YOURSAY ‘For now and the future, can someone put us all on the correct path?’
Dr M: Give rakyat poor education to stay popular
Swipenter: Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, you are very forgetful. We did have schools where children of different creeds and cultures came together to study and play before you started to meddle with it.
Now you are seeing the results of what you did to our education system when you were the education minister.
1) That Umnoputras and/or language chauvinists use Bahasa Malaysia for political reasons to further their political agenda.
2) Many don't give two hoots about it privately.
3) They send their kids to local or overseas private schools that have English as a medium of instruction. They know BM has limited usage whereas English is a language of commerce, science and knowledge.
4) You indirectly revived the popularity of vernacular schools.
5) The non-Malays (even Malays now) have valid reasons to send their kids to Chinese vernacular schools and they have been proven right.
6) Politics and religion creep into our schools.
7) Now our education is in a big mess, producing sub-quality students and graduates.
MingXiang: Didn't you see it coming, Tun? And what did you do? You introduced the teaching of Science and Maths in English at the tail-end of your tenure as PM. What a dumb thing to do.
It was beyond salvage by then because the quality of our teachers so far as the command of the English language went was way below par. Sure, they probably scored distinction in that subject but that ‘A’ was, at best, equal to a ‘P7' of your day and mine.
You were a big part of the system that screwed up the entire education system so why the lamentation now as if you played no part in it at all.
Just as well I inculcated the love of reading - in English, of course - in my two sons and now they both are more than gainfully employed. Guess what, Doc? They both speak and write fluently in BM.
Anonymous #40538199: "Even all his grandchildren now go to international schools or study abroad, Mahathir said" and "Then the ministers’ children, against national policy, started going to private schools and international schools."
Instead of blaming the vernacular schools for causing disunity in the country, the party owes the rakyat - Malay, Chinese, Indian and ‘lain-lain’ (others) included, an explanation and apology.
There is no need to debate in the upcoming Umno general assembly. They should take the opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness from the rakyat.
Rupert16: The fact that Dr M's grandchildren are not studying in kebangsaan schools confirms what we all already know about the poor quality of our public education system.
Before the days of Dr M becoming PM, the private schools were for public school dropouts and lousy students, but now the opposite has happened. So it is obvious who is to blame - and Dr M should blame himself instead of pointing fingers at others.
Anon1: Dr M, speak to your good buddy, the present education minister, and put things right. On another point, some ministers' children, although they obtain quality and expensive education either in private schools here or public schools in the UK, still end up talking gibberish like their parents the moment they step into the BN camp.
J Yeoh: It is true to say that in the past private schools were for students who could not go into the national schools after UPSR, but now the scenario is reversed, most parents want their children to go to the private schools where they will have better prospects.
Education minister, please study the phenomenon and do something to rectify the situation. Education is the most important vehicle to move our country forward. We don’t want our country to depend on imported human resources.
Fair Play: As time is nigh, why not just admit it. After over 50 years in control of destiny of the nation, the powers-that-be had failed miserably in uplifting the standard - of education, wealth and wealth distribution - of the rakyat, especially of the majority community.
You wanted to create a few bumiputera billionaires or millionaires to enable them to uplift the standard of living of their community. Pray, tell us what is the end result?
And you had been the longest-serving PM ever to date. What is even worse, the Malaysian Chinese community has been vilified and blamed for every setback by the majority community. And this is still going on.
What a shame. The nation might have overtaken Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea if and only if the powers-that-be could and would acknowledge that all of us are Malaysians first and everything else second.
James1067: So how do we correct the mistake made? The problem started when the quality of education started to decline in the national schools and meritocracy was abandoned.
Improve the quality of education and stop the politicians from controlling the education system. Let dedicated educationists and experts start to charter a course for the future of the children that they would not just be kampong champions but world beaters like it was in the past.
Education is expensive nowadays and if everything is above board in the national schools, there will be a return of the Chinese and Indians to the national schools, and poor Malays will have excess to better quality education like the rich kids.
Sodom Me Sodom You: Mahathir, this isn't a recent development. Were you asleep as the private and international schools blossomed uncontrollably the past decade? Many Malaysians have lost their faith in the national education blueprint.
Like everything else championed by the BN government, education policies are another means of the rich cronies to pocket millions while the intended recipients, schools and students end up with crap. There is racial profiling and the teaching of manufactured history aimed at poisoning the young minds.
No need to complain, Tun M, you already have many billions that you can use to educate your whole family for 25 generations. It's only the non-crony Malaysians who actually need to worry about things like inflation, taxes, etc.
Negarawan: Racial polarisation is Malaysia is largely caused by the racial policies of Umno, and racial/religious extremism within Umno, not so much because of the vernacular school system.
Umno is trying to close down vernacular schools because it wants to indoctrinate non-Malays and non-Muslims with the ‘ketuanan Melayu’ and ‘ketuanan Islam’ ideologies.
It wants to wipe out other cultures and religions so that the Malay culture, religion, and language will be perceived as supreme. This is the hidden agenda of Umno, just like the hidden agenda in Sabah and Sarawak to gradually dilute the Christian and non-Muslim communities.
The rakyat is not blind. Many leading nations strive to preserve diversity, not quell it like what Umno is trying to do. In diversity lies unity.
GMK: Malaysia has the money and resources to improve the standard of English but without compromising on the importance of the Malay language. It was simply due to inept leadership that education has come to this bad shape.
Proarte: What did Mahathir do as education minister to bring back English as the medium of instruction in secondary schools? The answer is zilch!
It is his guilt speaking now. He himself promoted a policy of keeping Malays dumbed down and poor so that Umno could be seen as their saviours. Malays sadly are permanent pawns to be exploited and abused for Umno's benefit.
English is a 'neutral' language and has the ability to bring all races together - Kadazan, Iban, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sikh and Orang Asal. It is also an international language which opens those proficient in it to greater access to world knowledge.
But Umno is scared that Malays might become conversant in English, the universal language of knowledge. They are also scared that it will also be a language of unity.
So Bahasa Malaysia it is for the Malays in their dumbed-down education system.
Raja Chulan: Whatever happened in the past, we can argue until the cows come home. But for now and the future, can someone in the government put us all on the correct path?
National schools a case of Proton vs Honda
The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .
These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.
