RE-BUILDING MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

By Stephen Ng I find it amusing that Education Minister, Maszlee Malik has offered to meet up with Malaysiakini’s columnist FA Abdul. He has even suggested that the meeting be broadcast “live” on Facebook, but I do not think FA Abdul needs that kind of publicity when the spotlight should be on the minister himself. I would like to turn the table around on Maszlee. If he is unable to accept criticisms and learn from public comments, he has indeed failed the test of humility. I, for one, wanted to write about the cashless payment system in schools but due to work commitment, I dropped the idea. I think this is the last thing any minister should spend his time on. My children only gets RM2 to RM3 a day. Theft is only a minor problem, and to help them, I teach them to keep the money in a safe place. What’s the problem? One other reason I did not write is because I have become immune to yet another of Maszlee’s “out of the blue” ideas. Did he not previously suggest

Stop harping about scholarships given to Palestinian youths By Stephen Ng A banner circulated widely on chat groups complain that Palestinian youths are given scholarships, while local students, especially the non-Malays, get crumbs. I have been observing a certain trend when one issue after another issue is played up to create people’s dissatisfaction against the ruling coalition. While I have expressed my disgust with education minister, Maszlee Malik over his insensitive remarks lately, and have urged him either to resign or face the sack over his incompetence as a minister, we have to be fair to him. Giving scholarships to foreigners is a good initiative if we believe that the world is indeed a global village. It is better that the youths from Palestine are given a good education than to be recruited by terrorists to carry out their agenda. Before this, the private universities have also given ASEAN scholarships to deserving students in other ASEAN countrie