NUMB. CONTENT PAGE
1 Dear Reader Letter 1
2 About The Team 2
3 Interview
4 Poem 3,4,5
5 Fiction Story 6
6 Nonfiction Piece
7 Farewell Remark 7,8
8 Autograph 9,10
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Dear readers, this magazine is prepared whole heartedly by the
organization REBEL. Our work is about the dark side of our school
that is Maktab Rendah Sains Mara Taiping. Many of our fellow friends
did a same project as our but the difference is that they made a
positive outcome of the school. In my team, we feel that we want to
be a little bit of a different from the other so we made a magazine the
described and stories the negative outcome of the school. It may be
inappropriate to tell the bad side of MRSM Taiping but we feel that
people need to know the truth and opinion of some students towards
the school. I believe that many parties would disband our
organization because of our action to tell the truth of some students to
the entire school. We know that our action is wrong but this is life
there would be the advantages and disadvantages to everything. So
we decided to talk about disadvantages of our school.
In our magazine titled “MRSM Taiping- The Minor Prison” will
take you on a journey to a prison that is disguise as a school. It would
tell the population of the school who agrees and disagrees to the
statement that the school is a prison. Describing the school as prison
to some students and the truth behind some lies that the students are
to scared to tell. We hope that you would enjoy reading our magazine
and think about the way you see the school.
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HAZIQ HAKIM
Chief Editor
He is responsible to finalise all of the
content, design and everything about the
magazine.
ABDULLAH BUKHARI
Lead Writer
He is responsible to finalise all of the
content in our magazine and full of
smugness.
AISYA ALYSSA
Graphic Designer
She is responsible for the cover,
background, photography and
illustration of the magazine.
NUR ATIQAH
Interviewer
She is responsible for the process of
collecting data and interviewing some
people for our magazine.
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Recently, we interviewed one of Taiping's MRSM students regarding our e-Zine project,
MJSC Taiping as a minor prison. She is Nur Alya Zulfa binti Zaimi. She is a Form 5
student and holds a position in the Student Leadership Secretariat group, Dormitory
Management Department (JPA). We chose her to be interviewed because according to
our view and some of our friends we found she was very disciplined and following the
rules of the college. Because she was a quiet girl, we asked her view of this to see how she
thought abou this. Here is the chat below.
Me: Assalamualaikum, Alya. Sorry very much for asking your prep time this time. I want
to ask for your help, can't you?
Zulfa: Alah you. All right. Hah, you want to ask for help? You do not ask me to go to a
cafe friend anyway. I do not want. Many very men, you know.
Me: You are this. It's not. I got your interview to our e-Zine project Sir Wan Khai for our
assignment. Can or not?
Zulfa: It must be. I know I'm famous. No, I'm playing around. Hah, what do you want to
ask?
Me: Okay, first of all, we made an interview about MJSC Taiping project as a minor
prison. Like what you hear in the title I told you, MJSC Taiping is known as an elite
school. In the eyes of outside students, we look perfect in academics but so, some MJSC
Taiping students feel this school is almost like Penjara Taiping. So ..
Zulfa: Just cut to the chase, pal. You're already stole my prep time. I already get about
the project because you already told me before.
Me: Did I? Owh, okay. My first question is did you ever feel MJSC Taiping as a minor
prison?
Zulfa: Minor prison? Yes, a little bit. I did not want to conclude overall that I felt this
school is like completely as prison. From my perspective, school is still school. I believe
that every school has their own pressure to bear by the students but the one that make it
difference is the student itself. If a student her or himself wants to believe that they are
stress and feeling pressure from the school, it is up to them.
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Me: So you want to say that a Taiping's student can choose either they feel that the
school itself is a minor prison or not? Am I right?
Zulfa: Yes, you do. So, that's why I can not conclude myself either I feel this school is a
minor prison or not. Sometimes I felt that way, and sometimes I don't. Depends on how
myself doing fine that time.
Me: Now I see. Stress and students are like best friend. As what you have said just now,
every school has their own pressure and stress and this is included MJSC taiping also. I
believe you have ever felt stress along this one year and half in Taiping. In conjunction
with exam, the stress is spreading like a wild fire among the students. What didi you
think the causes of the stress? Did you agree if I said that exam is the reason for the
student to feel stress?
Zulfa: That's a good question thou. If you ask for my opinion, I don't think that students
felt stress because of exam. Based in what I see from my friends, most of them were
feeling stress because of pack schedules that were scheduled by the school.
Me: You're class 507 if I'm not mistaken, am I right?
Zulfa: Yes. Don't tell me you forgot my class, aye?
Me: This is only for interview, Lya. I know your class, of course. But, don't you think
that the possibility for Taiping students to feel stress there's a lot more?
Zulfa: Studies, friends and environments may be one of the causes for the student him
or herself to feel stress. But the relevant one of course because of pack schedules.
Students get exhausted by a lot of school activities that were seem non-stop. In fact, me
myself that I considered myself as a book nerd feeling suffocated by just looking on the
activities scheduled.
Me: Yeah, that's so true, right?
Zulfa: Let me give you an example. For Thursday, in the morning, we got P&P classes
until 2 p.m. Then we got Add Maths classes by the teacher until 4 p.m. For someone that
were in intervention class, they need to attend Chemistry classes until 5.30 p.m. Last but
not least, we will have our open lecture during night prep. You may say that school did
this for our own good sake, but too pack scheduled can make a student her or himself
felt tired and ending up they don't feel ikhlas.
Me: But sometimes I agree school did that way.
Zulfa: I did not say I disagree but so sometimes school not to consider about students
too. I also totally fine by the activities that school organized but it doesn't need to be
too pack full. Sometimes some students like me need a private time during prep to do
our own revision.
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Me: Okay... But don't you think we already have enough time at the dorm to do our own
revision.
Zulfa: I guess you can say that after all these pack schedules, students aren't feeling tired,
don't you? Then, I guess you may check again because most of them already exhausted
when they arrived at the dorm.
Me: Hey, I'm only stating my opinion. But it's alright. It's your opinion too. Next
question, with people saying that you're quiet and look nice, but me as your friend know
that you aren't as what they thought, haha, have you ever thought to sneak out illegally
(fly)?
Zulfa: Fly? Yes, I have thought it once or twice when I was stress. I just want to forget
about everything and the stress for a while so it's a yes. I have thought of it. But of
course, as a leader, I can't do that. It will be a bad example. Thus, I have a long journey
to face here so the last thing I want is to be in JDRM.
Me: Yeah, of course. Thus, how possibly can you fly, right? That was bad. I just was about
to invite you to tag along with me to fly
Zulfa: Try me and I'll tell teacher.
Me: Sorry, Lya. That was just an invitation. I don't have that guts yet to fly. Next time
maybe?
Zulfa: Don't you dare. It's SPM year, Atiqah.
Me: I get it, babe. Last question for you. If you had a chance to fly, what would you do?
What comes into your mind first?
Zulfa: What would I do? Well, food hunt, maybe.
Me: Why not watching movies? There's a lot new movies in theatre right now.
Zulfa: I'm not a fan of watching movies so I think I'll go with food hunting. Bowling
after that maybe?
Me: okay. Noted. I think that's it for now. I already got what I need. Sorry to bother you.
Zulfa: It's fine. After all, you have to buy me tea'o ice, right?
Me: For what?
Zulfa: Because I already help you with you e-Zines project!
Me: Okay, okay! Remind me later. Thank you again, Alya. Have a nice prep.
Zulfa: Welcome
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There was a prison of hatred,
It gave light to stand,
To some could be treated,
To who withstand.
The principle of inertia was in control,
With unnecessary reasons to be rewritten,
Among the prisoners as a whole,
Successful mind will be written.
The prison had guards,
Watching out the compound,
With the power they entrusted,
Poisenous nectar was a pound.
The guards were minions,
Looking out to all,
The fiction of the minions,
Made the warden naïve to all.
The prisiners suffer,
Seeing the rich living its way,
While they endure there life,
With a regret in a way.
It had a long build,
Changing its principle to improve,
Now it had been rebuild,
With the name MRSM Taiping.
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So I was enjoying my life to the fullest, driving go-karts at high speed and without me noticing this, I
passed my PT3 examinations with flying colours. Well, not really exactly but still, it was rather an
acceptable result according to my parents. I do not know how I actually did it because as far as I know,
all I did for the whole year was nothing except fooling around with my friends and skipping classes.
No, I rarely study and my parents always get angry at me because I did not take my studies seriously.
However, I, for once “accidentally” passed this exam and now I can compete in go-kart races which I
usually do as I want to be a racing driver in the not so distant future and stay at my house doing
nothing. Or, get myself enrolled to a better school and them focus in my studies because despite my
ill-disciplined character and always absent for school, many of the teachers said that I have a huge
potential in my academic related stuff, which obviously I am not that interested. You see, I hate
staying in classes and learning about things that won’t be of any use right after I get out of school. I am
more of a hands-on person. Give me a wrench and I can fix your sink in a matter of minutes. However,
there is this school in the middle of Perak called Maktab Rendah Sains MARA Taiping which was and
still is famous for its excellent results and nerdy students. Seriously, they can’t even go outside without
a book in their hands. I understand if you are in a train with a book but when you bring a chemistry
book to a futsal match, sure is there is something that’s very wrong with these people. So there’s me,
just fiddling around with my dearly go-kart until something very terrible happened. My parents sent
me to MRSM Taiping for my Form 4 and Form 5 years. Worst decision ever? Very.
Alright, let me get this straight. The first few months were quite decent. I mean, there’s no bullying or
seniors trying to mess with me. Actually, it was quite good. I got loads of new friends and also new
classmates which is most of them are boys. To be honest, that is quite good because sometimes girls
are complicated and I do not seem to understand them very well so yes, having boys making up the
majority of the class does make me feel comfortable. However, there were some issues regarding my
academics. For instance, I cannot keep up with the pace of learning here because the teacher here
teaches their students very fast. Sometimes, I just gave up and bugger off to the toilet and skipped
some class. Yes, I asked some of my friends to teach me what they have learnt in class so I won’t miss
out. However, it is still stressful and sometimes even my friends cannot comprehend what the teacher
had taught them, which makes learning much, much harder than usual. Also, the teachers here always
ask you to push yourself everyday until you can’t take it any further, in academics because according to
them, we as students have to compete with other people inside and outside of MRSM Taiping.In my
opinion, this is a big lie because we, as mortal beings, should not challenge only but ourselves. For
instance, my results are bad. Just, very bad. Not going to talk about it. Just. That. Bad. I mean, I feel
very embarrassed when someone asks me about my results. I just responded saying it was decent but
not that good.
So. I got tired of all this drama and me and some of my friends desperate to find peace, tried to escape
from this prison. I can’t stand the pressure being a student here and its like putting on more heat on a
pressure cooker. You know its going to blow up any moment from then on when the heat gets turned
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up but you simply don’t care. Also, my so called friends aren’t that supportive. They usually tease
me whenever I try to study and ending up making a big fool of myself. Yes I surely miss winning
races with my go-kart. Yes I missed spending time with my old friends from primary school. But
no, no one is here for me. Even my roommate ignored me. This is just hell on Earth at this
moment. Also, I’m suffering from depression and mood swings due to the fact that my
acquaintances ignored me like I’m nothing and a liability to them. Fortunately, there are some of
my friends that do understand me how I felt at that point and decided to set up a surprise for me.
I’m puzzled. Why are they doing a surprise party all of a sudden. Then, someone told me that they
were organising an escape plan for us. I was very delighted upon hearing the news and without
hesitation, gathered all my friends and escaped from this hell on Earth that night.
It was a Saturday night so yes we were expecting this ‘outing’ to be a memorable one considering
the fact that its on the weekends and there’s so much stuff to do. Nope, I don’t smoke. Actually,
I’ve never saw my friends smoked in front of me until we got out from the dormitory that night. I
wasn't that shocked but it really does feel awkward seeing them smoke in front of me. Anyway,
everything was going so well until we saw some of the wardens hanging out at the mamak
restaurant just right in front of us. We tried to hide at the nearest building and hoping that they
wouldn’t notice us. I was holding on to a metal bar which lifts me up ti he roof meanwhile my
friends went to hide in toilet and such. It was hopeless. They got caught and I mean every single
one of them but not me. I wasn't caught by the wardens. Is this the real life or they noticed me but
they cant catch me because I’m so high up on the roof ? Many questions that I have asked myself
that night. Was it worth the risk of getting out of prison on non-outing hours? Well, it is with
proper planning and weeks of observation. I returned to my prison cell which was 30 minutes walk
from Taiping town to the ‘school’. I was in extreme exhaustion. I can no longer feel my legs as they
were aching from all the running I had to do to save myself from getting caught. Not long after
that, someone shouted out my name. Oh, how I really do recognise the voice. It as none other that
Chief Warden Mr. Saifuddin. God, I hate him. He literally made up wake up early to go to the
surau for dawn prayers. I mean, yes its a good thing but the surau is like miles from my prison cell
so it doesn't make sense. Anyway, just like all problematic students like me, the wardens asked
some questions about me and me being myself, answered those questions truthfully. Lying is not a
good thing to do, kids. It just messes up the whole situation.
Well, the next morning the principal called in for me in his office. In there i noticed there were all
the wardens and my fallen comrades. I was feeling devastated and thought to myself that this is it.
The end. My life is ruined. Then, the principal said that I can stay in here as long I obey the rules
like a slave or in my case, a prisoner would do in a prison complex. I agreed with that but then I
begged for mercy for my fallen comrades as they are also involved and should get the same
treatment as me but alas, some of them got send out to their former schools. Well, here we go
again. I’m back with no friends. Yeah life would be awesome after this. Obeying the rules, obeying
all the teacher’s orders and all that stuff. The things that keeps me sane in this second prison
complex in Taiping are tennis, Formula One and football. However, I insisted to remain positive
and since then I have lots of friends and started to perform academically. Make no mistake, with
all these rules and regulations does make me fell this is just a prison for bright students. Well, I still
have four or five months of school left until SPM is around the corner. To me, this is not the end
just yet. I still have life to live outside school but until then, I have my leg cuffed to a large iron
ball. Life here is still very mundane to my standards and what I really want for myself is to get out
of here after SPM and then its just me, dominating go-kart races and maybe get myself into
Formula 3, if thats possible.
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This is our final results based on form that we used using Google
Form. There is 100 responses that we choose to use as our data .
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THANK YOU
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