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M. Bakri Musa

Seeing Malaysia My Way

My Photo
Name:
Location: Morgan Hill, California, United States

Malaysian-born Bakri Musa writes frequently on issues affecting his native land. His essays have appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, International Herald Tribune, Education Quarterly, SIngapore's Straits Times, and The New Straits Times. His commentary has aired on National Public Radio's Marketplace. His regular column Seeing It My Way appears in Malaysiakini. Bakri is also a regular contributor to th eSun (Malaysia). He has previously written "The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia" as well as "Malaysia in the Era of Globalization," "An Education System Worthy of Malaysia," "Seeing Malaysia My Way," and "With Love, From Malaysia." Bakri's day job (and frequently night time too!) is as a surgeon in private practice in Silicon Valley, California. He and his wife Karen live on a ranch in Morgan Hill. This website is updated twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays at 5 PM California time.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays - Introduction

  

The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays:

 

Introduction – 

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

Second of Two Parts

 

Blindfold me and then drop me at a school on any school day in any country. Upon removing my blindfold I would be able to tell right away whether that society is developed or still undeveloped. The essence of my observation is captured in the ancient Chinese wisdom:  The schools of a nation are its future in miniature.

 

The contrast between a Japanese or South Korean school versus that in Egypt or Mexico could not be more startling. In Malaysia, visit any Sekolah Kebangsaan (National School) and compare that to any school in Singapore, and you would know that Malaysia is way behind that island republic, and why. During my youth, or even a generation or two ago, the schools in both countries were comparable.

 

In First World America, there are scattered enclaves of the Third World. Visit the schools in the Blue Mountains of Appalachia, the deep rural south of Mississippi, America’s inner cities, and the Indian Reservations, and the reason for their backwardness would be apparent–their rotten schools. Obvious too would be the solution–improve their schools!

 

Malaysia may be in the Third World, but tease the economic and demographic statistics and you would discern definite clumps of First World, just like America with her Third World enclaves. The kampungs and the new phenomenon of urban blight of high-rise edifices (Rumah Pangsa) are inhabited by Malays, with their per capita income matching their Third World existence. They are a world away from Bungsar or Bukit Kiara; likewise their schools.

 

Ever wonder why Malays rich and poor are increasingly enrolling their children in Chinese schools? That is reminiscent of the Irish Catholics of the 1950s sending their children to the much superior “Godless” Protestant schools of the English despite threats of being excommunicated.

 

With his Vision 2020 now all but forgotten, Mahathir coined another grand but much less heralded scheme, his “Shared Prosperity 2030.” This time he wisely chose a much shorter time span, a decade instead of a generation. At 95 it would be unlikely for him to be alive at the end to see whether it would be successful. I was certain that back in 1990 when he chose Vision 2020 with its time span of thirty years, he did not expect to live to see its conclusion.

 

Mahathir may or may not be around come 2030 but Malaysia certainly would. If present trend continues, meaning, continued deterioration of Malaysian schools, then Shared Prosperity 2030 would meet the same ignoble fate as Vision 2020.

 

If Mahathir were to live long enough to see the failure of his Shared Prosperity 2030, I wonder who or what he would blame it on then. I am uncertain his surviving till 2030 would be a blessing or a cruel divine punishment.

 

No nation could progress unless it has an enlightened system of education and pay attention to its schools, colleges, and universities. Ireland, Singapore and South Korea would not be where they are today had they not done that.

 

The world today rightly lauds China for uplifting hundreds of millions of her citizens out of poverty within a generation or two, an unprecedented achievement. Her economy now rivals that of America. The world attributes China’s success to her joining the global mainstream, as with her entry into the World Trade Organization as well as embracing capitalism and free enterprise. Those may be contributing factors, but the pivot point was Deng Xiaoping’s early decision to rehabilitate China’s schools and universities devastated by Mao’s madness.

 

As revealed in Ezra Vogel’s biography of Deng, soon after taking over from Mao and early during America’s initial and tentative rapprochement with China, Deng broke diplomatic protocols to meet and then asked the head of a junior American delegation then visiting Beijing to plead to President Carter to accept a few hundred bright Chinese students into top American universities. A very modest request that Carter readily acceded to.

 

A generation later–the time span of Vision 2020–America hosts hundreds of thousands of Chinese students. Those American-trained students are now leapfrogging China into becoming a leader in IT and biotechnology, among others. They are the ones transforming China.

 

The traffic was not all one-way. I was visiting Beijing in early 2000. The plane was full of American teachers, lecturers, and professors bound for China. International schools, especially British and American, blossomed in China. Hundreds and thousands of Chinese students flock to attend cram courses for TOEFL (English test for non-English speaking foreign students wishing to attend American colleges), SAT (America’s matriculating examination), GRE (for entry into graduate schools), and GMAT (for graduate business schools).

 

Those Chinese students and leaders were not at all worried that by embracing English and the West generally they were not mentarbatkan (dignifying down) their own language or culture, the current obsession with Malay leaders.

 

There is a lesson there for those Malay leaders. Focus on education if you want your society to join the ranks of the developed. Improve your schools and colleges. Set the bar high for students and make them sit for the same tests as those from advanced countries, not the local SPM and matrikulasi. Modernize the curriculum. Import foreign teachers if that is what it would take.

 

That is not a secret recipe. It has been time-tested both in the East (Taiwan and Singapore) as well as in the West (Ireland). Time for Malaysian leaders to do likewise, unless they and Malaysians are satisfied being perennially in the Third World.

 

These essays are my views towards Malaysia achieving that end. In essence they are updates of my earlier book, An Education System Worthy Of Malaysia (2003).

 

Anwar Ibrahim's Comeback And Malaysia's good Fortune

 Anwar Ibrahim’s Comeback And Malaysia’s Good Fortune

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

 

 

What next week will bring to Malaysia politics-wise, Allahu A’alam! (Only Allah knows!) And He is not telling anyone. We all just have to wait.

 

Nonetheless it is not difficult to judge and surmise from the respective speeches and body languages of the two protagonists–current Prime Minister Muhyiddin and Reformasi Leader Anwar Ibrahim–who has the upper hand. In his press conference Anwar projected an image of a take-charge leader. He was poised, articulate and confident, at ease with reporters’ questions. Muhyiddin on the other had to remind everyone that he is still in charge.

 

Let us pray for the Agung to have a speedy recovery. He should afford Anwar the same reception he gave to Muhyiddin back in February 2020. That is, if Anwar could bring documented evidence of support by the majority of Members of Parliament, then he should be the Prime Minister.

 

Should the Agung be incapacitated and his Deputy, Perak Sultan Raja Nazrin, were to take over, he too should do likewise. For him there was also the additional precedent set by his father (with Raja Nazrin as Crown Prince) back in 2009 when he accepted the statutory declarations of the three political frogs, thus enabling the erstwhile opposition Barisan to take over the state government from Pakatan.

 

It would be the height of irresponsibility and serve the nation ill if the Agung were to take a different tack with Anwar and dissolve Parliament instead. That would forever destroy the precious neutrality of that institution. It would also be inexcusable to expose the public to unnecessary risks were there to be a general election during this Covid-19 pandemic. Yes, Singapore did it, but that state is known for doing many things right. Malaysians have yet to know and reckon with the possible public health and other consequences of the Sabah State election this Saturday, September 26, 2020, in the midst of this epidemic.

 

I expect Anwar to be Prime Minster next week. Malaysia is more than ready and in desperate need of a new leader and administration.

 

Anwar and his team should focus on only three objectives. Manage this Covid-19 pandemic, deal with corruption, and enhance education. Everything else including reviving the economy should be secondary. As one wise African leader pointed out, you can revive the economy but not a dead citizen. If Malaysia were free of corruption, investments would flow in; likewise if you have well trained and educated citizens.

 

There is no need for a ministry for sports, tourism, Islam, women’s issues, or entrepreneur development. Get rid of them and their massive bureaucracies.

For Covid-19, listen to your professionals. You have in Director-General of Health Dr. Hashim Abdullah an exceptionally capable man. Give him and his agency all the support. For education, increase the number of hours devoted to science, mathematics, and English in schools. Teach those subjects daily. Make that a condition for any school to receive state funding, including and especially religious schools. Beyond those four subjects and Malay, each school would be free to fill the rest of the school day.

 

As for tackling corruption, focus on three key personnel:  Chief of Police, Anti-Corruption Chief, and Attorney-General. While there are many competent Malaysians to occupy those positions, we must recognize that citizens are now deeply polarized. It would be difficult to get a local candidate who would be viewed as impartial. Former Attorney-General Tomas was competent. However being a non-Malay, he was the target of unjustified racist motives, what with most of his targets being longstanding corrupt Malay leaders. As for former MACC Chief Latheefa Koya, she too was effective but her being active in opposition party politics before the 2018 elections fueled her detractors.

 

Imagine the impact if all three were foreigners, professionals recruited from such agencies as the FBI or Scotland Yard. At the very least they would be viewed as impartial with respect to race and local politics. For those same reasons, I would not recruit from India, Singapore, or Hong Kong. The impact of such appointments would be immediate and dramatic.

 

Those appointments require the Council of Rulers’ consent. Lobby and educate them on the wisdom of the proposal. Those foreign chiefs would groom capable local subordinates and change the culture and integrity of those institutions. With time the scourge of racism and mistrust in those institutions would subside.

 

Anwar pointed out that his government would be Malay-majority. I understand his rationale for doing that, to reassure the restless natives. However, I would not emphasize that fact; it would be obvious soon enough. Besides, Malaysians are now more interested in a clean, competent and efficient government. There is no joy, much less reflected glory, in having a Malay government but made up of the corrupt and incompetent. In fact that would only bring shame to our race and culture.

 

Anwar aspires to have an inclusive cabinet. So co-opt a few competent non-Malays from the previous Pakatan Administration. Two names prop up, former Transport Minister Anthony Loke and Science Minister Yeo Bee Hin. Yeo would bring both racial and sexual inclusiveness. She would also raise the average IQ of the cabinet.

 

Both are from DAP, a party not in the proposed coalition. Anwar should learn from his good friend, former US State Secretary William Cohen, a Republican who was appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton.

 

A final piece of unsolicited advice for Anwar. Don’t bother giving interviews to BBC, and Al Jazeera, or address august foreign audiences. You have your work cut out at home. There would be plenty of time for that once you are successful. Besides, at our age those jet lags could be quite devastating, taking precious time away from attending pressing domestic issues.

 

The Rot In Malaysian Education - Introduction

  

The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays:

 

Introduction – 

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

Second of Two Parts

 

Blindfold me and then drop me at a school on any school day in any country. Upon removing my blindfold I would be able to tell right away whether that society is developed or still undeveloped. The essence of my observation is captured in the ancient Chinese wisdom:  The schools of a nation are its future in miniature.

 

The contrast between a Japanese or South Korean school versus that in Egypt or Mexico could not be more startling. In Malaysia, visit any Sekolah Kebangsaan (National School) and compare that to any school in Singapore, and you would know that Malaysia is way behind that island republic, and why. During my youth, or even a generation or two ago, the schools in both countries were comparable.

 

In First World America, there are scattered enclaves of the Third World. Visit the schools in the Blue Mountains of Appalachia, the deep rural south of Mississippi, America’s inner cities, and the Indian Reservations, and the reason for their backwardness would be apparent–their rotten schools. Obvious too would be the solution–improve their schools!

 

Malaysia may be in the Third World, but tease the economic and demographic statistics and you would discern definite clumps of First World, just like America with her Third World enclaves. The kampungs and the new phenomenon of urban blight of high-rise edifices (Rumah Pangsa) are inhabited by Malays, with their per capita income matching their Third World existence. They are a world away from Bungsar or Bukit Kiara; likewise their schools.

 

Ever wonder why Malays rich and poor are increasingly enrolling their children in Chinese schools? That is reminiscent of the Irish Catholics of the 1950s sending their children to the much superior “Godless” Protestant schools of the English despite threats of being excommunicated.

 

With his Vision 2020 now all but forgotten, Mahathir coined another grand but much less heralded scheme, his “Shared Prosperity 2030.” This time he wisely chose a much shorter time span, a decade instead of a generation. At 95 it would be unlikely for him to be alive at the end to see whether it would be successful. I was certain that back in 1990 when he chose Vision 2020 with its time span of thirty years, he did not expect to live to see its conclusion.

 

Mahathir may or may not be around come 2030 but Malaysia certainly would. If present trend continues, meaning, continued deterioration of Malaysian schools, then Shared Prosperity 2030 would meet the same ignoble fate as Vision 2020.

 

If Mahathir were to live long enough to see the failure of his Shared Prosperity 2030, I wonder who or what he would blame it on then. I am uncertain his surviving till 2030 would be a blessing or a cruel divine punishment.

 

No nation could progress unless it has an enlightened system of education and pay attention to its schools, colleges, and universities. Ireland, Singapore and South Korea would not be where they are today had they not done that.

 

The world today rightly lauds China for uplifting hundreds of millions of her citizens out of poverty within a generation or two, an unprecedented achievement. Her economy now rivals that of America. The world attributes China’s success to her joining the global mainstream, as with her entry into the World Trade Organization as well as embracing capitalism and free enterprise. Those may be contributing factors, but the pivot point was Deng Xiaoping’s early decision to rehabilitate China’s schools and universities devastated by Mao’s madness.

 

As revealed in Ezra Vogel’s biography of Deng, soon after taking over from Mao and early during America’s initial and tentative rapprochement with China, Deng broke diplomatic protocols to meet and then asked the head of a junior American delegation then visiting Beijing to plead to President Carter to accept a few hundred bright Chinese students into top American universities. A very modest request that Carter readily acceded to.

 

A generation later–the time span of Vision 2020–America hosts hundreds of thousands of Chinese students. Those American-trained students are now leapfrogging China into becoming a leader in IT and biotechnology, among others. They are the ones transforming China.

 

The traffic was not all one-way. I was visiting Beijing in early 2000. The plane was full of American teachers, lecturers, and professors bound for China. International schools, especially British and American, blossomed in China. Hundreds and thousands of Chinese students flock to attend cram courses for TOEFL (English test for non-English speaking foreign students wishing to attend American colleges), SAT (America’s matriculating examination), GRE (for entry into graduate schools), and GMAT (for graduate business schools).

 

Those Chinese students and leaders were not at all worried that by embracing English and the West generally they were not mentarbatkan (dignifying down) their own language or culture, the current obsession with Malay leaders.

 

There is a lesson there for those Malay leaders. Focus on education if you want your society to join the ranks of the developed. Improve your schools and colleges. Set the bar high for students and make them sit for the same tests as those from advanced countries, not the local SPM and matrikulasi. Modernize the curriculum. Import foreign teachers if that is what it would take.

 

That is not a secret recipe. It has been time-tested both in the East (Taiwan and Singapore) as well as in the West (Ireland). Time for Malaysian leaders to do likewise, unless they and Malaysians are satisfied being perennially in the Third World.

 

These essays are my views towards Malaysia achieving that end. In essence they are updates of my earlier book, An Education System Worthy Of Malaysia (2003).

 

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Anwar Ibrahim's Comeback And Malaysia's Good Fortune

 Anwar Ibrahim’s Comeback And Malaysia’s Good Fortune

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

 

 

What next week will bring to Malaysia politics-wise, Allahu A’alam! (Only Allah knows!) And He is not telling anyone. We all just have to wait.

 

Nonetheless it is not difficult to judge and surmise from the respective speeches and body languages of the two protagonists–current Prime Minister Muhyiddin and Reformasi Leader Anwar Ibrahim–who has the upper hand. In his press conference Anwar projected an image of a take-charge leader. He was poised, articulate and confident, at ease with reporters’ questions. Muhyiddin on the other had to remind everyone that he is still in charge.

 

Let us pray for the Agung to have a speedy recovery. He should afford Anwar the same reception he gave to Muhyiddin back in February 2020. That is, if Anwar could bring documented evidence of support by the majority of Members of Parliament, then he should be the Prime Minister.

 

Should the Agung be incapacitated and his Deputy, Perak Sultan Raja Nazrin, were to take over, he too should do likewise. For him there was also the additional precedent set by his father (with Raja Nazrin as Crown Prince) back in 2009 when he accepted the statutory declarations of the three political frogs, thus enabling the erstwhile opposition Barisan to take over the state government from Pakatan.

 

It would be the height of irresponsibility and serve the nation ill if the Agung were to take a different tack with Anwar and dissolve Parliament instead. That would forever destroy the precious neutrality of that institution. It would also be inexcusable to expose the public to unnecessary risks were there to be a general election during this Covid-19 pandemic. Yes, Singapore did it, but that state is known for doing many things right. Malaysians have yet to know and reckon with the possible public health and other consequences of the Sabah State election this Saturday, September 26, 2020, in the midst of this epidemic.

 

I expect Anwar to be Prime Minster next week. Malaysia is more than ready and in desperate need of a new leader and administration.

 

Anwar and his team should focus on only three objectives. Manage this Covid-19 pandemic, deal with corruption, and enhance education. Everything else including reviving the economy should be secondary. As one wise African leader pointed out, you can revive the economy but not a dead citizen. If Malaysia were free of corruption, investments would flow in; likewise if you have well trained and educated citizens.

 

There is no need for a ministry for sports, tourism, Islam, women’s issues, or entrepreneur development. Get rid of them and their massive bureaucracies.

For Covid-19, listen to your professionals. You have in Director-General of Health Dr. Hashim Abdullah an exceptionally capable man. Give him and his agency all the support. For education, increase the number of hours devoted to science, mathematics, and English in schools. Teach those subjects daily. Make that a condition for any school to receive state funding, including and especially religious schools. Beyond those four subjects and Malay, each school would be free to fill the rest of the school day.

 

As for tackling corruption, focus on three key personnel:  Chief of Police, Anti-Corruption Chief, and Attorney-General. While there are many competent Malaysians to occupy those positions, we must recognize that citizens are now deeply polarized. It would be difficult to get a local candidate who would be viewed as impartial. Former Attorney-General Tomas was competent. However being a non-Malay, he was the target of unjustified racist motives, what with most of his targets being longstanding corrupt Malay leaders. As for former MACC Chief Latheefa Koya, she too was effective but her being active in opposition party politics before the 2018 elections fueled her detractors.

 

Imagine the impact if all three were foreigners, professionals recruited from such agencies as the FBI or Scotland Yard. At the very least they would be viewed as impartial with respect to race and local politics. For those same reasons, I would not recruit from India, Singapore, or Hong Kong. The impact of such appointments would be immediate and dramatic.

 

Those appointments require the Council of Rulers’ consent. Lobby and educate them on the wisdom of the proposal. Those foreign chiefs would groom capable local subordinates and change the culture and integrity of those institutions. With time the scourge of racism and mistrust in those institutions would subside.

 

Anwar pointed out that his government would be Malay-majority. I understand his rationale for doing that, to reassure the restless natives. However, I would not emphasize that fact; it would be obvious soon enough. Besides, Malaysians are now more interested in a clean, competent and efficient government. There is no joy, much less reflected glory, in having a Malay government but made up of the corrupt and incompetent. In fact that would only bring shame to our race and culture.

 

Anwar aspires to have an inclusive cabinet. So co-opt a few competent non-Malays from the previous Pakatan Administration. Two names prop up, former Transport Minister Anthony Loke and Science Minister Yeo Bee Hin. Yeo would bring both racial and sexual inclusiveness. She would also raise the average IQ of the cabinet.

 

Both are from DAP, a party not in the proposed coalition. Anwar should learn from his good friend, former US State Secretary William Cohen, a Republican who was appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton.

 

A final piece of unsolicited advice for Anwar. Don’t bother giving interviews to BBC, and Al Jazeera, or address august foreign audiences. You have your work cut out at home. There would be plenty of time for that once you are successful. Besides, at our age those jet lags could be quite devastating, taking precious time away from attending pressing domestic issues.

 

 

 

Sunday, September 20, 2020

The Rot In Malaysian Education - Introduction I

 The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays:

 

Introduction

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

 

First of Two Parts

 

Way back in the 1990s and until not too long ago, the Year 2020 was much anticipated in Malaysia. It promised to be a glamorous one, a “coming out” event of sorts to mark Malaysia achieving her Vision 2020 aspirations. That was to be the year when she would be joining the exclusive club of developed nations.

 

We are now well into 2020 and not a word is being uttered on that once-lofty goal. No celebrations, no hoopla. All silent. It is as if there is a massive national conspiracy not to bring up the topic. Too embarrassing!

 

Malaysia is way far short of achieving her Vision 2020 goals set back in 1990, a generation earlier. All those grandiose visions were but, as we Malays would put it, angan angan Mat Jenin (the wild fantasies of Mat Jenin–the lovable clown in Malay folklore).

 

The man who articulated that grand plan was one Mahathir Mohamad. He resigned as Prime Minister in 2003 after being at the helm for nearly 23 years. Then in May 2018 following an electoral upset, he was back as Prime Minister, his second time around after a hiatus of over a decade and a half, and now at 93 years old. Not for long however, for 22 months later he resigned. Instead of an outpouring of grief and pleading for his return as when he quit in 2003, this time he was ignored. Later he was out-maneuvered when he tried a comeback, an over-cocky flying squirrel that overestimated the strength of the branch he was about to land on, or his skill, and thus crashed to the ground. His groveling today to get back his old position and power is not a pretty sight, in fact downright pathetic.

 

Mahathir first put forth his vision for the future of Malaysia in an address to the Malaysian Business Council in 1989. This was followed by a series of essays under the title “The Way Forward.” The country then was still the darling of the West, recognized as an emerging economic power, another potential Asian Tiger though not quite yet on par with Taiwan, Singapore, or South Korea. A British publisher later put those essays in a slim volume with the same title.

 

Mahathir’s vision caught on and became the basis of his Sixth Malaysia Plan introduced in 1991. It was to be the nation’s blueprint for development for the next thirty years, the span of a generation, to end on–auspiciously–2020. As “The Way Forward” did not quite have a zing to it, the plan was later dubbed “Vision 2020.”

 

Mahathir eschewed the traditional criteria of a developed society, dismissing them as the parochial inventions of the West. He fancied that he could better such traditional markers as the per capita income, level of industrialization, or the Human Development Index. Instead, he envisioned “a united Malaysian nation with a sense of common and shared destiny.” His other goals were equally nebulous if not corny, as with a society that would be “robust,” “economically just,” and “psychologically liberated.”

 

His paean to measurable goals (and modern economics) was the doubling of the Malaysian GDP every decade, or an eight-fold increase from its 1990 base. That would assume a consistent 7 percent annual growth. Quite a challenge, although South Korea and later China plus a few other nations had done it.

 

Mahathir’s Vision 2020 fantasy was rudely interrupted by the 1997 Asian contagion. He blamed the West for its rapacious capitalism that gave rise to such celebrated “greedy” currency speculators as George Soros. Then as if not challenged enough by that economic crisis, Mahathir created a much unneeded and nearly crippling accompanying political crisis by picking a fight with his hitherto deputy and presumed heir-apparent, Anwar Ibrahim.

 

Having steered Malaysia through that treacherous stretch of political and economic turmoil, he retired in 2003 and handed power to his handpicked successor, Abdullah Badawi. Ever the poor judge of talent, Mahathir’s dud and soporific Abdullah nearly destroyed Malaysia, not willfully but through indifferent neglect. Mahathir then engineered to have Najib Razak take over. Sleepyhead Abdullah was not awake enough to know what had happened to him.

 

If Mahathir had erred with Abdullah, then Najib was a disaster several quanta beyond. The current 1MDB debacle is one of many Najib’s ugly legacies. He is now awaiting jailtime for corruption, pending appeal.

 

Bless Mahathir, for even though the man was 93 years old and had gone through a very serious “redo” heart bypass surgery in 2007 followed by a long recuperation, he, together with a now-invigorated opposition coalition crafted by his erstwhile nemesis Anwar Ibrahim, dislodged Najib’s Barisan coalition in the 2018 election.

 

Mahathir now has a convenient excuse for his failed Vision 2020. During its first decade he could convince himself and Malaysians if not the world that it was the West that did in Malaysia. In the second decade into Vision 2020, he blamed the incompetent Abdullah, and the third, Najib with his insatiable greed. Yes, that crooked Najib nearly wrecked Malaysia with his 1MDB heist.

 

Mahathir may have convinced himself as well as others in blaming currency speculators as well as Abdullah and Najib for his failure to lead Malaysia into that elusive and exclusive “developed nation” status, but he does not convince me.

 

Vision 2020 failed because of a much more simple and fundamental reason – the inadequacies of the nation’s education system.

 

Next:  Introduction:  Second of Two Parts

 

Sunday, September 13, 2020

The Rot In Malaysian Education and Other Essays

 The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays

M. Bakri Musa   (www.bakrimusa.com)

 

 




 

https://www.amazon.com/Rot-Malaysian-Education-Other-Essays/dp/B08975JKBX/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

ISBN  979-8646611056;  349 pp; May 2020. $12.95

E-version (available at Amazon.com)  $2.95

 

Book Description

 

This collection of the writer’s commentaries traces the continuing decline of Malaysian education at all levels. The rot has been going on for decades, with the slope becoming distressingly steep despite successive Administrations professing to reverse the trend and transform the system. Today the challenges are as monumental as they are obvious while the remedies offered are nothing but repeated assurances and earnest statements, coupled with endless Blueprints and White Papers.

 

Notwithstanding the widespread anxiety, one cannot help but conclude this outcome is precisely what Malaysian leaders (or to be more specific, Malay leaders) seek. This sorry state cannot be the result of neglect or incompetence, rather a willful decision to let the system rot. An educated citizen capable of critical and independent thinking would be anathema to these leaders as that would mean the end of the current feudal system, and with that, the current power structure and brand of leadership. In short, a threat to the establishment and existing order.

 

            Malaysian parents have long ago abandoned the national stream, at least those who could afford it. In the past they were mostly non-Malays, leading Malay chauvinists to label them as unpatriotic or even traitors. To non-Malays in Johore, Malaysian education is irrelevant as they could opt for the far superior schools in Singapore.

 

Today an increasing number of Malays too are fleeing the system. That is the greatest indictment of the system, much to the chagrin of Malay leaders. The rich opt for international schools, which are mushrooming. The poor (and not so poor) Malays opt for Chinese schools, to the embarrassment of Malay leaders and nationalists who themselves have opted for international schools. This hypocrisy, obvious to all, escapes them.

 

Malaysia does not need comparative data like scores on TIMMS and PISA to show how rotten is the current system. Malaysia expends considerable resources to participate in those studies but is not learning, or more correctly refuses to learn from them.

 

The result is that Malaysians are now rare on elite campuses. Meanwhile Malaysian employers shun local graduates, and the teaching profession no longer attracts the best.

 

The Ministry of Education, the largest and with ever-increasing allocations, is blighted by inept management and bloated bureaucracy intent on pursuing narrow nationalistic and Islamist agendas. Worse, each successive Minister is consumed with exploiting the prestige (what little there is left) of the office to further his personal and political agenda.

 

Even when the rare enlightened policies were instituted, as with opening up higher education to the private sector in the mid 1990s by then Education Minister Najib Razak, the process was exploited to become lucrative conduits for corruption. Najib granted nearly 600 permits in a space of just two years! No wonder he had no difficulty funding his campaign to be UMNO Youth President at the time. More than half of those new institutions went out of business within a few years, stranding their students and crushing their dreams, quite apart from literally robbing them and their parents.

 

The 2018 elections saw a new government with a Minster of Education who for the first time was not from the dominant United Malay National Organization (UMNO) party. An Islamic Studies graduate from a Middle Eastern university but with a British doctorate, his first order of business was to change the color of school children’s shoes from white to black! The only saving grace was that he was canned just over a year after taking office. Now (January 2020) the Ministry is back under Mahathir who in addition is also the Prime Minister. By February Mahathir too was out, finally outwitted by his own endless political scheming.

 

As an unnecessary reminder, it was Mahathir who as Minister of Education back in the 1970s who initiated the rot. It was Mahathir who, to endear himself to the nationalists and jihadists, squandered instead of building on what was then the nation’s most precious asset, the high English fluency and literacy of her students. Now Mahathir blames Malays for refusing to recognize the importance of English. And he does so without even a hint of regret or embarrassment!

 

Today Malaysian education at all levels has been taken over by the language nationalists and religious jihadists intent on making Malaysia “Malay” and “Islamic.” The nationalists add their chauvinistic and very “un-Islamic” Ketuanan Melayu (Malay hegemony) aspirations to the mix. As such schools’ curriculum is now heavy on mindless ritualistic religion and strident language nationalism. Indoctrination now masquerades as education. The situation is no better at universities.

 

This glaring disconnect between the Ministry’s agenda and reality is obvious to all but those bureaucrats, policymakers, and educators. Consider that while Malaysia is in desperate need of teachers of English, the national university does not have a dedicated Department of English. Likewise, while everyone clamors for young Malaysians to think critically, not one Malaysian university has a Department of Philosophy.

 

The need to emphasize the basics in Malaysian schools is never more acute than now. The four core subjects of Malay, English, science, and mathematics should be taught daily at all levels and in all schools. Recognizing the establishment’s inertia, the writer advocates liberalizing the system at all levels by opening it up to the private sector via the voucher system a la Chile and encouraging charter schools as per America.

Malaysian schools must once again prepare her young for the modern interconnected and increasingly competitive world as well as be the pivotal instrument for integrating them.

As per the wisdom of our great Munshi Abdullah, the minds of our young should be regarded as parang to be sharpened, and not as the current classroom philosophy would have it, dustbins to be filled with dogmas. The most you would get from the latter is what you put in, minus what’s stuck to the bottom.

On the other hand there are no limits to what one could do with a sharp parang. At the very least you could hack yourself out when lost in the jungle. To a surgeon, a sharp scalpel (a sophisticated parang if you will) is an instrument to cure cancer; to an artist, to create exquisite works of art. To a thug a parang is but a lethal weapon. That is where values or moral aspects (religion if you like) of education come in. Unfortunately in Malaysia, Islamic instructions are consumed with rituals, that is when those religious instructors are not obsessed with how many virgins the pious would get in the Hereafter.

Malaysian schools should prepare her young for the modern globalized world and be the pivotal instrument for integrating her young. Any other objectives would only degrade those two central missions. In essence, this collection of essays updates the author’s earlier book, An Education System Worthy Of Malaysia (2003).

 

Next:  Introduction to The Rot In Malaysian Education And Other Essays.

Sunday, September 06, 2020

Remembering That Special Day, August 31, 1957

 Remembering That Special Day, August 31, 1957

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

 

 

August 31st, 1957 was a day of ebullient celebrations and unrestrained joy throughout Malaysia (or Malaya as it was then known). Rightly so for on that special day the long oppressive yoke of colonialism was finally lifted off our collective necks. We had our Merdeka!

 

I was then in lower secondary school. In our kampung house however, the mood was anything but jubilant. The day before my father had warned us, my siblings and me, to remain at home. That family curfew would continue till the day after. In contrast to the national celebratory mood, in our house there was only heightened anxiety. The extra supply of food and other necessities my parents had bought days earlier testified and added to that jitteriness.

 

My parents’ paranoia was not unfounded. A decade earlier they had seen ghastly images in the newspapers of the mass madness that had gripped and consumed the Indian subcontinent when it heralded its independence. Next door in Indonesia, the situation was no better for them. A decade of independence and President Sukarno had to urge his people to trap rats, thus solving the twin blights plaguing his young nation – mass starvation and rodent infestation. At home in the power vacuum at the end of World War II, there was the two-week reign of terror inflicted by the Malayan Communist Party.

 

More immediately, a few days before merdeka my father overheard a conversation among his fellow villagers. They were giddy with their plans to seize those elegant bungalows in Kuala Pilah for themselves, and drive out those colonials like my school headmaster. My father threw a damper on that idea. If those houses were to revert to the natives, he told the kampung wannabe heroes, rest assured that they would not be the lucky recipients. Besides, who would teach our children if those British teachers were to leave?

 

So on that day at midnight, to the delirious chanting of “Merdeka! Merdeka!” on the radio and everywhere, my father would mock, “MencakarMencakar!” (Scraping, as in scraping for a living.)

 

A decade later my parents would readily admit to the error of their earlier grim forebodings. Bless them! Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman had stuck to his words of “building schools instead of barracks, and training teachers instead of soldiers.” In the seven-mile drive from my village to my old school in Kuala Pilah for example, no fewer than seven new primary schools were being built, and my older brother and sister were among the thousands trained as teachers.

 

Malaysians have much to be grateful to Tengku beyond his saving the nation from an unnecessary war of independence. Thus on this Merdeka Day, Malaysians have no embellished reenactments of glorious battles and solemn rituals of honoring fallen heroes. Malaysians, unlikeAmericans, are thankfully spared our Bunker Hills and Paul Reveres.

 

As Tengku had kept his pledge of building schools and training teachers, young Malaysians like me were able to pursue our dreams. In the final analysis, that is the most precious and enduring gift a leader could bestow upon his nation.

 

This year, 2020, was to be Malaysia’s “coming-out” party marking her entry into the exclusive club of developed nations, the crowning achievement of her long-time Prime Minister Mahathir. Instead, she is cursed with a government that is bloated, corrupt, and incompetent, and her citizens deeply and dangerously polarized.

 

Malaysia is now known for her 1MDB notoriety, the world’s most expensive swindle, perpetrated by former Prime Minister Najib Razak. The price tag of that, though humongous and escalating, is at least quantifiable. Not so the divisions he had sowed and continue to sow among Malaysians.

 

Mahathir’s much ballyhooed Vision 2020 proved to be but a cruel hoax. Beyond that, he cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the rise of the sleepy Badawi, the kleptocratic Najib, and now the muddling Muhyyiddin, thus turning Malaysia into the sorry state she is in today. What an ugly legacy, obvious to all but Mahathir.

 

The late PAS leader Fadzil Noor once quipped for Mahathir to have a long life so he could see the follies of his policies. Fadzil Noor got only half his wish. Mahathir still deludes himself as being God’s greatest gift to Malaysia. As per the wisdom of Sa’adi’s Gulistan, “He whose fault is not told him / Ignorantly thinks his defects are virtues!”

 

Courtiers do not dare tell their emperor that he is naked.

 

Tengku was spot on when he predicted that Mahathir would destroy Malaysia. Mahathir personifies Raja Ali Haji’s Gurindam 12 aphorism:  “Tiada orang yang amat celaka / Aib dirinya tiada ia sangka.” (Cursed are those whose self-awareness is closed.)

 

Tengku’s enlightened vision for Malaysia has been derailed. There is much to be done to put it back on track, as well as build a stronger locomotive and straighten the tracks. Then ensure only the honest, competent, and principled be at the throttle. Only thus could Malaysians savor our Merdeka.