MOOT WORKSHOP, KEDAH
After the roaring success of the moot workshop in Kuantan, the whole team was pretty hyped-up to go to Kedah and (hopefully) create a similar historical event. As the Sungai Petani campus is located about 300kms from Shah Alam, we had to leave a day earlier as the trip would take approximately 5 to 6 hours. However we forget to take into account that, as it was the fasting season so certain special circumstances would arise. The compulsory stop to break fast plus a few extremely long breaks to “recuperate” turned the 6 hours journey into 8 hours. Needless to say, by the time we saw the signboard for Sungai Petani, nobody wanted to see the sight of a bus ever again.
Our accommodation in Sungai Petani was a place called Northern Lodge, located just behind Park Avenue. Other than the memorable first night of trauma for Elli and Cik Pah as they were attacked by a colony of ants, the place is relatively acceptable. Initially we wanted to label it as an average but the fact that its only 5 minutes walk away from Nasi Kandar Pelita gives it a slightly higher rating.
The next morning the moot lemmings woke up bright and early and headed straight for Merbok campus that is located about 15 minutes drive from the hotel. For those of us who did their foundation in Kedah, we were bombarded by memories of studying here the moment the smell of rubber trees permeated the bus. Plus the sight of paddy fields all bright yellow and heavy with grain does strike a chord of melancholy in all of us. Memorable, but I digress. The campus itself had gone through a substantial upgrade since the last time I was here. It now boasts a new mosque, a new academic block plus a well-needed hostel. Kudos to Prof Dr Zaliha Binti Haji Hussin for her ever vigilant effort to upgrade the standard of this campus.
On to the event of the day!
The number of attendees for the moot workshop seemed smaller as compared to the one in Kuantan however it may have been because the venue was bigger. We had to conduct the workshop in the mosque as apparently all the other halls were already booked for other programmes. This made the presentation rather difficult as the sound was bouncing out of the mosque (the mosque had no walls). There was even a moment where we thought we had completely lost the audience’s focus. However the team gritted their teeth and put in an extra effort to be as interactive and approachable as possible and fortunately we managed to pull the audience’s attention again.
The mooting demonstration was held in another venue, Dewan Sarjana as we decided that it was not feasible for it to be held in the mosque. Again, the question and format of LawAsia was used. This time around the mooting demonstration was done by :
1) Claimant : Arina Lum and Izzat Asyraf
2) Respondent : Danial Nizam and Azad Akbar
3) Arbitrators : Afif Ahmayuddin and Shairil Farhana
Eventhough this particular workshop was a bit challenging for us due to the logistical issues, however all our efforts paid off when we found out that Sungai Petani campus would be sending 3 teams for the inter-part mooting competition. Again, congratulations are due to the moot team for pulling this off.
All of us can’t wait to see all the participants battling it out this coming weekend, hopefully we will get to see appearances of future moot gods or goddesses that will continue the great standards achieved by the Jessup 2010 team.
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