Although the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claims that Malaysia has the best education system in the world, better than Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, international educational tests like PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) have consistently shown that Malaysia’s 15-year-old students are not only below the international average in the three critical subjects of reading, science and maths but four or even five years behind their peers in the top-performing countries/regions in Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.
But it is fortunate that the 35 Cabinet Ministers did not represent the country in these PISA and TIMSS tests or Malaysia would be ten or even more years behind other countries.
This is because the Cabinet today has created history and a record of sorts, demonstrating that the 35 Ministers in the Najib Cabinet 2015 have comprehension problems worse than ordinary school children who are already several years behind other countries.
This is because even the average school children would not have made the colossal error committed by the 35 Ministers today in concluding that the call by the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses was not targetting Chinese traders alone but aimed at all traders.
After the Cabinet meeeting, the police today called up Ismail Sabri for investigation over his racist call on his Facebook to Malay consumers to boycott Chinese business, which prompted my tweet: “Sheer rigmarole when PMO has cleared Ismail Sabri”.
This has only made the police, the overwhelming majority of whom are dedicated and professional officers committed to the duty to maintain peace and uphold law and order, look very foolish.
On Monday, when Ismail went overboard with his racist fulminations on his Facebook calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese business, I had occasion to ask the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar whether his twitter account had broken down or whether Bukit Aman had suffered a breakdown of Internet access, as he had been strangely quiet for several hours on his twitter account.
One of Khalid’s trademarks as IGP is to immediately take to the twitter to direct his police officers to investigate political or civic society leader (but not from Barisan Nasional) for any infringement of the law in their statements or speeches, and I myself was such a victim, when the IGP twittered that the police would investigate me under the Sedition Act for saying on the fifth anniversary of the death of Teoh Beng Hock that his killers have yet to be brought to book as Beng Hock did not commit suicide by jumping off the 14th floor of MACC in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.
It was a few hours after my tweet that Khalid took to the twitter to say Ismail would be investigated, but all this was only for show, full of light and thunder but meaning nothing.
The Cabinet meeting today is the most disgraceful in the nation’s history as the Cabinet Ministers just fell short of former UMNO youth leaders who gathered yesterday with the “I am Ismail Sabri” placard endorsement.
It shows that the 35 Ministers are incapable of taking a stand on the Great Rights and Wrongs in the country.
Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, gender or age will have to pass judgment on the quality and character of the 35 Cabinet Ministers, for no Malaysian has brought more shame and disgrace to the country’s international reputation and standing than the Cabinet Ministers themselves since the start of the new year.
(Speech at the DAP Sarikei Dinner in Sarikei on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 9 pm)