Fixing Malaysia’s Broken Systems

There is an old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
If you look at most of the news stories in Malaysia, they are related to these main areas:

1. Public security and the justice system

2. Education

3. Anarchy on the roads

There appears to be enough evidence that there are serious problems in all these areas and we should take a closer look at what is being done to fix them.

While we may have had some success in erecting buildings that look impressive, it appears that after we enter the building proper things are not that rosy as indicated by the recent fire at KLCC.

As it has been remarked, we have first world infrastructure but third world mentality. My opinion is that without first world mentality, we only create the illusion of first world infrastructure.
Just think of the MRR2 project and the flawed flyovers. And in today’s papers we have the case of the Malaysian who was electrocuted by the water in a public fountain. That appears to be a fatal design error with poor safety feature or the electrical enclosure was not waterproof.

The police had a Royal Commission completed in August 2005 but still not much appears to be happening to implement the findings. A badge and slogan against corruption has been launched but the feedback on a prominent blog has been largely negative and dismissive. I believe this campaign will have more bite and substance if the government proceeds with some of the cases of prominent people mentioned elsewhere.

It will show that the anti-corruption battle is not just dependent on the front-line officers. It will not matter even if the government loses the case. At least it would have shown it is really serious and also willing to let justice run its course in the Courts.

The recent THES ranking has also highlighted many shortcomings in the Education delivery services. It really does not matter much if we drop out of the top 200 rankings if we can produce graduates who are readily employable.

After more than 25 years of tinkering with the education system where undeserving people get places in local universities and disloyal ones get overseas scholarships to study medicine, we have really reached the pits as far as education can go.

Three years ago there was a dramatic decision to use English as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science. I believe there was about a three-month grave period to the beginning of the year when the switch would take place in a few classes.

Perhaps we have all got too used to instant meals where you can get a gourmet pie after 4 minutes in the microwave oven and the types of three in one instant drinks are too many to mention.
In a way this snap decision to use English was akin to a three in one subject potpourri – just imagine the logic
“Use English to teach Mathematics and Science and we will kill three birds with one stone.”

Somewhere, someone forgot that for most of the teachers except a small minority, English had been an alien subject for many years.

Now three years later, there has been feedback that some education groups want to revert back to the old system as there are major problems with the new system.

Why should we be surprised at this?
We took 25 years to wreck the system and we cannot replace it within two years. New teachers have to learn English from scratch and a reasonable estimate would be four or five years before there are enough teachers competent to teach Maths and Science in the English language.

There is no magic wand or keris that one can wave and remedy this complex problem in a few months. So why does the Education Ministry dismiss the request of the education groups with such ridicule? Some of these professionals have been teaching for many years and should know the best approach to teach these subjects.

Has there been any consultation with any group to implement the new scheme? Education itself means the imparting of knowledge or skills and we should not allow narrow concepts of politics or race cloud the issue. I believe that parents and teachers and not politicians should be the best people to decide on the best teaching methods for their children.

After all, if the universities produce unemployable graduates it is the parents who will bear most of the consequences of this unfortunate problem. Sixty thousand graduates would be a fertile recruiting ground for subversive elements. The late Dr Azahari was doing very well when he was convinced to follow another path that ended in death and destruction.

Instead of belittling those who do not believe the new changes are working, the Education Ministry would do well to form some work/action committees with parent and teacher groups to work out tenable solutions and advise the public on their progress.

Serious thought should also be given on how the quality of local graduates has declined to create such an unemployment crisis.
We should also reevaluate the selection or administration process for awarding overseas scholarships that enable students to stay on in foreign countries way past the approved periods.

I had earlier entered a short comment in a MalaysiaToday article on road accidents and referred to the carnage on the roads as "Malaysia's killing fields, the modern equivalent of the Wild, Wild West.”
There must be a definite correlation with police problems, corruption and the road accident rate. I am sure this will make a good dissertation for post-graduate work.

Requiring a public vehicle driver to have ten years experience before being allowed to drive a bus sounds impractical. It would be more logical to have a new driver to be under continuous supervision for at least three months by the company to weed out unsuitable characters.

But whatever happened to the magic black box that was supposed to be installed in all buses and lorries?
That would have provided a good monitoring scheme so that all bus activities are properly recorded. Driver overworking, illegal routes and speeding can be controlled with such systems.

I believe that these three important problems should be tackled earnestly and with greater commitment so that Malaysians can make some progress in 2005. I respectively suggest our PM should forgo some overseas trips that really take up too much time and energy.

It is time to kick-ass now.