“Always, but always, smell the head of the fish. If the fish is going bad, the head part will always stink first”.
The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle of life, which does not bring out strength of character, aspirit of philanthropy and the courage of a lion – is it worth the name? – Swami Vivekananda
Education is in the blood of Chinese. From the day he/she is born, his/her parents have been drumming into the child’s ears the importance of education. Whether the parents are rich or poor, education comes first. Just to clarify, MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong, meritocracy isn’t about achieving 30 percent representation of Chinese students in local public universities.. The government was indifferent to the threat from political parties, but it could not remain immune to a threat from the voter. Empowerment of Malays is powerful and necessary objective, but the route map should be navigated with care.
In my humble submission, no it is not…regardless of what the rankings tell us, regardless of where we think we’ll end up in life, regardless of our modus operandi relative to ‘getting there’. Individual successes, capitalized individually, amount to little more than personal pride, little less than smug comeuppance.
But, when we change the course of our life by choosing to burnish the life of another, a small, individual act of courage and of faith galvanizes a true revolution – the kind that changes society at large, one life at a time. Were it not true,
Enthusiasm is no substitute for clarity. The flaws in the Varsity intake system ‘more quota than quota’l are not in the laudable intention but in the clogged delivery. The desire to be politically correct has overtaken the imperative to be politically sensible. Method and order, the favourite weapons of Hercule Poirot, might be usefully employed in analysis.Just to clarify, MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong, meritocracy isn’t about achieving 30 percent representation of Chinese students in local public universities.It’s about ensuring that the best students who are deserving of a placement get in, regardless of race, religion or creed.
The true or fake meritocracy and quota system
During the mid-1960s, when Singapore was still part of the Federation, PAP’s Lew Kuan Yew and Umno’s Mahathir Mohamad were once having an intense debate in Parliament.
Mahathir, who was then a fresh MP, voiced out for expanded university quota for Malay students. He said more Malay graduates would be able to groom elite members of the Malay society, hence improving the socio-economic status of the Malays.
Lee stood up to protest, saying that providing more places for Malay students and allowing students not meeting the requirements to get into universities would only bring down the overall academic standards.
He said once the students knew they did not need to meet the basic requirements for university admission, they would slowly develop an attitude of reliance on the government.
He felt it was not that much a problem if no Malay students made it to the medical school of Universiti Malaya for that year. More importantly, if the students knew they had to perform well in examinations to get into the medical faculty, they would step up their effort and compete with students from other ethnic groups.
Perhaps a couple of Malay students could get into the medical faculty the following year, and more and more over the subsequent years.
These Malay students would no longer need to rely on the quota system to get into local universities several years down the road. At the same time, the overall standards of local universities were also maintained.
My friend is well versed in the early history of the country’s nationhood and the above information could be easily retrieved from the parliament files and Lee Kuan Yew’s speech collection.
The Lee-Mahathir debate reflected two polarised views: Umno’s bumiputra-first and protectionism on one end, and the Malaysian Malaysia and meritocracy of PAP on the other end.
Combined, they will make a difference – the difference that the architects of this nation were clamoring for, if only in nascence. The difference between playing for the country and playing for the pawn, the difference between selling one’s soul and reinstating the society’s ;
Everyone does not make a difference –more importantly though, everyone can. They did.The life-blood of our democracy is a covenant, a pact between elector and elected that the quid pro quo for the vote is service to the constituency. The quality of that service is an important (but not the only) factor in an MP’s re-election. This is the one big check that keeps a MP on some sort of practical leash.
Now that the Chinese electorate has turned away from MCA, it now is making Mewing sounds for a fairer system of Education! Will UMNO listen to it now, now that it is not even representing the Chinese?
Queries surrounding the true or fake meritocracy and quota system have reminded me of what a friend of mine used to tell me.
During the mid-1960s, when Singapore was still part of the Federation, PAP’s Lew Kuan Yew and Umno’s Mahathir Mohamad were once having an intense debate in Parliament.
Mahathir, who was then a fresh MP, voiced out for expanded university quota for Malay students. He said more Malay graduates would be able to groom elite members of the Malay society, hence improving the socio-economic status of the Malays.
Former Higher Education Deputy Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah (pic) lost his Temerloh parliamentary candidate due to massive swing from Chinese voters who were persuaded by their children to go for change.
Universiti Malaya Centre of Democracy and Election (UMcedel) director Professor Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman said the Chinese thought that Pakatan Rakyat would capture Putrajaya.
“The voters were convinced of the Ubah slogan and that is why they voted for the PAS candidate.
“One of them said we have to follow what our children ask us to do,” he told a news conference to reveal the outcome of a UMcedel focus study in that constituency.
He said the seat was relatively safe for Barisan Nasional (BN) as it also consisted of two Felda settlements and an army camp.
“Saifuddin could not have lost because of his stature,” he added.
However, he said, many regretted not voting for Saifuddin after BN was returned to power.
Saifuddin polled 27,197 while PAS candidate Nasaruddin Hassan Tantawi garnered 28,267.
He said young voters, some from outstation, returned to cast their ballots for Nasaruddin, who won with a 1,070-vote majority.
The opposition also won two of the three state seats in the parliamentary constituency.
A total of 850 respondents were interviewed over three days from May 31 for the study.
Redzuan said Temerloh was selected as it was a multi-racial seat with 64 per cent Malays, Chinese (24 %) Indians ( 9 %) and others ( 3%).
Redzuan said interviews also revealed that public acceptance of Saifuddin, an Umno Supreme Council member, was about 60 per cent and many did not know the PAS candidate.
“They also did not support Saifuddin because of his party, Umno,” Redzuan said.
In an immediate response Saifuddin, who was present at the seminar, said about 7,000 outstation voters returned to cast their ballots and this contributed to his defeat.
“The study is extensive and I accept the finding as it is,” he told reporters.
He said he also spoke to Chinese local grassroots and civil society leaders to better understand the unprecedented swing.
“I have concluded it is four Cs – corruption, cronysism, crime and cost of living that contributed to my defeat ,” he said.
He said the BN would have to map out strategies to reach out the Chinese and this would be discussed at the coalition’s workshop to be held soon.
“The Chinese are not demanding but they are just asking for good governance. If we get it right, then there is no problem to regain support from the community,” he said.
He felt that there must be a single and strong multi-racial party in the BN and there must be a provision to allow direct membership into the coalition.
Saifuddin said the current political culture from politics of race and religion must also change.
will have no political incentive to serve its constituents. This, given prevailing levels of public morality, is a license to satisfy personal interests for the length of the term to MP and minister. The cynical response is that this hardly matters since MPs have become irrelevant to national development or even to their constituency’s welfare. If that is the level of degeneration, then we should abandon first-past-the-post parliamentary democracy and find another definition of democracy. Perhaps we can adopt a dual system in which two-thirds of MPs are elected on the basis of lists prepared by the party leaders, enabling them to send their chosen favourites to the House in direct proportion to the percentage of votes they have received.
The relationship between MP and voter can, thereby, be officially abandoned. This should make party bosses delirious.
The irony is that such flaws can be easily corrected, with some time and thought. Both have been absent from the process. The pro-reservation lobbies have employed hustle topped off by self-congratulation; those opposed think that explosions constitute an argument.
