Jimizul, is it racial or racist?

On 2nd September,  one of our regular readers posted  the following comment which I thought I will publish it here and respond since it raised what I consider a "typical mind set" symptomatic of a few in Malaysia. I had just returned to the country and hence, this delayed response.

"Salam bro,

Why don't you open up your eyes and see that in Malaysia everything is based on race no matter how hard people like you are trying to deny- politics, education, social and the list goes on...don't try to be so naive or rather ignorant. And please don't play with your religion card (emm..makes me wonder if you belong to a particular race or you'd rather be known as Muslim/Islam under your race column)..Please enlighten me bro if you really want to project your deep sense of piousness to the deny the important of race, then why the Chinese Muslims are requesting for their own mosques (which everything in it including the sermons will be in Chinese?)I'm waiting bro...Jimizul

Jimizul

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Salam bro,

Firstly, I want to thank you for being the conduit to inspire me to write something of significance in these trying and evolving times of our country. At least writing this article may allow me to “cleanse” my heart further.

Let me tackle the easier items in your comments first.

1. I have never, at any time in my life, denied that generally, the socio-economic and political framework in Malaysia is race-based. Having said that, however, I disagree with you that everything in Malaysia is race-based. If you open your eyes, you will see that there are many relationships, be it friendship, marriages or pure neighbourliness are not race-based.

2. Obviously all of us  on earth are classified into a social construct which we term as "race" or "ethnicity". There are usefulness and weaknesses in such a classification.  I will explain this below.

3. You accuse me of "playing the religious card". Obviously you have not read my articles. I believe you may have mistaken my considered respect and passion for the Quran as being religious. It is the politicians and religious bigots and their unthinking hand-clappers that shamelessly use the religious card. In our country, we had seen some "religious" people mysteriously "protest" in support of the ISA under the cry that it protects Islam! There are even some who use religion as a cover to promote racist interests. You should be targeting your accusation and opposition to them, not me.

4. As to your statement that I want to project my deep sense of piousness, this is my response: I did not know that I came across as such to you. I have never seen myself as pious and it has never really been important to me to determine so. What is more important to me is to live this temporary life causing as little damage as possible. In any event, the concept of "piousness" itself is something that have to be dealt with in another article.

5. Chinese seeking Chinese mosque complete with sermons in Chinese. It is just amazing that you should raise this because  the exact thought came to mind while I was in Beijing. I will cover it below.

Jimizul, I hope the following article which expresses my thoughts on the matters that you have raised will be useful.

Racial versus Racism and Religious versus religious bigotry

Actually Jimizul, your  comment requires firstly a discussion between what is "racial or "ethnic" considerations against what is "racism". The two are completely different. Many unfortunately are confused between the two. Secondly, it also requires an understanding of the Quran's position on "race" and "racism". Thirdly, we have to understand the difference between being religious and being a religious bigot.

Racial versus Racism

Few ideas have been so fraught with controversy, or have provided as much occasion for discussion and debate, as that of race. Race is a highly contradictory notion.  I am of the view that “race” is nothing more than a social construct to describe groups of people with certain similarities.

Article 160 of the Malaysian Constitution supports the idea that “race” is nothing more than a social construct. According to Article 160, a Malaysian citizen is defined as a “Malay” if he speaks the Malay language habitually, follows the Malay custom and is a Muslim. By this definition therefore, the “ethnic Chinese” is a “Malay” if he fulfills this criteria. Likewise, a Malaysian Javanese is a “Malay” in Malaysia while an Indonesian Javanese is not a “Malay” in Malaysia. This is what racial classification is all about – a social construct. If we take the definition of “Malay” in the Constitution technically, possibly many elite Malays may not qualify as constitutional Malays!

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, "race" or ethnicity are social constructs. They are terms created by human beings to refer to a group of people sharing similar characteristics which other groups do not have. Ethnicity or race therefore is a term used to describe people in terms of their common culture, language, social and dietary habits and such.

In this sense, therefore if you look at China or India, it is indeed multi-religious multi-racial and mutli-cultural. In China, while the Han Chinese is the largest ethnic group, it has 55 other minority ethnic groups. China has over 290 languages and for this reason, the Chinese government try to unite them by introducing Putonghua or Standard Mandarin as the common or national language. 

Similarly, India has displayed varied hues of culture, religion, race, language, and so on. The Constitution of India has recognised 22 different languages that are prevalent in the country, out of which, Hindi is the official language and is spoken in most of the urban cities of India. Other than these 22 languages, there are hundreds of dialects that add to the multilingual nature of the country.  

Malaysia too is multi-religious multi-racial and mutli-cultural society. However China and India are huge countries with much much bigger and more diverse population than ours. They have greater challenges than us at national integration and unity.   I doubt if any of our politicians have the calibre to govern those countries seeing how they have governed our much smaller country with much lesser challenges. But that’s a different point!

Jimizul, I am sure the above examples should suffice to demonstrate that one cannot deny the existence of these “racial classifications”.

Surely one cannot deny that knowledge and identification of ethnic origins does have its relevance. For example, if you identify someone as an orang asli, you will try to study his ethnic background to understand him. If you are a responsible government, you will try to understand the orang asli's culture, ethnicity and religion when you want to plan any development programmes for his community. You cannot for example, remove the orang asli from their "racial or ethnic environment" and suddenly throw them into towns. This has happened in our country and it is cruel. With our knowledge of the racial makeup of the orang asli, we should prepare them for the different kind of challenges that living in developed towns will entail.

Another example is that of the Indians in the estates. When we removed the estates, we never prepared these Indians for living outside the estate. Again we have been cruel. The point is this: we use the knowledge of a particular social construct or ethnic origin or race for the purposes of improving that particular ethnic group or solving problems that appear to be peculiar to that particular ethnic or racial group. Such an approach may require a “racial approach” in which there is nothing wrong. There is nothing racist when we say that the orang asli community is still generally backward after 52 years of merdeka. It is racist if we accuse them of being inherently backward.

A study of ethnic characteristics may also be relevant to understand the community in the effort to formulate policies or action plans to improve that particular community. For example, in our country, we have so much superficial talk about the creation of “human capital” but I have yet to see any indepth study on “ethnic obstacles” to progressive thinking. If the thinking or the ability to think of the population is not addressed, how do you improve them? There could very well be parts of the culture of some ethnic communities that hinder their progress. These things ought to be addressed.

Another example where the classification of race becomes relevant. For example, we may conduct the study on the occurrence of diabetes among the different racial communities and may arrive at a conclusion that diabetes is high among certain communities. Such a study may reveal that lifestyles of certain ethnic groups actually increases the chances of getting diabetes. The data may be useful as a basis to formulate behavior alteration programs to arrest the diabetic problem.

We can go on giving examples where information about the ethnic origin of person is relevant and sometimes necessary. Such “racial approaches” may be legitimate.

However, if a social construct such as race or ethnic origin is used as the sole basis to sustain only itself to the exclusion of the rest of the world, then it becomes racism. The notion of “racial supremacy” is racist and an affront not only to the intelligence but to humanity. The apartheid policy for example which extols the supremacy of the “white Africans” and discriminates the “black” Africans and non-whites is racist and shameful to humanity. Merely because it was in existence for years did not stop Ghandi from opposing similar racist discriminations.

If a certain race claims that it is the only chosen race of God to the exclusion of the rest of the world, then that is racism. The zionists are racists.

If a certain race claims that all other races except its own race are lazy and stupid, then that is racism.

If your choice of expressing compassion, kindness, justice, opportunities and such turns solely on the basis of someone’s ethnic origin, you are not only a racist but in my view a manifestation of Iblis. I believe the Creator will deal with you in His merciful way.

The Ku Klux clan in America which "fights" for "America is only for whites" and the others can go back to their country of origin are racists. They do not want the presence of other non-white Americans whose forefathers have migrated to America. They have conveniently forgotten that their forefathers too were immigrants unlike the Red Indians. They are angry that the Americans of immigrant parents have worked hard and are economically well off. To me, these shameful right wing small group of Americans are mentally deranged people who use other people’s success and hard work as a scapegoat for their failures and laziness.

One of the worst manifestations of racist ideas took place in Germany under the command of Hitler where he promoted the idea of the “German race”.  Hitler believed that in the world, only one race was fit to survive; the Aryan race. Aryans were tall, with beautiful facial features, white skinned, and blond hair, so the myth goes!

Without doubt, racists are mentally sick people who have a warped perspective of human nature. The larger majority of normal people are not racists. Racists seem to have, among others, the following traits:

a) They always look for scapegoats for their deficiencies or failures in life.

b) They have a deep sense of inferiority complex and they try to overcome this with aggressive behaviour or a false sense of superiority complex;

c) If these racists have larger numbers, they will deride or make fun of others from different ethnic origins with the objective of bolstering thier own lack of self confidence or to attempt to attack the others sense of self confidence.

d) Even anyone from their own racial grouping who disagrees with their racist outlook will be immediately accused as being a traitor to their race;

e) They have very little respect for the sanctity of life;

I find it completely difficult to comprehend that people who truly believe in God or consider themselves religious can be racists.

If you say you are a buddhist, you must know that Siddhartha Gautama was an Indian Prince. If you are a Chinese Buddhist and you are prepared to receive enlightenment from a Prince of another ethnic/racial origin than yours, why would you find it difficult to share dharma with the rest?

If you say you are a Christian, you must know that all are the children of the Lord.

If you say that you are a Muslim, you must know that all the Prophets that are mentioned by name in the Quran are neither Malay, Chinese, Kadazan or Indian. The Muslim must know the following verse from the Quran which is supposed to be their daily guide:

“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)". [Quran: 49:13]

The Quran does not say that a particular race or nation is the most honoured. It is the one that is most righteous that is most honoured.

If you are a Hindu, you must believe in karma or rebirth and know that good begets good and evil begets evil irrespective of racial or ethnic construct.

If you are an atheist, then surely you must know that values are either good or bad, that either you are a good person or a bad person irrespective of racial or ethnic origin.

Why are we letting social constructs like “race or ethnicity” demean our humanity?

Jimizul, even if you are the only one standing in a crowd of billion racists, you must not deny humanity. This is because, ultimately, you and you alone will be answerable to the creator – none of the billions will advocate on your behalf.

 Peace!

Next: Jimizul, Religious and Religious bigotry – surely there is a difference? - God willing.

 

 

NO BLOGGING TILL12(h

There will be no blogging till after Hari Raya since Rapera team overseas.

Selamat Hari Raya.

Peace !

Hungry Ghosts vs the "Devils" during Ramadan

I was recently invited to be one of the speakers at a conference party called "The gathering of Great Minds'" which was held at the Kuala Lumpur Securities Commission. (I enjoyed it actually, because the environment was creative and the audience was engaging).  My topic was "Creativity from Diversity".

To demonstrate how diversity is able to create new perspectives and open up new "windows of looking",  I shared with them an experience I had with an 8 year old dear friend of mine.

This 8 year old boy is a product of mixed parentage - Malay, Chinese and Burmese. (And adults who claim they believe in God will force him to choose an ethnic class or make him conscious of one! Makes you wonder "what god" they worship)

He told me that he was scared this month. I asked him, "why?"  He was told by his Chinese cousin that this is the hungry ghost month and that these ghosts will possess boys. 

I sat him him down and told him what the hungry ghost belief was and then reminded him that there is also another belief that Malays have. This is also the month of Ramadan.

I told him that while Chinese believe that the gates of hell are open and all the ghosts have rushed out to roam the earth, the Malays believe otherwise. The Malays believe that in the month of Ramadan, the gates of hell are closed and no ghosts or spirits can roam the earth! They are all chained!

He looked at me amused and said, "Yes. That's what I was taught in the agama class too".

"So, are the gates of hell open or closed you think? Got ghosts roaming around or not?", I asked.

"I dont know. It sounds so funny now. Two different story about the same thing. Both from adults".

I reminded him that while adults may have good motives, they need not necessarily have clever ways of handling situations. Sometimes they cause great harm with good intentions. Most of them grow up never thinking about what they hear.  "That is why you must always use your brain and think about what they are saying".

 "Remember how you were frightened to sleep with stories that the monster is looking for boys with eyes not closed at night? I told you there are no monsters in the house?. That if you do not sleep, you will make me the monster if I hear you falling asleep in school?"

He laughed and laughed.

"The next time your cousin scares you with stories of hungry ghosts, tell him that you had lunch with one and the ghost wants to meet up with him".

He laughed again heartily and said "Coool. That should shut him up!"

Peace !

Selamat.....

Happy Feasting to some

Happy Fasting to some

Happy Bersaum to the Muslims!

Peace !

Middle Class Children don’t matter? – The Quest for the Playground !!!

Will you believe it if I tell you that a housing area that has 500 over houses still does not have a playground or a community field?  Is it not amazing that that local authorities or the relevant Government body can give cf to the developer without ensuring that the field is also completed?

This is exactly the malady of the residents of BU4, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya. They have raised this issue since 1998 and nobody seems to have moved to ensure that the field is build.  The developers obviously felt that the children of BU4 do not matter.  Probably building a playground is a waste of “valuable land” for the developers.

The MBPJ clearly had told the developers that the field MUST be build and handed over to MBPJ BEFORE they started development of more houses and condominiums on an adjacent land. The development on the adjacent land has gone full steam but the field is still incomplete…after more than 12 years!!!

 Letters, petitions and pleas from the residents of BU4 failed.One resident, Shahkander Singh has taken this quest as a personal crusade for years.

This is a lesson to ordinary middle income citizens of this country that when it comes to matters of their life – they have to take it into their own hands. Hence, on 8^th August 2010, the residents and the children of BU4 made their pleas public at a press conference next to the field that should have been theirs long ago.

 

I had invited YB Elizabeth Wong, the Adun of Bukit Lanjan to attend the press conference. She was in full support of the quest for the field. She suggested that MBPJ should issue a stop work order on the development of the adjacent development until the field is completed according to the specifications of the layout.  Puan Zuraidah, the pengarah of Landscape MBPJ also attended the press conference.  The President of BURA, Datuk Manpal Singh was also kind to attend and lend support to the BU4 residents.

The residents spoke. While mighty developer's may think only of profits, the residents want to send across this message - our families matter too!

 

Resulting from the press conference, it is anticipated that several meetings between BU4 residents and MBPJ will take place. Bottomline – the BU4 children and senior citizens hope that they will get their rightful field and playground by this year. Not another 15 year wait!

Middle class children do matter too!!!

 Peace!

BookReview13: A PLEA FOR EMPATHY, THE QUEST FOR MALAYSIAN UNITY – By Dr Chandra Muzaffar

This book is by Dr Chandra Muzafar, the President of JUST International, professor of Global Studies at USM, and a well known social scientist.

Let me say this at the very outset – this book is a must read for all Malaysians who are serious about understanding inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations in our country.  All political leaders worth their salt should make this book compulsory reading.

The minute I got the book, I could not put it down until I finished reading it.  The writing style is typically Chandra – logical, factual, direct and yet, pleading. Obviously a lot of thought and passion has gone into analyzing the issues that he discusses in the book.

He interestingly discusses the idea of “national culture” and points out the difference between culture that is artificially imposed with that which is characterized by their multi-ethnic acceptability and certain common underlying values. He observes that “the upper class in business and politics in Malaysia has more negative than positive qualities”. “In fact, the lifestyles of these elites are imitated by the masses”.  Chandra correctly points out among the upper classes, “Greed and corruption have gained some respectability in their circles”. He makes the plea for Malaysians to allow the substance of culture to evolve rather than be engrossed with superficialities.

The book also discusses the causes of ethnic polarization and examines whether it has worsened over the years.  It  not only covers Dr Chandra’s thoughts on ethnic relations from 1974 to 2008, but one can feel that it is written with intellectual honesty and from the heart.  Chandra covers the issues clearly such that every Malaysian irrespective of their social construct can readily identify with it.

There are many other areas related to Malaysian unity such as “acceptance and accommodation of non-Muslim communities”, “the ethicizing of the economy” and “ seeking solutions to inter religious challenges in a multi-religious society” discussed.

To me, the greatest strength of the book is that it invites us to think about Malaysian unity in a way that many other books do not. You have to read it to know what I mean.

This book certainly makes a plea for empathy so that real Malaysian unity can be part of the Malaysian culture and psyche.

Publisher:  Zubedy Ideahouse Sdn BHd.
Year of first Publication : 2010
Price      :  RM39.20

Happy reading.

Peace!

The So-called "Education Policy" - Have we been systematically reduced to an imbecile? Part 3

3. Let us briefly look at the so-called education policy in this country. We have to do this because there is a  mass delusion in this country encouraged by the politicians that the type of education in this country is making us “better all round”. I admit that it is difficult to try to discern any clear policy objective of our education policy for several reasons, primarily because it changes with changes of the Minister. The following characteristics, however, may be observed:

(a)                the policies appears to be largely political than educational;

(b)               after 52 years of Merdeka, we are still grappling with the basic issue of the medium of instruction and learning in the educational system (emotions rather than clear thinking rule this issue) eg Maths & Science in English or Bahasa Malaysia;

(c)                there does not seem to be a coherent, wholesome and long term educational policy that is equally flexible to keep pace with developments in knowledge and needs;

(d)               too many ad hoc, abrupt changes in policies that disrupts continuity and confuses the teachers;

(e)                we have adopted the Prussian education system without much thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system

(f)                other than the science syllabuses, the arts syllabuses tend to be strongly influenced by mainstream political and religious biasness rather than objectivity, facts and “truth”.

(g)               Strong emphasis on examinations and memorization rather than reflection, and creative thinking. (If you do not like words, you can never do well because your mind may be picture tuned!)

(h)               For years, there has been little priority given to the quality of schools, teachers, teaching and learning materials relative to the other sectors which have received bigger budgets and greater attention.

(i)                 There is very little emphasis on the culture of research;

(j)                 A visit to any school library leaves the visitor worried;

Once upon a time, due to the then Government’s overemphasis on science subjects, even students who were not interested in science we forced into the Science stream or could not apply into the Arts stream.  I was one of them who was placed in the science stream and with immense difficulty, I had to study the Arts subjects myself and finally got into the Arts stream only in Upper Six!

Further, I could never understand the kind of so-called “science subjects” being taught in the universities without corresponding opportunities for application in the real world once they graduate.

I also feel that there seems to be no efforts to motivate or create a motivating atmosphere for teachers in the National Schools. I understand from some teachers I have been speaking to in the last few months that they now being burdened with further paperwork in the name of KPIs ! This is troublesome and distractive as the main focus of the teachers should be to cultivate the learning culture in the pupils and students.

I also find it disheartening that proper thought has not been given to the security of pupils in primary school once the school is over. You can find them loitering outside the school waiting for their school buses or their respective caretakers to take them home. In town, some of these schools are located along busy roads and can be dangerous for the primary school students. It is matters such as this and more that makes me wish that Ministers should be responsible and focus on their tasks rather than making political speeches which is increasingly becoming a bore.

At the University level, the students of today seem to have become more docile than their predecessors – national responsibility awareness and knowledge of general affairs in the country seems lacking. It appears that even University students have become examination orientated with no interest in the acquisition of knowledge. What went wrong?

The vernacular school system is yet another facet of our education system that has to be reviewed to determine its purpose in the light of the multi-racial nature of our society. I am not disputing that there are constitutional guarantees for this but I think we have to try to understand its utility in the larger scheme of things.

Any educational institution that deliberately caters only for one particular ethnic or religious group is not conducive for nation building since it deters the experience of and lessons from interaction between the differing ethnic or religious groupings.

As for agama schools, I do not think that it should be funded from the tax-payers’ money as I do not consider it conducive for nation-building as it only caters for one particular social construct. It creates an exclusive and insular attitude among the students which is anti-thesis to the reality of the Nation.

I can go on but I hope you get the picture – the schools, whether national, vernacular or agama are just floating along with no coherent and united direction.  Hence, these schools are producing citizens who will be inclined to move in opposite directions without even understanding why!

Next, God willing: Have we been systematically reduced to an imbecile? Part 4: Industrial revolution and Prussian style classrooms – our education system and classroom style of education is based largely on the Prussian education system and philosophy.

POWER PLAY IN EAST ASIA

Two recent developments in East Asia --- one in Northeast Asia and the other in Southeast Asia--- have brought to the fore some of the latent tensions in the region.

It was the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine in late March this year that escalated tensions in North East Asia. The dastardly North Korean attack, verified by a multi-national investigation in May, killed 46 sailors. The recently concluded US-South Korean military exercise that included a massive nuclear powered US supercarrier, was a potent show of force, in retaliation for the destruction of the Cheonan and the massacre of its crew.

The Cheonan episode has made it more difficult for the two Koreas and their neighbours and allies to hold negotiations on the question of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and other related matters. Nonetheless, once the political temperature decreases, it is important to resume talks in the larger interest of peace in the Korean Peninsula and in Asia and the world.

The second incident which occurred in Hanoi in the course of an ASEAN meeting in July 2010, revolves around the remarks made by US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, about China and the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Her oblique criticism of China’s approach to territorial disputes over the chain of Islands has irked the Chinese government which sees her comment as an attempt to internationalise the issue. For the Chinese, the disputes, essentially competing sovereignty claims that pit their country against Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, should be resolved through bilateral negotiations. Because Hillary Clinton has now stated that the US has a “ national interest” in resolving the disputes, Beijing is suspicious that Washington is setting the stage for a more intrusive role in the South China Sea. To stop this from happening--- it will not be in the interest of the region—China should be more committed to resolving the disputes as soon as possible.

Underlying the Cheonan episode and the Hanoi incident, it is obvious, is a power play of immense significance between the US and China. The US, in pursuit of global hegemony, seeks to contain China. This is why it is determined to curb China’s growing economic and political clout. Taming North Korea is a way of sending a clear signal to its protector, namely, China. Similarly, by projecting itself into the territorial disputes of the South China Sea, the US is challenging China in its neighbourhood.

How this power play unfolds in the coming years is of vital concern to ASEAN.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,
President,
International Movement for a Just World (JUST).


Malaysia.

3rd August 2010.

Is Bank Negara's Investigation Process exempt from Public Scrutiny?

Over the past many years, many enforcement agencies investigating and enforcement agencies have come under legal and public scrutiny. On top of the the list is the Police Force and I admit they have come under more than their share of the scrutiny.

As a lawyer, I have found the police generally accessible during their investigating periods. You can actually get to meet and talk to the investigating officers, even their superior bosses if you are unhappy with the speed or lack thereof of their investigations. In spite of the rare cases, especially high profile ones, I have always found the police generally cooperative.

The Police seem to understand that lawyers too form part of the justice system and that it starts from the point of arrest, seizure of goods and investigations. Even the Customs Department or the MACC understands this. But does Bank Negara?

There is a general feeling among the public that Bank Negara Officials in the enforcement and investigating units hold themselves out as exclusive. I have yet to ascertain this factually though I am keen to explore this. It will be interesting and shocking fact to discover if indeed they behave exclusively! What would civil servants in enforcement want to have a veneer of exclusivity. I will get exasperated if relevant Bank Negara investigating officers or their bosses refuse to see me on a matter that concerns my client's just interests.

My exasperation is simple: if a lawyer is unable to ensure that justice is done to his client, then what can the lay client do? It can be as simple as wanting to meet the investigating officer or if he is unable to respond coherently, than to meet his bosses to find out why investigations are taking a long time and to offer assistance to speed it up. Isn't the point of investigations to enforce the law justly and in accordance WITH the law?

Last week, I had chats with a few MPs and 2 Ministers on this possibility because I am beginning to develop the feeling that maybe some parts of Bank Negara have evolved into exclusivity. While I may be a lawyer acting for my client, I cannot divorce myself from the fact that I am also a very concerned citizen who does his two cents worth for justice, human rights and to protect the credibility of OUR institutions - that includes Bank Negara. I want to be able to ascertain certain attitudes, facts, and views before I blog further about the enforcing and investigating unit of Bank Negara.

Enforcement agencies generally should know the difference between ENFORCING and OPPRESSING. The Police Force generally understand this. When you conduct your investigations expeditiously, then you are playing fair. On the other hand, if you pussy-foot or incompetently investigate, you are being oppressive. The innocent party suffers as a result of your incompetence or delay. If this was the case, then the suffering party should be remedied and if I have my way, I want the officer who so nonchalantly visits injustice on others to be punished too.

I am having another meeting soon with some of the MPs and Minister on this issue of enforcement and investigating capabilities in Bank Negara and the reluctance or willingness of their officers to meet lawyers. Once I get a clearer picture, it is time for us to educate the public.

Peace !

Have we been systematically reduced to an imbecile? Part 2: Today, the “best” of us have become “educated imbeciles

1. We may be “experts” in some fields but totally ignorant of many basic things. Even the notion of us being “experts” is debatable since it is relative, subjective and time constrained. The “best-of-us” are equipped with diplomas, degrees, masters and even PhDs that “may never be useful” nor do these papers guarantee wholesome thinking capabilities. There are many reasons for this.

Firstly, our education objective seems to be geared towards obtaining a paper qualification per se for the sole purpose of obtaining employment – typically third world mentality. Since the main focus is to obtain the qualification and not learning, our education system priorities and emphasies an examination orientated values.  Learning values are absent. We sacrifice substance (content/knowledge) at the altar of form (the paper qualification). No one is denying the role of examinations but our policy makers have never sought to create a balance between examinations and learning.

Hence, it is unsurprising that today you have law graduates who lack basic legal knowledge, economics graduates who lack basic economic knowledge and the list goes on. It is frightening that these are the young people who will be the main group that will be in the decision making positions in society! We will go through a period of intellectual decline in our society for some time and maybe forever if the situation is not rectified.

Secondly, the focus on academic excellence is blurred and often overtaken by politics in this country. The debate on the effective medium of instruction in the educational sector is spinned into a “nationalistic loyalty” issue. I find it completely humorous that “karbon dioksida, asimilasi or injunksi” is considered more effective than “carbon dioxide, assimilation or injunction”.  These words and many more certainly do not sound like Bahasa Melayu from any State to me. Hence, the students will have to learn for the fist time these original popular words or the convoluted words created by some folks sitting in DBP.

The effective medium of instruction is vital because that will determine the opportunity for research and further reading. The more you read, the more information you have, the wider your perspective and hopefully, your understanding becomes broader and deeper. Your ability to think is limited by the amount of words or concepts that you have in your brain. We must nurture the brain’s thinking capabilities. This is how we nurture a culture of knowledge. However, our politicians lack such motivations only because it requires long term planning and is politically inexpedient.

Thirdly, the policy makers seem to prefer quantity over quality. None of us will dispute that we want more Malaysians to be educated. That is a foregone conclusion. However, our policy makers do not seem to realize that it is more important that Malaysians receive a holistic and quality education. Otherwise, we will be churning out technocrats or ‘worker ants’ for the economy who are totally devoid of humanistic qualities lacking in the spirit of citizenry. We must remember that much of the growing up period of our children are spent in schools or school related activities right up to the age of 17, at least and age 22, if they go to the Universities.  They pick up the ‘values’ that are floating in the schools and the universities. What kind of values are floating? Excellence or mediocrity? Humanistic or materialistic? Universalistic or racial/religious?

It gravely disappoints me that the Dewan Negara does not have senators appointed by the Government especially to monitor the primary/secondary education sectors and tertiary education sector. This reflects their priority or lack thereof towards the education sector in this country. On the other hand, we are fed with entertaining information on the number of “pelajar cemerlangs’, the number of universities that are sprouting in our country and such. Once again, things that should simply be a matter of fact are turned into grand achievements by our political leaders complete with their “lawatan ke sekolah” campaigns. When will they ever grow up?

Fourthly is our general feudalitic-peasant mentality or values that we have. We have become a nation of hand-kissing. The hand that is being kissed is better than the lips that do the kissing, so we are “taught”. This is a perfect practice of patronage and “sucking up” masquerading as “budaya sopan” (polite culture). The often overlooked fact of this hand-kissing culture is that it actually has inhibitive effects on the development of ideas, thoughts and intellectual development. I am not exaggerating. Let me explain.

I had the opportunity to do a degree in Economics locally and a law degree in UK. I experienced the vast difference in learning cultures. In our hand-kissing culture, it is considered rude or inappropriate if you disagree with your lecturer (especially if it is on the official religion!). In UK, it is considered disrespectful if you do not express your disagreement or alternative views if you have them! The English professors want you to argue with them. Generally, ours want us to passively agree with their expertise! Two different cultures have different views on what is “disrespectful” – one if you do, the other if you don’t!

We do not respect dissent, even if it just an intellectual dissent. In fact I doubt if our young people above the age of 21 even know what the term “intellectual dissent” means. However, this was not the case when I was in lower secondary. We were learning critical thinking in Form 4. Maybe the medium of instruction being in English helped. I do not know. Sometimes, with a language the “culture of the language” accompanies it.

Our hand kissing culture considers it rude and even treacherous to dissent with the views of whose hands you are supposed to kiss. Our culture does not understand that you can have differing views and yet have profound respect for the person whose views you disagree. Our culture does not allow for open, honest discussions and confuses it with an attempt to undermine the person you are arguing against. We are still in the feudalistic mindset. So, we just kiss hands keeping our thoughts untested and unannounced to ourselves! 

So I ask you: if such a culture and mentality is not addressed, what good will the finest teaching techniques or the best technology do? With respect, it will just be like giving flowers to monkeys. Politicians do not understand this because they do not spend time reading or thinking about this. They are short-term minded. They only depend on the views given by their respective sub-standard civil servants who have been conferred various honorific titles through years of faithful hand-kissing. Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against kissing the hands of those whom you love and truly respect – but the hands of strangers who happened to be in “higher positions” than you? That seems humiliating to me or at least pretentious.

Only in this country you may have a person with a PhD holding himself out as an eternal expert in his field (and if it Islam, then an absolute expert). While, if you understand the history of learning and knowledge, a “professor” or a PhD holder is a serious student of his field. He is an expert in studying his field or he has specialized in the study of his field…and still studying.

If we are serious about nurturing a culture of knowledge and thinking in our society, we need to radically arrest this hand-kissing culture of subtle subjugation in all its forms. A study must be done on this feudal-peasant mentality and how to reverse it.

The masses, however, considers these “imbecilic” experts and the not-so-best-of-us as capable of wholesome perspectives and indeed consults them on other matters in which the experts and the other are clueless. For example, we have people consulting religious “experts” on scientific or commercial matters and taking their views seriously. Likewise, politicians’ views on the economy or education are held believable. Likewise, we give important positions that can have damaging effects on our lives to civil servants who cannot think beyond uttering the phrase, “ kami hanya jalankan tugas” (we are only performing our duty). It never seems to dawn upon these civil servants who have great powers of discretion that “performing a duty” means “performing a duty effectively and efficiently”.

Once again I blame our failure collectively to create a value system that extols efficiency, thinking and knowledge.

Peace !