Remembrance Day & ISA Vigils

Today is remembrance day in the UK, in much of Europe, and in many many countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. It is not celebrated in Malaysia, even though we are a member of the Commonwealth. Why don’t we have remembrance day on the 11th of November? Is it because we have no dead from the wars? Because we are trying to be different or because we are trying to cast off our colonial influence?

We know the first is untrue. We have many dead and we celebrate our remembrance on 31st July. Is it the second and third then? I do not know. If it is, then it is a very shallow reason to celebrate our remembrance day on a different date from our commonwealth friends. Remembrance day is a very powerful day. If you’ve ever attended a remembrance service, or even watched the national one on TV, you would know. We owe it to the dead to remember them. To remember history, so that we do not repeat it.

I have never attended or watched a Hari Pahlawan service. To me Hari Pahlawan was the day our teacher in school gave out forms for us to donate money. No one ever explained to me what it was. The history we learnt in school was a diluted version, designed so we will never forget who is in power. The history I learnt in school instilled in me, not a sense of pride, but a sense of frustration. Frustration that I spent 4 years learning  Malaysian history, yet not know the truth. Frustration that I spent only 1 year learning world history, and most of that on the history of Islam. Frustration that I do not know anything about the history of the world. Frustration that I do not know anything about the world wars. Frustration that at the end of 5 compulsory years of history studies, I did not know anything about history at all, be it world history or Malaysian history.

History was made a few days ago, when RPK was released from ISA detention. I wish I attended some of the vigils. I would have, if I was at home. I hope and pray that all ISA detainees will be released soon. I light, on this blog, not a candle, but a fire. A bonfire of hope. Hope that our country will be a better place soon. Hope that my fiance and I will be welcomed home with opened arms, that we will have good futures and good jobs. The hope will always be there, the hope that I can come home to a better place. Not just a place to have a vacation in, but to live in and start a family in, unafraid of racism, unafraid of corruption, unafraid of unequality, and most of all unafraid of the government.

I may not know much of Malaysian history beyond what I have read and heard. But on this remembrance day, I pay tribute to everyone who suffered on May 13th 1969, to all ISA detainees past and present, and to all victims of our very corrupt government. I pay tribute to everyone who died in the defense of Malaysia during World War Two and to all victims of the Japanese Occupation.  I also pay tribute to everyone who suffered the effects of the water canons and tear gas during the Bersih Demonstrations last February & March.

I believe we were fed a load of lies and bullshit in secondary school Sejarah. I am neutral on whether we are better off after independence than before. From what I know, the transition to independence was a bloodless one. I am not paying tribute to the people who brought independence to Malaysia, simply because I do not know if independence benefited Malaysia at all.

Happy Remembrance Day everyone.  Keep up the ISA vigils.  I join you in spirit if not in body.

Animal Planet

When I read the blogs and news websites these days… I get a surreal feeling.  Like what I am reading is not about the politics of Malaysia, but the politics of an orang utan tribe on ‘orang utan island’.  Actually, its even worse than that.  The actions of Ahmad Ismail are insensitive, uncivilised, and totally unacceptable.  The fact that the upper UMNO hierarchy has done fuck all to stop it shows how far up this uncivility goes.  This insensitivity which is the by-product of years and years and years of separate Pendidikan Moral and Agama classes at school. Years upon years of see-sawing between calling our national language ‘Bahasa Melayu’ and ‘Bahasa Malaysia’.

I am proud to call myself a daughter of Malaysia.  I have no problems explaining my ancestry to friends who are curious.  Yes, I am from an immigrant race, and always will be.  But am I a squatter?  My paternal great grandfather and his sons entered Tanah Melayu legally, sought residence legally and made money legally.  My maternal grandparents did the same.  As far as my lineage goes, all my grandparents were granted citizenship according to the laws of the Malayan constitution when it was formed.  So why squatters?  No one has the right to label me or anyone in my family as squatters. Malaysia is as much our country as it is yours.  Malaysia is OUR country.

Why the sudden outburst?  And why did I not write this earlier?  Well, initially I looked upon what Ahmad Ismail said and thought of it the way one thinks of an annoying mosquito.  It buzzes in your ear and you want it to go away, but you have better things to do than to take much notice of it.  But the response of the upper UMNO hierarchy shows how ball-less they are.  The situation has been futher inflamed by the tearing of Koh Tsu Koon’s portrait.

His actions, his speech and his refusal to apologise, is an outright provocation.  But should we be provoked?  Yes, we should feel outrage.  But what is the right way to react?  In my opinion, any reaction would be an acknowledgement of the racial differences in the country.  Which is not something we should be encouraging.

We should be ignoring him.  Forget about him and continue with our own lives.  Acknowledging his words would be giving substance to his claims.  Hold public protests if you wish, but not against his words.  Go forth and proclaim proudly that we are all BANGSA MALAYSIA.  Show the powers that be who we are, and who we want to be.  Show him that we, as citizens of Malaysia are all united AS ONE PEOPLE, and not as a million different races.  We need to put our differences aside to save our country.  We need to help each other and not let the government split us despite all their apparent efforts to.

Call me a hypocrite if you wish.  But know this -  Deep in my heart, I will always be Malaysian before anything else.

On rallies and interviews.

I have just watched the 101 East interview on Al-Jazeera, and here’s my take on part of it. Bear in mind that I wasn’t there for it because I was AFRAID. I WANTED to be there.

1) Water Canon and Tear Gas not equated to force: That is simply bullshit. ANY use of force, is a use of force. And that includes water canons and tear gas. And as Malik Imtiaz said, there was NO NEED to use force.

2) There is a historical background to not allowing marches: Oh really? Go visit Tok Mommy’s blog where the history of Malaysian marches is TRULY represented.

3) The police not allowing the rally because they feared violence: Well, isn’t that what the police and the FRU was there for? To stop violence. They could have done just that and nothing more. Instead, what did they do? Use unprecendented FORCE (water canon & tear gas) on a peaceful group of people taking a walk. Who perpetuated the violence? The police could have allowed the protest to go on, and be on the watch for violence, and used force ONLY where necessary. In this case, force was totally unnecessary, and the ONLY violence seen during the protest was from the police, not the demonstrators.

4) Media relegation: The fact the govenment think that the media needs to be relegated, whether by the gov, or by the press itself, says that we do not have a free press. Self relegation is still relegation.

5) Representation by the middle-of-the-road, non-political-affiliated citizens: More bullshit from the government. Imtiaz was correct when he said that the rally would have been larger if the roadblocks were not enforced. It would also have been larger if the government did not have a massive campaign to initimidate the middle-of-the-road, non-political-affiliated citizens. The repated announcements in the mainstream media of plans to arrest anyone who turns up, of possible violence, and the video clips of past violent riots being shown on television was a concerted effort by the government to discourage people to attend the rally. The huge show of force by the police and the FRU also contributed to the whole intimidation method. The road blocks and the huge presence of the FRU up to a day before the rally passed like wildfire over SMS from people who were in KL, not for the rally, to people whom they thought was going. I was planning to attend the rally. I was plagued with SMS’s from Friday night, warning me not to go, by people who cared for my safety. To say that we were not there because we didn’t care for the cause is wrong. We weren’t there because we feared for our safety. Trust me, the intimidation and the road blocks and the police blocks, and the LRT bypass and etc worked. Speaking for myself; it worked on me, on the friends I planned to go with, and their friends, and on other middle-of-the-road, non-political Malaysians.

Apex Universities

A search on google.com for ‘apex university’ produces 6 hits to Malaysia-linked websites on page 1. A brief browse of the next few pages reveal that the idea of apex universities, while not new… is not a well-used one. Most of the hits where the word ‘apex’ were linked to a university, merely represent the location of the university, an acronym of some sort, or the name of a sports team within the university. It is very obvious that the government’s sudden announcent of apex universities represent an attempt to increase the reputation of education in Malaysia much more than it is worth. Whether or not they are trying to create a local version of the ivy-league, oxbridge, redbrick or russel group is arguable. However, it is undeniable that none of our local universities qualify to compare with these highly-esteemed institutions. Our universities aren’t even fit to squat under their shadows.

The intentions of the government is unclear on the goal of apex universities and how they are going to accomplish it. If it is merely a measure of extra support, extra funding, and recognition – then all is fair. If it is meant as a pretence to compete with the creme de la creme of universities worldwide, then this whole charade is a farce. There may be some positive gain from it. It will encourage private universities to be more competitive in the race to become an apex university. This is probably a good thing for their students. If it means more funding and more support from the government, then obviously the students will stand to gain from it as well.

In the bigger picture, will it really benefit the fledging tertiary education industry of this country? Will our public universities compete in the same way the private ones will? Apart from the first five universities, the rest of the industry is barely 20 years old. ALL of the universities need support, funding and recognition. Giving a certain university more funding than another would be unfair to the rest. If anything, the weaker universities would need more support than the stronger ones. Is putting these young universities in a race for a meaningless title and pitting them against each other beneficial for the students? Now is not the time for our universities to go dog-eat-dog. Universities should be sharing resources and helping each other to improve.

I wrote in an earlier post about the ‘full circle‘ comment. In it, I mentioned that the majority of international students studying in Malaysia aren’t here to get a local degree. Most of them leave with degrees which contain the name of an overseas institution, most often of an Australian, American, or British University. See where I’m heading?

For our universities to be recognised as ‘good’ worldwide, it is not among the local universities that they must compete with. It is with every accredited university on this planet. So what if we have an apex university if its ranking worldwide is 1000th? The Acamedic Ranking of World Universities for 2007, doesn’t rank a single Malaysian University in the top 500. Neither does The QS World University Rankings by The Times. Not a single one of our universities are close to being competitive internationally.

Is there any reason to wonder at all why the undergraduates who can afford it get overseas degrees? Any reason to wonder why so many of our private colleges/universities offer twinning programmes, under which the student will end up with an overseas degree even if they study locally? As long as these private universities are awarding degrees not of their own name, they cannot achieve worldwide ranking because they do not get full credit for the quality of their degrees. And as long as the public universities don’t buck up to raise their standards instead of their intake, we will come NOWHERE close to competing on a world stage.

Where’s the apex? Are we reaching for the peak of Mount Everest? Swimming into the Marianna Trench? No we are not, we will be left flaundering at the base of the mountain (which we reached via helicopter) yet again. Victims of a government who have many ideas, none of which work. The government needs to increase support for education in this country, not to turn the whole idea of good quality tertiary education here into a comedy caper. Dearie me…. is this where I end the post with my signature phrase again? What you think is best for us, may not necessarily be good for us.

1 million scouts……

or 1 million idiots in scout uniform??

This was in the news some time ago. Not hot news… but the jist of it is that someone ‘up there’ announced plans to increase the number of scouts in Malaysia from 200,000 to 1 million. My question to the people ‘up there’ is this: Are they planning on having 1 million scouts, or 1,000,000 poor souls who doesn’t know anything at all about scouting dressed in the scout uniform?

I’m not the most qualified person to write something like this…. but who is ever qualified to write a blog post? I’ve been a scout for 9 years and 10 months. 5 years as a scout, 4 years and 10 months as a leader, and 2+ years as a rover scout. (One can be both a leader and a rover at the same time). I haven’t spent very many years in scouting, but I have spent more years in scouting than the average Malaysian scout who enters in secondary I and leaves after secondary V. The success of the scouting movement is not in how many entry-level scouts there are, but in how many of those scouts stay in scouting, and how many of those scouts come back. For scouts to want to stay in scouting after adulthood, or to come back to scouting after they’ve left it, they must be imbibed with the scouting spirit, to have enjoy scouting to the core, to have been bitten by the scouting bug, to live the scout oath and law, not just while they are in uniform, but even when they are out of uniform.

It is easy to dress a person up as a scout. Just throw him a uniform. One can even memorise and recite the scout promise, but that does not always make one a scout. Just ask yourself if you live by the principles of the rukun negara. We all had to recite the rukun negara when we were in school, but how many of us live by those principles? If we did, if all the people did, if all the people governing our country did, then we would have a clean and fair judiciary. Do we? I’m not going to talk about the judiciary now, I’m just using it to illustrate a point.

The scouting bug, the scouting spirit, isn’t as simple as reciting a promise. Not even attending and completing a woodbadge course during a tenure in a maktab perguruan can make a true scout out of a teacher. And the knowledge passed on from these teachers to the scouts will not make the scouts scouts, not unless the teacher has been inbibed with the scouting spirit.

In order to increase the number of scouts in this country to 1 million, the country would need 125,000 scout leaders (I’m using the 8:1 scout:leader ratio). To be a scout leader, one needs more than a woodbadge. One needs scouting experience. Scouting is more than uniform and a promise. Scouting is about loving nature, about understanding the patrol system and implementing it, about camps and hikes, about breating, eating and living the scout promise, about teamwork, leadership, cooperation, about passing on knowledge from one generation to the next, about being independent, about knowing how to play when its playtime, to work when its worktime to know what is good for oneself, and what is bad. Voluntarism is a very important part of scouting. Volunteer scout leaders participate in scouting because they enjoy scouting, because the are happy when scouting knowledge and spirit gets passed on to the next generation. Volunteer scout leaders never every get monetary returns, they do scouting because they have the BP spirit deep in their hearts.

Can mass production produce the same result as the scouting bug? Can monetary incentives produce the same result as years of enjoyment, years of happiness and experience gained from scouting? Can mass produced scouts really be called scouts? It is easy to dress-up. It is not so easy to be a true scout.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Scouts are coming. Soon, that familiar Scout’s uniform will be seen in every housing estate, village, Felda scheme, Pusat Giat Mara and Institute Kemahiran Belia centre.

The Scouts Association of Malaysia also plans to introduce the Rover Scouts (for those aged 18 and above) at private and public institutions of higher learning, national chief Scout commissioner Colonel Prof Datuk Dr Kamarudin Kachar said.

He said the organisation wanted to increase its Scoutship from the current 200,000 to one million in three years.

“We started the Scout movement in Felda schemes in Johor, Negri Sembilan and Perak some five or six years ago. Now we want to take it nationwide,” he said after a dialogue session with Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said at the Scout headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

“We are now moving from school-based to community-based. The idea is to instil social integration and national unity and to reduce social ills. This is most important,” he said.

Introducing Rover Scouts at the community level, he said, was also geared towards community development, increasing environmental consciousness and advocating peace.

He added that the Rover Scouts would also be introduced in countries with a large number of Malaysian students.

“We have Rover Scouts in Indonesia and the authorities in London have agreed to us setting up a troupe there as well.”

The association is also planning to introduce Rover Scouts in Australia, Russia, Egypt and the United States.

“The objective is to instil patriotism among Malaysian students overseas, and to increase their leadership qualities, living skills abilities and upgrade their working skills,” he said.

The International Scouts Academy of Malaysia will also function as a leadership and skills-training hub for uniformed bodies from all over the world, he said.

Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia have already indicated interest in sending Scouts here for training. There are 18 million Scouts in the Asia-Pacific region.

A variety of activities have been planned for the 100th anniversary of the Scout movement in Malaysia from May 12 to 18 next year.

The star event will be the 100th year jamboree at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Commemorative coins and stamps will be issued as well.

“Six thousand Scouts, including 1,500 from Asia-Pacific countries, will attend,” said Kamarudin, adding that the association had applied for a RM2 million grant from the Youth and Sports Ministry.

Source: NST – 2007/10/09

Note to readers: I wrote this a few days ago, many times, and I was a lot more mad about this, and the post was a lot angrier… but streamys kept messinag about and I kept loosing my post… the more i lost the post, the angrier the post got…. but in the end strymyx won… and here I write it again… but it probably doesn’t get the point across as well as my last post did… but it may be a better read since its not so angry… either way… at least I wrote something I guess… heh.. Regards…

Whither good education? Full Circle?

This article was prompted by this Bernama report, where our beloved PM said “our education system has come full circle“

This sign was found in the library of a secondary school in the Klang Valley. If this is the quality of education that the foreign students are here to receive, I very much doubt the usefullness of their Malaysian-acquired education on the global scale. Is the sign in English or Malay? Is it even in GOOD English or Malay? what is ‘jangan on’ and what is ‘air-corn’? So what if the library is air-conditioned and cormfortable? There are more tables in there than books. There are more sofas than shelves. IS that what a library is meant to be?

According to dictionary.com, a library is:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) – Cite This Source – Share This

li·brar·y /ˈlaɪˌbrɛri, -brəri, -bri/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[lahy-brer-ee, -bruh-ree, -bree] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun, plural -brar·ies.

1.	a place set apart to contain books, periodicals, and other material for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference, as a room, set of rooms, or building where books may be read or borrowed.

2.	a public body organizing and maintaining such an establishment.

3.	a collection of manuscripts, publications, and other materials for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference.

4.	a collection of any materials for study and enjoyment, as films, musical recordings, or maps.

5.	a commercial establishment lending books for a fixed charge; a lending library.

6.	a series of books of similar character or alike in size, binding, etc., issued by a single publishing house.

7.	Biology. a collection of standard materials or formulations by which specimens are identified.

8.	canon1 (def. 9).

9.	Computers. a collection of software or data usually reflecting a specific theme or application.

 

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A collection of books? What I saw was a collection of tables and chairs. A collection of cormfortable cushioned settees. A collection of empty shelves. And a collection of raggedy primary-school-grade books.

This was not the library of a rural school. It was the library of a six-year-old, single session secondary school in an affluent area in the Klang Valley which costs the goverment a couple of hundred thousand to maintain a year. Is this the quality of English/Malay that we want our children to learn? Is this the quality of Malay that our children’s teachers use? Whither good education? Education in Malaysia has NOT come full circle. The majority of overseas students studying in Malaysia are doing so in private universities/colleges. Most of these institutions of higher learning are associated/affiliated or at least connected in some way to institutions of higher education in foreign countries, namely the continents of North America, Europe and Australasia. The existence of these local institutions point to the LACK of good quality education in goverment-funded institutions of higher learning. Malaysian students whose parents can afford it are still getting their qualifications from overseas universities. Those who can, do it directly by studying overseas. Those who can’t, do it indrectly do it at local private colleges/universities. The degrees they received are from overseas bodies. The degrees they receive are not FROM Malaysia.

I don’t see a full circle, and I don’t see good education. Good education was available here in the seventies. University of Malaya used to be well known worldwide. Where has that gone? It has been snatched from our hands and our children’s. We are left with shadows. Shadows of past glory, when our education was overlooked by the British. We could be proud of our institutions then.

Anyone can say we have progressed in the past 50 years. We have. But by whose hands? By the shear self-preservation, hard-workingness and desire to succeed of the population? Or by the ‘helping hands’ of the government.  Our education system has not come full circle.  The private education industry have made some headways into improving the standards of education in this country.  But the fact that we cannot trust our own education bodies to award us with degrees which are recognized worldwide says that our education system did not in any way come close to full circle.

Do we have to classify everything?

Is our population so stupid that we have to classify everything? Are we not able to judge for ourselves the difference between credible and not-so-credible blogs? Won’t professional blog-sites be more akin to newspapers? How will classification of blogs help to persecute bloggers?  What ‘rite’ do you have to control blogging?  What rite do you have to deny freedom of speech?

The majority of blogs are personal opinion. If blogs that ‘touch on matters enshrined in the federal constitution’ are becoming such a problem, isn’t that be a sign that people are not happy with the laws of the country? The more you stereotype us, the more united we’ll be. Classifying blogs into professional/non-professional is a very very very heavy form of stereotyping. The majority of blogs are personal. In the dividing of blogs into professional/non-professional, where would those blogs stand? Why professional/non-professional? Why not sopo/personal/work/etc or something similar and infinitely less discriminatory?

People read SoPo blogs for news which are not published in the mainstream media, which are controled by the ruling party.  Readers do not need to be told what to believe, they can make their own judgement.  Classifying the blogs won’t make a damned difference. We will continue reading. We will continue writing.

We, the blog-readers and blog-writers are not stupid.

2007/05/05

Zainuddin proposes classification of bloggers

KUALA LUMPUR, SAT.: Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said today that Malaysia has to classify bloggers as professionals and non-professionals as a mechanism to prevent misuse of Internet blog sites.

He said he believes that professional bloggers are those who are more responsible in ensuring that their web content is based on the truth and not rumours.

“This classification will also facilitate the action to be taken against those found to have violated the country’s laws,” he told a press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here.

Zainuddin said certain people in the country have misused blog sites for their own interest and that of their groups, like touching on matters enshrined in the Federal Constitution and others that sparked uneasiness among the multi-racial population.

“We have to control this. It is feared that these (blog sites) will be misused by those who have an agenda to spread slander. By right, there should be a mechanism to control this phenomenon, including by classifying bloggers as professionals and non-professionals,” he said.
Zainuddin said this is important in enabling the people to determine whether they can trust a certain matter and whether the blog content is the truth or a rumour that can cause discomfort or undermine unity.

The minister said that during his recent visit to France, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nice-Matin Press Group, Michel Camboul, had mentioned the need for the French government to classify bloggers and expressed concern over blog sites having an impact on newspaper circulation and the buying of advertisements in newspapers there.

Zainuddin said the Internet has yet to be widely used by the people in Malaysia and if blog sites become an alternative press that forces the shutdown of newspapers, the rural people who depend on newspapers will be denied the right to information.

He reminded bloggers not to touch on matters that have been agreed upon by the consensus of the country’s multi-racial population such as the special position and privileges of the Malays, the Rulers and Islam so as to maintain peace and harmony.

“Better Life” for Foreign Spouses?

The topic of foreign spouses appeared in the news again today. This time the government is granting them 5 year visas (as opposed to 1 year previously). Apparently it’ll enable them to live a “better life”. The visa will enable the foreign spouses to be employed here for longer periods, allegedly facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills. BUT the foreign spouses are warned that this move will not ease obtaination of PR status. Especially for foreign husbands.

Why the sexism? And why the analness in allowing PRs? Maybe the better question would be, what is big brother afraid of? Sure, foreign spouses can bring both bad and good things to the country. Mail order brides wouuld be a good example of a problem. But I can think of more advantages than disadvantages.

Women married to foreign husbands, who WANT to return home are normally educated and financially stable. They didn’t ‘marry out’ because they were lured by promises of “a better life”, those who did won’t want to go home. The foreign husbands who are happy to follow the wife to her homeland are good people with skills that enable them to work anywhere. Burdens of society they are not. In all likelihood, they or their wives could be experts in their fields.

Five year visas with no prospect of a permanent residency will do nothing to lure professionals and experts. These people are leading well-paid lives in developed countries. Many do indeed WANT to return home, but they aren’t willing to give up everything to have a short stay here only to have to uproot when their visa runs out. A chance to bring up their family here would be nice – and that take more than five years.

Big brother complains of brain drain yet makes it impossible for professionals who genuinely want to come home to do so. Five year visas are an improvement over 1 year visas, but it won’t do anything to encourage working professional Malaysians to return home. They need something more than that. Big Brother are so afraid of competition that they have built a wall around the country, keeping away the very people who can and want to move the country forward. Are they doing this for the “skills and knowledge” of professionals? Or the skills and knowldge of labourers and servant girls?

Exerpt from original article dated 16/03/2007:

PUTRAJAYA: Foreign spouses of Malaysians living in the country will be given visas valid for five years instead of requiring yearly renewals. Those working will also be granted five-year employment passes as the government moves to give them a better life, saving them the trouble of having to travel out of the country every year to process a new visa.