Day: December 21, 2012

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s proposal in New Delhi yesterday to source English teachers for Malaysian schools from India in a bid to help alleviate the shortage of teachers in English and to improve proficiency of the language in Malaysia marks the crossing of the Rubicon for the Malaysian national education system – as it is a sad admission of the failure of the Malaysian education system over the decades to arrest and reverse declining educational standards and to prepare the new Malaysian generation for the challenges of the 21st century.

In the recent past, Malaysia had been sourcing English-language teachers from the United Kingdom and the United States, ignoring the rich reservoir of available local talents to teach the English language. Now the Prime Minister is proposing to source them from India. Will Malaysia next source English teachers from the African continent?

This is undeniably a grievous psychological blow to the nation which had rightly prided itself as a country with high international standards and attainments in English language when it achieved Merdeka in 1957, and should now be sending Malaysians as English-language teachers all over the world, including India, as one of our precious international assets.

Instead, Malaysia has degenerated to become an importing nation for English-language teachers from foreign countries. What a national shame! Continue reading “Najib’s proposal to source English teachers from India is “crossing of the Rubicon” marking the failure of the Malaysian education system to reverse declining standards and to prepare the new generation of Malaysians for the challenges of the 21st century”

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | December 21, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

The recent DAP polls showed that Malays in the party must earn their keep and keep their peace.

COMMENT

A total of eight Malay candidates contested for places in DAP’s central executive committee (CEC) last week. But no Malay candidates won any place.

Also, more Indians offered themselves in the contest but only M Kulasegaran got in.

I don’t hear them grumbling or getting gruffy. Perhaps the Malay DAP members must learn from them a thing or two.

Why didn’t any of the Malays get selected? Perhaps it’s the fault of the candidates and the delegates and also the DAP leadership.

But first let’s set aside one issue – viewing the results with an Umno mindset. Continue reading “Don’t see DAP congress with Umno mindset”

— Blue Christmas
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 21, 2012

DEC 21 —I just received a notice that the first school staff meeting in preparation for the 2013 school term would be held on December 24.

At first I let it pass and marked the date on my calendar and then I realised it would be Christmas Eve. That is the time when friends and family call on us, when the general mood is about looking back on a wonderful year and planning for an even more wonderful year ahead.

Took a second look at the schedule and it reads a meeting for every day after Christmas Day all the way to December 29. Now that’s the time when families get their children’s stuff ready for school — new shoes, bags, uniforms and water bottles. That is also the time when old friends come back to their hometowns to their aged parents and ask for forgiveness and blessings for a good year ahead. They take the extra time to bond with old classmates and the malls, restaurants and the teh tarik places get filled up with fun, joy and merriment.

Then it dawned on me that this holiday mood happens on Hari Raya Puasa, on Chinese New Year and on Deepavali and all my friends usually get this extended holidays either through annual leave and through the extra days taken by schools. So why is Christmas different? Continue reading “Don’t they know it is Christmas?”

by Koon Yew Yin

As election day comes closer, we will be asked for reasons as to why we should want to change the Barisan Nasional Government (BN). When the question is put to me, I tell people that there is no need to enumerate three, four or five reasons. One reason alone is sufficient for Malaysians to elect a new government.

The reason is that the BN has ruined our educational system and put us back at least one generation in our educational standards and standing.

When the country became independent in 1957 our educational system was acknowledged to be amongst the best in the region. Today, after the introduction of NEP policies in education, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel in our standards of educational achievement at all levels. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Education Disaster: The power to change the system is in our hands”

By Simon Roughneen
Asia Times
21st December 2012

Ahead of what reform campaigners believe will be Malaysia’s “dirtiest ever elections”, the long-ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has engineered something of a clean-up. In recent months, it has reformed some old and oft-derided laws, such as allowing indefinite detention without trial and forcing local newspapers to apply each year for a publication permit, a stipulation that encouraged self-censorship.

UMNO and its allies have governed Malaysia consecutively since achieving independence from colonial rule, a longevity not usually associated with electoral democracies. UMNO and its Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition survived the last election in 2008, though it ceded its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time and lost five out of 13 federal states to the opposition, a coalition of three parties led by controversial former UMNO firebrand Anwar Ibrahim that includes the Islamic party PAS and the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP).

While some in the Malaysian opposition and rights groups have criticized the recent reforms as piecemeal electioneering for next year’s vote, there are indications that the government has made some real positive changes, particularly regarding the overhaul of certain emergency laws and repealing the old Internal Security Act, a law which has in the past been used against the government’s political opponents. Continue reading “Malaysia poised for pivotal polls”

Jamilah Kamarudin | December 20, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

Ariffin membuat laporan tersebut di Balai Polis Tun H S Lee di Jalan Stadium dekat sini tengahari tadi.

PETALING JAYA: Naib Pengerusi DAP, Senator Dr Ariffin SM Omar hari ini membuat laporan polis terhadap Timbalan Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dan laman portal, Antarapos kerana menuduhnya mengamalkan perkauman sempit.

Ariffin yang ditemani peguam iaitu ahli parlimen Segambut Lim Lip Eng membuat laporan tersebut di Balai Polis Tun H S Lee di Jalan Stadium dekat sini tengahari tadi.

Laporannya terhadap Muhyiddin itu berdasarkan petikan berita “Kenyataan Ariffin Melayu Punca Rasuah Diselar” pada 18 Disember lalu apabila menyifatkan ia sebagai satu perbuatan bodoh dan sangat tidak bertanggungjawab.

Respon itu dibuat Muhyiddin selepas Antarapos dalam laporannya 15 Disember lalu memetik Ariffin sebagai berkata rasuah boleh dibanteras dengan lebih berkesan jika perkhidmatan awam dan polis tidak dimonopoli oleh kaum Melayu sahaja. Continue reading “Senator DAP buat laporan polis terhadap Muhyiddin, portal berita”

Malaysia’s elections
Banyan Asia
by R.C. | KUALA LUMPUR
The Economist
Dec 19th 2012

ALL year, it seems, Malaysia has been on a war footing. For elections, that is—and thankfully, rather than anything more martial. The country operates on a Westminster-style parliamentary system, so the prime ministers’ five-year term does not officially end until early next summer. Nonetheless, Najib Razak and his people have been talking up the chances of going to the polls before then pretty well continuously over the past 18 months or so, which keeps everyone guessing.

Now, with the end of the year in sight and no further announcements, it seems that Mr Najib will take this down to the wire. Given that he can only go to the country after Chinese New Year next February, most people expect him to plump for the latest date he can in the electoral calendar, which would be about late March or early April.

His supporters say, why rush? With a generally favourable economic outlook, tame state media and all the advantages of incumbency, there is no reason why Mr Najib can’t enjoy the rest of his term of office without worrying about the 13th general election. After all, he has a bit of history on his side, to put it mildly—the ruling political alliance, Barisan Nasional (BN), has never lost a general election since independence in 1957. Continue reading “Down to the wire”