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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- I challenge Hisham to a debate
- History Lesson, My Version
- Parents question the credibility of the Government in its decision to abolish PPSMI
| I challenge Hisham to a debate Posted: 19 Nov 2012 02:41 PM PST
FMT LETTER: From Gobind Singh Deo, via e-mail I challenge Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein to a debate over what more could be done to make police stations safer for members of the public so as to avoid further recurrences of incidents such as deaths, assault and rape of detainees in police custody. The minister seems clueless as to how he can further improve the police force, especially in light of the rape of an Indonesian woman by three officers in a police station in Prai recently. It is worrying to read his response to a call for him to resign as Home Minister over the case, saying, "We have already ensured that they are brought to court. What else can we do? This is our country's system." Such a statement by the Home Minister in such a situation does not inspire an ounce of confidence. It also doesn't help that the minister further failed to take a position on the implementation of the IPCMC, which would perhaps offer some hope to the nation that the government is serious about complaints against the police and how such complaints are to be dealt with. The minister's cold responses to complaints against the force shows how out of touch he is with what the real issues are and what needs to be done to solve the problem. I think he just doesn't know what's going on or understand what is happening around him. He should learn from cases in the past where people have died, have been abused and have been raped in custody. He should learn from the deaths of Kugan, Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed. These were cases in which allegations of brutality were raised and inquiries were held. All of them point to weaknesses in measures which currently exist in police stations or places where individuals are taken for questioning when suspected of having committed offences. The Teoh Beng Hock RCI went so far as to recommend broad changes to be made in order to make these places more secure so as to avoid such incidents from occurring again in future. The Home Minister does not seem to have understood anything at all from all this. And what of cases in which police officers are accused of rape and abuse of women and young girls in police stations? In 2008, a police officer, was charged at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court for raping a 17-year- old student and forcing her to perform oral sex on him in the Putra Heights police station. The trial saw the victim describe how she and her boyfriend were stopped by a police patrol car at 6am on June 18 that year and taken back to the police station. At the police station she and her boyfriend were taken to separate rooms for questioning. There, she was raped and forced to perform oral sex on the officer. In her police report, the victim alleged that the officer told her not to be afraid as he had seen many other girls like her previously. No action was taken until the matter was raised in Parliament and exposed in the press. And now we have a case in which three officers are alleged to have raped an Indonesian maid in a police station. The three have been charged swiftly, but not until after the matter was highlighted in the press and demonstrations were held both here and in Indonesia, which even saw the burning of our national flag. How does the minister have the stomach to say "what else can we do? This is our country's system" in light of all this? This is not what we expect from the Home Minister in a situation as pressing as this. The question is how do you make the police more accountable for their actions? How do you put a stop to it? How do you make senior officers and even the government more responsible for incidents like these so as to ensure that officers are not motivated to break laws in pursuit of their own agenda and there are no more assaults, rapes and deaths in police custody? This is where the minister's response is seriously lacking. He should tell us, what has he done to make police stations safer since becoming Home Minister? How has he as minister reduced "opportunity" for such incidents from happening in police stations?
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| Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:48 PM PST
Dump Islam, go for Science. It is difficult, but it will bring you enlightenment. You will bow lower than a Muslim when you KNOW how powerful the God of The Universe is. Mad Scientist (In reply to Zack on the Sultans) Dear Zack, The answer to your question is this short essay I am writing for you below. Your question was: "if adat resam and religion was so taboo a subject to even talk about openly let alone to promulgate to a Malay person let alone to a Malay Sultan, what made our Sultans at that time to suddenly allow the preaching of this new religion (Islam) and to even embrace it wholeheartedly and in doing so, to have all his subjects also simultaneously embrace not only this new religion but its traditions too?" 2. Item (1) is not really an Issue, yet. What is the real problem is that these missionaries Arabs taught only the legal aspects of Islam, not the science and plentiful medical advances, not the philosophy. Perhaps they themselves did not know or perhaps they were selfish and did not want to impart too much knowledge. Whatever the reason, the Islam that came to the shores of Malaya is the primitive backward retarded version, meant exclusively for ruling. 3. The Ruler at the time, or Sultan chose Islam and decreed that everyone should follow suit as a demonstration of power, as a change of governing method, and as a clear advantageous religion to use for ruling. The majority Malays simply followed. If you went against the Sultan in those days, I cannot imagine what would happen to you. Even today we can see how one person at least got visits from the police for saying something about a certain Sultan. Thus Malays became Muslims. 4. Hence, what made the Sultan change religion is the influence and teachings of these Arab Missionaries. Our history books revealed how the Malays were impressed by these Arab Muslims, praying by the seaside. They wonder what religion the Arabs were. Such statement indicates the Malays were already impressed, hence the Arab Missionaries must have had an easy time with their "dakwah" effort. 5. Note also in history these Arabs were successful traders and became rich trading in our Spices to Europeans who needed them. This was before the British and other Europeans found out where the Spices came from and refused to buy and pay the exorbitant prices the Arabs were charging them. All this you can verify from historical records and books. 6. When the British came, they studied our Malay system and concluded the Sultan is the best person to deal with. To cut a long story short, by way of agreements with the Sultans, the British got Penang, Singapore, Port Dickson, and perhaps the entire Malaya under their influence, and kept the Sultans as ruler for the Malays, as they know the Sultans have a good grip on the Malays and the Malays need their Sultans, until today. It can be argued that the British are very clever occupants of Malaya. The Malays got their Sultans and Political Power while the British got the loot, which of course they shared with the Sultans. 7. Islamic Medical science and other Sciences, of which there is plentiful and very advanced, relatively speaking, never reached the shores of Malaya, perhaps never allowed to. Many million of Muslims do not even know the word camera comes from the Arab word "kamar" which means room (as in dark room for photography) and the word alcohol comes from none other than Al-Kohl, the discoverer of well, alcohol! I am going to end this essay with a simple solution for Muslims. Dump Islam, go for Science. It is difficult, but it will bring you enlightenment. You will bow lower than a Muslim when you KNOW how powerful the God of The Universe is. As for God, it is a personal choice. I choose to hang on to my belief in God, and am thus a Deist, not an Atheist. Some may prefer Atheism. Some prefer to be Gay. Whatever makes you happy! written by zack, November 13, 2012 03:00:10 Dear RPK, In the wake of the current news surrounding the notion that there shall be no compulsion in religion, i have a question that i have been meaning to ask for quite some time. We love our Sultans, there is no doubt about that. We love our Sultans to the extent that what the Sultans believe is what we believe and it goes to the issue of religion also, in so far as the Malays are concerned. Religion and adat resam went hand in hand from the old days and was strictly adhered to so much so that it was taboo for anyone to question it. It was a fact from the earliest of times in our country that trying to take a Malay out from his religion or his adat resam was out of the question. In this context we immediately think about Islam being the religion of the Malays. But history tells us that the Sultans used to be Hindu and all Malays at that time were also Hindu and the adat resam that was practiced was in all probability the Hindu adat resam. This perhaps explains why our bersanding and majlis berinai and baju melayu bear much resemblance to Hindu traditions. Then all of a sudden, well at least that is how the History books put it, the Sultans embraced Islam and every single Malay person followed suit without question. My question is, if adat resam and religion was so taboo a subject to even talk about openly let alone to promulgate to a Malay person let alone to a Malay Sultan, what made our Sultans at that time to suddenly allow the preaching of this new religion (Islam) and to even embrace it wholeheartedly and in doing so, to have all his subjects also simultaneously embrace not only this new religion but its traditions too? p.s. please do not post this question if you view it offensive. apart from seeking some clarifications, i certainly do not intend any publication which may be offensive to any person.
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| Parents question the credibility of the Government in its decision to abolish PPSMI Posted: 19 Nov 2012 01:37 PM PST
Shamsudin Hamid, Coordinator Concerned Parents Selangor Representing over 12,000 active members of the Concerned Parents Selangor (CPS), we participated in the dialogue on the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) held recently at the Sunway Convention Centre. At the end of the session, when participants were invited to present their views; we raised several questions on the rationale for the abolishing of PPSMI, and the reasons why certain matters pertaining to it are left out of the MEB. It was indeed most disappointing and shocking when the Dialogue Session Chairman by way of an answer gave a terse one sentence reply - "PPSMI telah digantikan oleh MBMMBI, itu sahaja saya boleh katakan". It was as if the issue raised was a taboo subject, and it gives rise to the assumption that government servants especially from the Ministry of Education (MOE) are prohibited from talking about it. The fact that the MEB mentioned PPSMI in only about three sentences, gives credence to this assumption. After referring to several recent public letters on the issue notably: "Continue PPSMI for greater good of nation" (Star Oct.17), "We need confirmation" (Star Oct.22), "Is the abolition of PPSMI truly justified" (Star Oct.28), "PPSMI advocates disappointed" (Star Nov.6), "Stop politicising teaching of English" (Star Nov.8); and the knowledge of our members' opinions on the matter, we can only conclude that the MOE have not been transparent in its undertakings. Worse, we parents believe that the credibility of the MOE is truly questionable when we consider the sequence of events from July 2009 when PPSMI was abolished until today. This sequence of events are: 1. The decision to abolish PPSMI in July 2009 was made suddenly without prior consultation with stakeholders or interested parties. It lacked transparency as reported in the UNESCO report. It was also made after demonstrations by 'Malay language nationalists' (headed by Samad Said) lion against the use of English in the study of science and mathematics. Hence the true motive behind the decision to suddenly abolish PPSMI is open to question. 2. On instructions of the MOE, school PIBGs were not allowed to discuss or deliberate on the matter. Schools which persisted in raising the issue were punished. A case in point is the SRK Assunta in Petaling Jaya which for 51 years acted as a feeder school for SMK Assunta. In Nov. 2009, PIBGs of both SRK Assunta 1 and 2 persisted in having EGMs to vote on the matter whereby by secret ballot, 93% of parents voted for the continuation of PPSMI. Consequently, on specific instructions of the Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah (PPD) Petaling, the majority of students were not allowed to go to SMK Assunta after Std. 6 but dispersed to various other schools in the district without parents given time to appeal. It was only after a spontaneous demonstration by affected parents which was covered by NTV7 1pm News on the same day, was the instructions rescinded by the PPD.(http://thestar.com/news/educ). 3. More than half a million parents voted for the continuation of PPSMI in online surveys conducted by PAGE KL and Penang, Che Det's portal and the MOEs website itself. This fact has never been acknowledged nor taken into consideration in the NEB (Source: News reports and the website portals themselves.) 4. A similar fate befell the thousands of individual letters appealing for the reinstatement of PPSMI sent from all over the country. (http://staronline/news/visuals) 5. In Nov.2011, the MOE stated that in September, it had conducted a survey in schools nationwide to determine the efficacy and results of PPSMI. They announced that based on the statistics obtained, PPSMI had failed in its objectives. Only some selective statistics were made public as justification. Alluding to the OSA, the complete survey reports and statistics were not made available for scrutiny by the public. However in September 2012 a series of reports and statistics were published by PAGE (Parents Action Group on Education), which totally disproves the earlier MOE claims of PPSMI having failed. (Sunday Star 23 Sept.PAGE sources: Malaysia Educational Statistics 2009, 2011 and 2012, EPRD, MOE and the Millennium Goals at 2010). 6. The pledges given by the MOE for a 'soft landing' to parents who opted that their children continue learning science and mathematics in English, have not been fully fulfilled. 7. Due to demands from parent groups, MOE had beginning late 2011 until early 2012, appointed various private panels and think-tanks to provide views on PPSMI. Amongst others, were the Education Review Panel headed by Tan Sri Dzulkifly Abdul Razak and comprised of eminent personalities from the private sector. The National Education Dialogue Panel headed by Tan Sri Wan Zahid Noordin. It was reported that the consensus arrived by these panels were all generally in favour for the reinstatement of PPSMI in essence. The big question mark here is whether the inputs of these panels were taken into consideration in drafting the MEB. 8. The Korean foreign consultant to the MEB panel who was a former education minister in his country, perhaps in deference to the DPM had failed to mention one significant fact. Even if he had, it was not mentioned in the MEB or perhaps even deliberately omitted. The fact of the matter is that not long after PPSMI was introduced in Malaysia under the administration of Tun Dr Mahathir, the Korean government invited top educationists from a prominent institute of higher learning here in Malaysia to advise and instruct the Korean MOE on the implementation of PPSMI there. It is still in practice today. 9. There is a parallel national education system under the Ministry of Rural Development whose Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM), offer 'O' and 'A' level courses under the UK General Certificate of Education (GCE) syllabus; which provides the teaching of Maths and Science in English. MRSM whose student intake is limited to bumiputra students especially from rural areas, is perceived as being discriminatory towards non bumiputra parents whose only wish is to have their children continue learning the said subjects in English. Rightly or wrongly, this perception is real and worse, it has transformed into a general anti government stance by non bumiputra parents especially those from the urban areas. 10. Recently the Hon. Minister of Education announced certain incentives like a tax break, book subsidies and a grant or loan be given to parents whose children opts to study science. Question here is if the whole matter has been well planned in the first place, why was it not mentioned in the MEB. Or was the announcement made to assuage the disquiet of parents who recently raised the issue of the MOE plans to achieve a 60% intake of science stream students in schools. From the above summary of events, one can only conclude that the MOEs' credibility in carrying out its responsibilities as the prime mover in transforming the country's education (and social) landscape, is severely questioned. The fact that the whole education issue has been politicised by certain quarters within the government and without, cannot be denied. This whole episode simply does not augur well for the openness and the 'listening to the rakyat' credo that the government is promoting.
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