Day: November 9, 2011

By Nawawi Mohamad | November 09, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

NOV 9 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was a visionary leader who forcefully guided Malaysia’s development by corporate nationalism to achieve the status of a developed nation by 2020.

He made great achievements based on the benchmarks and milestones but was also hampered with some failures, but still the situation had not been that bad; there was still light at the end of the tunnel and remains in effect to the end of his term in office.

Unfortunately the success story stops here and the derailment began. Abdullah Badawi was not able to fill the shoes of Dr Mahathir. Abdullah Badawi was lost in his own world, without any real grasp of what was going on in the country economically, financially, socially and politically.
Continue reading “Corporate Malaysia has failed”

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life advisor

PPMSI since its launch in 2002 to achieve a modern IT society has not made progress because of lack of purpose and unity. It was the product of the Mahathir dynasty, when PM Mahathir was pushing the idea of Bangsa Malaysia or Vision 2020.

His target of a progressive Malaysia could be achievable if the people were well versed in Mathematics and Science and they could make the country progressive like other high tech countries in Asia, like Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, S Korea and Taiwan. And as English was the language of Science and Maths, so the quickest way was to educate our youths to speak and write in English. Hence his cabinet pushed the policy of PPMSI (teaching and learning maths and science in English). That was in 2002.

The year now is 2011, what are the results? Are the students competent in English and well versed in Maths and Science?

Unemployable graduates, with deplorable English. The results have not been encouraging. It is well known that most of the university graduates are not equipped or trained to work in the commercial and business world. They have no communicating skills and could hardly write a letter in English. The businessmen coined these graduates as ‘unemployable graduates’.
Continue reading “Towards a modern IT, High Tech, and High Income Malaysia”

By Kapil Sethi | November 09, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

NOV 9 — So it’s final. No more PPSMI. Over a year of PAGE campaigning, petitioning, protesting and writing letters to the editors have come to naught. As the deputy prime minister remarked, the decision was made by the government in 2009 and it will not bow to the demands of small groups. The only concession is that those already under PPSMI will be allowed to finish their schooling under PPSMI.

So it’s final. No more arguments over amendments to the Employment Act. Three months of the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) campaigning, petitioning and picketing have had no impact on the government. The human resource minister called the picket illegal (November 1, The Malaysian Insider) and insisted “this is a policy issue by the government. If they picket, they are going against the law.”

Both PAGE and MTUC threatened to divert support from Barisan Nasional to the opposition if their demands were not met. The PAGE Facebook protest page garnered approximately 100,000 “Likes” while MTUC has over 800,000 members and counts on the support of 5.7 million workers. Even the Lynas controversy has managed to alienate a substantial portion of Kuantan residents, with no solution offered by the government beyond bare denials.
Continue reading “Impotent rage”