The New Straits Times of Oct 19, in the section "Learning Curve", had Prof Shamsul Amri Baharuddin describing why Malaysia needs an Institute of Occidental Studies. Somewhere in the interview, Prof Shamsul said, and I quote: "That is because we have never been there. We went there to study but we never studied them. We never understood them, we don't want to understand them".

This is a confession of what has gone wrong with our approach to education. Thousands of our students, especially Malays, have been to the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the last 40 years. Yet we have not learnt anything from studying overseas? Why? Is it because these students are cloistered together, so strictly supervised by a Malay, until these students don't even have the chance to mix with the locals?

This was an opportunity of a lifetime to get to know the host country and culture. Some should have even stayed with their gracious host (and they can be very gracious) but were prevented from doing so. I have been told by my Malay colleagues that the reason was "so that our students do not get influenced by Western values".

Now we want to get to know the Occident better. How are we going to do it? Obviously we have to mix with them, play with them, work with them and think with them. In other words, an

interchange of ideas, values, etc.

What a waste of 40 years of the scholarships that have sent the best brains to the developed countries.