Our Cause of the White Man's Burden.

Currently playing in the background: Shin Seung Hoon – Nae Saramin Geot Gataseo

Current thought to blurt: I love the rain... it creates a nostalgic mood, and best of all it also rinses off the car…

I’m back here typing again, with K-pop plugged firmly into my ears and torrential rain pouring outside. I really should be planted here with a good, trusty mug of coffee, but anymore caffeine today would have me leaping in all directions… and all you’d be reading here would be a tangle of gibberish spouting from a caffeine-soaked brain gone wild. Now I’m mildly sedated by the sounds of Shin Seung Hoon’s “Nae Saramin Geot Gataseo”. The king of K-pop ballads can never go wrong. I know folks out there who don’t subscribe to Korean music would probably be going: “What the…?” Worry not; I shall share my views on this in coming posts. For now, we shall address another rant- worthy issue.

If verbal abuse were to come in the form of ammunition, the federal government would be riddled with more holes than a sponge now- more than ever in the past few months. Why? Someone woke up with the feeling Great Britain imperialists were at their front door again. Worried that the young would start eating waffles instead of nasi lemak, the unthinkably ridiculous happened. I regret to inform you that Malaysian leaders are still so very confused as to what it means to lead and to be led. At the moment, they are being led by blind ambition and misguided nation-building concepts, and even greed. They have skewed and twisted Malaysia’s path of human capital development into this blurred, half- hearted doodle. To lead is to know what’s best for the country and rise above petty, superficial objections with careful forethought. To lead is to exercise authority with reason and logic. To lead is to be an example of what the citizen is to be. When the citizen has to yell at you for making decisions like an ass, what sort of leader do you think you are? But all of the above will obviously be overlooked… because Malaysia (apa pun) Boleh.

However, it should be noted that the Great Education Rollback covers more than the mere issue of the mode of instruction for Science and Mathematics in schools nationwide. The nagging problem about the whole thing is that it tugs at the very roots of the entire education system. We’re talking about every darn limb of it: the teachers, the students, the schools, the facilities, the policies, literally everything needs to be thrown out. Can we say: Pandora’s Box of the Education system?

A few years back I marvelled that the government has gotten something right after all. Rejoice was abounding as Malaysian youth would learn Science and Math in English, all that terminology (which naturally would only sound right in the English language). Despite envying the little fishes in school for their newfound privilege, it got us all thinking: How much can the teachers deliver, and how ready are the students at the receiving end? Let’s be realistic and honest with ourselves here… like that Malay idiom “Tepuk dada, tanya selera”. Did the white man’s language work wonders for the system? Those who have been schooled pre-1980 would comprehend and connect with the workings of this mode of instruction. Unfortunately this would constitute only those who have actually attended institutions practising this, and mind you, the numbers are appallingly small. This number would exclude those who did not attend school, those who attended other forms of institutions or centres of education, and those who drop out of school… and maybe even some who had the opportunity to be taught in English but simply did not see it as of any significance. This monstrous section of the Malaysian population has obviously been the catalyst of today’s rollback, as they fail to grasp why their children should struggle to master the white man’s language in not only one subject, but three or more. Ladies and gentlemen, if you think these people are already a problem, it may be helpful to know that Malaysians in their 20’s, 30’s and early 40’s have nearly all been educated in a system where the English language exists in the curriculum as merely a language subject, and the mode of instruction for every other darn thing is in the national language. I’m talking about those specimens you see spewing nonsense about safeguarding the national language and parading around in the sweltering heat demanding their grandfather’s land/ language/ money/ to be returned and their other whatnots upheld. And with the rollback underway, more ignorance for generations to come. Talk about fighting the incoming tide.

I don’t blame an Englishwoman who throws me out of her house for waltzing in with a few durians… only because she has never consumed any part of a durian ever in her life and thus can never understand the wonders durians can do for a Malaysian. But I am amused that the very products of a decent English language- based education will stoop to disowning their educational background in order to claim themselves ‘wira bangsa’, otherwise known to us disgusted onlookers as insufferable scumbags who are selfish enough to throw away the future as well as the past for self gain. This was mentioned earlier as an abysmal lack of foresight... or was it just a lack of consideration for the future of the nation due to an obsession with self interest? I’d be the first to exorcise that demon MP from Kulim- Bandar Baharu as well as that Rembau-an Ape. Both received education from foreign universities, and both returned preaching treason to the Queen of England. God knows how many others have similarly sold their souls.

The game in politics is a no- holds- barred one, hence politicians are at liberty to latch on to anything and blow it out of proportion with preposterous flair. At the moment, this is all I could say, because it is apparent that current leaders do not have the people’s interests at heart, and such an obvious expression of lack of concern will only have them shooting themselves in the foot this time around.

I am happy for those who may afford a good education, one that would throttle them into a promising future; but I am still appalled that our leaders chuck the futures of other Malaysian youth away just because their children have the luxury of attending international or private institutions.

*rolls eyes and says no more*

Ni yang malas nak layan ni…