Day: April 24, 2015

– Liew Chin Tong
The Malaysian Insider
24 April 2015

If both Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang remain as the presidents of Umno and PAS respectively, the sense of being leaderless will continue in the Malay community.

The status quo is therefore not a stable situation, and we are bound to see new contenders coming into the field to fill the painful vacuum. This will open up new possibilities for Malaysian politics.

It would be foolish to assume that Umno will not stay in power for too long. After all, if it, still led by Najib, with help from certain segments of PAS, still led by Hadi, manages to amend the constitution to increase the number of seats in ways that will benefit it, then it would be very difficult to defeat.

We must not underestimate the power of incumbency and the incumbent’s use of government machineries to win elections. Continue reading “The Malay leadership vacuum”

By Koon Yew Yin
Malaysiakini
Apr 24, 2015

COMMENT Recently, I received an urgent note from a student who is doing matriculation in a government school in Kedah where tuition and accommodation costs are covered by the state. I

have been helping her with financial assistance for food and miscellaneous expenses since her father is unemployed and she is a deserving student from the poorer class.

Her letter reads as follows:

“Hi sir it’s me …. sorry for disturbing sir. Sir I want to ask sir something. Sir I really need sir’s help. Sir if can sir can bank in some of the money before I further my studies in matriculation.

“Sir I need to buy something as preparation to further my studies in matriculation sir. so please help me sir. I really don’t know who to ask help. That why I am asking sir’s help. please sir. I hope sir can help me because I don’t know who to ask. sir I hope sir can understand me and give me some support. Thank you sir. I hope sir will reply my letter as soon as possible. Thank you a lot sir.”

I have shared this letter with friends not simply to provide an example of the extent of financial desperation and need that hundreds of thousands of poor students in our country face everyday in their lives.

I am also sharing it to show my concern with the standard of English proficiency of our younger generation who are going to colleges and universities. This is not an isolated example. I am sad to say that the overwhelming majority of the students that I am presently supporting have equally low standards of the English language.

These students represent the better ones among their classmates in school. I shudder to think of the standard of English proficiency of the average students in our secondary schools. Continue reading “Disaster in our educational system”