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"Political scenarios in Malaysia.... one of endless intrigue and scheming..like a constant kabuki play, or as we Malays would say, wayang kulit or sandiwara."

Hmm....hmm.... how true it is after having lived for more than half a century.

And the 'sandiwara' will continue to roll as long as UMNO remains addicted to power and corruption.

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In the context of Malaysian society, we are worst then the tyrant type. We are of the leech and host type relationship. The leeches are our politicians and the hosts the Raayats.

The leeches are determined to suck the hosts dry! The hosts are unaware until the leeches are so fat and filled with blood. Most of these leeches are stuck around the eye areas. Many still can see but a lot are now blinded and are being suck by the leeches continually.

Sad but true lah.

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Liberating the Malaysian Mind??? When the brain is severely damaged, how can the mind be liberated lah? We now have a brainless mind or a mindless brain... your choice.

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Very well argued piece!
But sadly, Bakri is in no position to influence the policies of the UMNOputras.
And, so the nation shall continue its downward spiral, until..until?
I know not when.
But I certainly hope it'll be before we disintegrate as a nation and become another one of those failed states dependent on handouts from the rich western nations, IMF , World Bank and what have you!!

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Our Minister has got no foresight and no forward thinking. Cut and paste an interesting article by Syed Akbar Ali....... must read
The First Bungle – Jaga Bahasa Biar Jahanam Bangsa
By Syed Akbar Ali

In one of my Four Wheel Drive trips into the jungle some years ago, we stopped at a place called Cheneh in Terengganu. I remember a makcik at a roadside stall made some nice ayam goreng. My good friend Juhaidi was with me and also my two boys.

Cheneh was (and maybe still is) a typical rural backwater. The folks did not seem to know if they were coming or they were going... There was Astro but I think the favorite show was ‘Tom Tom Bak’. But I did recall saying aloud that someday I hope that the folks in Cheneh would watch CNN, BBC and CBS and that we could just drive up and ask the makcik in Cheneh ‘Whats on CNN today?’ But I think that’s not going to happen at all.

Tuan Tuan dan Puan Puan, our Prime Minister Dato Najib has made his first bungle – and within the first 100 days too. No Sirs, it is a major bungle. You have bungled big time.

Lets manage this “crisis in the making” now. First of all please stop from saying anything more about the switch from English to Malay. The more things you say, the more “face saving” devices you will need for you to swallow your pride before you can undo this mistake. But this mistake must be undone.

I just happened to be with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad yesterday Thursday July 9th 09 slightly after noon when the news came in that the Cabinet had decided to flip flop over the language issue.
Firstly Tun Dr Mahathir raised a simple but valid point. The main reason quoted by Tan Sri Muhyuddin to favor the switch to Malay was that the rural Malay kids were doing poorly in Maths and Science (which are taught in English) compared to the urban kids. But what about exam scores for the rural kids in all other subjects which are taught in the Malay language? Dr Mahathir said no one showed him the statistics for that. Why?
If you say that English is the reason why the rural kids are doing so poorly in Maths and Science, then by your logic the rural kids should be scoring the same as or better than the urban kids in other subjects that are taught in Malay? By your logic rural kids should be doing better than the urban kids in Sejarah, Geografi, Kemahiran Hidup, Bahasa Malaysia and other Malay language subjects.

But we know that rural kids generally score lower than urban kids in most subjects (except maybe Agama). And language has got nothing to do with it. Rural kids are usually found in lower income households, their parents are usually less educated, they have less achievement goals and so forth. That is why you call them ‘children from rural areas’. They are poor people and they are underachievers.

So this comparison with rural kids and urban kids is not fully accurate (Tun Dr Mahathir used another word which I need not repeat here).

Let me give you some street feedback. At least one Internet based employment agency has instructions from its clients to completely ignore any job applicants who are graduates from UITM (University ITM). As we know UITM graduates are all Malays. They say the quality of the graduates is low and their English is bad.. They are unemployable. This is what I heard.
Another preference by another employer – a Multi National Corporation - in the job market is to take in job applicants who are graduates of IPTA (private universities) who have done twinning programs.. This means their English is good and they are more marketable. Again this means Malays with poor English skills are not preferred. Bottom of the line.

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It's my view that the present caliber of Ministers are good wayang kulit or sandiwara and sometime statement made by these people are beyond me. It is sad to see Malaysia sliding backward. These leaders have no qualification to lead the country. In my opinion, they are more interested in covering up past corruptions and at the same time looking for ways and opportunities to siphon more money from the Rakyat. We need to upgrade Malaysia 1.0 to Malaysia 2.0 in the next GE.

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Well written article. To really liberate the Malaysian mind we will first have to become Malaysian and not compartmentalize into Malays and non Malays. In other words, we have to first liberate the Malay minds. Since Malays are in the majority and the institutes are mainly Malay oriented (Constitutional Monarchy, Islam as the dominant religion etc) it is imperative that Malays themselves should realize that the world is globalizing rapidly and no one recognized special rights in the competitive world. In an Orchestra to make good music race is not the criteria if you cannot play your violin (or any instrument well), so compete equally with others. And also you cannot have a conductor who conducts on racial terms, so go and change the conductor. If you wanted a Malay conductor do so but elect a competent one. NEP is the millstone around all Malaysians, not just the non Malays. So liberate your mind first from this ketuanan concept, my dear fellow Malay Malaysians, and Malaysian minds will be liberated.

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When a mind is liberated, the thought process has no boundaries what so ever. A case of thinking not outside the box, but thinking WITHOUT A BOX. This is a hard task as Malaysians in general, have too many boxes that are restricting their thought process. The Box of religion, the box of race, the box of politics etc etc. All these hangups must be removed first and only then one is able to liberate the mind.

Free yourself from mental slavery.

Shalom

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