UiTM again!

As published in educationmalaysia.blogspot.com under the title: unfair attacks on UiTM

Following the public demonstration by the UiTM students, we have been bombarded with popular assumptions made by people from all walks of life concerning their idea of what education is, the evil of isolationism and the importance of English. Let us list down all of these popular assumptions with a special reference to UiTM, the favourite punching bag of the day:

Firstly, UiTM is the only university in which the culture of racial chauvinism thrives. In other universities, both public and private, both local and abroad, there is a cosmopolitanism atmosphere in which differences are tolerated, and the multiracial students and faculty members are oh-so-very friendly with each other.

Secondly, the UiTM students are so unfriendly to other people, particularly to those of different races. In contrast, the students from other universities are very warm, jovial and extremely helpful and friendly with everyone.

Thirdly, the UiTM students and graduates are the only ones whose command of English is putrid and atrocious. On the other hand, all the students from other universities could speak English like the native speakers. Why, listening to them, it is very difficult to believe that they are not British, Americans or even Australians. To take this even further, the command of English of all foreign graduates is impeccable and flawless.

Fourthly, the most important commodity that a university student must acquire out of his student life is the ability to communicate well in English, since success in life is solely determined by how well you could express yourself in English.


Most people have never thought of the concept of structural inequality, at the same time they have also chosen to disregard the multitude of elitism producing factors in the society. Most of these critics still believe fervently in the simplistic assumption that if you work hard, success will be in your way. When challenged, these same high priests of meritocracy would point out to some individual examples of successes and hence the conclusion: “you see! without any crutches, only with hard work, you would and could succeed” . This view automatically assumes that the poor are poor because of their own inability and weakness. While this could normally be harmlessly allowed in an academic discourse, to firmly juxtapose this assertion on the predominantly poor malay and bumiputra communities is nothing else other than racism. Hence it is funny to notice how some people tried to portray themselves as liberals yet end up on the dung heap of racism.

The next point of attack concerns the time frame of this policy of protectionism, that is to say, how much longer should UiTM enjoy its special malay/bumiputra nature vis-a vis the affirmative action policy. Well-intentioned critics would see this as a numbers game , that taxpayers have given enough time for UiTM to enjoy its special nature and that the Malay/bumiputra sectors have considerably improved their lot in life, thereby the status quo should be changed. This writer has no qualms in accepting the imperatives of helping the poor. However this must be viewed from a particular context.

Have the malay/bumiputra improved their economic standing? A knee-jerk answer would be in the affirmative, with the ASLI’s findings thrown in to bolster such claims. Unfortunately, there exists considerable ambiguity in such findings since we still are in the dark as to whether the so-called wealth has been spread around the community as opposed to it being in the hands of a few elites. Some would argue that this would not be relevant since if it is shown on paper that the Malays have achieved the specified percentage, then theoretically, the Malays as a whole are now richer.

Another argument would be it is every man for himself , and this would be an incentive to spark and sustain future growth, whereby if a man gets RM1 million, it is his alone since it is a reward for his effort and he alone has the absolute share over the spoils. This would then be an incentive for others to work as hard as him, if not harder, and the others would surely obtain similar success . All of these so-called libertarian arguments strategically disregard the power of monopoly, historical and structural inequality of the community together with the greed factor in economics. Justice also has a social dimension to it, whereby it is unjust if the wealth of the community is in the hands of a few elites. There is no problem in supporting the move for wealth to be spread around equitably, that the use of taxpayers’ money should be done in a just manner, that there should be transparency and accountability in the policies of the government. Any reasonable person would be ready to champion such clarion call.

Historical amnesia is always deployed in trying to argue that the history of this country started in 1957/1963 and that every community was born in the said period, with no community having precedence over the other. It is also assumed that the natives of this land had no qualms in accepting any person to be part of the community without any conditions. Hence it has been bandied around that the idea of Malay/bumiputra special positions/rights/privileges is just a constitutional fiction, that the Malays readily accepted the immigrants to be the citizens of this country, embracing them with open arms even, with no prior conditions whatsoever. Some have even gone the extra mile by asserting that the Malays are not the true indigenous people of this country vis-à-vis the Orang Asli, hoping to prove that the Melakan empire together with the pre-islamic malay kingdoms were just a myth. Some of these critics have not even bothered to analyze the British colonial policy papers on the Malays, particularly on the Malay system of education. All of these ridiculous assertions could not hide the inevitable conclusion that the contention that there was absolutely no social contract made between the different races in this nation upon independence is certainly unacceptable.This writer supports equality and also the call for the affirmative action policies for the malay/bumiputra to be reexamined , which is similarly contained in the Reid Commission’s report. But to do so by disregarding the social and economic disparities of the malay/bumiputra is truly a tad too fanciful.

The main purpose of a tertiary education is not to produce graduates whose command of English is fantastic. It is to educate the student so that he could be a better person and to be instilled with good values such as empathy, trustworthiness and honesty. It is hoped that he would leave the university with a supreme conviction to do good for his family, society and the nation. This is certainly not to deny the importance of the English language. It is however a tool, rather than be seen as an end in itself. Sadly, there are numerous examples of people who got to where they are right now simply on the basis of their command of English. It does not matter if they have no work ethics, it also does not matter if they cannot be trusted to handle the key organizational issues. To the guilty employers, image is everything. As long as the “English factor” could be used to prop up the company’s image, then, why not. It has also been assumed that a good command of English would ipso facto instill some good values in the individual. This is as absurd as the assumption that a good command of Arabic would transform the person into a rabid terrorist. Our society still has an unhealthy obsession with image. As long as the person dresses well and speaks English well, preferably with a genuine sounding accent, then everything is fine although the person might be devoid of ethics altogether. We still have a long way to go in trying to get rid off this “sarong party girls” mentality from our society.

Concerning UiTM itself, many pointed out to the alleged highest unemployment rate of its graduates. What many have conveniently forgotten is that the bulk of the graduates of UiTM are made up of diploma holders. So, what would a good diploma holder do? Why, enroll in a degree course, that’s what. Hence many of these diploma holders then enroll further in degree programmes not just in UiTM, but in other universities as well , thereby earning them the title, “unemployed graduates”. This baseless criticism also assumes that all the graduates of other universities have no problems in the job market, and that they are truly in demand like hot cakes. This is again another nonsensical assumption. This view further assumes that all of the employed graduates are employed based only on merit, not on some other criteria eg, nepotism, cronyism, family connections, etc, etc, which is far from being the case as the job market is rife with such practices. As for the command of English, most Malaysian graduates suffer from this malady as a result of the education system in the schools. Even if you were to walk into the Law Faculty of UM or the law departments of any of the private colleges, you could still find some students with a poor command of English and it goes without saying that not all foreign graduates have a good command of English.

As for unfriendliness and/or racial chauvinism, this writer would be the first to say that not every one is a friendly person. With different personalities and different levels of reasoning and feeling, there would always be people who are different than us. But to simply label ALL UiTM students and graduates as unfriendly and chauvinist and at the same time to assume that all the students and graduates from other universities are virtuous role models and perfect citizens is nonsensical, beyond comprehension. In fact, to say that all of the above problems are uniquely “UiTM” or even worse, “malay/bumiputra” is definitely racism by any other name and therefore inexcusable.This writer implores all commentators to use logic and good faith in dealing with this subject. Otherwise what is intrinsically an imperative discourse would turn out to be a just a mundane arena in which we display our true persona.

freetrip to Turkey

These are among the scores of pictures that remind me of Turkey. I went there for a few weeks during the fasting month a couple of years previously, and truly, it took my breath away. Whenever i go abroad, i would always try to keep abreast with the history of the place. Now, when you talk about Turkey, there are A LOT of historical stuff that you simply have to dig in. Ancient Greek, the Hittites, early christianity, the Islamic caliphate, so fascinating!



Lately, when i read about the latest constitutional case concerning the ruling political party of Turkey, i was taken aback by the aggressive secularism practised by some minority elites in Turkey, namely, the military and the courts. Make no mistake that the ruling party had won the elections that was democratically held, hence they have the mandate to administer the country, and their legimitacy is derived from the people. The military and the courts are not representative of the people, not by any stretch of imagination that you could confer any popular sovereignty of such bodies. Simply put: they do NOT represent the people. The principle of popular sovereignty demands that people's choices are respected. But that did not happen in Turkey. NOtice that when the Parliament passed a law to allow the wearing of headscarves in universities in Turkey, that measure was struck down as unconstitutional, and that was soon followed by an attempt to bar the ruling political party from political participation.

The decision is a neither-here-nor-there type of decision. FIrstly, the judges failed to reach the required amount of votes to bar the party from the political processs. Good, or so we would have thought. But then, the COurt slashed a considerable amount of money from the accounts of the party. A slap on the hands maybe?

This secularism v Islam debate would always remind me of a blunder made by Philip Koh. He was a panel member on the unity and the constitutional framework forum a few months back. He proudly declared his support for a secular state. His reason? "If we were in Sri Lanka, the buddhists would want to see us turn into buddhists, and if we were in India, the hindu fundamentalists would similarly want to see us embrace hinduism". In other words, if Malaysia were an Islamic State, the non-muslims would be in danger of forced conversion to Islam. And this guy has a string of degrees to his name including an LLB, LLM and a master's in theology. I was totally "enthralled" by such a stunningly captivating display of reason as to why Malaysia should not be an Islamic state. Has this guy ever heard of the "no compulsion rule in Islam" principle? If anyone would simply point out to the mess created by the Subashini and all the body snatching cases, wouldn't you agree that those mess are due to the obfuscation in jurisdictional conflicts rather than the nature of Islam itself?

When muslim women are forcibly prevented from wearing their headscarves, the outrage by the international community does not reach the same level as compared to forced veiling. The silence is deafening, particularly in light of feminist writings that explore the calamity experienced by women in de"veiling", similar to the forced "burqa"nized policy of the Talibans. Could you imagine the bimbos defending the right to wear the headscarves? Hilarious! Reason as employed in political philosophy to bolster the aims of liberalism and libertariansm seems to be anathema in islamic discourses. Here, while the clamour for the release of the Hindraf 5 from ISA is near to deafening proportion, you could almost hear the pin drop concerning the fate of those arrested for suspicion of close contacts with "islamic terrorists" .

Anyway, is there anything sacred in the Constitution? The Turkish Courts have demonstrated yet again that secularism is not something to be trifled with since that is the Turkish State's "identity". An easy question to that would be :since when? History books would tell you that it only came about when Mustafa Kamal took control over the reign of power, which was as a result of extreme disappointment with the last Turkish Sultans. If the identity of Turkey could change from an Islamic sultanate/caliphate to an agressive secular State, what pray, tell me, could stop the people from reverting back to an Islamic State? Isn't there a fundamental tenet in political philosophy that the present generation could not be shackled to the aims and desires of previous generations? And isn't the constitution a flexible document of destiny that can and must be amended to suit the needs and wants of those living ? But then, why stop here? Extend these discussions with reference to our constitution, ad that's exactly what i am doing right now. Wish me luck Really need all the luck that i could get.

private practice

Our eyes tell a lot about ourselves. The shade of our eyes betray the mood that we are in; the lines around our eyes portray our stormy journey in life. We can’t keep these in a closet and hope that they remain there incognito, to be examined only by ourselves. No, as much as we like to keep our secrets safe, it easy to read a person just by looking at the eyes.

Someone said somewhere that it is the pain that we have gone through that makes us human. The sorrows, heartaches, frustrations, disappointments, humiliations and failures are just the things in life that make us real, that separate us from the pretentious crowd. Someone has also said that what does not kill us will make us stronger.

Everyday we pray that we are spared from pain, emotionally, mentally, physically. But it seems too good to be true. We go through life trying to mask our pain. In this regard, sometimes we do stupid things. Retail therapy and eating are the most common sought after remedies. Who hasn’t blown up his budget just trying to get over a blinding heartache? Or do you know anyone who hasn’t tried bingeing after a particularly humiliating rejection? Does it work? More importantly, is there a real remedy for a broken heart ?

This heart, this heart of mine has been given away countless of times. I have also lost count the number that it has been broken . It is a wonder that it still beating. It is a greater wonder that it craves to be broken yet again.

Exploring the pain seems to be a rewarding motive for writers. Why, in a lot of writing classes, we are told that only a great writer could share with us the trials and tribulations of his life while making us root for more. Now, what manner of a person is this? Has he no respect for his own privacy? Would examining and bringing it out into the open be therapeutic? I don’t know. But I just can’t. I have no strength to go through mine. The intensity of it could probably incapacitate me.