Education and the future of Malaysia
I HAVE NEVER really thought as much as I have these last few weeks about the future of this country. No, it is not the Perak political tragedy that has occupied my waking hours, important though it might be.
The assault on the established democratic parliamentary principles and practices bears the hallmark of unabashed, unapologetic and blatant cynicism, a feature that looks set, I fear, to wreak havoc, despair and despondency in our national life. I naturally have no wish to underestimate the damage already done in the short term: the potential for lingering longer term ill effects has manifested itself in the loss of public confidence in the government of the day worries me more.
I believe the future of this country lies in our ability to unite: national unity without a common identity is an exercise in futility. In the context of our plural society with a history of decades of uneasy coexistence, with fears and suspicions as constant companions, and each community left largely to its own devices, the idea of national unity through a common identity is difficult enough to imagine, let alone embracing it wholeheartedly. Present day policies of the Barisan Nasional government, slanted and distorted as they are to benefit the Malays, and more particularly UMNOputras, tend to divide rather than unite us.
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