The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2011 05:03 PM PDT OCT 27 — I was having severe writer's block — eight hours in front of the computer with no words written. So I decided to watch one of my all-time favourite movies, "The Prestige". I had watched it many times before but in the state where my mind was not at its freshest, it was not Hugh Jackman or Christian Bale who grabbed my attention. It was Scarlett Johansson. You can bet your money that the reason is because of her sheer beauty and unique sexiness, on top of her acting skills, of course. Then weirdly my mind wandered off a little, to a more serious question. A question I have always pondered about, but could never quite get a truly accurate answer. The question is, dear all, how do we make the nation-building agenda sexy? Scarlett Johansson-like sexy. The nation-building agenda in my understanding are activities which are aimed at making our nation, Malaysia, a better place to live in. Or we can even extend that to efforts which make the world a better place. This can include education and transport issues as well as sports and the movie-making arena. Through my attendance of talks by speakers in regards to this agenda, as well as the times where I helped host ministers to talk about issues, I can safely say getting the crowd will always be the major issue; even with free lunch, dinner or some food or souvenirs to take home. These are mainly events hosted for the benefit of Malaysian students in the UK, but through discussions with friends back home, it is pretty much the same issue back in Malaysia. Don't get me wrong. I do agree that there are keen Malaysians who will make all the effort to attend these kinds of events. But I also think it is fair to say that the number is ridiculously low and you will see the exact same people attending these kinds of events. And to make my point clearer, I will definitely say it is way easier to get 1,000 Malaysian students to buy Manchester United match tickets for £10 (RM50) rather than getting 100 of them to come to a talk on "The future of Education in Malaysia" for free. Even with lunch included. Anyone bitter will put the entire blame on the students, by accusing them of not being patriotic or nerdy enough to get off their books, or being too playful to care. However, I have to disagree. Those are convenient answers to give. The conclusion might be right (students are too nerdy, too playful or not patriotic) but to point out that the main cause is the students themselves, is very immature. The most valuable lesson I learnt so far while venturing into clinical placement in my medical degree is to not rest on the fact that a smoker smokes, but to somehow find the reason why he/she does, and how to stop it. So why do we feel less interested in these kinds of activities? First, in my honest opinion, is the boring nature of these kinds of events. Put the death of Gaddafi as the topic, you might turn a few heads, but normal events involving industry leaders talking about Malaysia's education system or perhaps the healthcare system will fade away with other unimportant Facebook updates on your homepage. It is not fun, and it is not personally mandatory to attend. But once you involve careers or personal development, it will be a different story altogether. Call it a CV workshop, or networking session with top companies or a talk by one of the top CEOs, and a full house is almost always a norm. This is because the students care about the quality of their CVs, care about the chance to network with potential employers as well as about listening to valuable tips from the top CEOs in the world — which is very understandable in a world that is increasingly competitive. So I don't think it is selfish at all for students to make time for these kinds of events rather than events on the education system or public transport. The challenge is then how to also increase participation for the latter. So I think I asked the wrong question at the beginning. The right question should have been, "How do we make more people care for forever-boring and not-at-all-sexy nation building events?' I honestly think this is a systemic problem. One related to our beloved country Malaysia. I see a lot of local (from UK) friends, who, whether or not remarkable academically, make BBC news their must read link whenever they are free. And still I see quite a number of my fellow Malaysians who are really, really smart academically but yet have no idea who the Minister of Education of Malaysia is. The need to care will definitely be absent if we students do not feel that we can do something to make any positive changes in Malaysia either within or outside our area of expertise. I honestly believe that the only way to get our youths to be more involved in the Malaysia-building agenda is to get them to feel involved from the very beginning. Acts like AUKU Section 15 is one of the obvious obstacles in achieving just that. The argument that involving students in politics might affect their studies will be ever-greenly valid, but so what? If students then realise that they want to make bigger changes through other means, why shouldn't they? Another one involves our rigid education system. It might suit Malaysians best but the addition of a module or two where students from as early as their late primary school years do research reading on non-academic but related issues might just do the trick. Or is there any other way you can think of? So long as the aim is to instill inquisitiveness above academic requirements in the most interesting way possible. I am a mere 21-year-old boy who might just be ranting on foolishly but I believe others can come out with a better solution to all these. If it is hard to arrive at one, maybe we should start by asking another question, "Do we actually want our youths to care about building our forever sweet country Malaysia?" * Ezlan is a 3rd year medical undergraduate at Queen Mary, University of London. He tweets at @ezlanmohsen. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Tunisia sudah adakan pilihan raya Posted: 26 Oct 2011 04:53 PM PDT 27 OKT — Tunisia, negara Arab yang pertama bangkit menumbangkan pemerintahan diktator sepuluh bulan lalu sudah mengadakan pilihan raya bebas mulai Ahad 23 Oktober lalu sedang Libya baru selesai berperang manakala Yaman dan Syria belum selesai berarak. Laporan dari Tunis menyebut bahawa pilihan raya bebas yang pertama itu mendapat sambutan luar biasa dari pengundi, berbeza sangat dengan pilihan raya terkongkong di zaman kuku besi dulu. Lebih 80 parti politik bertanding. Semua ramalan menjangka parti Ennahda yang diharamkan semasa pemerintahan Zene el Abidine ben Ali dulu akan mendapat majoriti. Kita lihat apa keputusannya nanti. Ennahda di Tunisia itu adalah sekutu PAS di Malaysia ini. Pemimpinnya Raceid Ghanouce – sebutan dalam ejaan Melayunya Rasyid Ghanusi – yang baru pulang dari buangan di England, mempunyai hubungan baik dengan pimpinan PAS, Al-Marhum Ustaz Fadzil Noor dan Dato Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang. Malah beliau lebih rapat dengan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Antara sumbangannya kepada PAS, beliau memberi sokongan kuat kepada PAS kira-kira sepuluh tahun lalu supaya membuka pintu kepada bukan Islam untuk menyertai PAS. Semasa rombongan pimpinan ulama di bawah Ustaz Fadzil ke London meninjau pandangan rakan-rakan parti Islam dari beberapa negara, pimpinan Ennahda itu menyokong pendapat bahawa membuka keahlian PAS kepada orang bukan Islam adalah harus. Langkah bertahap-tahap yang diambil oleh PAS membuka penyertaan bukan Islam dalam politik PAS adalah dipercayai dari pandangan sahabat gerakan Islam anatara bangsa itu. Ennahda dalam pilihan raya itu mengambil pendekatan bagi membentuk pemerintahan demokrasi yang berpandu kepada nilai-nilai Islam, malah ia meraikan fahaman sekular menjadi pegangan ramai penduduknya. Sejak Tunisia dijajah Perancis dan sepanjang zaman merdekanya lebih separuh abad negara dan rakyat diasuh dengan kehidupan dan pemerintahan sekular. Ennahda tentunya memahami pandangan dunia tentang politik Islam, sebaik mana pun cita-citanya mahu membawa nilai kehidupan Islam ke dalam masyarakatnya, ia dicurigai oleh dunia sekular. Mereka telah belajar dari perkembangan di Aljeria hampir 15 tahun lalu, majoriti besar rakyatnya memilih Fiz, parti Islam melalui pilihan raya bebas dan demokratik, tetapi tentera atas sokongan kuasa barat merampas kemenangan itu, mengharamkan parti itu dan menahan semua pemimpinnya. Dan tentu mereka juga belajar dari perkembangan di Turki yang pernah memberi peluang kepada parti Islam – Refah Partisi – pimpinan Perdana Menteri Necmettin Erbakan dan Recep Tayyip Erdogan sebagai Datuk Bandar Istambulnya. Tentera yang sekular memaksa kerajaan Erbakan dibubarkan, parti Refah diharamkan dan Erdogan diseret ke mahkamah hingga tidak boleh memegang jawatan awam untuk beberapa tahun. Bagaimana pun Erdogan membentuk parti baru AK – keadilan dan pembangunan – meraikan kehidupan sekular yang berakar umbi dalam masyarakat Turki, berjaya pemimpin kemenangan sudah tiga kali berturut-turut. Kerajaannya demokrasi yang berasaskan Islam, berjaya mengekang rasuah dan kehancuran ekonominya. Atas keruntuhan ekonomi dan akhlak yang teruk itu Erdogan menengakkan pemerintahan yang kuat dan ekonomi kukuh. Dipercayai Ennahdah mengambil perkembangan di Turki sebagai model dan sesungguhnya pemimpin Ennahdah itu adalah rakan Erbakan dan Erdogan yang lama. Pemerintahan Turki adalah dihormati di semua negara Islam sekarang. Rakyat Tunisia yang memulakan kebangkitan dalam dunia Arab sejak sepuluh bulan lalu tentunya melihat perkembangan dan pembaharuan di Turki yang dikira berjaya itu. Keputusan pilihan raya Tunisia ini menjadi perhatian kepada seluruh dunia dan ia mempengaruhi semua negara Arab yang sedang bergolak itu. Apakah Tunisia sekali lagi mendahului dunia Arab mengisi revolusinya dengan demokrasi yang berasaskan Islam? Jika yang diramalkan di Tunisia itu tetap, ia adalah satu isyarat yang menarik bagi pengundi di Malaysia yang berada di ambang pilihan raya sekarang. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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