A tribute That Wasn't

A Tribute That Wasn’t

M. Bakri Musa

April 20, 2025

Of the many tributes heaped upon the late Tun Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s fifth Prime Minister who died on April 14, 2025, this one caught my attention. It was said that his first order of business as Prime Minister was to recruit over a thousand religious studies teachers.

            Imagine where Malaysia and Malays specifically would be today had he instead recruited over a thousand English and STEM teachers as well as funded over a hundred top STEM professors for our public universities.

            There was never a shortage of religious teachers, then or now. Abdullah’s initiative was more a massive public works program for otherwise unemployable Islamic Studies graduates who were (still are) exclusively Malays.

            Contemporary Malay leaders are easily distracted by non-problems, and more than eager to solve them. Their followers in turn are readily satisfied. As these leaders are freely chosen by the people, that in turn is reflective of our culture.

            Imagine had Abdullah used those precious funds in other ways, as with retraining those graduates in the culinary arts so they could set up their own restaurants, or be takaful (insurance) agents. Our society desperately needs greater Malay participation in the private sector. Besides, to paraphrase a familiar hadith, the honest trustworthy merchant will be with the prophets, the truthful, and the martyrs.

One should never be beholden by one’s first-degree choice. It takes many more years and efforts to become a doctor, yet more than a few chose not to become one upon graduation. One Malay medical graduate even became Prime Minister!

Contemporary Malay society is reminiscent of Mao’s China except for one significant difference. Mao and his gang were never elected by the people. Mao’s youths were mesmerized by his Red Book and would roam the streets chanting his thoughts at the slightest provocation. Today’s Malays (and not just our youths) are consumed with zikir and Imam Nawawi’s Forty Hadith.

In Mao’s time China’s best and brightest were sent to rural re-education camps. Until recently young Malays before being sent abroad were indoctrinated by Biro Tito Negara (BTN–National Civics Bureau). Hygiene-wise as well as material comforts, BTN campuses were far superior to Mao’s rural re-education camps, but the psychic and intellectual damages inflicted were of the same order.

It is too soon to predict the outcome or consequences of the present Trump-Xi head butt, but this much is certain. America or anyone else can no longer humiliate China, as the Europeans did a century earlier.

Chinese leaders are smarter today and China is now a major power if not already the most powerful. They are perceptive enough not to view the West as a monolithic bloc, instead forming separate alliances with Australia, Canada, and the European Union against America. Witness recent Chinese import of Australian beef and energy deals with Canada.

Malaysia’s challenge is less to choose sides in the current China/America tiff but to learn from both successful giants. 

Volumes had been written on China’s recent rise. The pivotal and early one was Deng Xiaoping requesting President Carter’s help in securing places for about 300 bright young Chinese at elite American universities. A decade later China would replace India as having the greatest number of students in America. Perversely today, America considers Chinese students security risks!

When Deng was sending a few hundred students to America, Malaysia was already sending thousands of young Malays there and elsewhere. While Deng was sending young Chinese to America’s Harvards and Berkeleys, Mahathir was satisfied with the likes of Northern Oklahoma State. While China was sending her best and brightest for graduate studies, Malaysia was sending hers for their first or even associate degrees.

For about US$100K a year you could recruit a top STEM professor from America and elsewhere, the same cost as sending a student abroad. That professor would spend the bulk of the funds locally for tax and living expenses, benefiting the local economy. He would be lucky to expatriate about US$10K at the end of the year. Meanwhile that Malaysian student would spend his entire $100K abroad. That is the equivalent of Malaysia’s revenue from exporting ten Protons or a hundred truckloads of palm oil.

In terms of foreign exchange loss, the cost of sending one student abroad would be the same as recruiting ten American professors. In terms of benefits to Malaysia, the latter is in its own universe.

I wish Prime Minister Anwar a long healthy and productive life. Imagine the Malaysia of the future, and Malays specifically, if Anwar’s obituary were to read “. . . he recruited a thousand English and STEM teachers as well as hundreds of STEM professors!”