Joyous but Painful Merdaka Day for Me

It is the nation’s  53^rd. Merdeka  anniversary today!

For many years  now, I have asserted that this is a day to be cherished proudly and embraced with utmost joys by us all Malaysians. Sadly, I may not be able (or perhaps unwilling, if you like) to maintain this assertiveness much longer.  Yeah, much to my chagrin.

Way back in mid- and late-70’s, I was often told by a couple of my late father’s contemporaries as well as some of my older friends then that emigrating to the UK, Australia and even the USA would be a sensible long term proposition if we wanted a meaningful professional career development as well as a guaranteed quality education for our offsprings.  I often slighted and countered them that this was but a needless cum loser’s  perception.

On hindsight, I think (and I hate to admit) that they might had been my (accidental) visionaries.

Political war-drums  beatings  on both sides of the political divide and the consequent  rhetorical trumpeting  that arose as a matter of course over the last few years have been so discomforting. Yes,  even for an old bugger  like me who has been out of the rat-race for eons  now.

You see, I have no need to play corporate politics in order to earn a living these days. Neither do I need to playball with anyone in order to do what I like each day, day in and day out. And, of course,  I could’nt and certainly would’nt care two hoots if someone should blackball me too for whatever the heck reasons!

Yet, I feel  so very  very miserable knowing that the country is  ‘getting from bad to worst’ in terms of race relationships  and the resultant  therefrom’s dragging along the obvious  thereto’s .

I am now in a damnable  quandary :  I failed to share a vision some 40 odd years ago in spite of being one of the not-too-many  finance-majored  MBA’s  in the early-70’s.  Little wonder why I ‘missed the boat’!

These days, both my children are pretty successful professionals in their own ways.  Are  the currently ruling race-centric environmental settings together with their foreseeable near and medium term scenarios  fodders for me to cajole (or may be coerce?) my children to migrate for the sake of their further career development ?  That said, then what about  their future children’s future? 

 In short, dare I become a visionary, never mind being some 40 odd years later?  Believe you  me, this is such a bleeding painful alternative choice!

 Once again, OMG!

Where to 53rd. Merdeka Day?

In another 30 days' time, our beloved country will celebrate the 53rd. Merdaka anniversary. Time to call for a celebration?

Yes and, unfortunately, NO too!

Yes, because I have grown up healthily and meaningfully ever since and have hitherto raised a family peacefully in this blessed country I call home for a good 10 and 53 years now.

No, because I cannot bring myself to entertain nor reconcile the thoughts of our Malaysia 'going to the dogs'! There are just too many visible as well as discernible ills that underpinned my
nagging fears.

Indeed, my fears of and for the future of this land.

Our country's ailments are aplenty yet I seldom read about national issues and challenges that needed to be fully addressed, much less resolved, by our national leaders - both political's and otherwise.

All that I have been fed with were and still are claims such as ..."we are doing well...", "we are cautiously optimistic...", "...ours are healthy and within control...", etc. None, I say, none of our leaders came to the fore often enough and cited us reassuring though summarized facts backed by unsullied statistics for claims that they so often bandied about.

Had they done so, I would have at least read their claims with some iota of credibility. As
transpired theirs, to me, were and still are but questionable if not dubious claims!!

Yet when they did cite statistics, they often had an agenda. (Read more here at http://www.malaysianmirror.com/columnists/mariam-mokhtar/46626-a-personal-reminder-of-may-13)

I dearly wish to be able to fully trust my national leaders' statements through the press from time to time. Ah well, wishful thinking on my part, I reckon.

Come Merdeka Day next, I doubt if I can hold my head high!

Sad leh for an old bugger, no?

Are Ours morphing into a (Pseudo-) Command Economy ?

It is so oft-repeated that it now becomes a norm of national economic governance. Worrisome, so worrisome!

My lamentation here stems from the recent first reading of the Price Control and Anti Profiteering Bill 2010. What? Another impending bureaucratic obstacle to be surmounted by our harried businessmen - if and when the said Bill is finally gazetted ?!

Our government's broad policy orientations in the recent past have never failed to amaze me. A while ago, there arose a bloated PM's Department in the face of ballooning budget deficits. Among others, we now will soon have another obvious cost-centre that, when eventually established, will be (you bet) another black hole for dubious dealings (read potential corrupt practices).

Damn if I am wrong. Our government's practices over the past three decades have cumulatively and, aiyoo... inadvertently created building blocks for what would have been and will continue to be essentially parts and parcels of an ultimate but unintended centrally-planned economy!

How come?

Well, they have continuously been undermining the equilibrium seeking mechanism of a free-market economy lah...

Pushed to one's logical conclusion, all talks of enhancing national competitiveness, increasing productivity, becoming a high-income nation, etc. etc. are but 'bovine waste'.

Yet again for me, sad leh!

The Truth Please ! ?

Front-paged in today's editions of The Sun and The China Press are the accidental Malaysian heros on board the Rachel Corrie and their joys of having safely arrived home. Indeed touching.

Last night though, I chanced upon this video clip :-
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4701881/the_video_cnn_doesnt_want_you_to_see/

Now, how come we the ordinary mortals are always given different pictures and newsy write-ups of the same event from the mainstream media?

All I want is factual and objective reporting from our journalists and reporters alike ... the truth please ! Or is it such a rare commodity nowadays?

I have not put forth my thoughts over the last few months. I felt and am still feeling lethargic and, hate to admit, downright discouraged. Consequently, the no-write mood!

Now I cannot hold back anymore: I am peeved and at the same time flustered! I want to and do hereby let off steam.

Since after CNY2010, I read nothing but adverse news about the discomforting states of our national economy and our educational (mis?)achievements.

We have forecasted a potential bankruptcy of the economy. Yet our leaders collectively are not swayed by any sense of urgency. Most still pandered around daily as if the economic dark clouds are but the figments of a select few's imaginations. A very Malaysian characteristic here indeed - the denial syndrome!

Hitherto, we read about what and why our Minister of Education said we would do in order to improve the quality of our educational achievement. Yet, neither he nor his Ministry has defined the required and specific mechanism with which we could in fact attain the desired improvements. I hate it again. Here is indeed another Malaysian Characteristic - loud rhetorics!!

I am so frightened by the prospects of a soon to screw-up national economy made worst by an impending jaundiced educational slant!

OMG!!!

Our Education Ministry's KLPI-Requisite

A couple of days ago, our Deputy Director of Education reaffirmed that if you want to teach say, mathematics, you will need to have a degree in the same discipline. By implications, if you want to teach rocket science, you must have a degree in rocket science(?). Oops, why would a rocket scientist go and sign up as a teacher anyway?

Viola, if you are asked to teach sex education, does that mean you must be 'qualified' in sex too - whatever than means!??

No, I am not pulling any body's legs here: I am dead serious about the archaic direction that our broad tertiary education is inadvertently made to be heading towards some 'avatarish' society!

First we have the rulings that barred first degree holders from teaching master-degrees' candidates and that non-Ph.D's lecturers ought not to teach doctoral students! I see these as retrogressive steps.

What ever happened to premiums that we always attach to one's industrial or working experiences, individual life's vagaries and non-pedagogical encounters, personal exposures, late-career interests shifts, and new-found inclinations? All these are invaluable 'knowledge' that you will never ever find in your professors' nor even your up-high Deans' rare classes.

All I can surmise is that most of our future graduates' employment chances will be (to borrow a Cantonese saying) "colder than water".

Aiyah...!