Kemana hala tuju kita tanpa sikap toleransi untuk hidup aman dan makmur bersama

I do not know where we are headed in these times when political parties like Pas is allowed to impose their morale values on to other non-Muslims. 

Incidences and statistics showed that high unemployment, corruption, drug abuse, incest, babies born out of wedlock are many and mostly involved the Malay Muslim community... and what does a so called religious party do? they focus their attention on  concerts, dogs  and now on non muslim beer festival which is held indoors and does not involve any Muslims at all. With this kind of  so called religious political party and any other party that support Pas, the Malays will end up no where. Neither here nor there.

I think Pas in its current form would severely damage the religious and racial harmony in Malaysia patiently build up by our great leaders of the past which forms the bedrock foundation of the blessed Malaysia that we have now.

Pas offers nothing but extremism and bigotry and intolerance. Remember the Memali incident? Pas has not changed much since then, they will never change now. The moderate leaders in Pas had left to form Parti Amanah Negara.

Some interesting read:

Bekas ketua polis ingatkan kerajaan bahaya sokong golongan guna agama

KOTA KINABALU: Bekas ketua polis negara Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor berkata kini wujud satu trend yang membimbangkan dalam kalangan pemerintah untuk berusaha memenuhi permintaan golongan yang menggunakan agama untuk memperoleh sokongan daripada orang ramai.

Bercakap di forum “Malaysia in the Future” di sini semalam, Rahim berkata kecenderungan itu kini masih terhad di kawasan tertentu di Semenanjung Malaysia, tetapi memberi amaran boleh merebak jika tidak dikawal oleh pihak berkuasa.

Menurutnya, ia akan turut mendatangkan kesan terhadap kesatuan Malaysia yang menggabungkan Sabah dan Sarawak.

“Jika perkara ini diteruskan, persekutuan akan goyah dan mungkin pada masa itu, Sabah dan Sarawak akan fikir semula sama ada mereka mahu terus menjadi sebahagian daripada Malaysia,” katanya.
Rahim berkata ketika Persekutuan Malaysia ditubuhkan, ia tidak mempunyai niat menjadikan Malaysia sebuah negara Islam, kerana sekiranya demikian, ia akan menerima bantahan Sabah dan Sarawak.

Menurutnya, agama adalah isu utama yang dibincangkan oleh Suruhanjaya Cobbold, badan yang dibentuk bersama oleh kerajaan British dan Tanah Melayu pada 1962 untuk menilai pandangan rakyat mengenai gagasan Malaysia.

“Semua rakyat di Borneo, tanpa mengira kaum dan agama, tidak mahu agama rasmi untuk persekutuan baharu itu.

“Permintaan itu munasabah. Lagipun, terdapat banyak negara yang mempunyai majoriti orang Islam di dunia tetapi tidak menjadikan Islam sebagai agama rasmi mereka, seperti Mesir dan Indonesia yang mempunyai penduduk Islam paling ramai,” katanya.

Budaya Arab

Rahim dalam ucapannya berkata ramai umat Islam Melayu keliru antara Arab dan Islam. Katanya, ini menimbulkan kecenderungan di kalangan umat Islam tempatan mengamalkan budaya Arab, malah lebih daripada orang Arab sendiri.

Beliau menceritakan insiden di mana saudaranya mendakwa huruf bahasa Arab adalah milik umat Islam, tidak seperti huruf Rumi.

“Dia memang tidak begitu terpelajar. Tetapi ianya seolah-olah tidak ramai yang sedar, atau mungkin mereka pilih untuk tidak hiraukan yang Timur Tengah bukan sahaja didiami umat Islam, tetapi juga penganut agama lain,” katanya.

Rahim berkata beliau secara peribadi lebih suka kepada model “Pancasila” seperti di Indonesia yang tidak mengiktiraf agama rasmi.

Selepas 54 tahun, beliau berkata Malaysia masih mencari identitinya sendiri sementara rakyat kekal berpecah-belah, dan membawa identiti kaum dan puak masing-masing.

Ia diburukkan apabila penduduk di Sabah dan Sarawak tidak berasa mereka berkongsi persamaan dengan rakyat di Semenanjung Malaysia.

“Kita harus mengakui yang selain daripada mempunyai penjajah yang sama, Semenanjung Malaysia dan Borneo sangat berbeza dari segi budaya dan sejarah. Kita masih jauh untuk mencapai satu bangsa Malaysia.

“Meletakkan agama dalam perkara ini hanya akan menyukarkan lagi usaha ini,” kata beliau.

Art Harun dares PAS to prove negative impact of beer festivals

PETALING JAYA: Activist-lawyer Azhar Harun says PAS should provide statistics and proof to back its argument that the annual craft beer festival in Malaysia will increase crime rates.

“Has there been a study by PAS or survey by PAS to show that in respect of the beer festival every October the crime rate goes up? Or has the crime rate gone up in Germany every October?” he said when contacted by FMT today.

Azhar was referring to PAS central committee member Riduan Mohd Nor reportedly calling the annual beer festival a “vice festival”.

Riduan had questioned the authorities on what guarantee they could give to members of the public who are not participating in this annual event, “to ensure their safety from crime, free sex, rape and so on”.

The PAS leader had also warned that Kuala Lumpur could one day be known as Asia’s vice centre if such events are not stopped.

“It is something that is shameful for an Islamic country like Malaysia when ‘mungkar’ (treacherous) programmes can easily gain a place in society’s heart and it is allowed to be organised without obstruction,” Riduan was quoted as saying by Malay Mail Online.

Azhar, who is popularly known as Art Harun, said PAS objects to the beer festival on a yearly basis, adding that the party’s stance on this is not surprising.

He added that PAS should look at Palestine, a country Malaysia supports wholeheartedly, where the beer event is also celebrated.

“It is a Western non-Muslim event, it started in Germany and it caught on in other countries. It happens everywhere, even Palestine.

“So if people want to hold that in Publika, why are we objecting?” he said, referring to the annual Oktoberfest celebration.

Meanwhile, Azhar said in proposing the amendments to Act 355, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had claimed it would not affect non-Muslims, but now “they are already imposing their values despite what was said”.

“They said that when they want to amend Act355, it will not affect non-Muslims.

“Look at this, this is a non-Muslim event and they are already imposing their values and religion on non-Muslims.

“So where is PAS’ argument that hudud and the amendment of the law will not affect non-Muslims? It’s a blatant lie to me,” Azhar said.

According to him, Kelantan does not celebrate the beer festival, but the state has the highest drug addiction and AIDS rate there.

Referring to Riduan’s warning that there could be “extremist” actions in response to the “treacherous programme”, Azhar said it did not sound like a warning but like a threat instead.

“People will be worried. It is an irony PAS has come up with this when our Prime Minister (Najib Razak) has gone to meet US President Donald Trump,” he said.

Zaid says that if PAS is unhappy with the festival they should protest against Najib and not the people.

Zaid says that if PAS is unhappy with the festival they should protest against Najib and not the people.

Meanwhile, DAP’s Zaid Ibrahim said if PAS was unhappy with the festival, it should bring its concerns to Najib, not the people.

“Why protest and then make a political case out of it? You want to ban the festival go and see Najib,” Zaid told FMT.

FMT has contacted the organisers of the Better Beer Festival 2017, MyBeer Malaysia, and is awaiting their response on the issue.

The Better Beer Festival will be held from Oct 6-7 in Publika.


The festival is set to showcase 250 different craft beers from 43 independent breweries from 12 countries, and also includes a variety of food and live performances.

Stand up to bigotry, ex-Treasury sec-gen tells KL mayor

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 -- Former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim urged the Kuala Lumpur mayor today to defend the city’s cultural and entertainment life from racial and religious bigotry.

Expressing concern over Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) ban of a beer festival in a shopping centre following objections from Islamist party PAS, Mohd Sheriff said bending to pressure groups and cancelling music and cultural festivals last minute would affect the capital city’s economy.

“It is worrying to see that the DBKL is giving support to the anti-social elements who want to dictate our lifestyles according to their religious beliefs,” Mohd Sheriff said in a letter to the editor.

“We are seeing political and religious groups making demands for Muslims to be treated separately from other Malaysians at public laundry shops and toilets, at supermarkets, at cinemas  and for liquor sales to be outlawed in majority Muslim residential areas. The DBKL ban on beer festival has encouraged these groups to be more brazen in their demand,” he added.

DBKL rejected an application from Mybeer (M) Sdn Bhd to organise the Better Beer Festival 2017 scheduled next month at a shopping centre, with police claiming that the craft beer event had to be cancelled due to a terror threat. The festival was previously held annually since 2012 without incident.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor reportedly said today that DBKL would not reconsider the ban despite the organiser’s assurances of security measures, claiming that the beer festival violated the law because it involved the sale of liquor in an open area.

Mohd Sheriff pointed out that despite terror attacks in Europe and the United States, Western authorities did not respond by banning public gatherings and festivals.

“Instead, the western leaders have reiterated the need for the civilian population to face the threats with vigilance and go on with their daily life as usual. These countries are determined to  stand by their values of freedom and show to the hate groups that the western democratic way of life will not change whatever the threats,” he said.

The former senior civil servant noted that the government was spending billions to make Kuala Lumpur one of the most liveable cities in the world and to improve the capital with trendy architecture and modern infrastructure.

“All this beauty will go to waste if the city administrators give way to the few religious ideologists who want to impose their conservative values on our lifestyles. KL must not be allowed to become a hermit city with no life,” said Mohd Sheriff.

Similarly don't force unto others what you deem as your right. That's extremism. https://t.co/DXHj4wC08h

— Musa Hassan (@TSMusaHassan) September 23, 2017

After 60 years of Merdeka, Where art thou Malaysia?

I think this report is one of the better essays on the state of Malaysia's Education System after 60 years of Merdeka. From the Malaysian Insight:

Education in Malaysia: Much ado over language

A LOOK at developments in Malaysia’s education system over the past six decades show how the Malay language has largely dictated national education policies.

However, hopes that it would be a unifying language to achieve nation-building through the education system have not materialised, and in terms of academic performance, Malaysia has not yet scored above the global average in baseline assessments for pupils in mathematics, science and reading.

“There has always been contestation over language since the British,” Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said.

In the years leading to Merdeka, proposals were made to “unify” the Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil schools, which were using different syllabuses and languages.

But every proposal, Zairil said, attracted objections as each community felt it was at the losing end.

The Razak Report – named after then education minister Abdul Razak Hussein – marked the beginning of Malaya’s standardised national education system. It integrated all schools, classifying them as “national” and “national-type” schools.

“The Chinese and Indian communities were upset with their loss of vernacular secondary education. The Malays were unhappy with the prominence of English-medium schools, feeling that they were ‘too English and not enough Malay (language)’,” he said.

When the May 1969 post-general election racial riots happened, English-medium schools took a direct hit with the change of guards in the government. The then-education minister Mohd Khir Johari – Zairil’s pro-English school father – was removed.

Abdul Rahman Ya’kub from Sarawak, a Razak ally, became education minister and announced in July that English-medium schools would be phased out at all levels, starting from standard one in January 1970. 

DAP spokesman for education Zairil Khir Johari says phasing out of English-medium education and other education policies throughout the years have mainly been political decisions. 

DAP spokesman for education Zairil Khir Johari says phasing out of English-medium education and other education policies throughout the years have mainly been political decisions. 

By the end of 1982, the switch was completed at all levels. The policy, including the compulsory pass in Malay language to earn the school-leaving certificate, hit teachers, students and the standard of education hard.

This phasing out of English-medium education and other education policies throughout the years have mainly been political, Zairil said.

“Politicians have too much control over education. Whenever we get a new education minister, who may not even be an education professional, we get a new policy everyone must follow.  

“Many were flip-flop decisions. We saw that in PPSMI, school-based assessments and the compulsory pass in SPM English,” said the DAP parliamentary spokesman on education.

PPSMI is the 2003 “Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English” policy introduced by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to help Malaysia catch up with the English-speaking world in the age of globalisation. 

It took off but eventually came to naught in 2012 amid protests, and the teaching of the two subjects reverted to Malay.

A proposal in 2013 by then education minister Muhyiddin Yassin to make English a compulsory pass in SPM by 2016 never materialised after he was sacked from the Cabinet in July 2015.

In recent years, Malaysia's scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), although improved year-on-year, are still below the global average for mathematics, reading and science.

End one-size-fits-all policies

Zairil said long-term education policies often changed every few years before they could deliver results – a problem evident in Malaysia’s highly centralised education system.

Education matters like the syllabus and exams should be left to professional independent bodies to manage and decide, while the ministry should handle funding and making sure the system met the required standards.

“Putrajaya should not control and make one-size-fits-all policies for 10,000 schools, half a million teachers and five million pupils regardless of their different needs and circumstances,” he said.

“In the 1990s, successful education reforms in many Western countries involved decentralising the education system. You need to decentralise for education to flourish.”

In Malaysia, independent Chinese schools with their own governing bodies showed the same success, he said.

“You see better infrastructure there, and it is hard for principals and teachers not to do their best when they have parents and influential community leaders in the school boards to answer to.

“If parents have ownership over education and sit on the school boards, they will make the best decisions for their kids.”  

Political and social analyst Dr Wong Chin Huat also supports liberalising the education system. The government should respect the free market in providing education, while actively supporting weaker pupils in all schools and streams by helping them catch up.

“Our education policy so far, including the blueprint, believes in control rather than competition, and makes multilingualism a bogeyman in its reluctance to deal with the class implication of education.

“We must shift from this to embrace competition and diversity, and pursue social inclusion – the real guarantee of national cohesion,” he said.

Rethinking Malay-medium schools

Wong said Malay-medium schools have also not been successful in meeting government goals, such as nation-building, and are rarely the school of choice for parents with the means to send their kids to private schools.

Citing 2013 data, he said Malay national schools, which received the most funds, remained unattractive to non-Malays, compared with vernacular schools that were “deliberately neglected” by the government.

“There was a growing exodus of pupils from Malay-medium schools to vernacular ones, and from national schools to private and international schools, indicating a general decline in the Malaysia education system.”

As new vernacular schools are barred, Wong said, some of the top schools just become overcrowded like Johor’s Kuo Kuang primary school with 5,000 pupils at one time.

He also said vernacular schools in recent years saw more diverse enrolments than the national schools, with their more than 90% Malay population.

As schools became more homogenous, the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 sought to address racial polarisation in schools.

In 2007, a pilot project to teach Chinese and Tamil in national schools kicked off in 220 schools, as the government hoped to make national schools more appealing to non-Malays.

Wong said the situation has not changed today, so it might be concluded that the dream of nation-building through monolingual schooling via Bahasa Melayu was dead.

“Malaysia should either give up Malay as the sole medium of instruction or allow different education streams to exist and compete.” – September 4, 2017.  

My thots:

At 56, as it is, I do not see where we are going in education for our young.

I am blessed with the English medium education and together with the Johor Religious education system had helped made me a balanced person.

As long as Education Policies are driven by politics, the system will be at the mercy of politicians in office and language and religion pressure groups with their own vested agenda which does not necessarily coincide with the interest of our young.

I pray that one day GenX leaders will come out to reinvent our education system to compete with current and future global challenges.

We are now living in a borderless, wired and connected world ...... change or get left behind.