Lack of racial integration -- fingering?

Some blame it on the education system.
Desiderata says it's the politicisation of every government instituition -- by who else? THE BARISAN NASIONAL POLITIKUS! -- that's the chief culprit.

As woith every national problem, if we do not diagnose the real causes, we will never begin to arrive at any solutions.

It's always convceniet to the power holders and brokers to "finger" at superficial causes. Skip the real problems, find some convenient cosmetic fcators and adopt some cosmetic remedies -- hopefully yielding lots of gravy, translatted as RM..billions -- NOW THEY DON'T ASPIRE TO BECOMING JUST BEING MILLIONAIRES.

Think BIG, think BILLIONAIRE. Did I write somethin' on this Yesterday, when all my troubles seemed so far away? Maybe moo-t and NSTman have better memory banks, tell us more. I like aMore, Howsy-stylo!:)

Well, somethin' seruous for fellow Malaysians to be "concerned" about follows:






From frontpage of The People's Paper
Thursday March 29, 2007

Teen concerns

Survey: Many youngsters aren't concerned about racial integration

PETALING JAYA: Racial integration among the younger generation in Malaysia still has some way to go, judging by the results of a nationwide survey of 4,400 Form Four students.

Only 52% of the teenagers said they had a friend of a different race.

In fact, mixing with other races was not something that concerned many of the respondents. Only 12.8% felt that it was an issue, while 63.9% were more worried about contracting a disease.

The Cognitive and PsychoSocial Profile of Malaysian Adolescents (CoPs) study was carried out in August by a group of academics from the Education Faculty of Universiti Malaya (UM).

Prof John Arul Phillips, a former UM academic and current dean of the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty at Open University Malaysia, said this was the most complete study of its kind because of the large sampling.

“We went to 44 schools in rural areas, towns and cities across Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

A total of 16.6% of the 16-year-olds surveyed also admitted to smoking. They cited emotional pressure (27.6%), a desire to be accepted by friends (25.5%) and wanting to be cool and macho (20.1%) as the most common reasons for taking up the habit. Another 12.6% said they were influenced by the mass media.

Other findings include:


8.8% reported using drugs;

10.7% never eat breakfast;

8% have never used a computer; and

3% said they were often not interested in studies.

The study also compared different groups of students. There was no major difference in resilience and self-esteem levels between males and females, but non-smokers were found to be more resilient and had higher self-esteem. In addition, males reported better relationships with their teachers compared with females.

CoPs project leader Assoc Prof Dr Fatimah Hashim from UM’s Education Faculty said:

“There was very low correlation between academic performance in PMR and psycho-social attributes such as self-esteem, resiliency and family bonding.”

In the area of general knowledge, only 23.3% of respondents identified Lee Hsien Loong as the Prime Minister of Singapore and 43.3% knew that Bill Gates founded Microsoft.

However, 81% knew that Manchester United was an English football club.

Students were poor in civic knowledge, too. For example, only 58.4% knew that Parliament consisted of the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara.

DESIDERATA:

The highlights in the report above (BOLDED THUS) are all mine.
Don't blame others for any wrong emphasis, the responsibility is awe mine. Fine by Desi.

Now be a good citizen, Read-lah page 3 related item headlined:

Education system blamed


Go invest RM1.20 on the Star (maybe I'll go negotiate my 30%!). and don't remain ignorant on national issues which are of your concern, your children's concern. Okay, your political master's concern too.

ME? I'm concerned they will all look at the surface.
Go back to bed, have forty winks.
Think of another survey tomorrow that says:

Everything is fine.
The weather is fine.
Your CPI figure is fine.

I've just recoived my traffic compound, only RM300 fine. Still it's only a fine.

UPDATEd @9.27pm:

Desi doesn't own a Beemer, but a bummer he may be, so lazing after dinner he spied belatedly a news item, from page N21 that demonstrates my main contention: The politicisation of a prime Government policy.

The New Ecocomic Policy that was supported by most Malaysians when it was initiated by then PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad had good intentions, with two main prongs:
(1) To eradicate the identification of any profession/occupation with race among Malaysians;
(2) To distribute the nation's wealth in a more equitable way; and to narrow the gap between the rich/haves and poor/haves-not.

But the rakyat saw the corruption of a nation-building instrument to the extent that it created more tensions, disunity and suspicion among the Malaysian populace, and now the new "monster" has become a permanent feature well hogged by BN politikus, mainly the UMNO and its elite known as the UMNOputra. A 20-year policy that was expected to end in 1990 is now seen and feared by many thinking Malaysians to be the proverbial albatross around the Malaysian nation into its 50th year of independence with divions along ethnic lines being more pronounced in the 2000s contrasted with the early 1960s-80s.

This is NOT Desi's assessment, or that of many of my friends (both Malay and non-Malay) -- hear it from a former Deputry Prime Minister.

The Star, page N21,

Thursday March 29, 2007


NEP must be replaced, says Anwar

PETALING JAYA: A new affirmative policy should benefit the poor of all races in Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview on Al Jazeera.

He said the New Economic Policy (NEP) had only benefited a few rich Malays when it was meant for poor Malays.

“The Government should dismantle the NEP and replace it with a policy to benefit the poor of all races. A policy to correct the imbalance of the marginalised should be implemented.

“The Government must introduce a policy without any racial lines to benefit all races,” he said in an interview on the channel’s Riz Khan talk show, in Washington.

When interviewer Anand Naidu asked Anwar how he planned on becoming prime minister when he was banned from political activity (until April 2008), he said that he was looking forward to a pardon.

“It is up to the King to grant the pardon,” said Anwar.

On his anticipated election as the Parti Keadilan Rakyat leader in May, Anwar urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to allow him to lead the party.


DESI: The highlights (BOLDED THUS) are Desi's, just in case some of the pemimpin NegaraKu pretend not to see. Sometimes -- or izzit most times, I hear mGf AweOfHelen whisper all the way from Ipoh! --the Members of Parliament are either having 40 winks, or Closing-One-Eye.
Some wakil rakyat don't even attend the Assembly meetings -- they enjoy a comfortable bed in a "small" house stretching 4-1/2 steps into the highway to H'aven. Or sighted in some luxury cruise-liners off Singapore island -- blown off course by wayward wind. Just like their much pronounced commitment to "transparency, accountability and good governance" when the new government of Pak Lah assumed power November 2003. (I guess the intoxicating pow(d)er rubbed off on their faces!)

I planned a footnote actually on sighting PKR head's item, but I believe the "mouse" unafraid of the cat and croc got carried away. The piot is highly encouraged that an MSM is carrying PM-in-the-wing's news -- is somthin' brewin'? YOU well informed ER tell me!