VOXPOP 'What the government is doing is to alienate the students further by their childish action of attempting to switch off the lights during the debate.'

UUCA debate disruption: Saifuddin wants answers

Milosevic: This action is part of Najib Razak's plan to nurture the 1% of geniuses in Malaysia. It is a brilliant and simple plan. Make the 99% very stupid, and appoint deputy vice-chancellors and headmasters who are morons.

If the 99% end up as dopes (Umno will dope you for cheap) it will make the 1% geniuses by comparison. Najib's plan is bold - spend a lot of money making people stupid, so we will have the geniuses. Then induct the geniuses into Umno.

They will come up with counter-intuitive ideas such as 1Malaysia to divide the people or the Peaceful Assembly Bill to make assemblies non-existent or on the terms of the violent police or security guards.

Anonymous: What the government is doing is to alienate the students further by their childish action of attempting to switch off the lights during the debate. What are they afraid of?

The authorities are not showing any respect to the students. It will just infuriate them and this will undoubtedly be translated to votes against the government at the next GE.

Lim Chong Leong: The university authorities do not allow intellectual debate and resort to brute means to block it. And that coming from the deputy vice-chancellor. This is shameful and will definitely lower us in the university rankings yet again.

If this is Najib's way of producing one or two geniuses, then God save us all. It is more like a sure way of producing 2,000 to 3,000 unemployable graduates a year.

Wfworker: So with such tactic, BN hopes to retain that the goodwill of those students who would one day champion the people's cause?

Thianaik Tan: They are all living in fear - fear of truth, fear of facts and fear of the righteous, fear of the fearless; but ultimately, the revelation will come from divine intervention...

Compass: I wouldn't want my children to attend such universities. I pity those who have no choice.

Civil service: Fixed deposit or game changer?

Onyourtoes: The mess in the civil service is more than just about the inequitable pay mentioned in this article.

The civil service has been repeatedly used for the social engineering process, both in terms of job creation and income redistribution. Hence thousands, even though they may get only meagre incomes, are dependent on the largesse of the government for survival - secured ‘jobs', regular income and pension security.

The issue confronting the civil service is really at the macro level - first, whether or not the government can afford to employ so many government servants, and second, what is the implication on manpower needs in this country with so many in our workforce working for the government?

Resolving these two issues now may work against the popular votes but these are fundamental and essential to the long-term survival of this nation.

The civil service is really oversized, from whatever perspectives one may look at. That it's a drain on public finances is already well known and well documented. But more than that, an oversized public service is an impediment to efficiency in running of an economy.

The more the number of civil servants, the more they must create activities (not output, please don't get confused with this) for themselves.

Hence, we are one of the most over-regulated economies in the world. To solve the fundamental problems confronting this nation, leaders ought to think medium and long term, but I can understand that is the least of their concerns for now.

Cala: To me, the issue of whether a pay rise given to the bureaucracy will help the regime in securing the much-needed votes in the coming GE is open to question based on two observations:

i) The behaviour of bureaucracy.

ii) Their response to the conduct of the regime.

First, while many feel that collectively the bureaucracy and the dominating ruling parties are one organism, one cannot rule out the fact that individually a civil servant may have his own idea and goal in doing things. So the organisational goals and individual preferences may not meet (Allison, 1971; Simon, 1957).

Second, many I believe, are sick of the regime known to encourage rent-seeking activities of the highest order. Mind you, who else can see the true colours of the regime if not for those in the bureaucracy?

Disgusted: It's not the older folks who will bear the cost of the sins committed by Umnoputras, but the younger generation.

The country's deficit is escalating, the corruption index is rising, so too are our cost of living and crime rate, while our standard of living is declining, except for Umnoputras.

Also declining are our educational standards, social interaction and unity amongst races, human rights and personal freedom, foreign investments - all these factors will be faced by younger generation.

Tsc: For the sake of getting some votes, the price is bankrupting the country. Haven't we learned from the Greek tragedy of a bloated, under-worked and overpaid civil service?

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