The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 21 Jun 2011 04:45 PM PDT 22 JUN — Sekalian pemimpin tertinggi PKR yang meninggalkan parti itu atas sendiri dan berbagai sebab mencerca parti itu dan pemimpinnya khususnya Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Antara mereka itu adalah pengikut Anwar sejak dalam Abim dan dapat rezeki dari Anwar. Dan antara mereka juga guru-guru universiti. Anwar itu seoleh-oleh tak elok langsung. Antara pemimpin PAS dulu begitu juga. Ustaz-ustaz belaka. Mereka cerca PAS secukup-cukupnya. Biasalah bagi setengah suami yang menceraikan isterinya, tak betul belaka jandanya. Tetapi tidak begitu pula bagi Lee Lam Thye, bekas pemimpin DAP yang dilihat pintar dan lincah apabila dia meninggalkan partinya menjelang pilihan raya umum 1990. Dia adalah seorang pemimpin yang seangkatan dengan Lim Kit Siang dan kehebatannya hampir menyamai Kit Siang. Ada pandangan kiranya Kit Siang berundur, Lam Thye salah seorang calon yang layak menggantikannya. Amat menggemparkan apabila dia meninggalkan DAP. Tetapi tidak pernah dia membuat kenyataan buruk tentang partinya dulu dan rakan-rakannya. Orang-orang DAP pun tidak pula memburuk-burukkannya. Semua tahu Lee Lam Thye mendapat banyak kemudahan dan peluang dari kerajaan. Kita tidak tahu apakah dia seorang yang kaya raya. Tetapi dipercayai dia adalah seorang hartawan yang tidak menonjol. Sekalian yang keluar PKR dan keluar PAS tidak keluar saja melainkan mereka dipeercayai mendapat sesuatu dari Umno dan kerajaan. Banyak mana mereka dapat itu adalah masalah mereka. Untuk mendapat semua itu mereka sanggup mencerca bekas partinya dan pemimpin yang mereka sokong dulu. Bahkan mereka sanggup menjadi jurucakap untuk memburukkan parti yang mereka pernah sertai dan pemimpin yang pernah mereka puja. Tetapi orang percaya Lee Lam Thye dapat jauh lebih banyak dari yang mereka dapat. Bahkan Lee Lam Thye mendapat kedudukan dan penghormatan yang jauh lebih baik dari sekalian yang mencerca parti dan rakan-rakannya. Pantang ada kegiatan kerajaan, mereka muncul di kaca TV memuji kerajaan begitu dan begini dan menjunjung tinggi semua pemimpin kerajaan dan parti yang memerintah yang mereka pernah tentang dan cerca semasa bersama pembangkang dulu. Tetapi Lee Lam Thye kalau muncul di kata TV dan membuat kenyataan dalam media, dia adalah bagi menyatakan sesuatu tentang kegiatannya dan kebaikan badan yang kerajaan amanahkan kepadanya. Dia diberi peranan dalam kegian PLKN. Kenyataannya tentang PLKN adalah tentang rancangan sudah berjalan dan apa yang perlu dijalankan baik menambah baik perjalanannya. Tidak pernah dia mengangkat melangit kerajaan yang mengatakan latihan itu dan tidak pula memuji-muji menteri yang memberi penghormatan kepadanya. Sehingga ini Lee Lam Thye adalah seorang yang dihormati oleh semua pihak dalam masyarakat. Malah dia lebih dihormati dari setengah menteri MCA. Menteri-menteri baik Melayu dan bukan Melayu tidak terlepas dari cacat celanya. Rakyat menilai prestasi dan penampilan mereka. Setakat ini tidak ada yang memberi pandangan negatif tentangnya, pada hal dia adalah seorang pembangkang yang banyak dan lama mengkritik kerjaan dan Umno. Tidak ada yang merasakan dia telah diperalatkan oleh pemimpin BN bagi memburukkan partinya. Inilah bezanya bekas pemimpin DAP ini dengan lain-lain bekas pembangkang yang meninggalkan parti. Tidaklah bererti meninggalkan pembangkang itu tidak betul belaka. Tetapi biasanya orang yang meninggalkan pembangkang dan menjadi penyokong tegas parti yang memerentah tidak diberi penghormatan tinggi oleh masyarakat bahkan mereka tidak dipercayai oleh setengah pemimpin dan penyokong kerajaan. Antara mereka diberi layanan menggalakkan selama mereka berguna bagi memburukkan parti yang ditinggalkannya. Mereka dapat merebut peluang kebendaan untuk sementara dan diberi jawatan baik, tetapi antara mereka ada yang tidak dikendaki lagi. Tetapi Lee Lam Thye terus diberi penghormatan. Dan dia terus tidak dapat digunakan untuk memburukkan parti dan bekas rakan-rakannya. Inilah yang orang politik perlu belajar dari Lee Lam Thye. Sesiapa yang hendak melompat dari pembangkang ke pihak kerajaan, contohinya sesuatu dari Lee Lam Thye. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Killing the teachers, zombifying our children Posted: 21 Jun 2011 04:41 PM PDT JUNE 22 — There is only one thing our schools are good for these days: Creating the living dead. I don't just mean our "national" schools but all our schools. An education these days is not about preparing the next generation for the future, but the business of scoring on standardised tests. We covet soulless parrots, with the ability to regurgitate whatever information was crammed down their throats along with the insipid "values" our education system attempts to inculcate. Moral Education, for instance, is a stupid subject that exists only to allow students to get one more A. When I was part of the Barisan Nasional Youth Lab (yes, taxpayers, I apologise for wasting your money), I remember one member spouting that what our kids needed were guides on "how to study." Essentially, his idea of education was teaching children the best way to study to get the highest marks. The amazing thing was how the other lab members shot him down, some with biting, cutting remarks. The poor bloke never came back to another lab session. But who can blame him? Achievement is based on testing, scoring, exams. I wait for the day that students' worth is not measured by how many A's they can score but for their unique talents. That day will not come too soon for our overburdened teachers trapped in a system that makes it challenging to do what they're supposed to do — teach. Teachers I know have a snarky alternative meaning for our national curriculum, KBSM. They say it stands for Kerja Berat Sampai Mati (work hard, until death). Look at the workloads teachers have to cope with and you would probably agree with them. Teaching, like journalism, is not a profession for those who want to get rich. It is hard work, made complicated by bureaucracy and whoever is heading the Education Ministry. It is no secret that the education portfolio is a coveted one, for it gives its bearer the power to drive high-visibility initiatives that in the end, seem to benefit no one. How can you expect teachers to concentrate on the business of educating their charges when they have countless reports to hand in on various useless minutiae? Let the administrators administrate, and the teachers get on with the business of moulding young minds. A friend of mine recently joined the Teach for Malaysia initiative; her eyes go all starry-eyed when she talks about how fresh, unspoiled graduates will go in and change the lives of deserving underprivileged children. She got quite upset by the reception and cynicism she met from teachers who told her that it was a waste of time trying to teach the children of hawkers or of particular races. That these children would not, no, could not amount to anything. She says these jaded teachers give up too soon. That if they know their charges aren't being fed enough, they should be doing more for the children, meeting up with the parents personally and actively make a difference. The Teach for Malaysia teachers will do all that and more, hunting for sponsors for underfed children if they must. I hate to sound like a spoilsport but she highlights one problem with our society — we ask far too much of our teachers and give little in return. For too little pay for too much work, teachers are supposed to be godparents as well? I'm not saying there aren't bad teachers. Plenty of teachers neglect their charges at school, prioritising those monied enough to pay them for after school tuition. There are the lazy ones who became teachers because they wanted an "easy" job or could not secure another profession. These individuals should be culled from the teaching body and told they are not welcome. As the saying goes, it takes a whole village to raise a child. Therefore it takes a nation to raise all our children. We shouldn't be vilifying our teachers and pointing the blame in their direction. The system has failed them. We who have done nothing, said nothing, sent our children to private schools... we have failed the teachers and by doing so, failed our children. Too many of us suffer from an insidious selfishness. Why care about other children besides our own getting an education? But it is our duty as citizens to care. Politicians, for all their big speeches, cannot be depended on to push educational reform with a political agenda. Parents on the other hand, will do it because they are parents. They know better than most that bringing up a child shouldn't be graded with a KPI. It is time for parents to step up to the plate at schools, support those tasked as temporary guardians. One school might not change the system but all the schools together, demanding educational reform? We just might get somewhere. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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