Seige mentality of some SJK (C) governors

Below is an article extracted from the blog http://www.hannahyeoh.com/ of Subang Jaya assemblyman, YB Hannah Yeoh which points to the seige and arrogant mentality of certain people given some "power" and authority to decides on the future of our children. I was informed there are still some unpaid amount of debt close to RM 2 million not paid to the contractor which is already overdue more that two years. Why are the people managing the hall still acting like they are so loaded with cash! - Loka

The SJK (C) Chee Wen hall was built with 100% donations from the public, including parents of the students and followers ofall religions and  members of all political parties!

SJK(C) Chee Wen and its Board of Governors

A new DAP branch in USJ 1 is being established and under the leadership of DAP Selangor, this new branch is planning a fund-raising dinner in March 2010. We were looking for a suitable venue for the dinner and the idea of having it at a hall in the only school in USJ 1, SJK(C) Chee Wen was considered. It had a suitable hall which would be able to accommodate the dinner crowd and the rental of the hall would go some way towards the school's building fund. I approached the Advisor of SJK(C) Chee Wen's Board of Governors (BOG) Dato' Lee Hwa Beng to find out if the school hall would be available for rent.

Dato' Lee was very helpful and he assured me that any party, as long as the rent is paid, should be able to use the school hall. I also spoke to the school principal and we were told to fill up the booking form. We then submitted the booking form, made a deposit payment of RM1000 and received an official receipt DS No. 00124 from the management of the school.

Several days later, we were informed by the school that its BOG has decided to block us from using the hall. I spoke to Dato' Lee and he graciously assured me that he would speak to the BOG again. I received a final call from Dato' Lee that the BOG will not change its mind and that we would still be unable to use the hall.

Parents of the school must hold the BOG to a professional standard in managing the affairs of the school, and not allow such politicking to override the best interest of the school. Many parents and well-wishers contributed to the building fund of the school irrespective of their individual political beliefs. Schools are not tools to be used to serve the shallow interests of certain politicians sitting in the BOG. I've said this before, I'll say it again now - 'Set our schools free!'

PPSMI - another rally?

Gapena and Dong Zong must have felt a sense of glory and victory. Both organizations campaigned vigourously for the teachings of Mathematics and Science in English in schools to be scrapped and revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national primary schools and Mandarin and Tamil in national-type primary schools. The policy has now been reverted to pre-2003 by the government.

The government can now claimed they listened to the voices of the people while both the organizations can declare they are the rakyat heroes. Really? Are the views of the actual receipient stakeholders, the parents and students has been really taken into consideration when decision on this matter was made.

The policy to teach Maths and Science in English was launched during Tun Mahathir's tail end term as PM. He was very eager to get the policy implemented as fast as possible. Leaving no stones unturned, his machinery works to the fullest to ensure all system goes as planned in time.

There were opponents to this policy change but I can't recalled Gapena as one of them or even those in the Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI (GMP). The more vocal opposition to the PPSMI came from the Chinese educationist group Dong Zong.

To neutralised the opposition from Dong Zong, a mammoth gathering to show the Chinese community supports for the PPSMI was organised in 2002 at Stadium Putra. The crowds were there but the audience consists mostly those mobilised by Malay-based organizations. The so-called Chinese community's support was all-over the indoor stadium - but in the shape of standard banners and buntings with names of many unheard of Chinese-based guilds and clans. These banners parade was actually coordinated by a Chinese clan leader. C0-incidentally he was awarded a datukship months later for his service to the nation.

Now the policy is already reverted and expected to be fully executed by 2012, voices of dismayed especially from parents who are in favour of PPSMI are getting louder by the day. The question is why these voices of concern were not heard or taken into considerations by Gapena and Dong Zong when both organizations campaigned against PPSMI? Can it be these organizations are just speaking for themselves, meaning the committee members, without the imvolvement of the real stakeholders - the parents and students.

Maybe it's the parents themselves that have to take the blame. They did not voice out loud enough to be heard. Maybe they should have rallied all parents and marched to the Agong's istana to submit a memorandum in favour of the policy. Is it too late to have one now? From previous incidences, it seems that's how one get noticed and have the ears of the government nowadays if you have any issue that need the government's attention.

Or maybe other than the online survey, Mahathir can get the Chinese clan guy to organized a rally at the stadium? Maybe not, Mahathir is no more the PM and do not have the clout and power as in 2002. Those NGOs which supported his policy the last time had turn against him this time around. Maybe the real stakeholders, the parents and students affected by the turn around policy might attend in person to rally behind him and bring along banners of support too. - Loka

University for dummies

Is the purpose of enrolment into an university is just to earn an academic qualification? Or is it a challenge and opportunity to equipped oneself with the necessary knowledge and other softskills to face the real world beyond the ivory tower upon graduation?

Is the trend of achieving academic excellence and scoring string of As in the school education system since the last 15 years or so already penetrated the universities? Are undergraduates getting too exam oriented and missed out on the golden opportunity to really experience life as a student in a university?

Participating in activities which do not contribute to their CPGA are just not in their daily calender. Maybe with the exception of those students who aspires to be in the political arena after graduation. But then not everybody wants to be a politician nowadays. It is just not on their list of " What I want to be when I grows up".

The much maligned occupation and political parties being regarded as one of the most corrupted certainly will not attract those undergraduates who are getting use of swearing at politicians whenever something went wrong in the country.

Do not get it wrong. Being active in campus activities does not means the person wants to be somebody in the political arena in the future. Getting involved in campus activities is to educate onselves to be more wholesome in their personal development and able to look at things with a bigger and clearer perspective.

Those who are prepared to accept the opportunity and challenge to stand on stage speaking to tens or hundreds or even thousands of people will find these experiences beneficial in the working world later. Most if not all the jobs in the world need us to open our mouth and talk to living persons. Maybe except the cemetery night shift caretaker.

Leadership skills can be derived from the books and the lecturers, theoritically. To really learn and practise it, it need oneself to experience it personally. The triumph, despair, glory and failure in crisis management and trouble-shooting need the actual participation of the person seeking the experience. It is through self experience that enables oneself to understand the strength and limitation within onself and to strive harder to be better the next time.

University is the place to pursuit academic excellence and also capacity building. There is no doubt about it. But does the authorities and undergraduates realized this? - Loka

Malaysian or Indonesian kids?

Recently I attended a district level Bahasa Malaysia speech contest for students of Chinese-medium primary schools ( SJKC) to provide moral support to my son who was representing his school.

After few contestants had presented their speech I realised something odd is happening. If I closed my eyes and just listen to the speeches, I would have thought there are some representatives from Indonesian schools!

Some of the contestants spoke with great confidence but the way they speaks sounds like those Indonesian that we meet at coffeeshops or construction sites or maids in Malaysian homes. The Malaysian Chinese kids are speaking like Indonesians!

I suspect these child speakers with Indonesian slang must have learned their language from their Indonesian maids at home. These Indonesian maids living under the same roof as their employers spend a substantial time with these kids since they were babies and it is not suprising if these kids are learning spoken Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia.

The only time that the kids are expected to learn and speak Bahasa Malaysia at school was during the class lessons for the language but it is only between three to four hours a week. The learning opportunity will be lesser if the Malay language teacher prefer to speak in English or Mandarin to their students.

The ongoing debate on the ill treatment of some Indonesian maids and the decision of the Indonesian government to stop sending their maids to Malaysia is not the only maids related issue that need attention. The tendency of the Malaysian kids especially those of Chinese descent speaking Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia is something the powers-that-be and other interested parties need to ponder when addressing the Indonesia maids issue.

Unknowingly, Malaysia is already been slowly colonized culturally by Indonesia from within the comfort and security of our own homes. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise if the Indonesian government decides to stop sending their women as maids to the Malaysian homes.

As for my son, he did not win the speech contest but neither did he speaks in Bahasa Indonesia. We do not have an Indonesian maid. - Loka

To school with heavy burden

New school term begins today. Many parents has been visiting the shopping complexes and shops for the past few weeks to purchase school items for their school going kids. With the slowing down of the economy, every cent counts and parents are always on the look out for the best bargains. It will totalled up to few hundred bucks to a thousand if a family have four school going kids especially if they are buying those branded items.

For those kids who don't mind having non branded school shoes, a pair of canvas and rubber white shoes can be bought as low as RM3.99. Buying a pair of a local made popular brand because other kids having it too, it will cost at least RM 20.00 to RM40.00 a pair. Each kids will need at least two pairs each.

When it's time to pack the bags for school, it is normal if the school bags with the books (textbook, work book, exercise books, dictionary etc), color pencils, pencil case and a filled water tumbler slotted into the bag's side pocket - with the total weight of between 7 - 10 kgs. No wonder those trolley bags is an hot item not to be left out in any school items shopping spree. Those sturdy and popular ones comes with a price tag of between RM69 - RM 109 but we will be happy if it lasts one year of schooling!

Those kids with classrooms at the ground floor will be lucky but for those at the 2nd or 3rd floors, just imagine these poor kids have to carry the 10 kilos school bags up on the stairs. If the kids weighted just about 20 kgs, they will be carrying half of their weight on 2 - 6 flights of stairs!

My elder son's bag with everything loaded weighted about 9 kilos and his classroom is situated at the 2nd floor. To spread out the weight, all his exercise books were placed in a separate hand carry document bag. My son told me his teacher advised his class not to carry school bags with contents weighted more than 15% of their own weight. Most of the kids would have failed in this school bag test. Based on the advise, a 30kgs kid cannot carry more than 4.5kgs loaded bag but most loaded school bags are more than 4.5kgs!

Can the Education Ministry comes out with a practical solution to lessen the burden of the kids. - Loka

The Peoples' Hero

The original Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Damansara in Kampung Baru Damansara, Petaling Jaya is expected to be re-opened on 5 Jan 2009, albeit with a new name SJKC Chung Hwa, for the intake of 2009 new students. The school was closed by the authorities since 2 Jan 2001 claiming over-crowding and the school's location near the SPRINT Highway which cause traffic problems . The authorities then built a new school 4km away at Tropicana to replace the new school.

The closing down of the school invited strong protests from the local residents, Dong Jiao Zong, NGO's, political parties and many others. They objected to the arguments that the school is not conducive to function as a school and for the safety of the school children.

It is such an unintelligent argument to close a school. If the argument is valid, many schools in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Ipoh and Penang would had been closed down due to proximity to highways, main roads, flyovers, monorails and LRT tracks. Some of these schools has been around for a long time and produced many society and corporate leaders.

After a long and hard fought eight years the school re-opening will be warmly welcome by the people especially the people of Kampung Baru Damansara that had struggled and supported the cause all these years.

You guys are the peoples' hero. Bravo and congratullations! - Loka

Exhibit scholarship recipients

Each year around this period of time there will be many heartbreaks. It's not due to the breakoff of love affairs or the passing of love ones but receiving letters from Public Service Department (PSD) that begins with "dengan dukacitanya dimaklumkan".

Yup, those rejected straight "As" aspirants youths of the nation whom achieved excellent results for their SPM that has expected a scholarship to study overseas from the PSD was the heartbroken ones. With just 2,000 scholarships available, it is just not enough to cater to so many applicants.

It is just not possible for all qualified applicants to be given a scholarship but it is not acceptable that those with much better grades lost out due to low points obtained during interviews which transparency is questionable and decisions can be influenced due to human weaknesses.

So what's the problem for the government to exhibit publicly the lists of those selected for the scholarships with full results of their SPM, points obtained for interviews, co-curricular activities, area of origin and course of study applied for? Let the rejected applicants sees for themselves if there are any truth in the suspicion that their so called "rights" of scholarship had been given to other less qualified applicants due selective human bias or discrimination.

Isn't meritocracy, tranparency, integrity and fairness to all the clarion call of the government? Did I miss anything or is it the government has been sleeping on the job?

Chinese and Tamil primary schools exclusive?

Minister of Education Hishammuddin was reported as saying that the current 10% quota for non-bumiputras students in government fully residential schools will not be increased. He justified this by saying that it is difficult to have a formula that can please everyone. He added if this matter is raised, people will also asked about the exclusivity of the religious schools, Chinese (SJKC) and Tamil(SJKT) national type primary schools.

I am not sure what the minister meant by exclusivity but I do know that the Chinese and Tamil primary schools welcomes anyone who wants to enrol their children in these schools. The exclusivity that I know of is that parents of Chinese primary schools have the "privilege" to contribute continuously to the financial needs of these SJKCs. I wonder if parents of Mara Junior College need to provide financial support to their children's respective government fully aided residential schools to upkeep the building and facilities in the schools?

To raise an irrelevant link between fully residential schools and the SJKCs and SJKTs based on presumption that "people" will make an issue out of this exclusivity, maybe is only in the mind of the Education minister himself. So, please address the issue directly and don't dragged innocent people to your shallow arguments!

If you are serious in creating a harmonious society amongst the Malaysian childrens, do the real thing by opening the enrolment of all government residential schools to all based on merits, just like the public universities.

The Boomerang Effect

The law of cause and effect is not something that we should take it likely. The saying," you reap what you sow" is a familiar line to many but how many really take it seriously until it strikes at us?

It seems some politicians do not take a leaf out of the recent lesson from the rakyat and still act arrogantly and do whatever they like at their whims and fancies. Just because the Pakatan Rakyat took over the government of some of the states, some childish politicians took upon themselves to issue directives to give these new state governments a hard time.

The decision to terminate the MOU on tourism with the PR state governments was uncalled for and very short-sighted indeed. Tourists, especially those from overseas do not really bothered with who rules the states. What they want is to make sure every dollar they spent is worth it. If this emotional decision by the powers-that-be affected the number of inbound tourists to these states, which draws in a large number of visitors especially Penang and Selangor, isn't these will affect the nation as a whole? The Malay proverb says," marahkan nyamuk seekor, dibakar seluruh kelambu". Because of one mosquito, burn the whole mosquito net.

Yes, those allocations will be directed to federal agencies based in the states to implement tourism programs but will it really be effective if there is no cooperation with the state governments? Are these politicians expect the rakyat to support them by punishing the rakyat? Are they saying it is ok for the PR to do the same if PR becomes the federal government and terminate all MOUs with Johore, Pahang, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis and Terengganu and withdraws all allocation?

This mentality also exists in another ministry helmed by a minister who co-incidentally was also a former youth and sports minister like the current tourism minister. As someone who has been actively involved in join programs with the youth ministry for many years, I am really dissapointed with these fellas behaviour.

The enforcement of the directive to all schools that only Vips from the education ministry can officiate in schools functions smells of a rat lurking around to ensure the PR elected representatives will be barred from gaining access to the schools. This is another action which will haunt them if there is a change in the federal government in the future.

The people's interest should be upheld disregarding who is the ruling party. What the people wants is to allow normalcy in their life. Don't these politicians understand that the general election already over more than a month ago! If they have any axe to grind, for goodness sake, please don't do it at the people's expense. You don't win the heart and mind of the people by punishing them but by prooving your worth by providing outstanding services to the rakyat and out-performed your challengers!

This is like a boomerang effect. What you throws out will come back to you. If you can't grab it rightly, the boomerang will smacked you in the face!