Month: December 2013

The greatest disservice to the nation by the Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is his denial that Malaysia has been in the throes of an educational crisis for the past decade and making the bottom 40 per cent of Malaysians parents and students happy because of the delusion of a “world class” and quality education ensuring excellence for all.

In actual fact, educational standards in Malaysia, whether primary, secondary or university, have seriously deteriorated over the past decade.

What the CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Wan Saiful Wan Jan, said yesterday should be serious food for thought for all Malaysians.

Wan Saiful accused the Barisan Nasional government of taking advantage of the trust given by the poor by creating an “illusion” that the education system in the country has been reformed. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s greatest disservice to nation is his denial that Malaysia has been in throes of education crisis for past decade and making bottom 40 per cent of Malaysian parents and students happy because of the delusion of a “world class” and quality education”

By Zurairi AR | December 18, 2013
The Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — A series of painful measures to trim Malaysia’s chronic budget deficit has hit Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s popularity hard, according to a survey by independent pollster Merdeka Center that showed his approval sliding to a new low of 52 per cent in December.

Conducted from June to September and supplemented by an updated poll this month, the survey took place during a time when Putrajaya rolled out a fuel price hike, confirmed the long-delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST), eliminated price support for sugar, and announced an increase to power tariffs next year — all of which have angered Malaysians already struggling with rising cost of living.

News is also swirling now of extensive toll rate increases next year.

Sixty-seven per cent of respondent cited worsening costs and inflation as their main grouses.
Continue reading “Deficit-cutting measures take toll on Najib’s popularity, survey shows”

The Malaysian Insider | December 18, 2013

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s approval rating has taken the lowest dip since assuming office in 2009, declining to 52% in December, from 62% in August, a Merdeka Centre survey has found.

Two months after replacing Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister, Najib had a 65% approval rating.

The pollster said the survey was conducted between December 4 and 12, 2013, after the reduction of fuel subsidies in September 2013, and the tabling of the 2014 national budget during which the government announced the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2015.

Merdeka Centre said in a statement that concerns over the economy, particularly rising costs and inflation, rose to its highest ever level, up to 67% of all respondents.
Continue reading “Najib’s approval rating takes a plunge, Merdeka Centre survey reveals”

The Malaysian Insider | December 18, 2013

A think tank has urged Putrajaya to urgently address what it said was a crisis in the Malaysian education system, following the recent findings that Malaysian students scored poorly in an international assessment test.

The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), referring to the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), which saw Malaysia ranked 55th among 65 countries, said the test scores revealed that the country was behind less developed countries such as Vietnam.

Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan also cited a recent World Bank report titled High Performing Education, which showed a connection between the country’s future economic growth and access to quality education.

“This is an important point, access to education is no longer the main issue. The real issue is access to quality education,” Wan Saiful said, urging the public to pay closer attention to the looming education crisis.
Continue reading “Think tank warns of grim outlook for Malaysian education following poor ranking”

– Dyana Sofya
The Malaysian Insider
December 18, 2013

Dear Zahid Hamidi, what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The controversy surrounding Zahid Hamidi and Mat Sabu where the minister claimed that Mat Sabu is a Shiite, followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs’s 10 pieces of evidence to back the claim, has become the laughing stock throughout the nation.

Soon after, the ministry covered up by saying that the 10 pieces of evidence are only Grade B evidence, and that it would soon provide Grade A evidence to prove the Minister’s claim.

Not just that, Mat Sabu was asked to prove his innocence or rather his non involvement with Shiite movement.

Dear Minister of Home Affairs, what happened to rule of law where one is innocent until proven guilty? Continue reading “Zahid Hamidi, stop making Malaysia a laughing stock”

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and the head of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), Datuk Seri Idris Jala should “walk the talk” to “stop politicizing education” and get the agreement of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet for the establishment of an Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education as a bipartisan response to the “triple whammy” of relentless erosion of educational standards in the country, viz:

* 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study);

* 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment); and

* World Bank’s adverse Malaysia Economic Monitor themed “High-Performing Education”.

If Idris can announce such an agreement by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to the establishment of a bi-partisan Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, this will be the most cheerful and best end-of-the-year news for Malaysians who had been buffeted by an avalanche of bad news on all fronts in the past seven months after the 13th general elections creating unprecedented division, disunity and negative vibes about the future of Malaysia. Continue reading “Idris Jala should “walk the talk” to “stop politicizing education” and get agreement of PM and Cabinet to establish Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on Education”

– Kee Thuan Chye
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013

The relatively outspoken weekly newspaper The Heat has been given a show-cause letter by the Home Ministry and reportedly told to tone down its fervour. And this has come about only three months since the paper sparked to life in early September.

This shows how tightly the Government still controls the media, and how difficult it is for any print publication to be critical of the ruling party. It also blows to bits the promise that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made in September 2011 that he wanted to establish in Malaysia “the best democracy”. Unless, of course, he has a radically different understanding of “democracy”.

The online news website The Malaysian Insider had reported that the action taken by the ministry was believed to have been prompted by The Heat’s front-page article on Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor’s “spendthrift” use of public funds – on overseas trips, utilities in their official residence, the hiring of consultants, the use of the Government’s private jets, allocations for the Prime Minister’s Department. Continue reading “Will ‘The Heat’ wilt from Government heat?”

– Mat Zain Ibrahim
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013

Many people may not realise that the affidavits affirmed by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Datuk Ramli Yusoff, which are the subject of my police report last Sunday, were filed in court by the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Quite simply, what I am saying here is that the full contents of both the affidavits have been vetted, scrutinised and cleared for filing by the Chambers.

The people must also be told that on or about November 1, Ramli had filed a suit against Abdul Gani Patail, Musa Hassan and several others including the government, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police claiming damages totalling RM128.5 million.

And the person who advised and encouraged Ramli to use the black-eye incident evidence as the main cause of action of the suit was none other than Shafee.

Incidentally, Shafee is also the person whom I’ve alleged in my report to have concealed material evidence against Gani and Musa which Shafee received from me on September 24, 2013.

Now, against this backdrop, Gani must explain how could he have allowed both Shafee’s and Ramli’s false affidavits to be filed in court through the AG’s Chambers? Especially Ramli’s, unless a deal was struck. Continue reading “Shafee’s and Ramli’s affidavits: A criminal conspiracy?”

The country has had 15 Education Ministers in the past 58 years since 1955, and the second to the sixth Prime Ministers had all previously helmed this important Ministry starting with Tun Razak (1955-57), Tun Hussein Onn (1970-73), Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (1974-78), Tun Abdullah Badawi (1984-86) and Datuk Seri Najib Razak (1995-99).

Others who had been Education Ministers include Tan Sri Mohamed Khir Johari (1957-59, 1965-69), Tun Abdul Rahman Ya’kub (1969-70), Tun Musa Hitam (1978-81), Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (1986-91) and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (2004-2009).

But it is Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who took over the Education Ministry’s portfolio more than four years ago in 2009, who is in danger of being known as the worst and the most irresponsible Education Minister in the nation’s 58-year history.

The question thinking and concerned Malaysians have been asking is what type of an Education Minister we have got when Muhyiddin is completely unconcerned, indifferent and disinterested about the country’s educational woes highlighted by the 2012 PISA and the World Bank’s adverse report on “High-Performing Education” in the past two weeks? Continue reading “What type of an Education Minister we have got when Muhyiddin is completely unconcerned, indifferent and disinterested about the country’s educational woes highlighted by the 2012 PISA and World Bank’s adverse report on “High-Performing Education”?”

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Dec 16, 2013

Malay apathy is one of the most depressing features of Malaysian life. It is widely known that many Malays are work-shy, addicted to drugs and in long-term unemployment. Despite the early introduction of religious indoctrination, many Malays are said to be promiscuous and involved in incestuous relationships.

Some Malays are not afraid to say what our politicians are fearful of revealing. Perhaps, it is time to debunk Umno Baru’s lies. You may wish to add to the list below.

1. Only Umno Baru can protect the Malays

Umno Baru only protects the Malays who are beholden to them. The critical Malay does not win tenders for projects. He may find all manner of problems with his business licence. His application for government permits may be delayed or rejected.

A civil servant who dares to openly criticise may be demoted or sacked, and find his income tax being scrutinised, as punishment. Meritocracy, intellect and hard-work count for nothing in the Umno Baru world, only blind allegiance does.

When will the Malays realise that Umno Baru would cease to exist without the Malays? Continue reading “Debunking the Umno Baru myths”

Zaid Ibrahim
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013

The ongoing religious persecution of Mat Sabu and many others before him portends a grave future for religious freedom in this country. We are not only denied political freedom (in the manner that governs the media and the electoral process), but also liberty in matters of personal belief.

We are already witnessing a new wave of attacks against Shias which are more commonly associated with the Middle East and Pakistan. Sunni-Shia warfare has turned the Muslim world upside-down with senseless killings and now it has arrived on our shores, thanks to our Minister in charge of security.

I believe that religious freedom as a legal right has been denied, bastardised and distorted in this country. Many years ago, when Kamariah Ali and her husband pleaded before the judges to allow them to be the kind of Muslims that they understood God meant for them to be, they were denied.

The judges ruled that the State had the right to define Islam, and that only this version was acceptable. The judges went on to say the State also had the right to punish those who deviated from this version of Islam. Continue reading “Why we must support Mat Sabu”

by Lee Shi-Ian
The Malaysian Insider
December 17, 2013

The May 5 general election results have set back democracy in Malaysia rather than advancing democratic change, as the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) has put more restrictive laws for politics, an analyst said in a Commonwealth magazine.

Professor William Case of the Hong Kong City University said Umno used the 13th general election results to instigate racial polarisation, which proved to be helpful in launching attacks on DAP and the Chinese community.

“If Umno elites had grown fractious after Malaysia’s 12th general election, they displayed new unity, even defiance, after Malaysia’s 13th general election (GE13). Thus, they perpetuated the ethnic suspicions of the Chinese that they had heightened during the campaigning; and they imposed new controls on opposition party leaders and organisers.

“Far from advancing democratic change, then, GE13 has served to roll democracy back,” Case said in the abstract of his analysis in the latest issue of The Round Table, the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs. Continue reading “Polls results set back democracy in Malaysia, say analysts”

The 2012 PISA results have been regarded as a “wake-up” call in many countries, provoking national soul-searching about the efficacy and competitiveness of their education systems compared to other countries, including Finland which fell from its pedestal as the top-performing OECD country, scoring 519 points for mathematics, Canada (518), Australia (504), New Zealand (500), United Kingdom (494) and the United States (481).

Although the first four countries are above the OECD average for mathematics, i.e. 494 points while UK’s score is the same as the OECD average, the US score of 481 is below the OECD average.

Malaysia with maths score at 421 is far behind these countries with our 15-year-old students behind their peers in Finland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK and US by 1.6 to 2.6 school years.

Yet the Finnish, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, UK and US political leaders including Education Ministers or their equivalents, education planners and parents are having a major debate over the 2012 PISA results but in Malaysia, led by the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, there is disgusting complacency and indifference about Malaysia’s poor performance in 2012 PISA.

It is coming to two full weeks but Muhyiddin has yet to say a single word about the 2012 PISA results released on Dec. 3 although the main objective for the quality of our education system in Muhyiddin’s Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2015 (MEB) is to be ranked the top third of countries participating in PISA and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey).

Instead of boldly stepping forward to assume responsibility for the poor 2012 PISA results as he was already Education Minister since the previous 2009 PISA, Muhyiddin has “run for cover” avoiding any discussion of the 2012 PISA. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s MEB – “Miracle Education Blueprint” – expects Malaysian students to perform three educational miracles in his 13-year Three-Wave Educational Transformation Plan”

Richard Loh
December 15, 2013

Malaysians should be very proud of their country, a nation where they are born into, raised and will die and buried here irrespective of what kind of government they have. But sadly many still could not differentiate between the country that they owned (belong to) and an elected government that are supposed to serve. The long serving one party (precisely 56 years) has gone overboard and arrogant to remind the rakyat that they must be grateful and be patriotic to the powers that be.

Most Malaysians are moving forward fast and are adapting well to the various changes that are ongoing together with the outside world but are pulled back or hindered by a restrictive government that are not willing to open up and face the present day reality. The results of the 12th and 13th General Elections have shown that most Malaysians wanted to move along with the rest of the world but post 308 and 505 gave you a more opaque and an intolerance government.

They are still using the old formula of divide and rule, enhancing their racism and religious intolerance including veiled threats which they thought can still work to their advantage and hold on to power. We wish them all the best except not to create chaos and ‘crushed bodies and lives lost’ to fulfill their wish of holding on to power.

Are Malaysians really that blind, dumb and deaf to fall yet again to all these antics? Yes, there are still 47% of the voters that believe in them. Continue reading “The wrath of a losing ‘winner’”

Neal K| October 11, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

Malaysia Truly Asia…what about Malaysia being TRULY Malaysia first?COMMENT

“Lima tiga pound,” says the souvenir vendor in busy Oxford Street London. That many Malaysians throng to England’s capital.

The bargain hunters are mainly tourists travelling in groups or two in one holiday makers who’ve either just settled or visited their children studying here.

You can clearly tell them apart from the upper crusts…and the newly minted Malaysian elites who waltz into the city. The upper crusts, including seasoned business classes, will not be posing in front Selfridges or Harrods for ‘say cheese’ pictures. That’s reserved for the majority of the citizenry…as well as benefactors of ill-gotten wealth who simply cannot hide their simple natures, even in their posh new lifestyles.

Then there’s the section of Malaysians who have made Britain their adopted home. They watch. They feel. And they still talk about ‘back home’. Home is still Malaysia, even for those forced into giving up their citizenship.

Raven, in his 40’s now, came to England to study while in his 20’s, met a beautiful French lady and eventually married her in 1997. Thankfully, his wife Phillipa liked Malaysia and was agreeable to settling down in her husband’s birthplace. As the first born son with filial obligations Raven couldn’t be happier and he quickly got a lecturing job in KL. Continue reading “‘Why I had to leave Malaysia’”

Dean Johns
Malaysiakini
Dec 14, 2013

In the wake of the death of the man who led South Africa to freedom from apartheid, many here have wondered whether there will ever be a Mandela-style leader to liberate Malaysia from the curse of Barisan Nasional.

Of course this robber-regime has already made a brazen bid to steal the spirit of Mandela for itself, with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ludicrously claiming that his Umno party’s ‘struggle’ is similar to that of South Africa’s ANC.

A claim that was neatly rebutted by US President Barack Obama in his speech in celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela, in which his statement that “there are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people” was clearly directed at the Najibs of the world.

In any event, there was never much of a struggle to free Malaysia from colonial rule, except by socialists, trade unionists and communists.

And the Alliance that finally achieved Merdeka under the benevolent and broad-minded leadership of Tunku Abdul Rahman all too soon degenerated into the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional that has ever since so disgracefully re-colonised the nation for its own and its cronies’ benefit.

So that just as Mandela’s dream of a resurgent South Africa has degenerated into the current reality of a sink-hole of gross inequality, rampant crime and corruption under the unlovely Jacob Zuma, so has Tunku Abdul Rahman’s idea and ideal of Malaysia descended into today’s Najib-style nightmare. Continue reading “Saluting M’sia’s Mandelas”

Both the current Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his predecessor Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein must be held responsible for the decline and deterioration of educational standards in Malaysia in the past decade, as illustrated by the 2007 and 2011 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and the 2009 and 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).

This is because Hishammuddin was Education Minister from 2004 – 2009, and must be held solidly responsible for Malaysia’s poor performance in the 2007 TIMSS and 2009 PISA while Muhyiddin, who had taken over the Education Ministry in April 2009, must bear full responsibility for Malaysia’s educational performance in the 2011 TIMSS and 2012 PISA.

I have a vested interest in the performance of Malaysian students in international educational benchmarking, as I was responsible in getting Malaysia involved in the global educational assessments in the first place.

In 1996, I met the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Run Razak, and persuaded him that Malaysia should participate in TIMSS, as I had emailed the organisers of TIMSS, the Netherlands-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), inquiring about Malaysia’s participation in TIMSS as Malaysia had not participated in the four-yearly TIMSS assessment for eight-grade (Form Two) students.

Najib agreed with me that Malaysia should participate in the international educational assessments so that we know where Malaysian students stand with their peers in other countries, resulting in Malaysia’s first participation in a global educational assessment in the 1999 TIMSS. Continue reading “DAP calls for genuine educational transformation to ensure “educational excellence for all students” and not just for 1.3% of the student population with over 51% failures”

The 2012 PISA results assessing 510,000 15-year-old students in 65 countries in mathematics, science and reading have been hailed as “wake-up” calls in the United Kingdom and the United States provoking much national soul-searching about the mediocrity of their education systems compared to top-performers like Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

In Malaysia, however, the government and the education authorities are very complacent and continue to slumber away although Malaysian students are far behind their peers in UK and US in the assessment in all the three subjects.

Compared to the 2009 PISA, Malaysia improved in math but fell in scores for science and reading: math 421, science 420 and reading 398.

These compare unfavourably with the scores for 15-year-old students in UK (math 494, science 514, reading 499) and US (math 481, science 497, reading 498).

Based on the difference of 38 points on the PISA scale being equivalent to one year of schooling, the 2012 PISA results indicate that Malaysian 15-year-old students are 1.9 to 2.7 years behind their peers in UK in the three subjects: math behind by 1.9 years; science behind by 2.4 years and reading behind by 2.7 years.

It is not only Malaysian 15-year-olds who are 1.9 to 2.7 years behind their peers in the United Kingdom in math, science, and reading (and three to five years behind their peers in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macao and Japan), it is clear that the Malaysian political leaders and education planners are many years behind their counterparts in UK and US in their poor response to the 2012 PISA results. Continue reading “Has the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 become “Miracle Education Blueprint”?”

The latest government research has confirmed 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and World Bank report on “Malaysia Economic Monitor: High-Performing Education” that Malaysia will not produce the highly-skilled workers for the country to become a high-income nation unless there is an educational transformation in Malaysia in pursuit of excellence and not just mediocrity.

Lee Chee Sung, the adviser of Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis (ILMIA) – which comes under the direct purview of the Ministry of Human Resources – said at the launch of the official ILMIA portal in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that although more than 400,000 job opportunities were created last year, Malaysia is still not a high income nation because it lacks highly skilled workers.

At the same function, the Human Resources Minister Datuk Richard Riot Jaem acknowledged that at the moment, about 28 per cent out of the 12.7 million strong labour force in the country is made up of high-skilled workers and the government’s target is to bring the number of high-skilled workers up to 50 per cent of the total workforce by 2020.

However, both the two important international education benchmarks – 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the 2012 PISA – have shown that Malaysia is doing a poor job in developing the nation’s human capital although it is a fundamental driver of economic growth. Continue reading “Latest government research confirms 2012 PISA and World Bank report that Malaysia will not produce the highly-skilled workers for the country to become a high-income nation unless there is an educational transformation in pursuit of excellence”

Malaysia’s declining educational standards is presently a taboo subject for the Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who does not want to talk or to be asked about it, especially after two events in December which highlighted the sad reality that the Malaysia education system is facing a real crisis of confidence, unable to achieve the quality of education necessary to nurture skilled, inquisitive and innovative workers for Malaysia to break out of the middle-income trap to reach the goal of becoming a high-income nation.

These two events were the release of the 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results on December 3, the first day of the week of UMNO general meetings, and the official release of World Bank’s latest Malaysian Economic Monitor themed “High-Performing Education”.

Instead of delegating to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. Datuk Seri Wahid Omar, Muhyiddin should have personally officiated at the release of the World Bank’s “Malaysia Economic Monitor: High-Performing Education” which highlighted the importance of building a high-performance education system for Malaysia’s transformation into a high income, sustainable and inclusive economy.

In fact, the World Bank report is not about Malaysia’s “high-performing education” but how Malaysia has fallen short of producing a high-performing education system based on Malaysia’s poor performances in two international education assessments – the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) where Malaysia’s scores were significantly lower than those in 2003 and 2007 for both Math and Science, and the 2012 PISA, where the Science and Reading scores fell compared to 2010 although the Math score showed improvement. Continue reading “Malaysia does not need any more robotic responses to sliding educational standards but innovative reactions like making public the minimum passing marks of public exams and allowing parents to decide whether to adopt PPMSI”