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Playing Survivor every day

by HIMANSHU BHATT | The Sun

Almost three years after taking over the Penang government, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is firmly in the seat. On New Year’s Eve, Lim spoke to HIMANSHU BHATT of his experiences as a selfconfessed “Survivor” and about the state government.

ON LIM CHONG EU
HOW was your relationship with former chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu after you assumed office?

Tun Lim said he felt it would be very challenging for me, as it was for him … I think he felt I was facing the same circumstances and conditions as he experienced when he won power in 1969.

He advised that it was important to take charge. And I agree that we have to take charge. Take charge not by compulsion, but by example and by persuasion. He felt that it was important that we must be fully in command, to be in control of all aspects of government. I told him that I don’t think that I am that capable. So I rely on my trusted comrades. For instance, he said I should also handle local government. I said I can’t cope. So I leave it to Chow (Kon Yeow).
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MRSM schools obstacle to national unity?

by Azly Rahman

As hypermodernising societies such as Malaysia progresses in syncrony with the advancement of capitalism, and as race and religion becomes the foundation for decision-making in education, especially in elitist well-funded schools, Malaysia is faced with another dilemma of education and national development.

Is this country creating sophisticated ethnocentrists that will continue to sustain race-based ideologies?

Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (Mara Junior Science College) schools, well-funded, well-staffed with advanced degree faculties, and well-taken care of by the Malay-centric government may be one example of a phenomena of a successful failure in the system’s 40-year evolution.

The school system prides itself in innovative curricular experimentation drawn from best practice of schools, particularly those of the United States; as its original template was based upon.
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Pre-polls reforms unlikely, says Roubini’s RGE

By Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
January 13, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — Much-needed reforms to Malaysia’s pro-Bumiputera policies will likely be put on the back burner until Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak secures a new electoral mandate, a report by star economist Nouriel Roubini’s RGE global economic analysis firm has predicted.

RGE said in its “Wednesday Note — Malaysia’s Middle-Income Malaise” released yesterday that Umno was “unlikely” to revamp such policies “blocking” Malaysia’s rise to high-income nation status before the next general election for fear of antagonising Malay voters.

Najib’s market-friendly reforms under the New Economic Model (NEM) have received lukewarm to hostile response from the Malays, many of whom regard such proposals as a challenge to the special position of Bumiputeras outlined in the Constitution.

“[Given] the governing party’s reliance on Bumiputera support, major changes are unlikely until new elections are held and the government has the political confidence to confront popular resistance to reform,” RGE said. Continue reading “Pre-polls reforms unlikely, says Roubini’s RGE”

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Talent Corpse

By Dean Johns | Malaysiakini

The late Teoh Beng Hock is a living symbol of the dilemma facing the millions of bright young expatriate Malaysians that Najib Razak is attempting to attract back home with his latest cynical political ploy, Talent Corp.

On the one hand many of them would dearly love to contribute their energy and skills to the growth and development of their homeland, and to enjoy its rich culture and fabulous food in the company of their families and old friends.

And on the other hand, most seem totally alienated by witnessing the plight of their contemporaries who, through courageous choice or force of circumstances, elect to stay in Malaysia under the deadly BN regime.

Admittedly the case of Teoh is an extreme example of the fate that awaits the best and the brightest in BN’s Malaysia. But his highly suspicious death while in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and the coroner’s bizarre finding that his demise was neither suicide nor homicide, are entirely symptomatic of the BN system.
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