Foundation, Foundations, Dumbfounded

A GOod education for a child is every Malaysian parent's high priority, if not the top, and this should be rightly so. It is the RIGHT thing. It is to be APPLAUDED. A STRONG FOUNDATION being laid for the education of a boy or girl is an investment to foster the latent potential to blossom to the the fullest in the individual. It's a great responsibility incumbent on parents, who sacrifice time and money to fulfill such an obligation.


It's a common tale hearing of a neighbourhood family selling off a house to move into lower-priced rented quarters so that they can sponsor -- invest in -- a son or daughter for overseas studies after he/she has received a rejection letter from the local universities. Ah, sacrifice, a beautiful word-work, if only our POLITICIANS gallivanting at Casino Royale or the Hide pArk in Lundun, rhymes with mukapadan, only knew ... Is this digressing? If the answer is a YES, I do apologise, no, not to the politicians, to my EsteemedReaders.


But the governmnet too has to play its role -- through the education system, transforming it, upgrading it, through improving the human resources as well as the delivery system, to the maximum possible. I acconcede that there is just so much the Governmnet can do -- providing the infrastructure, the teachers and some financial assistance to those needy students.

What concerns this writer is that there are many cases of leakages and weaknesses which should be given priority for action, by the government, private sector, or by the parents themselves via the school Parent-Teacher Associations. Too many parents like to take problems straight to the teacher involved in any disciplinary action against their child/children, often ending in verbal abuse, or worse, in fist fights. Agent provocateur is the right term here, and what good role model for the "wayward"-leaning children! DUMBFOUNDED.

I thought I could take a break from "essay-writing", intensively undertaken the past two days at Desi's place promoting the proposal for a PETRONAS FOUNDATION (which this writer will fine-tune and follow up with correspondence to the Petronas people ...). Until I sighted this in theSUN page 6 this morning at breakfast table:

Samy: CSMU agents terrorising students

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu will ask the Ukraine government to request its Crimea State Medical University to deal directly with Malaysian students there without going through agents.
The MIC president said the agents, also Malaysians, had beeen "terrorising" the Malaysian students there.
"I don't want to us the word 'Mafia' but Malaysian students there can't do anything without going through agents. Even to get a teh tarik, they have to go through agents," Samy lamented. (Ends quote from theSun story)


Desi would not detail the rest of the report, save to say funny terms like capitation fees of RM2,000 payable in 2001 skyrocketing to RM30,000 tp RM40,000 now, when visa fee actually is RM50 only. Here I recall that a Malaysian student I know personally had to pay some RM50,000 for a Medical School place at an university in India prior to enrolment; that was some two decades ago -- I wonder what are the current rates applying today?

My interest is again aroused by the mention of the Selangor Fiundation and Johor Education Foundation in the report. I know similar foundations dedicated to rendering help to its state citizens in the education field exist in the various states, including Negri Sembilan from where I hail (its reputation still GOod despite the service to the contray by a fomre Menteri Besar! OOPS, I digress;), but I often do that, the luxury of blogging which I ause once too many times!). The relevance here is that a PETRONAS FOUNDATION, as being proposed by Desiderata to be set up by the national oil corporation, can greatly help in complementing/complimenting the efforts of these state foundations, don't education-minded Malaysians think so? Kick-start with a RM3.55Billion budget next year? Desi would gladly do his part with FREE PR services, whatever that means.


But sometimes, the odds work against the human beings and their efforts. This issue of the AGENTS - remind me of not just Mafia, but the Red Army and KGB too, and local Taiko too -- lurking around to spill human blood, it really stinks. So to Samy, I cheer: Go, Samy, go! (In Mandarin, there is a phrase, Za you, Za you! literally translated, Add oil, add oil!)

I'm glad that for once Samy (I seldom have grounds to praise him, but giving credit where credit is due), as reported in theSun, said he would write to the Ukraine Ambassador in Malaysia as well as asking the Foreign Minister to liaise with his Ukraine counterpart in pursuing the matter.

Ah, the dumdfounded in Desi asks: Why is it Always that it's the MIC president fronting for Malaysians on cases involving Malaysians doing medicine studies abroad? What's happening to the roles of the Education Minister, the Higher Education Minister, the lower and middle education deputies? Maybe reduce the number of such functionaries and the work gets done better, because there is this saying: Too many cooks spoil the broth! Right? No? Maybe these ministers and officials are cooking up a soup opera. You tell Desi otherWISE?