What happened to OUR money? Gone to the pockets of selfish individuals?

When people are given power to control an estimated council funds of RM 200,000, we need honest people to serve as stewards to those funds.

All Monash students pay compulsory student council fees every semester (be it RM50 or RM30), just like how responsible citizens pay taxes to the government. Which we expect whichever party who governs these funds to be responsible over our money to ensure that every single cent is spent wisely for the benefits of students.

But what happens when funds get misused? Which is exactly what is happening right now under the governance of the SPEAK party.

During the very first council meeting of the year, MUSA President Darren Ng Peck Yun proposed that laptops be purchased for use during council meetings. Stating that using laptops save papers.

Maybe laptops do save papers. But the question is, why do they need to specifically purchase new laptops to fulfill such needs? There are so many ways laptops may be obtained other than using students' money to purchase new ones. First, a laptop can be borrowed/loaned from our uni facilities department. Let's say facilities department isn't opened, they can still use the desktops available in every tutorial room. Or in any worst case scenario, they can just bring one of their own laptops to use during their meetings!

And when the new laptops are purchased, another thing which caused suspicion is this: Darren (President) proposed that the laptop be brought back to his home daily due to security reasons.

Security is not a valid reason as we know, there are tons of other more valuable things stored in the MUSA Offices, such as tens of thousands of cold hard cash.

Bringing home a laptop meant for office means allowing space for personal use.

Furthermore, why did Darren need to take the laptop home? Was he writing the minutes? I think not, only the General Secretary does.

And what is going to happen to the laptop after the year of reign ended? We won't be surprised if it mysteriously disappears.

We want to know, why is our money being used this way, wasted on unnecessary purchases which may be brought home for personal use?

Last year, SPEAK promised greater transparency, and the most basic way to do this would be to release the council meeting minutes and accounts, to reveal what decisions were made and how OUR money was spent.

Apparently, they did not do so. No meeting minutes. No accounts. Nothing.

For the past year, it was common practice to release meeting minutes through the MUSA Online website. Not this year. All that was displayed was "under construction".

Who knows how much of OUR student funds have gone into their personal pockets for selfish gains. There may be more than just laptops.

But we students have the right to change this. Say NO to misuse of funds and abuse of power, say NO to SPEAK today!