How Dare Najib Discredit Mandela

By Kee Thuan Chye

Yahoo! News

9.12.2013

Umno President Najib Razak diminished the stature of a great man when he said last Saturday at his party’s general assembly that Umno fought for the “same cause” as Nelson Mandela, who had died two days before.

What same cause? Mandela fought against racial discrimination whereas Umno institutionalised racial discrimination a few decades ago and still upholds it.

Mandela never advocated black supremacy, whereas Umno promotes Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).

After he became president of South Africa, Mandela proposed reconciliation and sought to bring the races in his country together, whereas in Malaysia, Umno divides the races in order to keep itself in power.

Even at its general assembly, Umno’s delegates lobbied for the ethnocentric ‘1Melayu’ to replace the more inclusive ‘1Malaysia’, bashed the Chinese for not supporting the party at the last general election, and demanded a bigger stake in the economy, totally ignoring the reality that most of the country’s economic development is now already in Malay hands.

Furthermore, no less an Umno leader than Awang Adek Hussin, who is also the country’s deputy finance minister, proposed that private companies should declare how they support the Bumiputera agenda in their annual reports. He also insisted that, because Malays now make up almost 70 per cent of the population, the hiring policy of private companies should reflect the country’s racial composition at every level.

This is effectively saying that CEOs of private companies should also be Malay, and that their staff should be 70 per cent Malay. Indeed. Apa lagi Umno mahu? (What more does Umno want?)

On the other hand, does the civil service reflect the country’s racial composition? Are there 30 per cent non-Malay heads of department? In our public universities, are 30 per cent of vice-chancellors non-Malay?

Mandela did not take away the businesses of the whites in the name of affirmative action for the black South Africans. He allowed the whites to continue to control the economy and as a result of its being in experienced hands, South Africa’s economy grew at a steady, robust rate.

Mandela also believed in inclusiveness, in humanity and human rights. But Umno abhors lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBTs) although they are no less human beings. One delegate denigrated them by saying at the assembly that LGBTs exist so that “orang jahat (bad people) can be purged, leaving behind only the good people to inherit the earth”. How simplistically stupid, or stupidly simplistic.

Neither does Umno tolerate Shiite (Syiah) Muslims. Delegates urged that the Federal Constitution be amended to give recognition only to Sunni Islam. And Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in his customary aggressive manner of winning support from the Umno flock, seized the moment to accuse the “No. 2” man in the Opposition party PAS of being a Shiite leader. He called for action to be taken against the latter. It was a clear manifestation of gutter politics posing under the guise of religion.

How, then, could Najib have had the temerity to draw parallels between Umno and Mandela? They couldn’t be more worlds apart. How could he have said what he said and not appear foolish to the outside world? He might have been able to deceive his audience of Umno members, but he cannot deceive the intelligent and discerning.

He apparently rationalised it by claiming that no race has been deprived under the New Economic Policy (NEP). He probably knows better – or else he is ignorant or dumb – but he still played to the gallery. When he asked his audience, “Were (other races) sidelined during the NEP? Did we ever hurt the livelihood of other races?”, they of course responded with a resounding “no”. This of course is an act of syiok sendiri too.

They chose to conveniently forget the millions of non-Malays who over the decades have been deprived of places in public universities, scholarships, jobs in the civil service, promotions, higher ranks in the security forces, government projects (except the big crony Chinese companies), etc.

They pretended not to know that the non-Malays most hurt by the NEP were the low-income and middle-class groups. Many of their children could not pursue tertiary education through lack of means. Those who could had parents who worked extra hard to make extra money to send their children to private institutions.

They chose to ignore the truth that the push for Ketuanan Melayu caused non-Malays to be sidelined in unjust, uncountable ways and turned them into second-class citizens.

Now, to add insult to injury, they profess no knowledge of all that, still present the Malays as victims after more than 50 years of independence from the British “oppressors”, brand the “foreign races” (meaning non-Malays) as threats, lament that the Malays might become “slaves in their own land”, ask for more handouts, more projects, more quotas.

Enough is never enough. At every annual general assembly, they dish out the same laments, the same non-Malay bashing, the same demands for more opportunities while at the same time moaning that Malay entrepreneurs still need “hand-holding”. Their thinking is this: Ask and it shall be given. Just like that. No need to prove their abilities first, no need to be free of “hand-holding” first, no need to work to attain their goals. That’s the attitude they take.

And this is equated with Mandela’s struggle?

This sort of attitude exhibited by Umno is what pisses off a lot of people and makes them hate the party. If Najib’s comparison between Umno and Mandela doesn’t piss off the South African Government, well, that’s its business. But if it does, President Jacob Zuma might want to demand an apology from Najib for showing disrespect and distorting the principles of the great Mandela.

Najib cannot exploit a good man’s name to justify his party’s petty schemes.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 11:50 am and is filed under
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Islamist conservatism in Malaysia

By Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid

New Mandala

7 December 2013

The transmission of Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world remains entrenched in history as one of the foremost examples of peaceful proselytisation of religion on a trans-continental scale. So successful was the continuous process from around the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, that the Islamic faith (agama) became comfortably embedded as a definitive criterion, apart from the Malay language (bahasa Melayu) and rulership (kerajaan), of Malayness – in reference to the broad category of Southeast Asia’s indigenous population who were previously adherents of animism and variants of Hindu-Buddhist religious traditions prevalent in the archipelago. The sources, modalities, timing and other details of the genesis of Islam among the Malays had always been diverse – there were sufis or Muslim mystics and shias; Arabs, Chinese, Indians and Bengalis; sayyids, sheikhs and itinerant missionaries; merchants, traders and political escapees from the flux engulfing their lands of origin or transit.

With its kaleidoscopic provenance as the backdrop, Islam as understood and practised by Malay-Muslims prior to the era of the nation state never bore monolithic traits. On the contrary, accommodation of mores from a variety of civilisational traditions prevailed, as strongly reflected in the assortment of religious practices deriving from various ethno-cultural traditions that eventually assumed the label of being part of Malay-Muslim heritage. Hence we find for instance, in Penang, the boria musical tradition which traces its ancestry to Shiah festivities. Religio-cultural marhaban and berzanji troupes who commonly perform during Malay wedding receptions, in turn, owe their origins to rhythmic salutations of the Prophet Muhammad popularised by sufi congregations. Islam in Malaya, up till independence on 31 August 1957, had remained steadfast to the spirit of wide interpretation, as personified by its perennial willingness to accommodate the intricacies of local customs known as adat, and to tolerate the arrival of new cultural strands such as the Kaum Muda and even the West. The celebrated public debate in Kelantan on whether a dog’s saliva could be considered impure or not in 1937 was indicative of the spirit of tolerance of diversity of views that prevailed in pre-independent Malaya. The differences of views between the traditional and reformist ulama notwithstanding, the terrain of Islam in Malaya was invariably pluralist from the pre-colonial through the colonial epochs.

Accompanying independence from Britain on 31 August 1957 was the inauguration of a Federal Constitution which installed Islam as the state religion via Article 3(1). The Constitution was arguably a hybrid document, which was nothing peculiar in view of the new nation state’s eclectic sources of national history. Many analysts have put forward arguments that it had secular intent, but yet it seemed to elevate the religion of the majority of the population to a pedestal unreachable by other religions. The precise implications of Article 3(1) never made clear, the political role of Islam in independent Malaya and later Malaysia was left to the behest of Malay-Muslim politicians entrusted with governance of the fledgling nation state. In managing Islam as a component of public life, however, religious purity was made subservient to political expediency connected in one way or another to the political fortunes of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which has continuously ruled the country together with its non-Malay component partners in the multi-racial Perikatan (Alliance) and Barisan Nasional (BN: National Front) coalitions. The public fate of Islam was thereby laid in the hands of successive Prime Ministers and UMNO leaders, who resorted to the bureaucratisation of Islam in order to assist them. The expansion of the Islamic bureaucracy took place at a relentless pace under Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s Islamisation programme in the 1980s.

By the time his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pronounced Islam Hadhari, through which Islam was to be interpreted and applied through enlightened civilisational lenses, the Islamic bureaucracy had ossified into a monstrous elite whose ruthless hold on the Muslim populace was justified on the basis of Article 3(1).

In contrast to his predecessors who had refrained from exploiting Islam as a political tool, whether out of their own ignorance or respect for constitutional niceties established by its secular-inclined drafters, Mahathir unabashedly championed Islam as the most effective way of outflanking his competitors for Malay loyalty, namely the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS: Islamic Party of Malaysia) and emergent dakwah organisations such as the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM: Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia) and Darul Arqam, which later morphed into Rufaqa’ Corporation and Global Ikhwan following Darul Arqam’s banning in 1994. In doing so, Mahathir unwittingly (or not) inducted many elements of political Islam or Islamism into the official state apparatus. Inducting the Islamist (which needs to be differentiated from Islamic) strand into affairs of the state was a double-edged sword. While being a politically deft move in neutralising the Islamist challenge, the state also incorporated negative aspects of marrying the management of Islam with overt politics, parallel with the regressiveness of the Saudi Arabian state as a result of its adoption of the Wahhabi brand of conservative Islam during its inception.

The state’s recent repression of unorthodox Islamic groups, as exemplified in renewed crackdowns on the Shiah and Global Ikhwan movements following the thirteenth general election, smacks of its inability to intellectually engage discontented elements within its majority Malay-Muslim population, who increasingly find the state’s handling of Islam to be inept and downright hypocritical. It would have looked credible for the UMNO-controlled state if its actions were all guided by a sincere intent to defend the integrity of Islam, but the fact of the matter remains that when so-called transgressions against orthodox Islam are committed by elements organically connected to the state, the ruling elites indulge in deafening silence.

My personal contacts in the police’s anti-terrorism unit admits that influential UMNO individuals at branch and division level also have connections to the Shiah, but the focus of the authorities, such as in seminars conducted across the country on the ‘Shiah virus,’ have portrayed as though the heterodoxy is an affliction linked solely to PAS. Solitary pronunciations by political elites that Shiism is acceptable for non-Malay Muslims such as Iranians (who provide good income by forming the bulk of Middle Eastern students conducting postgraduate research in Malaysian universities), but forbidden for Malay-Muslims, adds an ethnic dimension to the state’s management of Islam (comprehension and practice of Islam) in Malaysia being a factor of ethno-religious politics rather than religious purity.

The government acts only on rogue Muslims in such a way that political benefit accrues to the state and its organic linkages. It is utterly unable to fathom that the Malay-Muslims have developed their Islamic horizons intellectually as a result of the shrinking of the ummah into a global village in the internet age, and so are open to the more sophisticated choices of models of Islam offered throughout the world. How could the state isolate the Islamic understanding of its Malay-Muslim population but at the same time urges them to embrace globalisation and modernisation?

The state continues to pursue an anti-pluralist approach to religion, but fails to appreciate that diversity of views and perspectives among the learned, even in theological matters, has been part and parcel of the glorious Islamic civilisation. Many eminent scholars such as Al-Kindi (d. 873) and Al-Jahiz (d. 868), were not orthodox Muslims as we would normally understand it. Even the great Ibnu Sina aka Avicenna (d. 1037) has been considered by some historians as having belonged to the freemason-like Ikhwan as-Safa brotherhood or one of the Shiah sects. In addition, prominent Sunni ulama putatively acknowledged by the later generations of Muslims as veritable reformers such as Al-Shafie (d. 820), Al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Al-Suyuti (d. 1505) clashed with the religious officialdom of their days. Al-Shafie, whose school of law Malaysia’s Sunni Muslims purport to follow, was dragged to the court of Harun Al-Rashid on the accusation of colluding with Shiahs.

By equating unorthodoxy with deviancy, the Malaysian state is killing off intellectual creativity and innovativeness among its Muslim populace, over whom it prefers to exert an everlasting dominance. Ironically, this runs counter to the Islam Hadhari strand of civilisational interpretation of religion which the government once projected itself to be a proponent of. Not only is the government rolling back on its supposedly enlightened conception of Islam, but by laying itself vulnerable to skewed interpretations of Islam proffered by cohorts of conservative ulama infesting its bureaucracy, it is also espousing an overall regressive trajectory in the sphere of ethno-religious relations. Small wonder then that the self-appointed guardians of present-day Malaysian Islam, all organically linked to the state, utterly fail to understand how the appellation ‘Allah’ can be justifiably employed by non-Muslims as a religious reference to an omniscient God. Internalised in the Malay-Muslim psyche as a factor of Malay ethnocentric politics, Islam in Malaysia has been reduced by the powers that be to a political tool to satisfy their political machinations towards ensuring continual Malay-Muslim (read: UMNO) hegemony.

Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid is associate professor and chairman of the Political Science programme, School of Distance Education, University Sains Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 11:27 am and is filed under
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Malaysia berdepan kemungkinan untuk gagal mencapai sasaran mengisi tangga 30 teratas dalam CPI TI pada tahun 2020 dan malah dipintas oleh Cina dan malahan Indonesia dari segi kedudukan dan skor dalam CPI TI

Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan CEO Unit Pengurusan Prestasi (Pemandu) Datuk Seri Idris Jala girang apabila Malaysia mendaki dari tangga ke 54 ke tangga ke 53 dalam Indeks Persepsi Rasuah (CPI) Transparency International (TI) tahun ini lalu mengisytiharkan bahawa Pemandu mensasarkan untuk memasuki senarai 30 teratas menjelang tahun 2020.

Ya, kedudukan Malaysia dalam CPI TI tahun ini meningkat satu anak tangga menempati kedudukan ke-53 dari 177 negara berbanding tangga ke-54 tahun lalu, manakala skor CPI TI negara ini semakin baik pada 50/100 mata berbanding 49/100 mata untuk tahun lalu.

Bagaimanapun, satu hakikat yang tidak dapat dinafikan ialah bahawa untuk tahun kelima berturut-turut di bawah kepimpinan Najib (2009-2013), Malaysia mengisi kedudukan lebih bawah dalam CPI TI berbanding di zaman Tun Mahathir dan Tun Abdullah.

Perkara berkenaan boleh dilihat dalam carta berkenaan CPI TI di bawah (1995-2013):

Perdana Menteri

Kedudukan terbaik

Skor terbaik

Kedudukan paling buruk

Skor paling rendah

Mahathir

23(1995)

5.32/10 (1996)

37 (2003)

4.8/10 (2000)

Abdullah

39(2004)

5.1/10 (2005/7/8)

47 (2008)

5/10 (2004/6)

Najib

53 (2013)

50/100 (2013)

60 (2011)

4.3/10 (2011)

Dari satu sudut, CPI TI 2013 mengesahkan kenyataan Mahathir dua hari lalu yang menyebut rasuah kini semakin teruk berbanding ketika beliau menjadi Perdana Menteri selama 22 tahun (walaupun Abdullah juga boleh menyebut perkara yang sama bagi kepimpinan beliau selama lima tahun).

Bagaimanapun, Mahathir telah mengabaikan satu lagi hakikat – Malaysia mula terjerumus ke dalam rasuah sejak kepimpian beliau, memandangkan di bawah tiga Perdana Menteri pertama, iaitu Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, dan Tun Hussein Onn, rasuah bukan masalah besar dan terkawal.

Malah, sehingga tahun tujuh puluhan, skandal terbesar di Parlimen adalah skandal Bank Rakyat, berjumlah RM65 juta, yang saya bahaskan di Parlimen pada tahun 1979.

Sejak tahun lapan puluhan, rasuah dan skandal kewangan lebih parah, melihatkan jumlah jauh lebih besar, misalnya skandal RM2.5 bilion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF), RM600 juta skandal pembelian timah Maminco, RM1.5 bilion skandal Co-operative Finance, sehingga kepada skandal pertukaran wang asing Bank Negara yang melibatkan wang sejumlah RM30 bilion serta skandal RM11 bilion Perwaja di tahun 90an. Terkini, kita menyaksikan skandal berbilion ringgit Scorpene dan pemerolehan keperluan pertahanan serta skandal RM12.5 bilion Zon Perdagangan Bebas Pelabuhan Klang.

Akar rasuah – politik wang dalam parti-parti kerajaan – tidak dipangkas dan malah semakin merebak seperti dianggarkan oleh orang dalam Umno yang menyebut bahawa untuk memenangi kerusi Naib Presiden Umno, diperlukan lebih RM10 juta, manakala untuk memenangi kerusi majlis tertinggi Umno, diperlukan lebih sejuta ringgit.

Politik wang besar-besaran juga turut berlaku dalam pemilihan parti MCA dan MIC – sehinggakan Presiden MCA menerima perkara ini sebagai satu hakikat dalam pemilihan parti apabila beliau menasihatkan perwakilan MCA dalam pemilihan parti MCA yang bakal menjelang untuk mengambil sikap seperti para pengundi dalam PRU13, iaitu “Ambil wang; jangan beri undi” (seperti yang dipaparkan terang-terangan dalam judul laporan sebuah akhbar Cina).

Meneliti kedudukan dan skor untuk 177 buah negara dalam CPI TI 2013 serta rekod selama 19 tahun CPI TI (1995-2013), tiada sebab dan tiada asas untuk sesiapa percaya bahawa sasaran Malaysia untuk memasuki senarai 30 teratas dalam CPI TI pada tahun 2020 adalah sasaran yang realistik atau mampu dicapai.

Malah, menjelang tahun 2020, Malaysia mungkin dipintas oleh Cina dan Indonesia dari segi kedudukan dan skor CPI TI. Dalam CPI TI pertama pada tahun 1995, Malaysia ditempatkan di tangga ke 23 dari 41 buah negara, dengan skor 5.28 dari 10, manakala Cina dan Indonesia ditempatkan di tangga dua terakhir, dengan skor CPI masing-masing 2.16 dan 1.94 dari 10 (pada peratusan 90 terbawah bagi skor CPI).

Jika Malaysia hendak menduduki tangga 30 teratas dalam CPI tahun 2020, kita perlu mencapai peratusan 35 teratas skor CPI dan bukan hanya 50/100, memandangkan skor lima buah negara yang berada di tangga ke 26 hingga 30 teratas dalam CPI TI 2013 adalah 69/100 bagi Austria UAE, 68/100 Estonia Qatar dan 64/100 Botswana.

Bagaimanapun, sejak 19 tahun lalu, Malaysia tergolong dalam salah sebuah negara yang kedudukan dan skornya dalam CPI TI merosot, malah telah dipintas oleh negara-negara yang mendapat kedudukan dan skor CPI lebih rendah pada tahun 1995, dan kini berdepan kemungkinan dipintas oleh negara-negara yang berada di kedudukan terbawah dalam CPI pada tahun 1995, iaitu Cina dan Indonesia.

Sebagai contoh, Malaysia berada pada kedudukan ke 23, dengan skor CPI 5.28/10 pada tahun 1995, di depan Taiwan (kedudukan ke 25, skor 5.08), Sepanyol (kedudukan ke 26, skor 4.35), Korea Selatan (kedudukan 27, skor 4.29), Hungary (kedudukan 28, skor 4.12), dan Turki (kedudukan 29, skor 4.10). Tetapi untukCPI TI 2013, Malaysia berada di bawah Taiwan (kedudukan 36, skor 61), Spain (kedudukan 40, skor 59), South Korea (kedudukan 46, skor 55), Hungary (kedudukan 47, skor 54) dan diekori rapat oleh Turki (kedudukan 53, skor 50).

Tidak seperi Malaysia yang mencapai peratusan skor lebih rendah sejak 19 tahun yang lalu, iaitu 5.28/10 pada tahun 1995 kepada 50/100 pada tahun 2013, semua negara Asia yang lain memperbaiki peratusan skor sejak 19 tahun yang lalu, misalnya Thailand dari 2.79/100 kepada 35/100; India dari 2.78/10 kepada 36/100; Philippines dari 2.77/10 kepada 36/100; Pakistan dari 2.25/10 kepada 28/100; China dari 2.16/10 kepada 40/100 dan Indonesia dari 1.94/10 kepada 32/100.

Rakyat Malaysia perlu bimbang kerana berdasarkan trend ini, Malaysia mungkin dipintas oleh Indonesia dan Cina sebelum tahun 2020 dari segi kedudukan dan skor CPI TI, melainkan Malaysia segera bertindak dan menunjukkan keseriusannya membasmi rasuah.

Bagaimana Malaysia hendak menjaga air mukanya jika dunia melihat Malaysia lebih rasuah daripada Indonesia dan Cina sebelum berakhir dekad ini?

Apakah ini nasib yang menanti Malaysia dari segi kedudukan dan skor CPI TI sebelum tahun 2020?

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/04/instead-of-being-in-top-30-of-ti-cpi-in-2020-malaysia-faces-risk-of-being-overtaken-by-china-and-even-indonesia-in-both-ti-cpi-ranking-and-score/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 6:13 pm and is filed under
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Muhyiddin perlu membentuk rancangan padu untuk membuktikan Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia untuk meletakkan pelajar berusia 15 tahun Malaysia dalam kelompok sepertiga teratas dalam PISA 2021 bukan janji kosong

Malaysia mempunyai dua Menteri Pendidikan, namun hal ini tidak menghalang mutu pendidikan dalam negara daripada terus merosot di bawah piawaian antarabangsa, mengubah status kita yang dikenali di tahun-tahun awal Merdeka dulu sebagai sebuah negara cemerlang mutu pendidikan rendah, menengah, dan universitinya, menjadi sebuah negara yang pencapaiannya serba biasa sahaja.

Kita diperingatkan tentang hakikat ini menerusi dua peristiwa pada minggu lalu, iaitu pengumuman PISA 2012 (Programme for International Student Assessment) Selasa lalu dan Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 pada hari Rabu lalu.

PISA 2012, ujian global melibatkan 510,000 pelajar berusia 15 tahun dari 65 buah negara untuk subjek sains, matematik, dan bacaan, mendapati pencapaian pelajar berusia 15 tahun di Malaysia dalam ketiga-tiga subjek itu bukan saja di bawah tahap purata antarabangsa, malah mereka ketinggalan empat atau lima tahun di belakang rakan-rakan mereka yang seusia dari negara-negara berprestasi tinggi seperti Shanghai, Singapura, Korea Selatan, Hong Kong dan Taiwan.

Senarai baru Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 pula akhinya mengesahkan bahawa universiti Malaysia tidak lagi tergolong sebagai antara universiti terbaik di dunia, memandangkan sepanjang tiga tahun berturut-turut tiada satu pun universiti negara ini berjaya memasuki senarai 400 universiti terbaik Times Higher Education World University Rankings bagi tahun 2011-12, 2012-13 dan 2013-14.

Untuk senarai baru ini, dua universiti Malaysia tergolong di antara 100 universiti terbaik di kalangan universiti dalam 22 negara membangun – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) di tangga ke-77 dan Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) di tangga ke-95. Anehnya, Universiti Malaya tidak tersenarai.

Namun Malaysia masih ketinggalan di belakang Thailand yang lima universitinya tersenarai, dengan King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi, menduduki tangga ke-29.

Dalam senarai baru ini, universiti Cina menduduki tangga teratas, iaitu Peking University di tangga pertama dan Tsinghua University di tangga kedua, selain 23 universiti lain yang menduduki kelompok teratas dalam senarai.

21 institusi Taiwan termasuk dalam senarai 100 terbaik ini manakala India pula 10 institusi. Malah, pencapaian Turki lebih baik daripada Malaysia apabila 7 buah universiti negara itu tersenarai.

PISA 2012 dan Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 diumumkan sewaktu Perhimpunan Agung Umno sedang berlangsung minggu lalu, tetapi ia tidak menarik perhatian walau pun seorang pemimpin atau perwakilan Umno meski pun ada resolusi khusus tentang pendidikan dalam perhimpunan tersebut.

Apa bukti lain yang lebih kukuh bahawa pemimpin dan perwakilan Umno hanya berminat dengan politik pendidikan dan bukannya memastikan semua pelajar Malaysia tidak kira Melayu, Cina, India, Kadazan, atau Iban mendapat pendidikan terbaik bertaraf dunia dalam negara ini.

Standard pendidikan Malaysia semakin merosot, maka rakyat Malaysia pelru diyakinkan bahawa objektif Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013-2025 untuk meletakkan Malaysia dalam kelompok sepertiga teratas dalam PISA dan TIMSS (Trends in International Maths and Science Survey) menjelang tahun 2021 bukan sebuah janji kosong sebaliknya satu sasaran yang serius dan boleh dicapai.

PISA diadakan setiap tiga tahun sekali, bererti ada tiga lagi penilaian PISA yang akan dibuat, iaitu tahun 2015, 2018, dan 2021 sebelum Malaysia merealisasikan impiannya untuk menduduki kelompok sepertiga teratas.

Menurut Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia, pelajar berusia 15 tahun Malaysia dijangka akan mencapai tahap purata antarabangsa dalam PISA 2015 dan PISA 2018 sebelum memasuki golongan sepertiga terbaik dalam PISA 2021.

Apakah sasaran ini realistik dan mampu dicapai?

Biar Timbalan Perdana Menteri dan Menteri Pendidikan Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, yang setakat ini bersikap lain daripada menteri-menteri pendidikan sebelum beliau dengan menjauhi topik PISA 2012 seperti topik itu satu wabak, meyakinkan ibu-bapa Malaysia bahawa beliau bukannya sedang cuba membina mahligai kayangan dan membentangkan rancangan padu beliau untuk melonjakkan pelajar-pelajar berusia 15 tahun negara kita ke dalam kelompok sepertiga terbaik bagi ketiga-tiga subjek berkenaan dalam PISA 2021.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/09/muhyiddin-should-outline-concrete-plans-to-prove-that-the-malaysia-education-blueprint-for-malaysias-15-year-olds-to-be-in-top-third-of-countries-in-2021-pisa-is-no-pie-in-the-sky/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 6:25 pm and is filed under
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Muhyiddin should outline concrete plans to prove that the Malaysia Education Blueprint for Malaysia’s 15-year-olds to be in top third of countries in 2021 PISA is no “pie in the sky”

Malaysia has two Education Ministers but this has not stopped the country from continuing to slide down international educational standards, transforming our previous status in the early Merdeka years as a nation of excellence for primary, secondary and university education into a nation of mediocrity.

This was painfully highlighted by two events last week, the release of the 2012 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) last Tuesday and the inaugural Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 last Wednesday.

The 2012 PISA, a global test of  510,000 15-year-old students in 65 countries in reading, science and maths, found Malaysia’s 15-year-olds not only below the international average in the three critical subjects but four or even five years behind their peers in the top-performing PISA countries/regions in Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The inaugural Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 has finally confirmed Malaysia’s removal from the pedestal of the world’s top ranking universities – as not a single Malaysian university succeeded  for the third year running to be ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for top 400 universities for  2011-12, 2012-13 and  2013-14.

Malaysia has two universities in this new list of top 100 universities in 22 emerging economies – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) which took the 77th spot and the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in the 95th place. Conspicuously omitted is University of Malaya.

But Malaysia still lags behind Thailand which has five universities listed with its King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi ranked highest at 29th spot.

China came out tops on the new list  with Peking University and Tsinghua University taking the first and second spots respectively as well as  taking the most spots with 23 universities listed.

Taiwan has 21 institutions ranked in the top 100 while India had 10.  Even Turkey fared better than Malaysia with seven universities in the top 100.

Both the 2012 PISA and Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 were released during the UMNO Annual General Meetings last week, but they did not attract any concern or attention as not a single UMNO leader or  delegate spoke on it, although there was a specific resolution on education in the UMNO General Assembly.

What better proof  that UMNO leaders and delegates were only interested in the politics of education instead of ensuring that all Malaysian students regardless of whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban should  get the best education in the world in the country.

With continued deteriorating educational standards, Malaysians need to be convinced that the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 objective for Malaysia to be in the top third of the countries  in the PISA and TIMSS (Trends in International Maths and Science Survey) systems by  2021 is no  “pie in the sky” but a serious and achievable target.

As PISA is conducted every three years, there will three more PISA assessments in 2015, 2018 and 2021 for Malaysia to be among the top third countries to be realised.

Under the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), Malaysian 15 year-olds are expected to achieve the international average in the 2015 PISA and 2018 PISA and to reach the top third of the system in PISA 2021.

Are these targets  realistic, possible and achievable?

Let the  Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who  unlike other Education Ministers has strenuously avoided the 2012 PISA subject like a plague,  convince Malaysian parents that he is not “building castles in the air” and show what concrete plans he has for our 15-year-olds to catapult to the top third of countries for these three subjects in 2021 PISA.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/09/muhyiddin-perlu-membentuk-rancangan-padu-untuk-membuktikan-pelan-pembangunan-pendidikan-malaysia-untuk-meletakkan-pelajar-berusia-15-tahun-malaysia-dalam-kelompok-sepertiga-teratas-dalam-pisa-2021-buk/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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Strategi 12 Mata sebagai Pelan Induk untuk Pakatan Rakyat menawan Putrajaya dalam PRU14

Kelmarin, saya telah mengemukakan soalan sama ada Pakatan Rakyat sanggup bangkit untuk menyahut cabaran bagi menentukan masa depan bukan saja Sabah dan Sarawak, malah Malaysia secara keseluruhan dalam PRU14.

Dalam kenyataan media saya sejak empat hari lalu, saya telah menjelaskan menerusi fakta dan angka bahawa ketiga-tiga parti Pakatan Rakyat DAP, PKR, dan PAS telah mencapai keputusan terbaik di peringkat parlimen dan negeri di Semenanjung, Sabah, dan Sarawak – dan untuk suatu tempoh berjaya menguasai lima negeri, iaitu Kelantan, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Kedah dan Perak – menerusi kerjasama ketiga-tiga parti itu dalam Pilihanraya Umum tahun 1999, 2008 dan 2013.

Hari ini, saya ingin membentangkan strategi 12 mata berikut untuk Pakatan Rakyat sebagai pelan induk untuk membentuk kerajaan persekutuan dan menawan Putrajaya dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-14.

Komitmen penuh dan segera oleh ketiga-tiga parti DAP, PKR, dan PAS di peringkat kebangsaan, negeri, dan bahagian untuk meningkatkan sokongan orang ramai sepanjang tempoh empat tahun mendatang terhadap usaha Pakatan Rakyat untuk membentuk kerajaan persekutuan dalam PRU14.

Ketiga-tiga parti Pakatan Rakyat DAP, PKR, dan PAS di semua peringkat –pusat, negeri, bahagian – dan semua sayap – pusat, pemuda, wanita – perlu memberikan komitmen penuh dan padu sepanjang empat tahun mendatang untuk meningkatkan sokongan dan keyakinan orang ramai terhadap usaha Pakatan Rakyat untuk membentuk kerajaan persekutuan dalam PRU14.

Perkara ini perlu menjadi agenda bersama dalam semua mesyuarat DAP, PKR, dan PAS di semua peringkat dan sayap dari sekarang sehingga menjelang PRU14 – untuk meningkatkan dan memaksimakan keupayaan politik dan jentera pilihanraya Pakatan Rakyat ke arah menawan Putrajaya dalam PRU14, selain untuk meningkatkan sokongan dan keyakinan orang ramai terhadap matlamat politik ini.

Konvensyen DAP Negeri yang akan diadakan sepanjang tempoh enam minggu ini, bermula dengan Negeri Sembilan dan Pulau Pinang hujung minggu ini, adalah kesempatan yang amat baik untuk melaksanakan perkara pertama dalam strategi 12 mata pelan induk Pakatan Rakyat untuk menawan Putrajaya dalam PRU14 ini.

Memastikan persempadan semula dilakukan seadil yang mungkin

Persempadan semula yang bakal diadakan boleh dianggap sebagai perkembangan politik terpenting yang akan membentuk dan mempengaruhi keputusan PRU14.

Buat kali pertama dalam sejarah, persempadanan semula akan melibatkan Sabah, Sarawak dan Semenanjung Malaysia.

Buat kali pertama juga dalam sejarah, Barisan Nasional tidak mempunyai majoriti dua pertiga di Parlimen untuk membolehkan persempadanan semula dilakukan sekehendak hati mereka.

Selain itu, Pakatan mempunyai majoriti dua pertiga di dalam dewan undangan negeri Kelantan, Pulau Pinang, dan Selangor dan lebih dari satu pertiga kerusi DUN di Kedah, Terengganu, Perak, dan Negeri Sembilan.

Bererti, jumlah kerusi di peringkat persekutuan dan di negeri-negeri berkenaan tidak boleh ditingkatkan tanpa sokongan dan persetujuan Pakatan Rakyat.

Pakatan perlu memastikan persempadanan semula dilakukan seadil yang mungkin dari segi pengagihan kerusi antara negeri-negeri agar selari dengan prinsip “satu orang, satu undi, satu nilai” dan pada masa yang sama mengakui keadaan unik Sabah dan Sarawak.

Prinsip satu orang, satu undi, satu nilai ini juga perlu dipatuhi dalam setiap negeri untuk kerusi Parlimen dan DUN.

Mekanisme paling berkesan untuk memastikan persempadanan semula dilakukan secara telus ialah dengan membentuk Jawatankuasa Pilihan Khas untuk Persempadanan Semula.

Sasarkan kawasan yang gagal dipertahankan dalam PRU13

Pakatan telah berjaya menambah tujuh lagi kerusi parlimen dalam PRU tahun 2013 berbanding PRU tahun 2008 (89 kerusi, dari 82), namun kita telah gagal mempertahankan 15 kerusi parlimen yang kita menangi dalam PRU 2008.

Sekiranya kerusi berkenaan berjaya dipertahankan, Pakatan mampu mengumpul 104 kerusi. Jumlah ini masih belum mencukupi untuk membentuk kerajaan persekutuan, tetapi ia mampu menempatkan Pakatan dalam kedudukan lebih kukuh.

Dengan itu, Pakatan perlu menetapkan sasaran untuk merebut semula kerusi yang gagal dipertahankan dalam PRU13: Padang Terap, Pendang, Sik, Merbok, Baling dan Kulim-Bandar Baharu di Kedah; Ketereh, Tanah Merah dan Machang di Kelantan; Balik Pulau di Pulau Pinang; Bagan Serai di Perak; Hulu Selangor dan Kuala Selangor di Selangor; dan Titiwangsa di Kuala Lumpur.

Strategi yang bertumpu kepada kerusi dan negeri diperlukan untuk merebut semula semua kerusi tersebut.

Sebagai contoh, pecah undi perlu dikurangkan di Ketereh, Tanah Merah, dan Machang. Di ketiga-tiga kawasan ini, undi untuk Pakatan di peringkat negeri lebih daripada undi untuk BN, tetapi Pakatan kalah di ketiga-tiga kerusi parlimen.

Di Kedah, barisan pembangkang yang berkesan, barisan pemimpin yang boleh diharapkan sebagai barisan bakal pentadbir kerajaan baru serta dasar negeri alternatif diperlukan untuk membolehkan Pakatan merampas semula negeri itu.

Sasarkan kerusi/kawasan marginal (yang mempunyai beza undi tipis)

Pakatan juga perlu mensasarkan kerusi/kawasan yang telah dimenangi BN dengan perbezaan undi yang tipis dalam PRU 2013. BN telah memenangi 24 kerusi parlimen dalam PRU 2013 dengan jumlah undi kurang dari 55% (tidak termasuk 15 kerusi yang telah disebutkan di atas dan telah dimenangi oleh PR dalam PRU 2008). Antara kerusi yang dimaksudkan adalah Cameron Highland (beza undi 462), Bentong (beza undi 379), Sungai Besar (beza undi 399), Labis (beza undi 353) dan Pasir Gudang (beza undi 935), semuanya telah dimenangi BN dengan perbezaan undi kurang dari seribu.

Pertahankan kerusi/kawasan yang baru dimenangi dalam PRU 2013

Pakatan telah memenangi 15 lagi kerusi parlimen di Semenanjung dalam PRU 2013. Kita tidak boleh membuat andaian bahawa semua kerusi ini akan berjaya dipertahankan oleh Pakatan dalam PRU14. Penekanan perlu diberikan terhadap kerusi-kerusi ini, khususnya kerusi-kerusi yang dimenangi dengan perbezaan undi tipis, agar kita tidak mengulangi pengalaman PRU 2013 di mana kita gagal mempertahankan sejumlah kerusi yang kita menangi dalam pilihanraya sebelum itu. Antara kerusi yang memerlukan perhatian khusus adalah Kuala Nerus (beza undi 610), Sepang (beza undi 1142) dan Batu Pahat (beza undi 1524).

Pertahankan kerusi marginal PR

Seperti BN, PR juga mempunyai kerusi marginal. PR memenangi 17 kerusi parlimen dengan beza undi kurang dari 55% (tidak termasuk kerusi baru yang disebutkan di atas). Semua kerusi ini perlu dipertahankan, khususnya Bachok (beza undi 201) dan Bukit Gantang (beza 986). Jika PR mensasarkan kawasan di mana BN lemah, pasti BN juga akan melakukan perkara yang sama bagi kawasan-kawasan di mana PR dianggap goyah.

Tonjolkan negeri Pakatan sebagai contoh betapa Pakatan mempunyai gaya pentadbiran yang berbeza daripada BN

Kerajaan negeri Pakatan mengambil pendekatan dan gaya pengurusan yang jauh berbeza daripada kerajaan BN yang memerintah sebelumnya, khususnya di Pulau Pinang dan Selangor. Ini adalah aset besar Pakatan. Bermula dari sekarang sehingga menjelang PRU14, Pakatan perlu meningkatkan lagi prestasi di negeri-negeri yang dikuasainya untuk menonjolkan lagi perbezaan antara kerajaan BN dan kerajaan Pakatan, selain untuk memberi bayangan kepada orang ramai tentang bentuk kerajaan persekutuan di bawah Pakatan.

Berikan penekanan kepada kawasan luar bandar

Tidak dapat disangkal bahawa Pakatan telah mendapat undi besar di kawasan bandar dalam PRU13. Kekuatan BN/kelemahan Pakatan di kawasan luar bandar telah membolehkan BN kekal berkuasa. Untuk itu, Pakatan perlu mempunyai strategi yang mantap untuk menembusi kawasan luar bandar, khususnya kawasan/kerusi marginal BN.

Kos sara hidup dijangka akan meningkat berikutan pengurangan subsidi, tarif elektrik dan harga minyak dijangka naik, pelaksanaan GST pada tahun 2015 akan memberi kesan meluas – semua ini adalah peluang yang boleh digunakan Pakatan untuk menjelaskan kepada pengundi luar bandar bagaimana kerajaan BN telah meningkatkan beban kewangan dan mengurangkan jumlah pendapatan boleh guna mereka.

Pengundi luar bandar hanya akan menyokong Pakatan dan menolak BN jika mereka merasakan kesan buruk kerajaan BN terhadap saku mereka sendiri. Ini perlu menjadi salah satu strategi utama Pakatan untuk menjangkau kawasan luar bandar.

Strategi bertumpuan di Sabah dan Sarawak

Kerusi-kerusi yang disebutkan di atas (kerusi marginal BN dan PR) adalah kerusi di Semenanjung. Pakatan berdepan dengan cabaran berbeza di Sabah dan Sarawak, maka pendekatan yang berbeza perlu digunakan untuk kedua-dua negeri ini.

Pakatan Rakyat tidak boleh memandang ringan sokongan terhadapnya di kawasan bandar Sabah dan Sarawak. Empat dari 9 kerusi yang telah dimenangi Pakatan di Sabah dan Sarawak dalam PRU13 adalah kerusi marginal – Sarikei (beza undi 5050), Sibu (beza 2841) dan Miri (beza 1992) di Sarawak dan Sandakan (beza 1008) di Sabah. Semua kerusi ini perlu dipertahankan secara agresif.

Pakatan juga perlu mensasarkan kerusi marginal BN. Empat kerusi parlimen di Sarawak dimenangi oleh BN dengan undi kurang dari 55%. Salah satunya Baram yang dimenangi dengan beza hanya sebanyak 194 undi. Di Sabah, BN memenangi 10 kerusi parlimen dengan undi kurang dari 55%, antaranya Beaufort (beza undi 672) dan Kota Marudu (beza undi 842).

Bagaimanapun, tidak seperti di Semenanjung, PR di Sabah dan Sarawak perlu menangani parti-parti tempatan.

Majoriti pengundi telah menunjukkan bahawa mereka menganggap Pakatan lebih boleh diharapkan sebagai alternatif bagi BN berbanding parti-parti tempatan, namun parti-parti ini masih boleh bertindak sebagai ‘pengganggu’ dan menarik sejumlah undi untuk menggagalkan usaha Pakatan memenangi sebahagian kerusi berkenaan.

Pakatan perlu mencari jalan lebih baik untuk bekerjasama dengan sebahagian parti tempatan terbabit, sekurang-kurangnya untuk mengelakkan pertembungan tiga penjuru, khususnya untuk kerusi marginal BN.

Dari segi program luar bandar, kempen Impian Sarawak dan Impian Sabah yang baru dilancarkan akan membawa masuk beberapa projek pembangunan kecil di kawasan luar bandar. Ini boleh digunakan sebagai contoh untuk Pakatan menyusun strategi luar bandar. Jika berjaya, projek-projek terbabit perlu dilaksanakan di sebanyak-banyak kawasan yang mungkin, khususnya di kawasan/kerusi marginal BN.

Pilihanraya Negeri Sarawak ke-11 akan datang akan menjadi medan terbaik untuk menguji keberkesanan strategi yang bertumpu kepada Sarawak.

Pilihanraya negeri Sarawak tahun 2011 telah membuka ruang baru untuk Pakatan, khususnya di kawasan bandar, dan ia membolehkan Pakatan mencapai keputusan lebih baik dalam PRU 2013.

Perkara yang sama boleh berlaku dalam pilihanraya negeri Sarawak berikutnya. Jika Pakatan berjaya menembusi kawasan luar bandar dalam pilihanraya negeri Sarawak, ia akan memberi tekanan kepada BN dan Taib Mahmud serta memberi kelebihan kepada Pakatan dalam PRU14.

Tingkatkan kerjasama Pakatan di semua peringkat

Kerjasama Pakatan Rakyat telah berkembang sejak kerjasama antara parti pada tahun 2008. Di peringkat kebangsaan, Majlis Presiden Pakatan sentiasa bertemu untuk membincangkan isu-isu penting. PR kini telah meluluskan tiga belanjawan alternatif dan membentangkan manifesto bersama menjelang PRU13. PR juga telah bertempur bersama dalam banyak pilihanraya kecil sebelum dan selepas PRU13.

Kerjasama ini perlu ditingkatkan di semua peringkat, khususnya di negeri-negeri seperti Johor, Sabah, dan Sarawak yang tidak mempunyai sejarah kerjasama antara parti yang panjang.

Kenyataan bersama boleh dikeluarkan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin negeri Pakatan berkenaan isu-isu nasional dan isu-isu yang penting bagi sesebuh negeri. Kegiatan rentas parti perlu diadakan lebih banyak. Setiap parti boleh memanfaatkan kekuatannya untuk membuka pintu kepada pemimpin parti komponen yang lain.

Pada masa yang sama, Pakatan perlu menguruskan perselisihan dalaman antara parti komponen di peringkat kebangsaan dan negeri. Mekanisme perlu dikenal pasti di peringkat kebangsaan dan negeri untuk menangani perselisihan secara dalaman sebelum ia diperbesar-besarkan oleh media, khususnya saluran media yang dikawal BN.

Beri penekanan kepada hubungan antara dua generasi pemimpin

Salah satu kekuatan terbesar Pakatan ialah ia menggabungkan pemimpin berpengalaman dan pemimpin muda di peringkat negeri dan juga kebangsaan. Ini berbeza dengan barisan pemimpin BN yang kebanyakannya terdiri dari generasi lama dan lebih terbiasa dengan pendekatan politik lama.

Pakatan perlu memanfaatkan sepenuhnya kekuatan ini untuk meningkatkan kredibilitinya. Pemimpin-pemimpin berpengalaman memelihara keseimbangan dan kesinambungan, manakala pemimpin-pemimpin muda pula membangkitkan buah fikiran, idealisme dan dinamisme generasi muda.

Jika kedua-dua lapisan pemimpin ini digabungkan dengan baik, ia akan menjadi adunan yang sukar untuk dihadapi oleh BN.

Patahkan pembohongan dan propaganda BN

Salah satu senjata berkesan yang digunakan BN menjelang PRU13 ialah ‘gertakan’ yang menunjukkan bahawa Melayu di negara ini akan hilang hak di bawah kerajaan Pakatan.

Pengundi telah ditakut-takutkan dengan DAP dan para pemimpinnya dilemparkan dengan bermacam tuduhan – antaranya pemimpin DAP dituduh Komunis, mahu membentuk negara Kristian, anti-Islam dan anti-Melayu. Propaganda ini lebih jelas dilihat pada media arus perdana Melayu, iaitu Utusan dan stesen televisyen TV3 dan RTM.

Pakatan telah mula berusaha membasmi semua pembohongan dan propaganda yang disebarkan BN menerusi media sosial dan online. Tetapi masih banyak yang perlu dilakukan. Lebih banyak mesej kreatif dan saluran diperlukan untuk memadamkan kebimbangan sejumlah besar Melayu dan meyakinkan mereka bahawa hak dan kehidupan mereka tidak akan merosot di bawah PR sebaliknya akan menjadi lebih baik.

Rumusan

Jika Pakatan mampu menangani setiap satu cabaran yang digariskan di atas, saya yakin ia akan berada dalam kedudukan yang baik untuk menawan Putrajaya dalam PRU14 dengan setiap parti menyumbangkan kekuatan masing-masing dan meningkatkan daya tarik Pakatan secara umum.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/29/12-point-strategy-as-blueprint-for-pakatan-rakyat-to-capture-federal-power-in-putrajaya-in-14ge/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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Tiga keadaan mendukacitakan untuk Malaysia dalam penilaian pelajar antarabangsa PISA 2012 bagi subjek matematik, sains dan bacaan

Sekiranya pencapaian Malaysia dalam tiga subjek matematik, sains, dan bacaan dalam PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012 adalah sedikit lebih baik daripada ujian PISA 2010, sudah tentu Timbalan Perdana Menteri merangkap Menteri Pendidikan Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin akan menyebut perkara tersebut dalam ucapannya sewaktu pembukaan mesyuarat agung tahunan Pemuda, Wanita, dan Puteri Umno pada malam Selasa lalu (keputusan PISA keluar awal hari yang sama) sebagai bukti bahawa Malaysia sedang bangkit untuk menghasilkan sebuah sistem pendidikan bertaraf dunia di bawah kepimpinannya.

Tetapi keputusan PISA 2012 lebih sesuai dijadikan sebab untuk bermuram daripada bersuka ria. Kerana itulah Muhyiddin membisu tentang keputusan PISA – tidak seperti rakan sejawatannya dari Singapura, Menteri Pendidikan Heng Swee Keat yang menyebut pada hari keputusan PISA diumumkan bahawa beliau amat gembira remaja berusia 15 tahun di Singapura telah mencatatkan pencapaian yang “amat, amat baik” dalam PISA 2012, memandangkan pelajar Singapura ditempatkan pada tangga kedua dalam matematik, ketiga dalam sains dan bacaan dalam ujian penilaian global yang melibatkan 510,100 pelajar berusia 15 tahun dari 65 buah negara dan wilayah.

Menteri Pendidikan Thai, Chaturon Chaisang ceria apabila pelajar Thai mencatatkan skor 441 dalam bacaan, 427 dalam matematik dan 444 dalam sains (mengatasi Malaysian dalam ketiga-tiga subjek itu). Menurut beliau, pencapaian pelajar-pelajar Thai membayangkan potensi negara itu dan mampu menarik masuk pelaburan.

Ada cukup banyak sebab untuk Malaysia berduka dengan PISA 2012, apatahlagi kerana negara ini telah mengumumkan hasrat untuk menduduki tangga tiga teratas dalam penilaian antarabangsa seperti yang diukur menerusi pencapaian dalam PISA atau Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) menjelang tahun 2021.

Malah Muhyiddin pernah menyebut sebelum penerbitan Laporan Awal Pelan pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013-2015 Oktober lalu bahawa anak-anak Malaysia mendapat pendidikan lebih baik daripada anak-anak Amerika Syarikat, Britain dan Jerman.

Dakwaan Muhyiddin itu bukan saja tidak didukung oleh laporan terkini TIMSS dan PISA, malah PISA 2012 menunjukkan bahawa pelajar berusia 15 tahn dan sistem pendidikan Malaysia berdepan dengan tiga keadaan mendukacitakan:

Malaysia nampaknya terperangkap di tangga sepertiga terbawah di kalangan negara-negara yang mengambil bahagian dalam penilaian antarabangsa dan tidak mencatatkan sebarang kemajuan.

Ini boleh dilihat pada keputusan PISA 2012 Malaysia yang lebih buruk berbanding PISA 2010:

Mathematik

Sains

Bacaan

2010

2012

2010

2012

2010

2012

Skor

404

421

422

420

414

398

Tangga

57

52

52

53

55

59

Selain berada di tangga sepertiga terbawah, Malaysia dipintas oleh negara-negara lain dalam kelompok itu, misalnya Kazakhstan yang perbezaan skor matematiknya dengan Malaysia semakin meningkat, iaitu dari hanya satu mata dalam PISA 2010 (Kazakhstan 405, Malaysia 404) kepada 11 mata dalam PISA 2012 (Kazakhstan 432, Malaysia 421) selain memintas Malaysia dalam subjek sains (PISA 2009: Kazakhstan 400, Malaysia 422; PISA 2012: Kazakhstan 425, Malaysia 420).

Satu lagi contoh ialah Thailand yang mengatasi Malaysia dan melebarkan jurang perbezaan dalam ketiga-tiga subjek:

(2012 PISA)

Matematik

Sains

Bacaan

Thailand

427

444

441

Malaysia

421

420

398

Lebih membimbangkan, jurang perbezaan antara Malaysia dan negara-negara yang berpencapaian terbaik semakin lebar dalam PISA 2012.

Pelan pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia menyebut:

“Sepanjang dua dekad yang lalu, pentaksiran antarabangsa seperti Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dan Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), telah muncul sebagai kaedah perbandingan langsung tentang kualiti keberhasilan pendidikan merentas pelbagai sistem. Kaedah ini mentaksir pelbagai kemahiran kognitif seperti aplikasi dan penaakulan…

“Keputusan PISA 2009+ (penyertaan kali pertama Malaysia) juga tidak memberangsangkan kerana kedudukan Malaysia terletak dalam kelompok sepertiga terbawah dalam kalangan 74 negara peserta. Pencapaian ini juga meletakkan Malaysia di bawah pencapaian purata antarabangsa dan OECD.

“Hampir 60% murid berumur 15 tahun yang menyertai PISA 2009+ gagal mencapai tahap kemahiran minimum dalam Matematik, manakala 44% dalam Bacaan dan 43% dalam Sains tidak mencapai tahap kemahiran minimum.

“Perbezaan skor sebanyak 38 mata dalam skala PISA adalah bersamaan dengan satu tahun persekolahan.

“Perbandingan skor ini menunjukkan murid berumur 15 tahun di Singapura, Korea Selatan, Hong Kong dan Shanghai mempunyai prestasi tiga atau lebih tahun persekolahan berbanding murid berumur 15 tahun di Malaysia.”

Jurang skor antara pelajar Malaysia berusia 15 tahun dengan pelajar Singapura, Korea Selatan, Hong Kong, dan Shanghai pada usia yang sama semakin jauh sejak PISA sebelum ini.

Berasaskan perbezaan 38 mata pada skala PISA yang bersamaan dengan setahun persekolahan, jurang telah melebar ke tahap di mana pelajar berusia 15 tahun di Shanghai, Singapura, dan Korea Selatan menunjukkan prestasi seolah-olah mereka mendapat waktu persekolahan empat atau lima tahun belih lama daripada pelajar berusia 15 tahun di Malaysia.

Perkara ini boleh dilihat menerusi carta di bawah:

Skor 2012 PISA

(kurungan : perbezaan tahun persekolahan)

Bacaan

Matematik

Sains

Shanghai

570 (4.5)

613 (5)

580 (4.2)

Singapore

542 (3.8)

573 (4)

551 (3.5)

S. Korea

536 (3.6)

554 (3.5)

538 (3.1)

Hong Kong

545 (3.9)

561 (3.7)

555 (3.6)

Malaysia

398

421

420

Sebagai Menteri Pendidikan, Muhyiddin tidak boleh terus membisu dan sebaliknya menjelaskan bagaimana beliau hendak mengatasi tiga perkara yang mendukacitakan bagi pendidikan Malaysia seperti yang dapat dilihat menerusi keputusan PISA 2012.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/06/triple-woes-for-malaysia-in-the-2012-pisa-international-student-assessment-for-mathematics-science-and-reading/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 December 2013, 6:22 pm and is filed under
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In ‘Islamist’ Umno, analysts see a nation torn by religion

By Boo Su-Lyn

The Malay Mail Online

December 10, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Umno’s increasing focus on Islam will likely spark inter and intra-religious tensions here, and even affect the country’s development, analysts have said as they warned of the dangers of placing one religion, or denomination, above another.

The political observers noted that in recent months, Umno appears to have entered a competition to “out-Islamise” Islamist PAS, the one opposition party seen as its biggest competitor for the Malay-Muslim vote, the country’s key voting demographic.

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of libertarian think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), even said Umno’s 67th general assembly last week seemed very much like a gathering by PAS two decades ago.

“I must say it’s really disappointing to see the Umno assembly becoming like what PAS was 20 years ago,” Wan Saiful told The Malay Mail Online yesterday.

“PAS has moved on. Umno has suddenly become Muslim again… it’s really sad to see the prime minister outside the assembly talking about progressive, liberal views.

“But, in his own party, at the annual gathering, it’s like attending a PAS gathering 20 years ago,” he added.

Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared at the Umno general assembly over the weekend that the party would amend its constitution to define Islam as the Sunni denomination, besides dubbing the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin a defender of Islam.

At the assembly, Umno vice-president and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi ordered religious authorities to take action against PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu over his alleged links to the Shiah sect, which Putrajaya deems as deviant.

The Home Ministry has also proposed to reword the definition of “Islam” in Article 3 of the Federal Constitution to refer exclusively to the Sunni branch by inserting the words “Sunna wal Jamaah”, in a bid to curb the spread of Shiah ideology.

Currently, Article 3 states plainly that Islam is the religion of the Federation.

Wan Saiful Wan Jan of think tank IDEAS said Umno’s 67th general assembly last week seemed very much like a gathering by PAS two decades ago when the latter has moved on. — file pic

Wan Saiful Wan Jan of think tank IDEAS said Umno’s 67th general assembly last week seemed very much like a gathering by PAS two decades ago when the latter has moved on. — file pic

“The competition to out-Islamise each other is really dangerous…I see definite tensions coming up,” said Wan Saiful, referring to the apparent contest between Umno and PAS in championing Islam.

“If the debate that has been sparked over the weekend leads us to a more conservative type of society, it’ll definitely impact our development,” added the analyst.

Dr Arnold Puyok, senior lecturer of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (Unimas) faculty of social sciences, said it was inappropriate to mix religion and politics, though preaching religious values per se is acceptable.

“Umno has no choice because it receives strong competition from PAS for Malay support,” Puyok told The Malay Mail Online.

“The contest between Umno and PAS is a contest for power using religion as a tool… The country’s development can be affected if leaders use religion to stay in power,” he added.

Umno improved its performance in Election 2013 by winning 88 federal seats, largely on the back of rural support for the Malay party, while the Chinese and urban electorate generally swung to the opposition pact, Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Puyok also pointed out that Najib should preach his moderate ideal to his party members first if the prime minister is serious about national reconciliation in the multi-racial and multi-religious country, before exhorting such a vision outside Umno.

“Najib has not done much to mould Umno into a party that can embrace Malaysia’s multi-cultural and multi-religious characters. The way the delegates spoke during the debates also says a lot about where Umno is heading next,” he said.

Dr Lim Teck Ghee of the Centre for Policy Initiatives said he found it objectionable for politicians to legislate religious preferences and to outlaw so-called deviants. — Reuters pic

Dr Lim Teck Ghee of the Centre for Policy Initiatives said he found it objectionable for politicians to legislate religious preferences and to outlaw so-called deviants. — Reuters pic

Dr Lim Teck Ghee, director of Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI), said he found it objectionable for politicians to legislate religious preferences and to outlaw so-called deviants.

“This takes us back to the Middle Ages,” Lim told The Malay Mail Online via email.

“All developed nations — including aspiring Muslim nations — have gone through a path of separation of state and religion. Growing Islamisation of Umno will put at risk the gains in freedoms that Muslims in the country presently enjoy and take for granted.

“I see a heavy price to be paid, especially by the Muslim middle and upper class,” he added, but did not elaborate further.

James Chin, political analyst from Monash University’s Malaysian campus, said that Umno’s embrace of Sunni Islam was tantamount to declaring war on the Shiah community in the country.

“It will have consequences for relations with countries like Iran,” Chin said, referring to the Middle Eastern country with a Shiite-majority population.

Shiah is the second largest denomination in Islam after Sunni, but Shiites comprise only about 15 per cent of Muslims worldwide. There are no official figures on the number of Shiites in Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 4:24 pm and is filed under
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Muhyiddin can have no plans to catapult Malaysia into the top third in 2021 PISA as Malaysia would have to become a “wonder country” to achieve what no nation could do  in four triennial PISA tests

In the past two days, I have asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to stop “building castles in the air” or he should outline concrete plans to prove that the Malaysian Education Blueprint for Malaysia’s 15-year-olds to be in the top third of 2021 PISA is no “pie in the sky”.

I now understand why Muhyiddin has been conspicuously silent about the 2012 PISA results in  the triennial global test of 510,000 15-year-old students in 65 countries in reading, science and maths, with Malaysia’s 15-year-olds not only falling below the international average in the three critical subjects but ranging from three to five years behind their peers in the top-performing PISA countries/regions particularly in Shanghai, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

For instance, for mathematics with score of 421, Malaysia’s 15-year-olds is five years behind their peers in Shanghai (613), four years behind Singapore, and more than three years behind seven countries/regions – Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macao, Japan, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

For science, with score of 420, Malaysia is 4.2 years behind Shanghai (580), and more than three years behind six countries/regions – Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Finland and Estonia.

For reading, with score of 398, Malaysia is four-and-a-half years behind Shanghai (570), more than three years behind 13 other countries/regions – Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Finland, Canada, Taiwan, Ireland, Poland, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Australia and New Zealand.

The reason for Muhyiddin’s prolonged and conspicuous silence on 2012 PISA is simple and straightforward – he has no concrete plans to catapult Malaysia into the top third of 2021 PISA as Malaysia would have to become a “wonder country” to achieve what no nation could do  in four triennial PISA tests.

The 2012 PISA shows that among countries which participated in every PISA assessment since 2003, seven countries record an average improvement in mathematics performance of more than 2.5 points per year since 2003.

They are Brazil which improved 35 points from 356 to 391 in the  four  triennial PISA tests of  2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012; Italy which improved 19 points from 466 to 485; Mexico which improved 28 points from 385 to 413; Poland which improved 18 points from 490 to 518; Portugal which improved 21 points from 466 to 487; Tunisia which improved 29 points from 359 to 388; and Turkey which improved 25 points from 423 to 448.

Malaysia is presently stuck in the bottom third of the PISA system, i.e. below 450 points for mathematics. If Malaysia is to catapult to the top third of the PISA system, Malaysia must score at least 532 points, which means an improvement of 111 points in the four triennial PISA assessments of 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2021 – which no country had ever achieved as the best improvement in maths through four triennial PISA tests from 2003 to 2012 is Brazil which improved by 35 points.

The same position basically applies to the PISA science and reading tests,

As I asked yesterday, are these targets realistic, possible and achievable, or have Malaysians spent RM20 million to engage foreign consultants to write the Malaysian Education Blueprint to sell a “pie in the sky” about educational transformations in the next 13 years?

Under the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), Malaysian 15 year-olds are expected to achieve the international average in the 2015 PISA and 2018 PISA and to reach the top third of the system in PISA 2021.

The OECD average for maths is 494 points, science 501 and reading 496. As Malaysia’s 2012 PISA score is 421 for maths, 420 for science and 398 for reading, is Muhyiddin seriously suggesting that Malaysia can attain these OECD averages for the three subjects in the 2015 or 2018 PISA tests?

Muhyiddin should not think that Malaysians are so gullible that they can be so easily taken for a ride in a RM20 million foreign consultancy job to write the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/10/tidak-mungkin-muhyiddin-mampu-mengadakan-rancangan-untuk-melonjakkan-malaysia-ke-dalam-kelompok-sepertiga-teratas-dalam-pisa-2021-kerana-untuk-mencatat-pencapaian-sedemikian-dalam-tempoh-empat-ujian-t/

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 9:22 am and is filed under
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Tidak mungkin Muhyiddin mampu mengadakan rancangan untuk melonjakkan Malaysia ke dalam kelompok sepertiga teratas dalam PISA 2021 kerana untuk mencatat pencapaian sedemikian dalam tempoh empat ujian tiga tahunan PISA, Malaysia perlu menjadi “negara ajaib”

Sejak dua hari yang lalu, saya meminta Timbalan Perdana Menteri merangkap Menteri Pendidikan Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin untuk berhenti membina “mahligai kayangan” dan menggariskan rancangan padu untuk membuktikan bahawa sasaran Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia untuk meletakkan pelajar berusia 15 tahun di Malaysia dalam kalangan sepertiga teratas dalam PISA 2021 bukan angan-angan kosong.

Kini saya faham mengapa Muhyiddin membisu tentang keputusan PISA 2012, ujian tiga tahunan global melibatkan 510,000 pelajar berusia 15 tahun dari 65 buah negara untuk subjek sains, matematik, dan bacaan, yang mendapati pencapaian pelajar berusia 15 tahun di Malaysia dalam ketiga-tiga subjek itu bukan saja di bawah tahap purata antarabangsa, malah mereka ketinggalan empat atau lima tahun di belakang rakan-rakan mereka yang seusia dari negara-negara berprestasi tinggi seperti Shanghai, Singapura, Korea Selatan, Hong Kong dan Taiwan.

Sebagai contoh, untuk subjek matematik, skor 421 yang dicapai oleh pelajar berusia 15 tahun Malaysia adalah lima tahun ketinggalan di belakang rakan-rakan sebaya mereka dari Shanghai (613), empat tahun di belakang Singapura , dan lebih tiga tahun di belakang tujuh buah negara/wilayah lain –Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea Selatan, Macao, Jepun, Liechtenstein dan Switzerland.

Untuk subjek sains, skor 420 pelajar Malaysia adalah 4.2 tahun di belakang Shanghai (580), dan lebih tiga tahun di belakang enam negara/wilayah lain – Hong Kong, Singapura, Jepun, Korea Selatan, Finland dan Estonia.

Untuk bacaan, dengan skor 398 Malaysia ketinggalan empat setengah tahun di bekalang Shanghai (570) dan lebih tiga tahun di belakang 13 buah negara/wilayah – Hong Kong, Singapura, Jepun, Korea Selatan,  Finland, Kanada, Taiwan, Ireland, Poland, Estonia, Liechtenstein, Australia dan New Zealand.

Sebab Muhyiddin membisu tentang keputusan PISA 2012 adalah mudah dan jelas – beliau tidak mempunyai rancangan padu untuk melonjakkan Malaysia ke dalam kelompok sepertiga teratas dalam PISA 2021, kerana untuk mencatat pencapaian sedemikian dalam tempoh empat ujian tiga tahunan PISA Malaysia perlu menjadi “negara ajaib” memandangkan tiada negara mampu berbuat demikian.

PISA 2012 menunjukkan bahawa di kalangan negara yang ikut serta dalam setiap penilaian PISA sejak 2003, tujuh buah negara mencatatkan peningkatan pencapaian dalam subjek matematik secara purata 2.5 mata setahun sejak tahun 2003.

Negara-negara berkenaan ialah Brazil yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan sebanyak 35 mata dari 356 mata kepada 391 mata dalam tempoh empat ujian tiga tahunan PISA, iaitu bagi tahun 2003, 2006, 2009 dan 2012; Itali yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan 19 mata dari 466 kepada 485 mata; Mexico yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan 28 mata dari 385 kepada 413; Poland yang telaah mencatatkan peningkatan 18 mata dari 490 kepada 518 mata; Portugal yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan 21 mata dari 466 kepada 487; Tunisia yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan 29 mata dari 359 kepada 388 mata; dan Turki yang telah mencatatkan peningkatan 25 mata dari 423 kepada 448 mata.

Malaysia pada masa ini terperangkap dalam kelompok sepertiga tercorot dalam PISA, iaitu di bawah 450 mata untuk matematik. Untuk melonjak ke dalam kelompok sepertiga terbaik dalam PISA, Malaysia perlu meraih sekurang-kurangnya 532 mata, bererti ia perlu mencatatkan peningkatan 111 mata dalam tempoh empat ujian tiga tahunan PISA 2012, 2015, 2018 dan 2021 – sesuatu yang belum pernah dicapai oleh mana-mana negara, memandangkan peningkatan terbaik sejauh ini hanya 35 mata, dicatatkan oleh Brazil dalam ujian PISA tahun 2003 hingga 2012.

Keadaan yang sama boleh diterapkan dalam kes ujian sains dan bacaan PISA.

Seperti persoalan yang saya ajukan kelmarain, apakah sasaran ini realistik dan mungkin untuk dicapai, atau apakah Malaysia telah berbelanja RM20 juta untuk membayar perunding asing bagi menulis Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia sebagai satu “angan-angat mat jenin” tentang transformasi pendidikan bagi tempoh 13 tahun mendatang.

Menurut Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia, pelajar berusia 15 tahun Malaysia dijangka akan mencapai tahap purata antarabangsa dalam PISA 2015 dan PISA 2018 sebelum memasuki golongan sepertiga terbaik dalam PISA 2021.

Purata OECD untuk matematik adalah 494 mata, sains 501 mata dan bacaan 496 mata. Dengan skor PISA 2012 Malaysia untuk matematik hanya 421 mata, sains 420 mata, dan bacaan 398 mata, apakah Muhyiddin benar-benar serius hendak memberitahu kita bahawa Malaysia mampu mencapai purata OECD bagi ketiga-tiga subjek ini dalam ujian PISA tahun 2015 dan 2018?

Muhyiddin tidak seharusnya merasa rakyat Malaysia begitu mudah diperdayakan dengan kerja menulis Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013-2025 yang bernilai RM20 juta dan dijalankan oleh perunding asing.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/12/10/muhyiddin-can-have-no-plans-to-catapult-malaysia-into-the-top-third-in-2021-pisa-as-malaysia-would-have-to-become-a-wonder-country-to-achieve-what-no-nation-could-do-in-four-trienni/

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 10:07 am and is filed under
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Umno Baru running scared

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Dec 9, 2013

The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by Umno Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.

When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without Umno Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.

Umno Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and Umno-Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would Umno Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.

The line that Umno Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation, is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfil the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about Umno Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.

The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to Umno Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of Umno Baru.

Umno Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, Umno Baru will become irrelevant.

If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the brain drain is no longer confined to non-Malays seeking better shores. What frightens Umno Baru is the fact that many Malays have become disillusioned with Umno Baru and are not just abandoning the party. They are prepared to forsake their country.

In the past, Malays used to deride the non-Malays for leaving Malaysia. Many did not know the degree of unfairness with which the government treated the non-Malays, in the areas of employment, business opportunities, education, jobs in the civil service and defence.

Today, young graduate Malays, who have been educated overseas, are telling their parents that enough is enough.

They are astute enough to know that the government will make the lives of their families miserable so they leave quietly and without fuss. If the government cannot prosecute the Malay graduate who has absconded, their modus operandi is to go after their families.

In a change from the past, Malay families are now supportive of their children working and living abroad. In the age of the Internet, communication is easy and relatively cheap. Ironically, the Malays are now emulating their non-Malay peers, by turning their backs on Malaysia.

Many Malays who have found employment in the countries in which they studied are happy and glad they made the move.

One Malay doctor said, “My work experience in the (Malaysian) hospital was a bitter experience. I wasn’t just overworked but when I asked the consultant for advice, I was shouted at in front of the patients and other staff.

“It was humiliating and degrading. In the teaching hospital in Sydney, the consultants were pleasant and eager to train me. I felt appreciated.”

When you hear stories like these you know that young Malays are not prepared to believe the lies of Umno-Baru, any longer. The young Malays of today have an appetite for hard work, which is not matched by the Umno Baru Malays or mat rempit types whom Najib is fond of praising.

Answering Najib

A Malay farmer in his sixties said, “What is Najib doing about the farmers? The youth have no interest in agriculture They are leaving the kampong in search of jobs. Many farmers are now in their 60s and 70s. Who will take over my farm when I die?

“I know that many young men who migrated to the cities, are still unemployed. Many have turned to drugs or petty theft. What has the government done to make farming attractive?”

Many civil servants claim that they are demoralised at work. They find that their time and departmental operating budgets are increasingly being used for political, Umno Baru activities. The ones who voice their opinions are warned that they risk destroying their career prospects.

Even Umno Baru supporters are slowly realising they are being conned. One senior party worker said that, with Umno Baru’s help, many rich Malays drive imported sports cars and live in rumah mewah (mansions). When asked how Umno Baru had helped uplift his life, he was dumb-struck. The penny had dropped!

If Najib Abdul Razak had asked the rhetorical question “Where would the Malays be without Umno Baru?”, in front of ordinary members of the rakyat, he would have been drowned out with hisses and pelted with rotten eggs, or shoes.

The answer to Najib’s question is simple. Without Umno Baru, the Malays would be better off economically, financially, morally, spiritually and intellectually. Without Umno Baru, the Malays can restore their lost dignity. A Malay who has the courage to reject Umno Baru will be mentally liberated and feel a weight lifted from his shoulders.

Umno Baru has brainwashed Malays and gave them a false sense of entitlement. They were told they were owed success without the need for hard work. Only Umno Baru would think of placing a copyright on the word ‘Allah’. Umno Baru gave Malays and Islam a bad reputation.

Under Umno Baru, Malays have become arrogant, insincere, work-shy, complacent, uncompetitive, demanding and insensitive. Umno Baru conditioned the Malays to stop thinking and let Umno Baru think for them.

Umno Baru taught some Malays to steal the taxpayers’ money and learn the fine art of corruption.

Umno Baru conditioned the Malay mind to think that any wrongdoing by its leaders is acceptable, because this is preferable to a non-Malay leading the country.

Umno Baru injected fear into the Malay psyche and told him that he should be afraid of change and new ideas.

Only Umno Baru would say that liberal Malays, Christians, Singapore and progressive NGOs are a threat to Malays and Islam.

Umno Baru is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s creation and the mistrust, disunity, treachery, sedition and intolerance are his true legacy.

Only an Umno Baru leader would defend his wife’s extravagance and boast of her ability, but ignore the suffering of the rakyat. The average Malaysian family is barely surviving. Where is the breadwinner going to find an additional 15 percent more income to pay for the increase caused by the GST?

Mahathir, Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,  Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Khairy Jamaluddin and other senior Umno Baru politicians are poor role models for Malays.

Umno Baru is not concerned about Malays or Malay rights. Its only concern is status and power; both economic and political power. Najib realises that without the Malays, Umno Baru could be as dead as a dodo. Najib knows that Umno Baru is living on borrowed time.

By GE14, the only people supporting Najib and Umno-Baru will be the mat rempits and the ‘new Malays’ from Bangladesh.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 December 2013, 5:21 pm and is filed under
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Muhyiddin should ask McKinsey & Co to answer the question how Malaysia is to become a “wonder nation” and make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to top third of 2021 PISA or reclaim the RM20 million spent on the consultant for the Malaysian Education Blueprint

The Deputy Prime Minister and the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should ask the American consultants McKinsey & Co to answer the question how Malaysia is to become a “wonder nation” and make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to top third of 2021 PISA in four triennial PISA tests which had not been achieved by any country in the world from 2003 to 2012.

If Malaysia can achieve what no other country could do in four triennial PISA tests to make the double  quantum jump from the bottom third to top third of the PISA system from 2010 to 2021, Malaysia will become the envy and even poster boy of all countries in the world as a miracle nation which could make a  double quantum jump in educational transformation from a nation of mediocrity  to become a nation  of excellence through four triennial PISA tests.

Malaysia is presently stuck in the bottom third of the PISA system for all three subjects, i.e. 421 for maths, 420 for science and 398 for reading, when Malaysia needs to achieve scores of 450 for maths, 442 for science and 446 for reading to get into the middle third and scores of 532 for maths, 511 for science and 508 for reading to get into the top third of the PISA assessment.

This is based on 2012 PISA as from the four triennial PISA tests of 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012, the threshold for each third of the assessment rises, for instance, the top performer in maths in 2003 was Hong Kong with a score of 550 while Shanghai topped the 2012 PISA with 613.

Similarly, the top performer in science in 2003 was Finland with a score of 548 while the top performer in 2012 PISA is Shanghai with a score of 580; and the top performer in reading in 2003 was Finland with a score of 543 while Shanghai topped the 2012 PISA with 570.

Based on the 2012 PISA without taking account that the thresholds for each level would be raised in the next ten years, Malaysia would  have to improve a minimum of 111 points for maths,  91 points for science and 110 points for reading between the 2012 PISA and the 2021 PISA to get into the top third of the assessment.

Malaysians are entitled to a prompt answer from Muhyiddin and McKinsey as no country had accomplished the double feat of catapulting from the bottom third to the top third of the PISA assessments through the four triennial PISA tests of 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012.

Brazil registered the biggest improvement  of 35 points in maths scores in the four PISA tests from 2003 to 2012, i.e. an increase from 356 points to 391, but it remains in the bottom third of the system.

Turkey had made the biggest improvements in science scores in the four PISA tests, recording the biggest increase of 29 points  from 434 points in 2003 to 463 in 2012  but it could only rise one level  from the bottom third to the medium third –  which is  still  48 points  short of getting into the top third level.

For reading, Japan registered biggest improvement of 40 points in the four PISA tests from 2003 to 2012 but it remained in the middle third of the benchmark.

How then could Malaysia make the double leap for all three subjects from the bottom third to top third of the PISA system in the four PISA tests from 2009 to 2021, when this had not been achieved by any country before?

Or is the objective of Malaysia achieving the top third of international education benchmarks by 2021 mere “pie in the sky” or   Utopian day-dreaming by McKinsey at Malaysian taxpayers’ expense and sheer building “castles in the air” by the Deputy Prime Minister/Education Minister and all Barisan Nasional leaders and educationists?

For the past week, I had been asking Muhyiddin  to outline concrete plans how Malaysia’s 15-year-olds could achieve the miraculous improvement to make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to the top third of international educational benchmarks in a matter of four PISA tests by 2012, but there has only been thunderous silence from Muhyiddin and his gargantuan education bureaucracy which is swallowing up RM54.6 billion or 21 per cent of the 2014 Budget.

I will therefore stop asking this question to Muhyiddin or even his gargantuan education bureaucracy as they clearly have no clue, but Malaysians are entitled to such an answer and who else most qualified to answer this question than the American consultants McKinsey & Co which had been commissioned by the government to prepare the Malaysian Education Blueprint at the exorbitant cost of RM20 million!

The RM20 million consultancy fees to McKinsey & Co for the Malaysian Education  Blueprint had drawn the sarcastic comment from the  Prime Minister Tun Dr  Mahathir Mohamad  who said that he too could do it.

Actually, Mahathir touched on a very pertinent point.  I stand corrected but  to my knowledge, this is the first time in the nation’s history for over half a century where Malaysians could not prepare their own national education reports or masterplans but have to outsource and commission it to foreign consultants.

Are there no talents and expertise in the Education Ministry, which spends over RM50 billion a year of taxpayers’ money, or in our universities whether  Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia or  Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris who could be entrusted with preparing the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 – or has the Malaysian Government itself completely lost confidence in the capability, competence,   professionalism and academic excellence of our universities to prepare our own national educational masterplans?

Be that as it may, as only McKinsey & Co seems to be able to answer the question in the wake of the 2012 PISA results as to  how Malaysian is to make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to top third of international assessment benchmarks come 2012, Muhyiddin should immediately contact and demand from McKinsey  the answer to this question – which should immediately be made public on receipt.

McKinsey, through Muhyiddin, owes Malaysians an answer for the RM20 million spent on it for the Malaysian Education Report. If there is no answer or satisfactory proposals, Muhyiddin should reclaim the RM20 million from McKinsey.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 10:15 am and is filed under
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Our education standard is shamefully low

by Lok Wing Kong

The Malaysian Insider

December 11, 2013

I have predicted long ago that the Education Blueprint 2013-2025 by the Education Minister will not be able to raise the standard of the education.

My prediction is spot on when we were ranked 52nd out of 62 countries for TIMSS and is firmly entrenched at the bottom third place of the Pisa survey, worse than Vietnam.

Singapore is in second place. The young students aged 11 and 12 years from Singapore are better than our 15 years old students in reading, speaking and general knowledge, etc.

I therefore totally agree with former NST editor-in-chief Datuk A. Kadir Jassin that Muyiddin be replaced by the PM’s wife Rosmah Mansor who is more cable and efficient.

Muhyiddin does not fit to be the Education Minister and in fact not fit to be in the cabinet.

The Education portfolio is the most important one to any country and it has been placed in the hands of this man. Worse, education policies since independence have been flip-flopping many times. As the government practises neo-apartheid policies since the introduction of the New Economic Policies (NEP), non-Malays have been grossly marginalised.  Since then everything is race-based and “kulitfication” is the name of the game.

Non-Malay students are out of bounce of many things such as public universities of their choice, scholarships, quotas, and so on. Banking licenses and profit making companies etc of the non-Malays have been “robbed” away by the government and handed over to Umno cronies, purportedly empowering the Malays economically.

However, there are many millions of non-Malays who are not financially well off but Umno-BN pretends not to know. Again Umno also ignores the truth that majority huge businesses are already in the hands of their Malay cronies and yet they still ask for more.

NEP is already more than 40 years old, but Najib thinks that the Malays are not already spoonfed enough. Shortly after GE13, he introduced the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda. He ensures that the Malays are overfed to strengthen his grip of power in Umno.

Both mission schools and English medium schools should be quickly brought back to arrest the spiral declining standard of the English language. But the Education Minister and the PM refuse to do so.

The whole education system must be revamped in that the non-performing teachers and university teaching staff must be retired or sacked. This will serve as eye-opener for the rest to pull up their socks.

Don’t waste tax payer’s money to spoil our kids. It takes more than 50 years to reach this appalling state and it will take just as long or may be longer to rectify it. That’s provided Malaysia has produced some impeccable credible leaders who have strong political will to reverse this trend. This type of leaders may never be born in this Bolehland at all.

It is because the BN government only practises race-based and mediocre policies in all fields that Malaysia has become extremely uncompetitive.  The public universities are producing rubbish graduates not employable by the private sectors. Government and GLCs are grossly overstaffed, and therefore, the efficiency is very low. Many GLCs are losing money like hell. Why?

Most of the teachers, lecturers, associate and full professors are of mediocre standard producing worse than mediocre graduates. Those helming the GLCs are half-past-six graduates.

Malaysian Airlines has never made money since its inception, instead it continuously bleeds heavily. The government continues to inject huge sum of taxpayers’ money to keep it afloat. Similarly, Proton has been hemorrhaging for more than 30 years. Again taxpayers’ money is used to keep it alive. This list goes on.

It certainly is a pipe dream to expect our graduates to be able to run and manage the GLCs well to produce profits. This is because of our lousy education system and the government’s mediocre race-based policies.

Former de-facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim is perfectly right in saying that without Umno, the Malays will be more advanced and civilised.  I cannot agree with him more.

An Indian friend of mine was teaching English, Mathematics and Science in national-type secondary schools for many years. When he was transferred to a national secondary school in which 99% students are Malays, he was called up by the headmaster because the passing rate of his class was low.

So he fictitiously passed those who failed by adding extra marks here and there and he received no more shelling thereafter. He never faced this problem while teaching in the national-type schools. Every year there are 1000–1200 Malay students scoring CGPA of 4.0 (via matriculation) vs. only about 400–450 non-Malay students scording CGPA 4.0 (via STPM). – December 11, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 1:30 pm and is filed under
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Schools should be decentralised, says World Bank

Free Malaysia Today

The Malaysian Reserve| December 11, 2013

Autonomy in schools will allow the resident learning centres to accommodate local needs and allow ownership by teachers, administrators, parents and students.

by Azli Jamil

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia needs to decentralise its schools, provide feedback to parents on performance and find quality teachers as a crucial step in its race to become a high income nation, according to the World Bank’s Economic Monitor report on High-Performing Education released yesterday.

The report said Malaysia’s education system, which is among the most centralised in the world, makes it difficult to adapt to rapidly changing needs and circumstances.

“Autonomy allows for greater responsiveness to local needs as well as stronger ownership of performance by teachers, administrators, parents and students,” said World Bank country director for Malaysia Ulrich Zachau.

“Schools must have more freedom to hire and fire and also to manage its own budget allocations and curriculum.”

He said autonomy must come with accountability where parents must be more involved in demanding performance from the schools as the parents’ feedback loops and bottom-up pressure are important drivers of systemic improvements.

The quality of teachers is the third priority and is a cause of concern where the key is to recruit and retain the best teachers.

Zachau said 46% of principals noted that lack of qualified teaching staff as constraint and the Minister of Education has admitted that some candidates enrolling at teacher training institutions did not meet minimum requirements of academic achievement at the secondary level.

Nevertheless, Zachau noted that there is a need to look at benchmarking the school leadership as that is a key area too in ensuring the success of Malaysia’s education aspirations.

With regard to the nation’s dismal performance at the Programme for International Student Assessment survey results released last week, Zachau said that if the comparison is made using the scores of the top 5% of Malaysian students, it would place them at par with the average level for scores for China and South Korea.

Nonetheless, out of the 65 countries participating in the survey, the overall ranking for Malaysia for 2012 remains at 52 for Mathematics, 53 for Science and 59 for Reading.

Earlier, in his speech, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department  Abdul Wahid Omar said the planning for the 11th Malaysia Plan is underway with the output expected to come in mid 2015. “We want to avoid over planning and focus on implementation,” said Wahid.

The Plan is premised upon six major thrusts; harnessing talent, re-engineering economic growth, strengthening growth enablers, enhancing inclusivity, improving wellbeing and maintaining environmental and resources management.

“It is the last phase of our development plan towards achieving a high-income nation,” said Wahid.

Wahid noted that the issues of school autonomy and greater stakeholder participation in the school system has been recognised in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 launched last month.

“Steps have and will be taken to address these proposals,” said Wahid.

This content is provided by FMT content provider The Malaysian Reserve

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 3:18 pm and is filed under
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What Our Leaders Can Learn from Mandela

By Kee Thuan Chye

msn.com

10.12.2013

When Nelson Mandela died last Thursday, some Malaysian political leaders paid him tribute and expressed their admiration for what he stood for.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who recently bought back preventive detention, tweeted, “Mandela lives on in the spirit of every human that believes in democracy and freedom.”

Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, the champion of Perkasa, Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) and the New Economic Policy (NEP), called Mandela a great leader dedicated to the cause of social justice.

Kedah Mentri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, who in September said he would not entertain any requests for allocations from Chinese schools in Kedah, called Mandela “a true international patriot” for having suffered for the freedom movement against Apartheid.

Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who last year raised the threat of another May 13, extolled his message of unity and called him a “role model for all of the world”.

Weighed against what these people have said, done and been perceived to believe, the tributes sounded hollow. Even hypocritical. It makes one wonder if they truly understand the meaning of Mandela’s legacy.

For them to do so, they need to be more aware of what he stood and fought for throughout his life. And when they have become aware, it will not be enough until they apply what they have learned to governing Malaysia.

First, they need to learn that Mandela served – in the best sense of the word – his country. To do good for it. Without seeking as reward financial gains or power for its own sake.

He fought for his people’s freedom, fought against Apartheid, paid the price of being imprisoned for 27 long years, and became South Africa’s first black president in democratic elections. Did he amass great wealth along the way? Did he use the system to enrich himself and his family? Did he think of winning for himself and his party so that they could remain in power?

What he said at a lecture in Singapore in 1997 is instructive: “When we came out and set up negotiations, we discussed our approach very, very carefully, as the leadership of the African National Congress. And we adopted certain principles. Firstly, that in these negotiations, neither the congress, which is now in power, nor the enemy – the policy of Apartheid – none should win. But South Africa as a whole should win.”

He thought of his country first. He thought of his country winning. Our leaders, however, seem to think of themselves winning, and their party winning. When our government does something, it seems to consider first whether this will benefit the ruling party rather than if it will benefit the rakyat. Consider, for example, the doling-out of BR1M. Even now, the ruling party’s leaders are looking ahead to winning the next general election.

It was also quite revealing that at the Umno general assembly last week, a delegate said that if every 8th century Hindu temple ruin in Kedah were to be gazetted, his party would lose constituencies because the ruins were located all over. Rather than be concerned with preserving ancient treasures, he showed that his priority was winning electoral seats.

Second, Mandela kept to his principles of fighting against racial discrimination. And he promoted reconciliation – to bring the races in South Africa together, instead of sowing hatred and bitterness between them. He let the whites continue to control the economy and big business. In so doing, he has been criticised for not having done enough to improve the economic lot of his fellow black South Africans. But if he had instituted laws to favour the blacks, he would have practised Apartheid, and that would have been morally wrong. It takes someone who has felt the evil of racial discrimination to avoid resorting to it.

He let the whites run businesses because they were adept and experienced at doing it. If he had decreed that this be taken over by the blacks, who were inexperienced, South Africa’s economy would have suffered. Instead, with things continuing as they were, the country has annually achieved robust growth rates of 6, 7 or 8 per cent.

In the same lecture he gave in Singapore, Mandela said, “It is because of the talented people, both within the ranks of the liberation movement as well as in the ranks of the oppressor, that we have been able to bring about this transformation. We sincerely but fully believe that there are good men and women in all communities in our country – amongst Africans, coloureds, Indians and whites – and that the duty of the leadership is to create an environment in which those good men and women can exercise their talents. It is the combination of these factors that has made us progress in South Africa.”

Compare this with Malaysia, which has driven away at least 2 million of its talents and is now experiencing financial difficulties – because of the NEP, Ketuanan Melayu and Bumiputra economic empowerment. In short, Apartheid, Malaysian-style.

Sadly, however, Mandela’s experience is lost on Umno, the biggest ruling party in the country. At its general assembly, its high priest, Najib, actually told the congregation that Umno fought the “same cause” as Mandela did. Oh, how could he have said that and not looked like a fool? And how could he have discredited Mandela by comparing the great man’s cause to Umno’s?

Umno has been practising divide-and-rule for the longest time. The very opposite of reconciliation. Mahathir is still saying things to divide the races. He calls Mandela “my dear friend”, the leader he most admires, but he has not learned the crucial things from him: racial equality and reconciliation.

Neither has he learned from Mandela not to crave power. The latter served as president for only one term, from 1994 to 1999, and then gracefully stepped down

Perhaps we the rakyat should learn from this and agitate our leaders to conceive of a new system that allows our prime minister to serve a limited number of terms.

Too long at the top can corrupt a person and teach them ways to amass absolute power. And since, as people say, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, we should prevent it from happening. We have already seen the damaging consequences of having a prime minister rule for 22 years; this should be reason and motivation enough to nip another Mahathir in the bud.

Finally, a sobering thought for all of us to ponder. Mandela was in prison for 27 years, but despite the length of his incarceration, he came out of it not as a bitter man seeking revenge and spewing hatred against his oppressors. He instead sought peace and reconciliation. And unification. It may well be that he found his epiphany while in prison. If that’s the case, perhaps our leaders need to serve time in prison too. So that they may realise a thing or two to help them govern later – with fairness, justice and wisdom.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 December 2013, 1:55 am and is filed under
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