Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. - Mark Twain

COMMENT The PTPTN fiasco is exactly the kind of policy debate that needs to be had but so far both sides, Umno and Pakatan Rakyat (although this seems to be a purely PKR affair) have managed to reduce this complex issue into the usual toxic mix of race and religion baiting on Umno's side, with Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and an Umno-sanctioned ulama attempting to drag "Hindu cultural practices" and Islam into the mix (who can blame them when Pakatan or at least an ulama in a Pakatan-controlled state did the same (dragging the issue into the religious sphere) and populist grandstanding for the sake of political mileage on Pakatan's side, with Anwar Ibrahim's "a caring nation can never go bankrupt" if actually researched would no doubt prove the opposite.

Those scrappy students attempting a prolonged camp out at Dataran Merdeka hoping to emulate some kind of 60s popular student protest or maybe even an American ‘Occupy' type howl of frustration should perhaps have timed their sense of outrage so it coincided with the upcoming Bersih rally, much like how Himpunan Hijau have decided to march in solidarity or should that be sit, with the Bersih crowd.

It was amusing to read that one of the rather prosaic chants reportedly heard at the rally was "Umno-BN capitalist suck" (I'll leave out the ‘Rosmah' opprobrium) which begs the question would PKR-Pakatan capitalist be more palatable to the students?