Hongkong TV Reporter Arrested For Public Indecency

I stumbled on this in the Singapore Straits Times today. The television reporter explained that he did it to relieve stress.


That reminds me of a time long past, but indelible from the memory: the May 13 incident in 1969. Tun Dr Ismail was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister during the state of emergency. Immediately after calm was restored in the country, the cinemas, at least those in Batu Pahat, were flooded with pornographic movies, not the triple X of course, but those soft porn that would lull people into forgetfulness of the dreadful consequences of the May 13 incident. It was a time when people of all races flooded the cinemas. I can't remember how long the cinemas ran these movies; a week? two weeks? But they were removed soon after. Was it a conscious design on the part of the government at that time? Or did the cinemas take advantage of the situation to profit from it? No one will ever know. As Karl Marx said, religion is the opiate of the masses, but in this case, could it be sex is the opiate of the masses in turbulent times?

Sabah And Her Forgotten People

I am a sucker for maps. I love to pore over maps, especially those designed for tourists. Here is a beautiful tourist map of Sabah. I wanted to know where Kota Marudu is after reading Dr Hams' account in Malaysiakini. Kota Marudu, it seems, is quite a tourist attraction; it has the Sorinsim Waterfall, an agricultural research station at a lake, and - surprise! surprise! - South-East-Asia's largest solar power station. And to add another feather to its cap, its annual Maize Festival which concludes with the crowning of the Maize Fashion Queen. Not many towns in Peninsular Malaysia can rival its attractions. Not to be left out, it is also wired to cyberspace.

But hidden behind this facade of a prosperous township, are the poverty-stricken, illiterate people in remote villages around Kota Marudu. Dr. Hams' account has revealed the reality of a Sabah that many, particularly those from Peninsular Malaysia, do not know, or choose not to know. His account is disturbing: a poor pregnant mother from a remote area of Kota Marudu, in her final stage of pregnancy, had to make a long trip to Kota Marudu to seek medical attention. According to the doctor, it cost the mother RM 50, the equivalent of her husband's one month's wage, to get to town. Some remote areas are even inaccessible, especially during the rainy season. And we in Peninsular Malaysia have beautiful roads serving remote and sparsely populated kampungs where teenagers ride on motor-cycles without road tax or licence, and needless to say, without lights on well lit roads. And poly-clinics to take care of their basic medical problems. No wonder the Sabahans have felt that they have been neglected all these years.

And to think that our government has spent RM 2.37 billion on Malaysian National Service since its inception in 2004. 2.37 billion and what do we have to show for it? Several deaths in the camps? How many kilometres of roads can we build in Sabah? How many poly-clinics? How many mothers can be educated on child-care and basic hygiene so that kids can grow up strong and healthy? How many kids can we educate in these remote areas? Or for that matter, how many street urchins can we help? The list is long, but as Confucius said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

Street urchins: begging in Kota Kinabalu

www.flickr.com/photos/onedatewonder/111078085/

Maths And Science In English: a failure

The New Straits Times headline:

The Teaching of Maths And Science In English
Study reveals policy's flaws

Consider how fortunate the Malaysian Science and Maths teachers are when the policy to teach Science and Maths in English was implemented: laptops were issued to individual teachers which they can take home to prepare their lessons; LCD projectors for each classroom; CDs for teaching topics covered by the syllabus at every level; crash-courses in English; reference books; even lesson plans for each unit in the syllabus have been scripted in English so that they could conduct their lessons more efficiently; and to top it all, an allowance of 5 to 10% of their basic salary, with the proviso that they pass their English language courses. Of course, nobody failed in these courses. It is not uncommon to see teachers teach by remote control by inserting the CD into the laptop and the computer takes over. The teaching of Science and Mathematics has never been easier.

Now indications are that this policy after five years and RM 5 billion down the road will be assigned to the scrapyard. If it does happen, the loss of the critical allowance for these teachers will be sorely felt in this trying time of high cost of living.

The policy was pushed through amidst considerable opposition from both the ruling coalition parties, opposition parties as well as academics and educational institutions. Needless to say, Tun Dr Mahathir was a prime minister who would not tolerate any opposition to his plan. However, what had made this controversial, great man to embark on a policy that would surely have made him very unpopular, not only among the Malays, some of whom branded him as "a traitor of the Malay language", but also the vernacular educationists? There are many anecdotes that pointed to his decision to embark on the project, one of which was related here. But the publicly announced rationale for such a controversial decision was the decline in the standard of English in the country as he saw it.

And now a professor from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) who conducted a research on the impact of the use of English for both subjects has proclaimed that the policy is a failure, and thousands of students have been victimized by the policy. His conclusions were that there was no improvement in the language proficiency of students; more alarming however, was the deterioration in the performance of Science and Mathematics, particularly rural students. If that is so, why is the UPSI's Year Five tests for both subjects showed Malay students in rural areas and large towns did better than those in the cities (The Straits Times, 7 Sept 2008)? And why did the vernacular schools do better than the Malay schools? So is it a failure of the policy, or is it the methodology, the quality of the teaching, the lack of commitment from the teachers and school administrators since they are the ones who opposed the move at the onset?

The professor also did not say how the students fared in comparison with those who studied the subjects in their mother-tongue before the policy was implemented. On the other hand, visits to schools by the Federal Inspectorate to study the implementation, teaching and learning of these subjects have provided a picture of significant improvement. Who are we to believe?

It seems a foregone conclusion the government would revert to teaching both the subjects in the mother-tongue to please the people. The question that comes to mind is: Is it a failure of the policy or its implementation? In this connection Bakri Musa has an interesting take on the subject.

While we raged and screamed at the former Prime Minister over his foolish decision, it would do well to look at the Philippine's bilingual education policy, which uses Filipino as a language of instruction for social studies and English for Science and Mathematics. The country has been doing that for years, and the people are none the worse for it. In fact, they would prefer the status quo, although the government is in the process of making Filipino, which will be known as Pilipino, as the language of instruction for all subjects. An interesting digression here is that a group of some 50 Korean teachers went to the country recently to study how English is taught as a subject and as a language of instruction for Science and Mathematics.

We should seriously do some soul searching so as not to throw out the baby with the bath water.

16 September

Down under to head off Pakatan Rakyat

Is it going to happen? Will Anwar Ibrahim be able to tempt some 30 Barisan Nasional members of parliament, particularly from Sabah, to defect so that he could form the new government come 16 September? The Sabahan MPs are denying more than loudly that they are not going to cross over.

But the Barisan Nasional is not taking his threat lightly, and the Barisan MPs have been directed to hold a retreat from 7 -17 september, most probably in Australia to study the latest technology on agricultural production. According to a news report, the response to this study tour has been luke-warm.

Of course the Barisan Nasional members of parliament denied that the proposed retreat has anything to do with the 16 September dateline; september being the fasting month and the MPs will have a long break from parliament to study studiously about "increasing agricultural output", as one MP put it.

Meanwhile Malaysians are being fed a regular dose of the ongoing furore over the branding of the Chinese as "squatters" in the country who should not have equal rights by Ahmad Ismail during a Permatang Pauh by-election speech to garner Malay votes. Some members of the MCA and Gerakan have demanded that they pull out of Barisan Nasional if the culprit did not apologize, although the Deputy Prime Minister had earlier apologized on his behalf. Adding to the chagrin of the Deputy Prime Minister, the perpetrator with the full backing of Penang UMNO, has today steadfastly refused to apologize, defending his offending remark as merely stating a "historical" fact. After a meeting with Penang UMNO, the harassed Prime Minister declared that the recalcitrant politician is not a racist and his remarks have been misinterpreted. The Deputy Prime Minister must be feeling very hot under the collar at the moment. Looks like the two UMNO's leaders' authority has been challenged if not seriously undermined.

I think the Malaysian public are getting very tired of some of these trash politicians who continue to stoke the flame of racism come election time. The nation's energy and political will have been sapped by these increasingly fractious distractions. These have cast a cloud of uncertainty on the investment climate of the country.

On another matter, a New Straits Time report claimed that 80% of vehicles did not pass the road worthiness test conducted by Puspakom, (centres for inspection of vehicles) after some 36 officers were arrested for alleged corruption. A case of tit-for-tat?

Meanwhile Malaysians are preoccupied with the increase in food prices, especially hawker food which has provoked the ire of many a customer. Here is one complaining about the price of a bowl of porridge:

Seeing red over RM7 price tag for a bowl of porridge

A consumer complained of having to pay RM7 for a bowl of rice porridge with some dried fish, bean sprouts and kangkung (a kind of leafy vegetable) at a food shop in Kelantan.

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn

I was drawn to Pragmatic Revelations when he posted "A disgrace to Malaysian tertiary education" on his site.

Advertorials are often ignored, which is probably why this particular one was not vetted. The university, Tun Hussein Onn nonchalantly assumed that it would escape the public eye and let it slip through the fingers while the New Straits Times proofreaders or editors must have been sleeping on their job. How else could you explain such a slip-up? The advertorial was appallingly written to say least. Readers gleefully pounced on it and lambasted the university. The New Straits Times has since then apologized.

It is particularly galling as the university is located in my home town Batu Pahat.

Penang Global City Centre

It looks like this RM 25 billion grandiose city centre to be built on the Penang Turf Club is "as good as dead" according to the Chief Minister. The plan in its original concept was rejected by the Penang Municipal Council for not adhering to the council's requirements. The project which was announced with considerable pomp by the Prime Minister last year fell through when the developer and the Turf Club committee were involved in a legal wrangle over terms and conditions that were not fulfilled by the developer, as well as objections from non-government organizations over its impact on the environment. Looks like Patrick Lim and his good friend are stuck in a deep hole over the cancellation of the project.