Assalamu'alaikum readers.
Last night was the event that the Wataniah students have been training for every afternoon and night for the past 3 weeks! The name of the event is Zeal of Malaysian Armed Force (ZOMAF). Here's a promotional banner of it.
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| Source: nadiawatan-club.blogspot.com |
The event is held at the IIUM Male Sports Comples (Stadium) at night and is basically a series of performances by the Wataniah students. One of the VIPs of the event is the rector of IIUM herself, Prof. Dato' Dr. Zaleha Kamaruddin.
The event begins with the singing of Asma'ul Husna, Negaraku, our IIUM song and the recitation of Du'a. Then there is the gimmick from a few Wataniah seniors. The gimmick is spectacular indeed. 2 soldiers fight against 3 terrorists. All of them were using real M-16s (blank bullets of course!) They made a couple of shots and 1 soldier and 1 terrorist died. The other soldier was out of ammo so he gave up his firearm and decided to take the other 2 terrorists by hand. The fight was amazing. As expected, the soldier killed the 2 soldiers and he ran up to the stage to receive a "Medal of Honour" from the rector. Then he ran back down and high-kicked this big suspended ball thing in the middle of the field and it broke open with fireworks unraveling the word ZOMAF 2011 in vertical.
The next performance is the Warrior Dance. It is performed by most of the Wataniah students, including me! We got to hold a real bayonet, sing (more of yelling) and perform the various movements. I was placed at the front line! I had a little trouble removing and putting the bayonet back into it's sheath but all went well. I don't know how to evaluate our dance last night because i'm one of the performers but people said it was great :')
Moving on is a performance by IIUM's Silat Gayong team. I wasn't really paying attention to this performance because i was still panting from the previous performance -.- But i guess they did some martial arts moves in patterns and did some sparring.
The next performance is the Silent Drill or in malay it's called Kawad Senyap. Only intermediate and senior wataniah students are involved in this one since they got to use real firearms. I'm a junior and still have no experience with guns -__- It is a group kawad led by a leader. They walk synchronously with guns and form various patterns. It is a spectacular view if seen from above. At the end they load their guns and shoot using the blank bullets.
After that is the Pantomime performance (ignore the major yet funny typo of it in the poster). I was acting in one of the scenes of this pantomime. Me and all of the juniors are the villagers (around 30 people). We have to wear villager outfits (sarong, baju melayu) and carry our props such as shovels, hoes, spears, heck one of us even have a bicycle! The villagers only acts in the first scene. In the first scene, the villagers were peacefully just doing our daily routines. Some were just playing around, some were farming, catching fishes, hunting, etc. I was one of those who's using the shovels! Just bashing around the field with it feels cool. Unaware, the villagers are actually being observed by a few armed communists. Then suddenly, an explosion is heard! It's actually just those ball fireworks (mercun bola) but they still make a very loud noise. The villagers ran haphazardly around the field. The communists shot every one of us, including me :( There was one villager who stood up and fought and killed one of the communists using his spear, but ended up being tortured and shot. That's it for scene 1.
Unfortunately for me that's the only scene i'm acting in :( The scene after that shows the malay soldiers' platoon in the forest, trying to find out the whereabouts of the communists. They are doing the sneak attack moves which are so cool and i still haven't learn about it. They also demonstrated the Solat al-Khauf. It is a prayer made in the battlefield. In the end, the platoon found the communists and they engage in battle. More shooting and bombs were released between them. All of the communists were killed in the battle and the platoon was victorious!
The last performance isn't really a performance, all of the performers lined up in the middle of the field standing firmly while a person is reading a patriotic poem (sajak) with a melancholic background music. I can feel the aura of sorrow at that time even when I'm not paying attention to the poem >.< And then the event is over but we are still standing firmly in the field! Some guests went down to the field to take some photographs of us :P We also took a group photo with the rector!
All of us also helped clean up the field and everything. We also stand in a single line at the edge of the field and walk slowly across the field to search for the cartridges from the gunshots during the performance. Kinda like minesweeper. Blank bullets also leave out the cartridges. I plan to keep one as a memory and to show off to my little brother but one of my friends said that i can be jailed for 20 years if i keep that cartridge -.-
Overall it was a great event especially when the VIPs especially the rector is satisfied. The organization team did a great job. I had a good time and experience. I have only been in IIUM for 4 weeks but i'm already involving myself in events and such! I still haven't forgotten about my academics though. I still have upcoming assignments, quizzes and presentations. Hopefully the end of ZOMAF will make me more flexible in time management! Thanks for reading readers. Salam.
p/s: Sorry for the lack of pictures of the event. I was one of the performers so I didn't really get any photos from the spectators' view. But i will post them if i can get a hold of them!
EDIT 1: We maintained the same name in the next year's event :/
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