Thinking Aloud

If Mahathirism was characterized by excessiveness, the Abdullah administration would be chatacterized by idiocy and primitivism.

It just had to come. Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor just had to say it. He suggested that all locally (Malaysian) hosted blogs will have to be registered with the government.

Well, first it was prepaid card users. Now blogs. And what’s the rationale? After all that is said and done, it boils down to one thing: To prevent commentors and bloggers from criticizing the government anonymously.

Anyone who has the miniscule understanding of human character will recognize this as a plain bully mentality. The might of the government being used for really petty reasons. 

We don’t even have to talk about freedom of speech and freedom from the fear of intimidation. Why? Because the good blogs which bring legitimate criticisms against the government are not anonymous anyway, and the anonymous ones are so downright shitty lousy that intelligent readers simply ignore them. 

Two issues here: The slippery slope that the government is taking (not to mention the patriarchal and kampung mentality). The other is the failure of 50 years of independance to produce a country that is confident with democracy. There is nothing western about criticizing one’s government: It is the whole point of democracy. Bottom to up governance, the citizen taking responsibility for his country. Not lapdogs for the crumbs falling off from BN’s table, but a people whom the government fears. 

Honestly speaking, I’m quite sick and tired of simple minded comments made by ministers who still live in the 1960’s and 70’s. It is just so hard to believe how these people actually get elected.  

Anyways, links are to some of international papers (taken from jeffooi.com ) reporting on this issue. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Jerusalem Post.

Over at the mrbrownshow.com, Mr. Brown interviewed MP Baey Yam Keng.

Now, how about our local (Malaysian) bloggers and podcasters conduct the same-interviewing BN politicians and Opposition alike.

But of course, are the MPs and politicians are willing to be interviewed by an independant (and novel) media in the first place.  

The rakyat gathered at Bandar Sunway to protest the proposed toll hike raise. Here are some photos taken at the gathering.

Democracy at work here, and not only at the ballot box. It’s good to see people of all races unite together for a common cause.  

The PM has given a verdict of his 3 years in office. My, my, isn’t he the politician. But let us remind him of the things that DIDN’t go so well yeah.

1. The AP scandal. So what happens now? If I recall, you still haven’t come clean with that. You let Rafidah off with her "answer" in Parliament which was more hot air than substance.

2. Proton? Need we say more.

3. Racial politics. Apparently it is "ok" for delegates to hurt the feelings of other races in the community. It it "ok" to assert superiority (which doesn’t exist by the way, not in the Constitution and not by any long shot). All you did was to give a grandfatherly nod, "They were just letting of steam". The broke the law and all you did was to invoke a little "discipline".

4. Your son-in-law. Same thing, refer to above.

5. The state of our public universities. Isn’t it so ironic that you give education your primary focus. And rightly so. But it doesn’t seem to translate to action on the ground!!?? Waste of public funds in erecting billboards, unbecoming attitudes by UPM undergraduates (harrasment case), drop in rankings and the fact that many lecturers in universities doesn’t even have a Phd!

6. Religous intolerance. Moorthy case, Rayappan, Lina Joy. Church in Ipoh. Overzealous religious officers knocking on the door of a holidaying American couple in Langkawi. Dear sir, seems that your version of Islam Hadhari is good, only on paper.

7. The NEP controversy. There always is controversy whenever affirmative action is concerned. But when affirmative action becomes racial pride and priveledge. This is racism. It is beyond any educated man to understand why when not one, but 3 bi-partisan reports on bumiputra equity ownership have contradicted reasearch by "official" sources; you still stand by the wrong figures.

8. Historical revisionism. With regards to the NEP, you aren’t exactly innocent when you allow ministers like Hishamuddin assert that the "special rights of bumiputras cannot be challenged and enshrined in the Constitution". That simply is false.

9. Misunderstanding of basic workings of government. When the former Lord President Salleh Abbas asked for a look into the event surrounding his dismissal from office by the Executive, Lord Nazri promptly brushed it aside. Even before that, he had the cheek to suggest the Parliament be made a government department. What ever happened to separation of powers.

10. Integrity and corruption. Malaysia slipped down many more places in the  Corruption Perception Survey. And all this while you, a professedly religious person was in power.

11. Press freedom and responsibility. Dear sir, how can you say, "The Press has never been freer," when a) Internal Security Ministry orders a media blackout on what Noh Omar said, b) The resignation of two editors of Chinese Dailies (wrt the nude-squatting case). Talk about missing the forest for the trees. c) Your "advice" to the newspapers to give more "feel good" stories. It seems to me when the press tries to be honest, you tell them to be "responsibile". When they are not, then they are "free". Great, such attitudes does not make a reponsible (not to mention a free) press. And ultimately, you are responsible for the Catch-22 situation.

Dear sir, if (which I don’t think you will) ever read this blog, don’t forget what one of the ministers said about registering bloggers and a merry Christmas.

The High Cardinal has replied to my previous post. And this is what he wrote. Rather long, but worth a look through, if you are so inclined.

Another interesting link, for those following the event happening in Malaysia, is a download link to an e-book: Doing the Right Thing: A Practical Guide on Legal Matters for Churches in Malaysia on the Kairos Research Center website.

I just realized that I haven’t got into the business of registering as a voter. But whenever there is a chance for me to do so i.e. GE time, I’m in Singapore! (and I definately will be when the next one is due around 2008).

I wanna vote!  

Newsflash, yours truly the MB of Johor speaks again.

Ooooh…indeed yeah your eminence. Little mortals like us tremble before your brilliance and patriotism. I have gazed deep into the crystal ball and see you teaching Pengajian am and Sejarah F5.

Goodness, dear sir, do you even know what your little hole is spouting! 

KUALA LUMPUR: An article in an Australian newspaper The Age ridiculing Malaysia and calling Malaysia “bodoh” (stupid) has left International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz unperturbed. 

“What do we care? Obviously, this person doesn’t know Malaysia. He is an outsider and he can say what he likes. I don’t really care about what others say – as long as it is not a Malaysian saying it,” she said. 

The Wanita Umno chief said the Australian writer had apparently not followed the Umno general assembly proceedings closely. 

“If he did, he would have seen things differently.”  

The Nov 15 article by Michael Backman said it was time Malaysia grew up and stopped arguing about what proportion of the economy the Chinese and Malays owned. 

The Government was more interested in stunts like sending an astronaut into space when the country’s inadequate schools could have done with the cash, the writer said, adding “that’s not Malaysia Boleh, that’s Malaysia Bodoh.” 

I personally find this very disturbing.

Rahimah also said drug addicts should be marooned on an island instead of allowing them the hotel-like luxuries at rehabilitation centres. 

“Let them survive on the island’s worms and moss.”  

She said there were too many foreign dramas with bad elements that distracted women from their chores. 

Rahimah said someone from Umno should be heading the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry and monitoring these dramas instead of Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.  

“There are many of us in Umno who can lead the ministry,” she added. 

The Democrats have control of the lower house. But vote counting is still going on in some constituencies.

But my purpose here is to compare it to the situation in Malaysia. We don’t have mid-term parliamentary general elections. What we do have is state-level elections (the recent one in Sarawak) or when a MP is indisposed. Snap elections are held to elect a new rep.

I was musing whether this US system would work in Malaysia. Our constitution doesn’t support this however, and making such a change would require an ammendment.

But that aside, there are indeed merits to have a mid-term elections for the lower house in parliament. Mind you, what this means is that elections are held again to elect MP’s to the legislative body. The executive branch is not touched. (unfortunately in Malaysia, you can’t be a minister until you hold a seat in the parliament.) It certainly means that MP’s have to be on their toes to convince their constituencies to keep them there. It’s a way of holding their feet to the fire.

Another merit is that it weakens the dominance of the ruling party in parliament and strengthens the opposition. I think plenty people in Malaysia are scared of a divided parliament. They have a wrong conception of separation of powers. I guess its a very Asian mentality. A country must be lead by a singular power. This is not so. Modern governance requires a separation of powers. It is the business of the executive to rule, and the role of the parliament to hold the executive accountable. That’s why we have debates in parliament!

There are other merits. But the whole upshot is that we need a better system of accountability in Malaysia. The role of the opposition is not to be whipping bag for the ruling class. They are needed to provide checks and balances to government. In a sense they are part of government. But opposition aside, I believe that in a mature democracy, even members of the ruling party should be given the freedom to debate bipartisan issues freely in parliament. I would add as well that the parliament is not a place to gain consensus, it is after all, a divisive body. It’s purpose is to hold legislation to scrutiny, not rubber stamp it.

Yesterday, love was just an easy game to play….

Lolz. You know something, I seemed like yesterday that during an UMNO General assembly Dr. Mahathir (then the PM) announced that we wanted to step down. We all know what happen-lah, everybody rushed to him. He was crying, they were crying, Rafidah Aziz was pleading with him. They held an emergency meeting. Headlines.

Well…the headlines are still there.

But now Dr. Mahathir is the snake,( aka Badawi’s," …with more venom…" ), the forgetful, (aka Information Minister Dtk. Zainuddin Maidin, " ..epitome of Melayu mudah lupa (Malay’s forget easily)."
and generally a pain in the ass. I wonder whether the same people who rushed up to the stage to stop a crying Mahathir 3 years ago from stepping down would do the same if they knew what he was doing (saying) today.

Politics, the great Malaysian sandiwara (soap opera) is so interesting. It’s an insight into human nature. The great irony, contradictions and hidden motivations. Maybe Dr. M is criticizing the government because he is looking for forgiveness? Working hard for the ‘good of the country’ to ease is scarred conscience?

Maybe Badawi’s will is sapped, his couraged muted by the departure of his dearly beloved. Maybe he sees all that is evil in Malaysian politics and commerce and chooses to believe that things will work out fine? Or perhaps he doesn’t even believe his eyes.

Whatever the motivation, whatever the agenda. One thing is for certain, I learn two things from this: When you are rich and powerful you have many friends. Once that is gone, so are your friends. And if you start shouting, your ‘friends’ suddenly become enemies.

Another is simple: Choose your advisors carefully. Surround yourself with yes-men, and your ‘yes-men’ will rule for you.  

The former PM has come up with a personal statement. You can hop over here  to read it. It’s written by Tun Mahathir himself and signed of as Malaysian Citizen and Commoner.

If you read it through; you should have noticed the boldfaced statement: A climate of fear has enveloped this country.

I still remember around early March-April when Tun started criticizing the present government. AP, Johor-Singapore ‘crooked’ bridge, sand, Proton…and so on. Now, this. A pronouncement that the government he helped build up has become to powerful for comfort. He laments that every legitimate avenue for dissent has been censured by the powers that be.

I must say that Tun is right here. He may have his misses, but he is right on with this issue.

The BN government has become so powerful that she cannot believe that she is leading the country to ruin.

I hope that this culture of auto-censorship will stop. What’s happening now in Malaysia is something out of Orwell’s 1984. Newspeak, where you auto-censor yourself into thoughless obedience. It could well turn out, with the way dissent is not tolerated that Vision 2020 may turn out to be our worst nightmare.

I find it ironic that the man who quoted: " Give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a poor man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" perpetuated a regime of affirmative action that runs contrary to this belief vis a vis the NEP.

TDM’s legacy will of course outlive him.

The question is whether we will choose to perpetuate the good achived under his leadership or his bad points.

It seems right now that Malaysia has chosen the latter path. (c.f. the ASLI-CPPS debacle).  

With regards to the issue of SJKC Kung Yu (Johor) and SJKC Sin Bin, Sungai Lima, some thoughts of the role of the media.

The government has told the Chinese dailies to pull the reports on this issue. The reason runs along the lines that such reporting would put the government in a bad light-unable to handle and resolve the matter.

I would ask then, what is the media for?

For truth or propaganda.

I think the big boys and the datuks and the ministers believe it is for propaganda. Each printed page of the news a silk hankerchief to wipe their ass with.

I choose to think that it is for truth, and to embarass and expose wrongdoing.  

Old Harry Lee has out did himself this time.

Recent comments by former Singapore PM Lee Kwan Yew did not go well with the leadership of M’sia. Nevermind the general populace, our voices never made a difference anyway, after in M’sia, the Yang Berhormat’s think for us.

The way our leaders have reacted tells me one thing. They are scared.

Scared by the grain of truth hidden away in the old man’s words.

All the talk of being sensisitive and whether he (Lee Kwan Yew) even had the right to critize us, or being ‘naughty’ is rather irrelevant.

If there is injustice in society, we can’t just sweep  it under the carpet and call it "isu sensitif".

It is not about racial harmony or being tolerant. There can never be true peace when there is injustice in the country, and certainly not when it is actually institutionalized.

The big problem is that our leaders point to a few big bungalows owned by a few Chinese and say that everything is fine and dandy. Or point into Singapore’s military policy and tell MM Lee to shut up.

Just recently, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar announced in parliament that no new Chinese and Tamil schools will be built under the Ninth Malaysia plan when the demand is there.

Tell me, aren’t you marginalizing Indian and Chinese communities this way?

As always, the Malaysian leadership (which includes every bloody   BN component party) choose to blind themselves to the obvious fact: What MM Lee said is very true-you feel it when you read the newspapers-like a splinter in your eye, it is very clear that a certain dominant race in Malaysia wants nothing less than compliance from everyone else.

Dare I say something, something that may not go down well with some people.

Maybe, the ’social contract’ made by our Father’s of Independance was a wrong thing to do. Maybe it was a faustian bargain, one that would ultimately benefit nobody, Malay, Indian and Chinese alike.

Maybe the notion of ‘alliance’ and ‘power sharing’ was politically naive.

If I were living in those times, if I had the power to decide, what would it be?

Would it have been a better idea to remain under British rule a little longer (they were going to give it to us anyway). Look at Hong Kong, very much a British colony until 1997, but their economy is so much far ahead than us. Their democratic mentality as a people far more advanced than any one of us could ever claim to have.

Would it have been a better idea to emulate Singapore policy that every race is equal and do not deserve any special favours? Is that not one of the reasons why there is less racial tension in our neighbour.

Was is even a good idea to have UMNO, MCA and MIC? How can you build racial unity when the country’s top leaders are fighting for their OWN RACE? How can you build a Malaysia, when the Malays with all their perks, want more? Indeed how can you build a Malaysia, when common sense cannot even prevail in the Parliament.

Was it a good idea to idolize the past prime ministers, putting their faces on huge bilboards and revering them like infallible human beings in our history textbooks. Tunku may have cried, "Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka!" but he had his fair share of mistakes. If there’s one thing that goes out of date pretty quickly, is the political views of dead men. 3 of the 4 ex-PM’s are dead, Malaysia’s destiny need not be solely built upon their ideals.

What everybody wants is a progressive Malaysia, a questioning citizenry and leaders of character, not charismatic men. We must teach the children not to vote for the party that doles out free rice. If we are serious, really serious about economic progress, then we must be fair, ensuring that every has to work for his rice. No one is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, not even bumiputeras.

Is God blind? No I don’t think so. We are the blind ones, we are so blind that we can’t see that God has already left us? He has probably already forsaken Malaysia?

Could you claim otherwise?

I’m pretty sure that most people will have heard of the infamous incident of a certain son-in-law being, unfortunately, extra candid concerning his sentiments towards the the Chinese community.

Mr. Khairy Jamalludin is either an idiot or being very malicious.  

It was reported that he said that UMNO must stay united (obviously referring to the current spat between his father-in-law and former PM, Tun Dr. Mahathir), otherwise the Chinese community would take advantage of the situations to make demands that would undermine the Malay community. He quoted two examples: one concerning the Siqiu incident and the more recent memorandum submitted by non-malay ministers to the PM.

I have several observations to make.

Firstly, the talk about racial unity and like is rather farce. It is often people like this, highly public figures making this sort of uncalled for statements that show to our children, that it is ok to cast a racial slur against one another. It is unfortunate that this happened in the public light, but much much more of this kind of slurring occurs on a day-to-day basis, in mamak shops and kopitiams. More is true, it happens in homes. This is racism: When a Chinese teaches his father that his children are victims in Malaysia because of bumiputra special rights, and conversely when a Malay father blames his economic state on the predetory Chinese.

Secondly, it is very sad, that Mr. KJ does not see the wrongness of his statement. To be fair, he is under a lot of stress. A slip of a toungue is not uncommon. There is a harsh streak of unfairness here. When the nine cabinet ministers presented their memorandum, a huge uproar was caused. They retracted the memo and life went on. Now retracting a memo is something akin to an apology: A racant of your original position.

Unfortunately here, I have yet to see him apologize. No, all he did was claim he was misunderstood. (So much in common with Noh Omar). And thats what he did, claim he was misunderstood and hide behind his Pemuda Chief. It seems to me that in M’sian society, we have seen this kind of things all to often. Verbal bullies, taunting us making all sort of uncalled for remarks and hurting our feelings finally getting away with it because it is short of libel and just saying, "Oh, I was misunderstood." We have become so dead to this. All we can do is simmer inside. There is no accountability now in the public sphere, people can say what they want and when things churn a little, just say, "I was misunderstood."

Concluding, as they say, friends protect friends. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. KJ has done nothing criminally wrong so to speak. But certainly he has hurt feelings, it seems to me that the consensus within the BN party is that the status quo must stay as it is. Never mind one or two idiots who make stupid statements, let’s just pretend it never happened. " Oh, what if the people don’t vote for us the next time." " No, lar…we always win wan, nevermind-lah."

What is BN? This is not the spirit of give and take. If people can say, UMNO is the backbone of BN, this is not the spirit of give and take, this is bulldozing. This is political blackmail.  This is a true example of one particular political party holding a country hostage just to stay in power. This is an example of freeloaders, lazy politicians who pillion ride on the hard work of their friends who are trying to make M’sia a better country.

Sick, that’s what this is, sick… 

We all heard of the story of Tun Dr. Mahathir getting sprayed by mace. Latest I read, the police had remanded somebody to assist in investigations.

There is a quagmire out there. A political culture that does not breed heroics. No true statesmanship, only silence.

People are being ruled by rhetoric, and mob mentality. Perhaps, instead of stifling honest debate, I would love to see some true statesmanship, one where you confront the problem head on, with tact and cunning.

In politics, words are your greatest weapon and your greatest threat.

The following news report by M’sian columnist Wong Chun Wai (I like him, by the way) highlights something very, very wrong with my country.

Now, it is a very good thing for the ruler to personally come down to deal with problems like this. (Not to be disrespectful and unneighbourly to my Singaporean friends, but do you see President SR Nathan doing the same thing?) It shows that the Sultan of Selangor is no mere figure-head of the state.  

This billboard issue has been in the news for a long stretch now. And it has become an open secret that a rat is lurking somewhere. You see the problem with open secrets is that the rat can’t be just killed and everybody goes home happy. Even if somebody took the blame, who is going to handle the costs of tearing down those billboards? And if nobody will, those billboard still stay up all the same. As they say (in relationships), its complicated.

It is so sad that corruption has become so prevalent that it has become accepted as a way of life. Now MPs (MP for Jasin vs customs DG) can be corrupt and declare on national television that they have done nothing wrong. This is sickening to the core.

The rakyat is really being held hostage by unelected people who have been given power (i.e. the city councils.) It really goes to show that the system of accountability and governance is M’sia is broken. 

Finally they made the announcement.

For those who know, Singapore will be having its GE on the 6th of May 2006. That day will be declared a public holiday.

I just realized something….

I used to sing Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) for the Monday morning assemby. (I realized how chillingly brain washing it was but that’s another matter.)

We used to joke about how old we would be by the time it was 2020. For the ‘82 babies, we will be 38.

I’m 24 this year.

Oh my gosh! You are telling me that Malaysia is supposed to race to become a fully industrialized nation in 14 blardy years!

Don’t mean to be negative, but we (M’sians) just don’t have that mettle and mentality (not to mention hard work) to make it happen. You just open the newspaper and something just hits your right in the face….

…the utter lack of DRIVE.

We have (almost) lost our vision and direction.

Sad.

Almost everybody who is anybody is talking about the recent reshuffling of the Cabinet. The sentiment around the blogsphere is mixed. And as usual, Uncle Kit has the most to say-because he is a politician.

I observed that one cannot please anybody, and that there is a growing cynicism among M’sians that will ultimately make it hard for people to take them seriously.

Maybe its high time we stopped harping over the ‘integrity and transparency issue’ and the ‘jumbo sized’ cabinet.

Just let them do their work, and we do ours.

Dr. Farish A. Noor is perhaps one of the more important Muslim intellectuals Malaysia has produced. Read this and you’ll see why I say so.

Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite.

[Thus far much has been said and written about the global Muslim response to the controversy surrounding the caricatural cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that appeared in a Danish newspaper last year. Western observers in particular seem to be shocked by the extent of Muslim anger worldwide, and the level of organisation that has gone into the demonstrations that have erupted from Europe to Southeast Asia. Those who read this as an instance of the ‘revenge of God’ or a sudden display of emotional piety are missing the point: The demonstrations, global in scope and highly orchestrated in their execution, shows precisely how modern, developed and globalised the Muslim world has become. This was, in fact, a demonstration of a parallel form of globalisation at work: albeit one that is not capital-driven but rather based on a set of firmly shared values…]

JAWI can have my middle finger…

FT Religious Department wants to go ahead with its snoop squad

For context, this is a related news article

Democracy has to be one of the most overused and yet misintepreted word.

Doubtless there will be many who will seek to disagree. By all means.

But for me, I intepret democracy as this, amongst the multiplicity of its meanings.

It is a political system meant for one thing: To prevent the saviour from becoming the tyrant.

The police have been in the lime light for all the wrong reasons lately. Read this to get some context.

There have been comments swirling around. People are outraged (rightly) but I might add, confused.

Some say that this will affect Malaysia’s image (that’s true). Others that it Chinese nationals, and potential tourists will stay away, etc..you get the idea..it runs along the ‘tourism’ line.

I just wanna shout out: HOI!, AREN’T YOU FORGETTING SOMETHING HERE!

It’s not about the tourism lah! It’s about the poor woman, it’s about those other unnamed and unknown victims of abuse, silent and scared. The act of strip searching and performing ear squats does fulfill its purpose. But it is wrong! You do not defend a procedure just because it is in the ‘book’ or that it works.

Even if the woman (or man) was carrying drugs, this would not have been justified. It is just plain demeaning and dehumanizing. It is abuse, it does not change the fact even when called ‘procedure’.

I can only hope and pray, that justice be given to victims of police abuse (irregardless of the victim’s innocence or guilt).

It is clear reading from the reactions of everyone (public, police, MPs, etc) that they are ashamed of what happened, but confused and scrambling for the ‘reset’ button. Typical M’sian mentality: must ‘obscure’. (sweep it under the carpet).

We have forgotten what is right and wrong. ‘As long as we don’t get caught, it’s ok’, so goes the chant. It shows, how it shows in what the big guns are saying.

Lord, have mercy.

p/s Where is the voice of the M’sian church? Talk about relevance man…

(Though I doubt they’ll read it) …

I wish to take my hat off for our Dewan Rakyat speakers, TS Ramli Ngah and TS Lim Boon Cheng (hope I got their names right). I mean, it’s not easy chairing a parlimentary seating where both sides of the political fence are always shouting and jeering at each other.

Man, that seat is a pressure cooker. But well, a job is a job.

For obvious reasons, it is easy to give in to the overwhelming 92% majority in the Dewan. But after what I saw today, (monkey business…hehe) the speaker is trying his best to be fair lar…

Dumbledore said it best, ” This are the times where we have to choose between what is right, and what is easy.”

I must admit, I have no love for history, Malaysia or otherwise.

But history is important.

And no matter how our biased agendas colour our understanding of history, there is a reason why universities have a department of history with professional historians.

I guess it is time we respected the professionalism of these academics. After all, we have no problem trusting a doctors judgement, our maths teachers assesment or an engineers calculations. Historians are people trained to do one thing: To draw out history from the events of the past with minimal personal interference.

We certainly need more people like Prof KKK.

…and our sejarah textbooks needs urgent revision. Serious revision.

I have been perusing LKS’s blog quite regularly now. Amongst the many issues that he blogs about, the foremost must certainly concern tertiary education in Malaysia.

The context in which secular assumptions come into play is the recent controversy over IIUM’s ruling about headscarfs (tudung). The Opposition comes to one side of the argument with the assumptions that there should be no coercion in matters of the faith. This sentiment is not universally shared however. There cannot be genuine progress until there is a shared set of beliefs between both sides. What’s worse is that in this issue, there is no win-win situation or compromise available. Morally speaking, there is no compulsion for non-Muslims to wear the headscarf, but this is precisely where the IIUM Senate disagrees.

Somebody gonna lose this fight, and that’s what makes this kind of situation so tacky.

But this is only a specific example. One can move to a more overarching viewpoint.

Fundamental to the machinery of tertiary education in Malaysia must certainly be this unspoken mantra:

I am the teacher and you are the pupil, therefore you must listen to whatever I say

The academicians demand respect, but do not earn it. The academicians demand trust, but do not give the benefit of doubt. No wonder there is so much angst and frustration among local graduates. Deep inside they know that morally they should be treated like adults, but are not getting it. So they become petty people as witnessed during the recent student representative elections. Like kampung boys with new toys to play with…

There have been several interesting incidents/ issues that have brought to the fore the failure of leadership (in general) in Malaysia.

1) The IIUM injuction for non-Muslim students to don the tudung. The Cabinet has come up with a resolution stating that non-Muslim students are encouranged but never to be coerced to do so. The IIUM Senate however ‘managed’ enforce it for the convocation ceremony.

2) The Penang Chief Minister YB Koh Tsu Kun gently asked for a review of the teaching of maths and science in english. However, the PM later responded by asking that the issue be put to rest, to avoid ‘public confusion’ over the matter. The YB was sorely criticized.

3) The Drop. UM’s THES ranking falling from 89th to 160+th position caused much concern. The PM was rightly dissappointed. However, the VC of UM seems to have gotten away with planting billboards celebrating this dubious achievement. Nobody (except the Opposition) stood up to censure this.

These currently are the recent happenings. The show one thing, the culture of ‘face’ and patriarchalism is dragging Malaysia down. Because leaders have such a big ego to protect, they are blind to their own mediocrity and insensitivity.

It is tough to be the right man doing the right thing when the moment demands it. But, Lord have mercy on Malaysia. I tremble…