has done so until present. If there is, the way of recognition demonstrated by such College is different and too normal, like the best programme and the best resident leader.

The establishment and institution of those Awards are not to recognise selected person or group only, but to celebrate everyone who have been with the College and the University day in and day out in their own way. That’s why these Awards have a number of classes and not a number of categories that are meant to recognise the best only.

When everyone is recognised, everyone will be motivated. Recipients will work harder not for the next recognition, but for personal, professional and institutional advancement. Non-recipients, at the same time, will work harder to stand, if not higher than the recipients, at par with the recipients. The more the recognition, the more the motivation, and the higher the productivity and reputation a person, in both individual and professional capacities, and an institution will experience in the future.