Seeking intelligence, getting nonsense

The Malaysian Insight The Malaysian Insight Updated 7 years ago · Published on 22 May 2019 9:30PM · 8 Comments

WE don’t expect our ministers to be geniuses. We don’t.

But, we do expect the people we put in charge of our future, and of our children’s future, to have a basic level of competence and intelligence.

And, this is where Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik fails, and fails miserably. If he were a minister in many other countries, he would have been forced out of office by now.

But given the current climate in Malaysia, where race and religion seem to intrude in any discussion, Maszlee has political cover for his ineptitude.

We take no issue with him defending Pakatan Harapan’s position on matriculation and increasing the number of slots for Malays in the programme.

Apparently, the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, decided that the matriculation policy favouring Malay students would be enlarged and continued.

This move caused indignation among PH supporters, who believed that the new occupiers of Putrajaya would somehow uproot affirmative action type policies and programmes in the promised new Malaysia.

Fact is, the new government is on a much weaker footing than when it was sworn into power in May last year – the result of a combination of lethargy in office, the pushback from a community fearful that the decades of feasting on the gravy train are over, and our propensity to see everything through a racial lens in Malaysia.

In short, Messrs Mahathir and Co don’t feel secure enough to push through any seismic change that may put more pressure on their brittle support among Malays.

Terribly disappointing, but no one said change was going to be easy in post-Barisan Nasional Malaysia. Cowardice and fear of losing position and power is not the monopoly of any one political coalition.

But what was shocking was Maszlee’s decision to link the government’s position on matriculation with some flimsy argument about how Malay students were disadvantaged in the private sector by language requirements put in place by employers.

Huh?

Worse than apples and oranges. This is akin to being asked to write an essay on climate change, and proceeding to talk about the water tariff in Malaysia.

Ministers and senior civil servants have rushed to Maszlee’s defence, saying he was merely articulating the cabinet’s views on matriculation.

Even they miss the point of the outrage.

The grievous sin was not in defending the government’s position on matriculation. The sin was in displaying a shallow level of intelligence when defending the government decision and reaching for the race card so wantonly.

And in doing so, Maszlee showed that he does not have the intellectual heft to transform the moribund education system that produced him. – May 22, 2019.

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Comments

  • Very well said. We weep at the type of education minister in Malaysia.

    Posted 7 years ago by Awang Bilis · Reply

  • Ed minister is hopeless

    Posted 7 years ago by Kenneth Tan · Reply

  • Maszlee has just confirmed beyond doubt his racist and bigot pedigree with his sarcastic remarks on "rich" non-Malays, something non-Malay tax paying parents struggling to put their kids through college do NOT appreciate in the face of so much discrimination stacked against them.Very unbecoming and so not Pakatan Harapan!

    Posted 7 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply

  • Maszlee is one of the many off spring from the bangsa dan agama syndrome in Malaysia which sadly ,has for years infiltrated into the education system and wreck havoc into the lives of the Malaysian rakyat. The false pride to ensure the Malay race are well educated to retain the ketuanan concept has all fall flat. It has produced volume of below par graduates and also very evidently seen too in lecturers and Professors in higher learning. instituition. Seeking intelligence in the likes of the many Maszlee's will be hard to come by as the ill education sysytem are perpetually churning out quantity of "low yield" graduates. Well if there is no sincere effort to reform the education sysytem there is nothing much anyone is abled to do about it. Anyway the whole education system is all f%$# up. It may take years and a special one who is brave and goes by unconventional method to ensure a radical change to bring it back to track.

    Posted 7 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • It is sheer insanity repeating a race-based education policy which has proven to be failures and causing irreparable damage to our country.

    Posted 7 years ago by Rupert Lum · Reply

  • Until the early 1980s a degree from most universities in India were not recognised in other countries. It is already happening to Malaysia today. Instead of improving the learner to meet the standard and demands of a good education, we are bringing down the standard of education to meet the demands of the lazy learner. What a joke!

    Posted 7 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply

  • Agree with the writer totally. Anyone worth his salt would have resigned so that another better person would take over for the good of the rakyat. Unfortunately not Maszlee, even though he is a so-called Islamic graduate. The salary and the power that comes with the minister-ship is too attractive for him to stand down. The only way is to boot him out similar to what Muhyiddin did to him when he refused to give up the President post at IIUM. Tun M will not do it. Perhaps Anwar will.

    Posted 7 years ago by T E · Reply

  • Mazlee what are you waiting? The writing is on the wall maybe you chose not to see it.

    Posted 7 years ago by Justin Leno · Reply