Friday, January 14, 2011

The Solution is NOT the Peace Corps but REVAMPING the MINISTRY of EDUCATION

Did you read about the DPM's visit to the USA where he's going to ask Clinton to send the Peace Corps to Malaysia again?
The news only reflects the pathetic state of affairs in Malaysia's education system.
For the younger readers, the Peace Corps operated in Malaysia until the early 70s and that was the time that Malaysia made the switch to using Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction in the national schools.
Nowadays the Peace Corps operates only in places where education facilities are lacking; mostly in third world countries.
I hope Clinton will tell MY he should leave the Education Ministry to more capable people.
Remember how TDM decided just months before he retired that English was going to given more importance and switched back to teaching Maths and Science in the English language?
After about 5 years of struggling with the policy switch, the government has has decided that it will switch back again even though the students and teachers are beginning to see benefits.
It seems the problems with education in Malaysia lie not with the teachers and the pupils but with the Ministry of Education.
I suggest the following measures are important and will help Malaysia more than depending on the Peace Corps.
1.Remove all political elements in education policies.
2.Ensure teachers are properly trained in English and highly motivated.
3.Encourage more male teachers (the male/female ratio should be at least 35/65)
4.Fix the maximum number of pupils in a primary class to 30 or less.

During the 5 years since the Flip-flop, it would be interesting to discover the number of English-trained teachers who have graduated. By right, these teachers should be the vanguard of the move to move education forward in Malaysia.
What about the Peace Corps? NAH I don't think it will work as most of them will be sick of the rotten society Malaysia has become.
They will probably get into trouble with the authorities as they will also try to change society with some revolutionary ideas - and not just on teaching.

Friday, January 7, 2011

So the PM Calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to Nullify Teoh's DEATH?

I wrote this in Lim Kit Siang's blog yesterday:

"#10 by HJ Angus on Thursday, 6 January 2011 - 10:02 pm

For those who think an RCI is going to uncover the cause of TBH’s death, I am sorry to tell you the RCI will not have a satisfactory conclusion.
If you look at the way the investigations were done both by MACC and the PDRM, there are so many indications of a cover-up at high levels.
It seems there was a grand design to prolong the inquest so that the trail becomes cold and vital clues obliterated.
So we can have a RCI and the AG will probably charge some minion with causing hurt or even torture. He goes to jail and is properly compensated but the corruption in the system prevails.
To me an RCI at this late stage is meaningless unless we get PR voted into Putrajaya and they make it one of the items to be executed.
It is imperative that any wrong-doing by anyone in uniform who has power of life and death must be vigorously exposed and punished."

In today's malaysiakini article PM: RCI will not probe cause of death it suggests that the killer/s of Teoh Beng Hock are being given a FREE ticket as the PM only wants to "probe whether Teoh Beng Hock's human rights were violated when he was grilled by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)."

Why does the PM want to limit the scope of the commission? The essential and crying need for this commission is to determine whether the MACC caused the death of Teoh; either by actually throwing him out of the window or if they held him outside to terrify him and he slipped from their grasp. Maybe they even allowed a third party to do their dirty work.

This BN regime has lost all moral authority to govern and should be kicked out in the next GE.

Some folks will still vote for them but in Teoh's case as in the cases of Kugan and the Malay teenager, the next victim could well be your son or daughter.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

That OPEN VERDICT on the Teoh Beng Hock Inquest......

After spending hundreds of man-hours on court proceedings and millions of ringgit of taxpayers monies, it is appalling that the best the coroner can return is an "open verdict" for Teoh Beng Hock's death.
Even the manner in which the verdict has been delivered seems to be like the score in a football match as if the opposing evidence cancels each other out and so the decision is a draw.

"It's not suicide and it's not homicide" says the article from the Star but in between a young man has died by reasons unknown.

I would have expected a more positive result with some indication of probable cause. It appears the court is trying hard not to point fingers. It also shows the frightenening lack of protection of people who have to visit government offices.