Malaysians cannot have healthy discussion

purely because we re not capable of doing so. Perhaps we are narrow minded, perhaps we value "harmony and peace" a little too much. It's not a wonder that our government further exploits these weaknesses by various laws to silent our dissent.

Why do I make sure a generalized claim?

Ask yourself, when is the last time you (a Malaysian) have a healthy open discussion/debate about anything sensitive? When is the last time we can have a discussion in which one side might concede and says, "yes, you are correct and i was wrong. thanks for informing me?"? or when is the last time us as a nation has an open discussion about taboo issues (islamic state? sex? abortion? racial politic?), as most of the "discussion on these issues" have been polemic one-sided talk during political ceramahs.

No. Us malaysians are just not capable of doing any healthy discussion. For an example how a rational discussion can go into an emotional argument, check out this short post at Education Malaysia's UK vs US: A Different Perspective

Mommy's little pampered kid

This post may not sounds interesting or relevant to those who don't know the story...but i can't just let it go without writing note about it. I dedicate this piece to those little pampered kids out there. :)

Mommy's little pampered kids

One day from now, you may
walk away,
To a distance land, seeking
for recognition,
in guise of knowledge),
Travel the sea, venture
the sky,
My dear little kid, I wish
I am there with you.

Mommy worries everyday,
whether you get fed, or
you get prep'ed,
for the world out there,
is vastly difference from
our little Malaysia,
My dear little kid, I wish
you will see my anxiety.


You will see strange men
and women,
Sleeping together,
eating together,
strange as it can be,
that's normal, my dear little kid,
if by chance, you re upset
or offended,
Rest assured, and Mommy shall
be there for you,
my dear little kid.
(or at least the minister will!)

Economics Ignorance of Malaysians?

Without knowledge, there will be no freedom. For one's that doesn't know the value of freedom, will never truly appreciate it.



Often a times, when i read current affairs news related from Malaysia, that has slight relevant to the economics of the country, somehow, I got the feeling that Malaysian public is generally economically-ignorance. That is to put it kindly. I would like to say our general public (and the politicians!) are absolutely stupid and retarded in terms of basic economics.

An easy example is the shortage crisis of essential items during festive seasons. By imposing a ceiling price on many essential items such as sugar and meat, the government effectively limits the economics incentive for the supplies to import more of these items. Consequently, we ALWAYS, i repeat, ALWAYS encounter a shortage in the supplies of these so-called controlled items. While it's important to ensure that the suppliers and retailers didn't take advantage of the consumers, we really ought to let the market to price itself.

Ohter notable examples, which I don't have time to describe in details are:

a) existence of monopolistic firms (e.g. indah waters?, syabas? tenaga? tv3?)
b) conflict of interest of government controlled "privatised" companies
c) level of involvement of the state in supposedly private investments (thru khazanah, epf, tabung haji etc).
d) lack of market mechanism and the presence of market failure in many areas.

Well, recently, a blogger-businessman turned politician, Tony organized a Coffee Talk session , which focus is to clarify basic economics issues to the general public. Hopefully more of these sessions will be held, and perhaps someday, the education ministry will engligthen itself, and began compulsory economic lesson to high school students (rather than some stupid pendidikan moral).

Top lecturers for public universities? Too many public universities?

Refering to The Star article "Only the best for 20 varsities" , i can only read with a major skeptism in my mind. Accordding to the Minister of Higher Education, "the hiring of academicians for the 20 public universities will be based on meritocracy to ensure high standards". Three simple questions came to my mind:

1) where are they going to find all these "talented" academicians?
Fresh Phd Graduates from local universities or dodgy oversea universities? Or in fact, a bunch of Bachelor graduates or perhaps some with Master degrees. What do they term as talent? Talent for research and academic excellence? or Talent for teaching? To be honest, we just don't have the number. How the ministry intend to attract these talents to Malaysia (or to Kelantan, kedah, Pahang for that matter!)

2) are these universities going to be center of academic & research excellence, or merely degree-mills ?
Malaysia's degree mills actually have buildings and classes, just that the content is water-downed and the quality is greatly reduced. As long as the basic is there, it's good enough isn't it? One Prof as a Rector/Chancellor, one or two full Phd Holders as heads of departments, and fill up the faculties with poor quality masters/phd holders.

3) how much money we want to waste on these universities before we realize that money and building alone don't make up a school?


A few years ago, we don't have that many universities, but we have several "world-class ones". At least USM and UTM then have one of the few good engineering schools in SE Asia. UM and UKM was still premier universities of studies related to Asia, SE Asia and Asean. UPM was relatively strong in its partnership with Mardi and FRIM on agricultural research. UIA was truly world class with its niche subject areas as well as English-focused education. UPSI (recent upgrade) was a world class teachers college then, which was also the hotbed for nationalism back in the days. UUM, UiTM, UTAR and other private universites (MMU, UTP,UNITEN) are your recent universities that taken the role of churning out mass amount of graduates (albeit some truly talented gradutes).

Then some brilliant politicians think it's good to have a university at every state and hence we have (be prepared ...):

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) - Kedah (quite old)
UiTMs - Selangor, Perak, Johor, Perlis, everywhere really!
Universiti Darul Iman Malaysia (UDM) - Terrenganu(GE,05 promise)
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) - Kelantan (GE,06 promise)
Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) - Pahang
Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) - Perlis
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) - Sabah
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) - Sarawak
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) - Terrenganu II (this is more recent)
Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) - ala west point?
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia(USIM) - Negeri Sembilan
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) - Melaka
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia(UTHM) - Johor (good bye Kuittho)

Phew! I ll keep this list for my own reference! :D Hopefully some of these will be more than just a degree mill. God bless Malaysia.

Source: Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi