Come Off It, Seriously.

In researching and going to Kampung Berembang earlier this month, I've realized many things. I've been following the story for some time now, and have done some extensive research into this issue. Meeting with the villagers, having long drawn out emotional phone conversations with them and standing in the hot sun for hours with other activists, writers, media people... to simply get quotes and explain the situation to those out there, some of which really could not give a damn about the injustice being perpetuated here and in other urban pioneer villages (that are being forcibly removed).

One 'interview' in particular, scared the shit out of me. The kids in Berembang have watched all this horror unveil in front of their eyes, not unlike the children of Palestinians who've seen the Israeli soldiers commit injustices to their friends and family. These children then grow up in a culture of violence and perpetuated the fight and the terror between the two nations.

The kids in Berembang were aware of what was going on, some of them have been roughed up by authorities, watched their uncles and aunts, moms and dads get beaten up, slapped, arrested. They've done a wayang kulit, out of anger, out of strong emotions they've felt to see their homes torn down all in the pursuit of unfair development.

Don't get them wrong, they (the villagers) want development, but they do not want to be sidelined in this quest for modernity. The people involved in this development have so much to gain, but at what cost?

The children of this nation are scarred enough, they just don't know it yet. I'm so afraid that seeing this, seeing that a majority of the developers were of a certain race, that knowing this is a profit making exercise- they will perpetuate the color-codedness that Malaysians have. I am afraid they will never recover from having lost their homes and I am afraid they will never be happy.

Here's to hoping that they are resilient and forgiving enough to us, to everyone, as we try (very hard) to make their plight known and give them a future that they deserve, not one they will hate us for.





Read Below, forwarded to me in email:

MEDIA STATEMENT ,20 March 2007

Malaysia's Schools Failing Those Without the Luxury of Choice

The centrepiece of any nation's development must include its education policy. Therefore it is worrying that on the verge of our 50^th Merdeka, our schools are still stuck in third world curriculum while many still do not have our 'first class infrastructure'.

While the government has talked about Smart Schools for over a decade, the Education Development Masterplan has revealed that nearly 20% of our primary schools do not have clean water supply; nearly 35% lack a computer lab; more than one fifth lack science labs and one tenth do not have uninterrupted electricity supply. Overall, over two thirds of our primary schools do not have complete infrastructure. This is in addition to the revelation by YB Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in her open letter to the Minister of Education on 13 December 2006 that our the percentage of spending on education lags behind Senegal, Malawi and and Kenya while we are among 24 nations including Palestine and Maldives that suffered a drop in primary school enrolment between 1999 to 2004.

The regions stuck with the worst-equipped schools tend to be those in the rural areas, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, serving poor and marginalised communities. This exacerbates the social inequality and diminshes the ability of education to provide sustainable social mobility. All this talk on human capital is moot if these communities continue to be left behind. The majority of the marginalised are the Bumiputeras, yet the Minister of Education is more concerned about brandishing the keris than solving this problem.

This is further exacerbated by the haphazard decision to switch the teaching of Science and Mathematics to English. This has led to a lowering of standards as the Ministry is intent on proving that the change of medium has not affected students performance. We do not dispute the need to improve the command of English, but this should be done through improving teaching standards and allocating more time towards the subject, not by sacrificing our struggle of establishing our national language as a common bond between all Malaysians.

At the same time, our curriculum remains highly exam oriented. All emphasis is on rote learning and performing well in examinations. Rather than providing for a holistic approach to education, the new open system in SPM has led to an obsession of scoring as many A's as possible without any question of its relevance. More worryingly, this starts from an early age as our children are already burdened with a heavy workload in addition to their heavy school bags. This is only worsened when the parents enroll young children in tuition centres.

The government's utter lack of faith in the national education system is illustrated by the announcement by the Ministry of Education to allow more Malaysians to go to International Schools. While it is a shame that our national schools are no longer the school of choice for those who can afford to choose, the bigger tragedy is that they are failing those who do not have the luxury of choice. Furthermore, the national language must be reinstated as the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics, while constructive measures are introduced to improve proficiency in English. We have no choice but to prepare our citizens for globalisation, and that can only be done by getting back to basics: creating an accessible and holistic education system for all starting with our primary schools.

ANWAR IBRAHIM