Jumaat, 27 April 2012

Philosophy Politics Economics

Philosophy Politics Economics

Muhyiddin Most Blinkered to Think Malaysian Education as "Highly Regarded"

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 10:57 PM PDT

After being ridiculed two weeks ago for claiming that Malaysia has a better education system than Britain, the United States and Germany, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has continued to give lavish praise on the Malaysian education system.

The Education Minister cited a recent survey by Introspek Asia, which revealed yesterday that 55 per cent of Malaysian adults believe that our education system is comparable to other countries, while 35 per cent said it is "better than that of developed countries".

"This finding is interesting as it reflects a positive attitude among a majority of Malaysians toward our education system," he said today in his keynote address at the Asian Strategy and Learning Institute's (ASLI) 16th Malaysian Education Summit here.

This is despite the fact that PEMANDU has accepted the fact that our education system clearly lags behind most other countries.  Tengku Nurul Azian, the Education National Key Result Area (NKRA) Director has highlighted that based on the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2009+ study, Malaysian students were ranked in the bottom 30% when tested against students of 74 countries around the world on BFM89.9 yesterday evening.

In terms of reading literacy, we were ranked a poor 55th.  In Mathematics literacy, it was 57th and faring only marginally better in Science at 52nd.

The Deputy Prime Minister has intentionally chosen to ignore the above study, but also another more comprehensive study which proved that the standard of education outcome has continuously declined over the past decade.

In probably the world's most comprehensive study on student performance (13-14 years old) and related factors for Mathematics and Science – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), the results in 1999, 2003 and 2007 showed a drastic decline in scores and rankings.

Between 2003 and 2007, Malaysia's score for Mathematics declined from 508 to 474 points.  The 34 point drop was the highest suffered by the 60 countries studied. By comparing 2007 with 1999, our drop in score of 45 points was also the 2nd highest in the study.

Similarly for Science, Malaysia's score dropped the highest by 40 points from 510 to 471 from 2003 to 2007.  From 1999 to 2007, we suffered a drop of 22 points, which was the second highest of all countries studied.

While the latest PISA study conducted in 2010 showed that we are ranked lowly in the world, the TIMMS data over 1999, 2003 and 2007 proved that the standards in education has been declining consistently and drastically over the past decade.  The next TIMSS report for 2011 is expected to be published later this year and we can only hope against hope that there will no longer be any bad news.

Instead of sounding the alarm bells and take urgent actions to arrest the decline in our education standards, Tan Sri Muhyiddin has chosen to lavish praise on our outstanding education system as an example of the Barisan Nasional government's impeccable leadership.  This clearly demonstrate that our Education Minister is completely blinkered and chooses only to believe and rely on highly questionable survey reports.  If he continues to remain blinkered as he has over the past two weeks, then perhaps it is better that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will find a better replacement Minister.

We call upon Tan Sri Muhyiddin to provide his views on the above internationally accredited studies on our quality of education and to publish all recommendations by PEMANDU to his Ministry to ensure all recommended measures have been or are being implemented.

UUCA Amendments Proved Meaningless

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:55 PM PDT

A student from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP) has been slapped with a 66-day academic suspension and RM100 fine for supposedly organising a programme to raise awareness of voting, allegedly linked with pro-opposition groups.

Mohd Zaini Izuwan (left), 25, said he was accused for organising the program at a restaurant in Kangar on Jan 13 which involved 14 student groups from Perlis, Kedah and Penang.  The program, named 'Watch 13', is an initiative by the student coalition to raise public awareness of the importance of voting in the coming general election.

Mohd Zaini has protested his innocence that he was at the event as an observer and not an organiser.  He also complained that he was not allowed to bring any witnesses or to question the "prosecution" witnesses during the disciplinary hearing.

The above incident reported on 21 April, just 2 days after the Universities and University Colleges Act 1972 was "amended" to give students greater freedom proves beyond doubt the lack of genuine intent at reform by the Barisan Nasional government.  It also exposed how the amendments fell far short of what is required to give Malaysians students the necessary room to express themselves freely.

While the new Amendment Bill has taken the step forward by allowing students to join political parties, the new Act will still give absolute discretion to the University authorities to determine activities and societies deemed "detrimental" to the interest of the institution.

For example, Clause 15(2)(b) the amended UUCA Bill says explicitly that university students will not be allowed to join any organisations, societies or groups of persons (with the exception of political parties) deemed inappropriate by the University Board.

In addition, Clause 15(4)(b) also allows the university to deny the rights of its students to speak, even on his or her subject of study, in any symposium or seminar organised by any organisation or person(s) deemed inappropriate by the University.

I had moved a motion to make the relevant amendments to the above clauses in Parliament but was rejected by the Minister of Higher Education and the Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament.  The Minister had given an assurance that the new amendments will not be abused and that the Universities are sufficiently enlightened to use their discretions over the above matters.

However, as shown clearly over the above unjustified actions of UNIMAP, even if Mohd Zaini had indeed organised the event to "raise public awareness of the importance of voting" – which he has denied, the new amendments fell far short of granting academic and political freedom to the university students.

We call upon the Datuk Khaled Nordin to reprimand the UNIMAP authorities for taking such harsh and unjustified actions against a student of the university who did not commit any wrong against the institution.  At the same time, we call upon the Minister to immediately lift Mohd Zaini's suspension to prove that he was sincere in his objective to make Malaysian universities premier institutions of holistic learning and not centres for thought imprisonment.

Port Klang Authority Covers Up for Minister

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:53 PM PDT

Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman Datuk Teh Kim Poh had called for a press conference on Friday 20 April in an attempt to absolve the current PKA board as well as the Minister of Transport Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha from blame over the recent criticism they faced.

Datuk Teh had during the press conference emphasized that the previous payments of RM660 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively to Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) bondholders were made and approved by the then PKA chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng, and was a continuation of the policies of Dato' Seri Ong Tee Keat who was the Transport Minister in 2009.

He had further emphasized during the press conference that the current Transport Minister Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha did not at any point of time overturn any decision by the PKA to not pay KDSB's debt.

Datuk Teh must be either completely clueless about what had happened in 2009 and 2010 or he is just lying through his teeth to protect the boss, Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha who appointed him to his current position.

It has been widely reported in all press on 28 July 2010 that Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha has demanded that PKA make the relevant payments to KDSB bondholder.  The Sun for example reported that "Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha today used his ministerial power to override yesterday's decision by the Port Klang Authority (PKA) to refuse to make the final payment of RM222.58 million to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Port Klang Free Zone turnkey contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) to raise funds from the market."

The report further added that "when met after the MCA presidential council today, Kong said: 'We will pay according to what has been decided much earlier; according to the schedule that was set a long time ago. I will talk to them (PKA).'"

Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha had then refused to consider various suggestions to hold the payments due in escrow, to be made to the rightful parties only after the court case has been concluded.  Such recklessness can only be interpreted as an attempt to bail out KDSB from its predicament when its bondholders exercises the undertaking which has been issued by KDSB, where KDSB will be forced to make the hundreds of millions in outstanding bond repayments.

Hence Datuk Teh Kim Poh was clearly attempting to cover up for his boss with his lies by placing the blame on his predecessor. Instead of repeating his willingness to swear over the issue, I challenge Datuk Teh Kim Poh as well or Dato' Seri Kong Cho Ha to make publicly available all PKA minutes of meetings pertaining to the above payments in 2009 and 2010 to prove that it was not the latter who overturned the payment decisions.

Based on Datuk Teh's performance during the press conference where it was made obvious to anyone who watched it that he was completely incompetent and clueless over what was really going on in PKA and PKFZ, any sworn statements by him will carry very little value.  He did not even know the number of legal cases PKA has against KDSB, despite them carrying some RM1.6 billion in value.

If the minutes of meetings in PKA indeed proved that it was Dato' Seri Ong Tee Keat and Datuk Lee Hwa Beng who approved the payments to KDSB bondholders, then surely there will be nothing to lose and all to gain with the public disclosure of the PKA meeting minutes.  In fact I would like to see Datuk Teh prove Dato' Seri Ong Tee Keat wrong, when the latter claimed that it was the then Finance Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Razak who overturned his decision not to pay the KDSB bondholders in 2009.
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