Mahathir backs moves to punish minorities and reward pro-government voters, companies Last week, the Malaysian government announced its allocation of public university seats for the upcoming academic year. Only 19 percent of Chinese students got places, along with 4 percent of Indians despite the fact that the two together make up about 30 percent of… Continue reading Post-election payback time in Malaysia
Month: July 2013
Clueless or opportunistic defenders of TITAS
As soon as one academic government yes-man appears to retire from the public scene, another all too quickly rushes to fill the vacancy. The latest academic political wannabe is Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Prof. Teo Kok Seong who has said that the course would benefit the Chinese, and that Chinese leaders should support its introduction. Offering… Continue reading Clueless or opportunistic defenders of TITAS
Reforming TITAS to ensure fair and balanced teaching of civilization studies
“Education is to develop a complete man of character and learning, not a means to pass our prejudices and hang ups to the young generation. It is too serious an undertaking to be left entirely in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats. Other stakeholders need to be consulted.” — Din Merican, ‘ Dr Lim Teck… Continue reading Reforming TITAS to ensure fair and balanced teaching of civilization studies
Stop this public lynching
The decision of the AG to charge Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee marks the half-way point in the public lynching of these two young people. What were they guilty of? A moment of unthinking madness; an act of stupidity and idiocy; a prank in bad taste; racial and religious insensitivity; youthful arrogance – yes, these… Continue reading Stop this public lynching
Why Rafizi is wrong about TITAS
Pandan Member of Parliament Rafizi Ramli’s support of the proposal by the Education Ministry to make the Islamic and Asian Civilization Studies (TITAS) course compulsory in private tertiary institutions (IPTS) is a disappointment. More disappointing is the reasoning behind his support for the introduction of the subject. Rafizi argued that “politically, it’s not helping when… Continue reading Why Rafizi is wrong about TITAS
Implausible nonsense: Malaysia’s political theatre
There are two types of nonsense – plausible and implausible. Plausible nonsense is when someone spins a story to children, which although implausible to adults is plausible to young minds. Though not believable to adults, most children stories have the redeeming value of being educational and entertaining. Then there is implausible nonsense which does not… Continue reading Implausible nonsense: Malaysia’s political theatre