Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Dr M can still save our education Posted: 14 Nov 2011 04:43 PM PST Mahathir is the only one left standing who can drive some sense into the politicians running the country on educational matters, says Zaid Ibrahim. Education needs to be based on Western models that have been adapted to suit our peculiar local requirements. By Western, I mean paradigms that emphasise the ability to learn and to think, and that have produced the best thinkers in the various fields of knowledge. Zaid Ibrahim, Free Malaysia Today There was a time when we had Malay-medium government schools and English-medium schools, both of which were available in Malaya and Singapore. We also had Remove Classes, which helped those who had their primary education in Malay to be more proficient in English so that they could continue their secondary education in that language. There were a few Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools too but parents, regardless of their ethnicity, overwhelmingly chose the English medium for their children. If we had stayed this course there would probably be fewer vernacular schools today (not to mention less of a headache in trying to give them money come election time). We would have also likely continued to produce more of the kind of towering Malays who helped to shape this country, luminaries such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Lali, Mohamed Suffian Hashim, Tun Ismail Mohd Ali, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Ungku Omar, Syed Hussein Alatas Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, and countless other lawyers, academics, administrators and professionals. But that stopped when our education system entered a period of mediocrity, brought about by politicians of little ability who wanted power quickly. They knew that the only way they could rise to the top was to fan the emotions of the people. They made Malay the medium of instruction in all subjects under the guise of strengthening nationalism, as if the stellar civil servants and political leaders and academicians of those days – who were educated in English – were not nationalists. Today even nationalism is not enough; schools must also make young Malaysians more religious, moral and therefore "complete." It seems that the mission of these leaders is to change our values and our very way of life, but what they are actually doing makes them no different from Ashaari Muhammad of Al-Arqam and other cult leaders of his ilk. Such harebrained policies have never worked. Others who have tried – like Joseph Stalin of the USSR, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and Pol Pot in Cambodia, for example – sought to turn education into a political and ideological tool, controlled by the state to encourage a dangerously homogenous way of thinking. This is especially tragic in a country like ours, which is by its very nature pluralistic and whose progress has been shaped by its many diverse communities. It was Stalin who said: "Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." In countries like the USSR, India, Cambodia and many others, taking this step only fostered the kind of ignorance among the people that fanned distrust along communal lines, even violence and destruction. Malaysia will also go down this path unless our leaders realise their folly.
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| Anwar must go for rakyat to win Posted: 14 Nov 2011 02:49 PM PST Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was relevant in pre-2008 Malaysian politics but in today's war, it is strategies and 'how we fight' against the BN that matters. It is indeed disturbing to see Pakatan now reduced to hurling inconsequential barbs and irrelevant arguments about BN using gutter politics and the entire arsenal at its disposal to neutralise a clear and present threat in the form of DSAI to themselves. By CT Ali, Free Malaysia Today Sometimes we forget that Anwar Ibrahim (DSAI) was once a minister in Dr Mahathir Mohamad's cabinet. He was one of, if not the leading, exponents of Umno politics, as we know it today bar probably Mahathir himself. He was as good as, if not better than Daim Zainuddin, in putting together that heady mix of politics, power and money to benefit him and those that surround him. DSAI was better at doing this than KJ (Khairy Jamaluddin), better than (Prime Minister) Najib (Tun Razak) and indeed better than Khir Toyo or any one you would care to mention within the ambit of Barisan Nasional (BN) or Umno but alas, Mahathir cast him aside once convenient allies within Umno became his sworn enemies. DSAI has not changed. Time has imposed upon DSAI the realities of the present. He is without real power, without real money and, by extension, without "real" friends – for in politics only money can buy you "real friends". He must make do with what he has now. And yet he has done well for himself. Suffice to say that he has been able to forge a credible opposition and reached his zenith with the incredible results of the 12th general election where Pakatan Rakyat was able, for the first time, to deny BN its two-thirds majority. He now is the leader of the opposition. Politics in a shambles But sadly DSAI cannot see the trees for the forest. Three years in politics at national level is a long, long time to do good or otherwise. There is no need to go into the details but today DSAI is no longer the DSAI we know pre-12th general election. By his own doing, the indirect benefits to Najib and Umno of having DSAI lead Pakatan Rakyat far exceeds the direct benefits that DSAI's leadership gives to Pakatan! And none more so than the debilitating new sodomy trial that is in its last stages of rigor mortis – for DSAI and for Najib. Najib, too, has his credibility problems within Umno and with the people that will decide his fate at the 13th general election. How either of them could have allowed this to be the case is a sad reflection of the state of our country's politics and the calibre of the two leaders of the government and the opposition. A shambles of historic proportions. DSAI for letting himself to be entrapped into a situation he should be all too familiar with, given what happened many years ago, and Najib for allowing political expediency and self-interest to overcome decency and good taste. And if our leaders are prepared to go to these extent to try and hold on to power and what power brings to them, then how do they expect the people of whom they are leaders of, to behave? More lies and gutter politics What is worrying is this: our leaders and our people are now settling into an ever-lowering level of expectations of each other. Each new day brings more gutter politics and more lies from our political leaders as they try to hold on to power. The people desperately look for excuses and rationale to allow them to still vote for these leaders to be in power. ABU (Anything but Umno) is a case in point. This is not about putting a responsible and accountable Pakatan into government. ABU is about getting rid of Umno. So there is no serious scrutiny of what Pakatan offers. What is being highlighted is the damage Umno has done to the country. And for Umno it is not about the use of gutter politics to achieve its ends. All is good if the means justify the ends. There are no more attempts to look at the right or wrong of doing anything: if what they do gets the results they want, then do it. And the result they want is to stay in power! If Pakatan wants to deny Najib and BN any inherent advantage, Pakatan needs to look beyond DSAI now. We are not living in ancient times when generals led their armies into battles. In this war with BN, what need is there to give BN an overt target than by putting DSAI in the frontline? Especially when that target is suspect and unable to stand up to an enemy with large armies and deep pockets? Pakatan will not be able to match BN in money or resources. What Pakatan has is the goodwill of many millions of Malaysians who are just as willing to consider giving their goodwill to BN if they think that Pakatan will fail to fulfil their aspirations of a good and decent government. Just take me. After nearly three years of unquestionable support for DSAI, I no longer want him to lead Pakatan because he is not what Pakatan needs to win its war against BN. I am still with Pakatan – this has not changed. But what has changed is the realisation that to win the 13th general election, Pakatan needs all the help it can get – and one way it can do so is to take DSAI out of its frontline. By so doing this it deprives Najib and BN of yet another focus or target to aim for in their relentless work to rid themselves of Pakatan. I am one but increasingly this numbers grows as DSAI continually shoots himself in the foot through his own folly. But first the leadership structure within BN and Pakatan must be held accountable for allowing their leaders to behave so. Pakatan must be held more responsible (for its actions) than Umno because the former should have known better. Karpal Singh, (Lim) Kit Siang, (Lim) Guan Eng, (Abdul) Hadi Awang and Tok Guru (Nik Aziz) should have known better because they had front row seats to the show that Umno had put on for the last 50 over years. They went head to head with DSAI when he was a senior member of Mahathir's government. They know better than us what DSAI did when he was education minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister. And they, more than us, were at the receiving end of a BN government that tolerated no dissent and allowed less opportunity for them to make any difference to the political landscape of our country then and now. And yet Kit Siang and Tok Guru are now adopting a "wait-and-see" strategy to the trials and tribulations of a DSAI and Najib face-off. They do so because they think that this is the best possible strategy they could adopt for now. I am sorry but I beg to differ.
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