Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Khoo And Zainal Are Burying Umno's Bad News Posted: 14 Sep 2011 03:16 PM PDT By Mariam Mokhtar When historian Prof Khoo Kay Kim, said that "system pendidikan didikan negeri kita lemah" (our educational system is weak), that was probably his most sensible statement in a forum which took place in Ipoh on 9 September. The historian was a speaker at the Merdeka forum, organised by the Institut Darul Ridzuan (IDR). The topic discussed was "Peristiwa Bukit Kepong: Siapa Wira sebenar?" Other speakers included the former IGP Hanif Omar, former Perak police chief Yuen Yuet Leng and Universiti Teknologi Mara Science administration and policy studies Prof Ramlah Adam. However, Khoo is disingenuous to accuse others of manipulating history when he dropped the clanger that:"Malaya tak pernah dijajah oleh British". In an article which appeared in a mainstream paper, he claimed that history should not be distorted. Isn't he guilty of the charge which he levelled on others? First it was the Ministry of Education who butchered our educational system. Second, the incompetent teachers helped in the massacre. Third, academics destroyed the future of our students. So, what hope have parents of ensuring a sound education for their children when conflicting and confusing messages are given by someone who is considered a learned scholar in Malaysia's educational establishment? Khoo said that the British were only 'pekerja' (workers) and we were wrong to call them 'penjajah' (colonisers). Is there a major shift in thinking in the world of Malaysian academia and has the Ministry of Education ordered a complete revamp of history and its other educational policies? Or is this an attempt to discredit Mat Sabu of PAS? Recently, Prof Zainal Kling of the National Professors' Council (MPN) also claimed that Malaya was never colonised by the British. Interestingly, former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad also lent his support to the academics and said that technically, Malaya was not colonised; the British only acted as colonialists. Mahathir said, "The Sultans decided to invite the British to come and advise them on how to administer the country. We were not conquered in that sense. But the fact remains that when the British were here, they operated as if we were colonized". The general election is approaching and support for Umno is waning. Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been heavily criticised more for his wife's handbags and her reckless spending. There is also the issue of the Bersih 2.0 demands and Najib's disastrous handling of the March for Democracy. Two foreign lawyers were deported and the German government announced it was investigating the corruption claims made about Sarawak's Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud. The lacklustre former PM Badawi Abdullah also caught the public eye when it was disclosed that he used public money to go on an expensive fishing trip. The most damaging revelations have been that the EC, the NRD and the government are guilty of systematic electoral fraud. This is what Umno/BN are trying to hide. How could Khoo and Zainal be so ignorant and deny that British Malaya was not a colony? Why would they make such ludicrous statements now? Malaya was one of the richest colonies and the monies principally from rubber and tin went west, to fund the British East India company and later the British Empire. Every English schoolchild new the rhyme, "Malay penin' for rubber and tin". We were exploited then, as we are now. Perhaps we were too lazy to administer the country ourselves and would rather pay for the services of the British to administering our own country. Today, some of us are too lazy to register to vote, so that we may bring about change to a stagnating country. Perhaps we are a nation of idiots because in present day Malaysia, we allow Umno to siphon off the nation's wealth into the hands of a few individuals. To the ordinary person, the colonial masters took from us then and in present day Malaysia, the Umno/BN elite take from us. Many people will remember that it was the British who introduced race barriers in our clubs and institutions. Instead of the whites, those who steal from us now are Malaysians, but they still perpetuate racism in this land. Zainal and Khoo are an insult to Malaysians. If Khoo claims that our educational system is substandard, then what have academics like them done to address this failing? Why tell the audience at these various Merdeka road shows that we have a poor grasp of history? The poor education of our children is not just an historical problem. Why have the academics not engaged with each other, including those with opposing viewpoints, and agreed to improve standards of education? Isn't it the job of academics to inform, educate and influence the Ministry of Education? Whilst all the attention is concentrated on this issue, the true horror of what is happening to our education system, and in our schools is being neglected. The Merdeka denial means that we have been lied to all these years and foolishly celebrate an event which is not worth celebrating; it seems that there was no Merdeka. So why have the Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square)? Why bother with the 100-storey Warisan Merdeka? What about the memory of the people who died in the struggle for independence, whichever political persuasions they may have belonged to? The Merdeka denial is a poor attempt to bury all the bad news associated with Umno/BN. |
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