Letter to MM:
We know you want us to stay stupid, but it's time to let others clean up your mess.
Sorry to disappoint you
guys, MM is not Marilyn Monroe, America’s legendary sex symbol, the
beautiful blonde that drove all men wild and crazy. Here, MM is the country’s fourth Prime Minister, the man we all loathed and wished he just fade away.
MM said Malaysians are
not mature enough for debates. He said debates would only make the
situation worse as Malaysians were too sentimental and emotional to
appreciate arguments that were presented rationally.
Not mature enough means not fully developed or lacking the wisdom usually associated with adults. In other words, Malaysians,
by and large, are still mentally inadequate. For this, we really have
him to blame and thank for, in the same breath.
In 1974, MM was made the country’s Education Minister. That was when the decline began. Bit
by bit, this man started to dismantle the strong foundation of a very
sound education system which we have inherited from the British who once
colonized us. Step by step, he began to take away the core, the
essence, the fundamental part of education; then molded it into a tool
to serve his political needs.
First,
the teaching of English is limited to one subject only and English
Literatures were relegated to the trash bin. He then politicized
subjects like History and Moral Studies. Without us realizing it, he closed our windows to the world. Instead of studying world history, we were forced to focus on local history and even then, we have to study distorted history, history not written by neutral historians but by those appointed by the Education Ministry to glorify the
government.
It
was a torture to read about the government coined slogan “Bersih, Cekap
dan Amanah” in Moral studies when you can see corruption being
practiced so openly among civil servants of all levels.
Dr M Wants Us to be Stupid
Not satisfied with
this, he also enforced greater government control over Malaysian
universities, despite very strong opposition from the academic
community. MM also moved to limit politics on university campuses,
giving his ministry the power to discipline students and academics who
were politically active and making scholarship for students conditioned
on the avoidance of politics.
All his plans were aimed towards one motive – to stifle the intellectual growth of the populace. When we are stupid and ignorant, he can rule mighty over us. He does not want us to be smart and intelligent.
In this way he could hold the grip longer. He managed to lord over us
for 22 years (1981 to 2003) as Prime Minister, with iron fists and all
the public institutions as well as the media at his disposal. Many of
his opponents were banished off or put away behind bars without a fair
trial.
The Lost Generation and Now the 1Malaysia Logo Generation!
I call those of us Malaysians who went to local government-funded schools after 1974 as “The Lost Generation” and I
am among the first batch of “The Lost Generation.” I was only ten years
old and in Standard Four when he became the Education Minister. His
policies affected the quality of education that I received. It was not the all-round education which my much older siblings and those from their era received. What I had was a half-baked education.
It was something that was neither here nor there, something which I was
not proud of at all, something which could be a lot better if only a
politician was not the person to dictate what I should learn in school.
Even
today, my children are still trapped in his policies. They were the
second batch of “The Lost Generation.” The things they are studying now
are many times worse off than my time. What good knowledge can they get when there was a big “1Malaysia” logo on each of their textbook?
How mature can they
become when they are not allowed to think beyond their text books? How
well-informed can they be when their History book said it was UMNO that
got us our independence and we ought to be grateful to them? How smarter
can they grow when they are fed daily with poisons like “Rakyat
Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan?”
Hold Your Tongue and Let Others Clean Up Your Mess
I
believed that as long as our education is being used as a political
weapon by those in power, Malaysians will never get to grow maturely,
not now, not in another 55 years. We need to separate politics from education as much as we need to separate politics from religions and ethnicities too.
What
good will the Twin Towers, the Formula 1 in Sepang or the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport does when our minds were shackled?
Isn’t it ironic that the same man who gave us these “feel good” icons
also took away the very basic human trait that we all have – mental
development?
So, MM, can you blame Malaysians for not being mature enough? It all started with you, actually.
What you should do now is simply hold back your vilest tongue and let others clean up the mess you have created !
What you should do now is simply hold back your vilest tongue and let others clean up the mess you have created !
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