RE-BUILDING MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

By Stephen Ng I cannot help it but pick up a comment from a good friend of mine, Patrick Teoh, when I saw it being viralled around. Like me, Teoh has been very quiet for some time, but for him to make an occasional remark about Malaysian Education Minister, Maszlee Malik, there is more to this than meets the eye. Teoh's words were packed with sarcasm:  "Oh sorry I must have missed it. But which 2nd language did we master already?"  Knowing Teoh as a man who would not hold back his punches, I can fully understand his frustrations. I, too, was equally puzzled with Maszlee's latest statement about wanting Malaysians to master a third language. My personal opinion is that Maszlee was merely trying to parrot former Minister of Trade and Industries, Rafidah Aziz who merely said during her school days, they could even learn French but today, French is no longer in our vocabulary. Rafidah was in fact hitting out at

Photo credit: Free Malaysia Today By Stephen Ng I find it most appalling when Education Minister, Maszlee Malik still chose to  defend  his statement made in parliament recently about urging the ustaz and ustazahs to remain in Sabah and Sarawak to make it their 'Medan Dakwah.' This, despite of all the grouses raised by Sabahans and Sarawakians. The minister is just insensitive towards the feelings of all Malaysians, and in particular, our East Malaysian brothers and sisters. Here are just some samples of what people have spoken up. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/20/swak-natives-denounce-maszlees-conversion-remark-demand-clarity/#WOh7cHf9v12Tqy0Z.41 https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/20/oh-maszlee-sabah-govt-urged-to-take-back-education-rights/ https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/20/sabah-council-of-churches-urges-maszlee-to-respect-constitution/ https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/20/minister-tread-on-racial-and-re

By Stephen Ng Former Minister of Trade and Industries, Rafidah Aziz was on holiday overseas when I posted a simple question on several chat groups. The question was simple, but it was intended to convince the Iron Lady to consider coming back to serve the nation. Hence, my question to the the chat groups was just this: "Do you all support Rafidah Aziz as education minister? Please comment and I will forward to her your comments." Within just a span of a couple of hours, the response was overwhelming. There were at least 50 comments flowing in from the few chat groups, all which I managed to forward to the former cabinet minister. I have no ulterior motive, but it is obvious that I am not the only who think Rafidah is a more capable lady to run the Ministry of Education. I reproduce the comments here: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I agree totally. Our main problem is our education system is s