Category: Commentary

Malaysia and Singapore are in some ways like conjoined twins; joined at birth but now separated. Each country has gone its own way since the momentous breakup of 1965 but both still share many similar characteristics including the factor of race standing in the way of the cohesive development of their societies. Even if each… Continue reading Lessons from the Singapore prison system for Malaysia

  Foreword by CPI Interlok is essentially The Malay Dilemma in narrative form – the two books are spiritual cousins. As such, you can see how Interlok has the capacity to incite. In the world of Interlok, the Chinese do not even care to leave any crumbs for the natives. And not only are the… Continue reading Unfit textbook: Interlok insults with impunity

  In remarks for Malaysiakini (see below the M’kini article) following his open letter calling on the Government to withdraw Interlok as a literature school text, Dr Lim Teck Ghee expressed his dismay that the book with its racially tainted messages – both direct and indirect – could have been selected as a school text.… Continue reading ‘Interlok a classic work of Malaysian racism’

CPI Introduction It is not our policy to comment on or carry commentaries on developments taking place in neighbouring countries.  The only exceptions occur when we feel that a particular post may be useful in the lessons that are provided to us.  In this particular post reproduced below, the concerns that have led Mr. Pritam… Continue reading Singapore2025: Singapore Government Scholarships – A case for greater representation of Minority Races?

  CPI Introduction In view of the controversy swirling around the content of the History textbooks used in schools, we thought Dr Geoff Wade’s ‘The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia’ on the measures used to maintain Malay hegemony merit revisiting. “It is very strange today that in the diverse, multi-ethnic polity of Malaysia,… Continue reading Half the country disappears in M’sian history syllabus

The Ministry of Education has finally replied to concerns raised by many Malaysians that the teaching of Malaysian history has been debased through changes in the syllabus and textbooks. However the letter by the Corporate Communications Unit of the Ministry totally ignores the allegations and makes no attempt to address the specific and general concerns… Continue reading History syllabus and textbooks: The non-Malay fig leaf and more serious matters

  Islamisation of education Let us start our study of the education system, not in education proper, but at an educational display in Malaysia’s Museum of National History as described by Virginia Hooker (2003: 4-6) in the opening pages of her A Short History of Malaysia. The most significant feature of this display for our… Continue reading The Islamisation of Malaysia: religious nationalism in the service of ethnonationalism 2

The relationship between religious, ethnic and national identities in Malaysia has long been fraught with uncomfortable tensions-especially for the 50 percent of Malaysians who are outside the dominant Malay-Muslim communal grouping. Until the accession of Dr Mahathir to the prime ministership at the beginning of the 1980s, it was clear that ethnic identity trumped religious… Continue reading The Islamisation of Malaysia: religious nationalism in the service of ethnonationalism

Whose history is the government pushing on our students and to what effect? On Oct 23, Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that History will be made a must-pass subject for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia beginning 2013. This puts the subject on par with Bahasa Malaysia in its degree of importance. The ministry will introduce a… Continue reading Softening up students to Islam with History syllabus

  There are several ways to analyze the budget. One is to take at face value what the Prime Minister has written in his blog just before his budget speech where he promised that it is “a budget by the rakyat???. By it, he explained that he had read through the more than 1,000 comments… Continue reading Budget 2011: A budget for the big boys and civil servants