Countdown

The countdown to Oct 2003, fifteen, nay, fourteen more months, to Dr M’s departure has begun. After 21 years as Malaysia’s PM, he had emerged larger than life. In recent years, there was hardly a day when the media did not report on what he was saying or doing, why he did what he did, where he was going, etc. His holidays abroad were often a break not only for him, but for us as well. Predictably, his June 22 resignation announcement evoked all kinds of emotions and reactions. Those of Anwar’s supporters and the reformasi-types were most predictable: “another 15 months !?” was the typical reaction.

No doubt, among those Malaysians – government servants and members of the BN parties – who have been bussed in to participate in those thank-you-and-farewell-Dr-M-rallies organised throughout the country, there are those who sincerely believe that Malaysia will be the worse without Dr M at the helm. Within UMNO some have genuinely protested against his departure. But there were also some others, who though publicly protesting his departure, in fact, were relieved that a final date for his departure has been specified. Maybe, just maybe, there’ll be enough time to put UMNO’s house in order again.

Quite another response was to link Dr M’s going to the need for similar rejuvenation of the other BN parties. As long as Dr M was in power, it was “sensitive” for would-be BN leaders to talk about leaders overstaying their welcome; after all, Dr M himself had been in power since 1981. So true to form, a week after Dr M’s announcement, MCA No 2 Lim Ah Lek proposed that Ling, in power since 1986, ought to step down too. Ah Lek offered to do the same. Come to think of it, this ought to be the culmination of the “elections without contest” operation model that the MCA has adopted to renew the party yet avert internal party strife. Just as rotating-the-Chief-Ministership was Dr M’s proposal for Sabah, elections without contest was Dr M’s contribution to the MCA.

However, Ling’s supporters did not fall for Ah Lek’s claptrap. Ling’s continued leadership, they proclaimed, was indispensable in view of pending elections, the establishment of TAR University; and pulling the Chinese parties and associations together in view of new threats from PAS.

The focus next turned to the MIC. Samy V has been at the helm since late 1979 and has virtually echoed support for every move that Dr M has made in the past. “The MIC will sink or swim with UMNO”. And “I have learnt everything from Dr M”. Thus it was a bit of a shocker to hear Samy declare: “We’re a separate party and always make our own decisions. Just because the UMNO leader vacates his portfolio, it doesn’t mean that the MIC will also replace its leader”. I don’t think that Samy has decided to strike out on his own. I suspect that it’s a case of getting nyanyuk. Indeed, the problem has been around for a while. Not so long ago we highlighted that Samy had forgotten about promises he made in the Lunas (“I will move into the constituency if we lose”) and Perai (“I will make it the most beautiful constituency in Malaysia”) by-elections. And now, more evidence: Samy who heads the MIC-owned Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology, had apparently overlooked acquiring permission from the education ministry before starting its medical degree programme. So the course had to be abandoned in August 2002.

Elsewhere, before SNAP’s James Wong, his son Richard and SNAP secretary-general Jinggut could think through the implications of Dr M’s impending departure, rebel leaders led by William Mawan Ikom had challenged him. In a matter of weeks, Ikom had held an EGM, conducted elections for a new exco and displaced Wong and his coterie. In this case Dr M’s departure has resulted in a bit of a circus reminding one of the Jeffrey Kitingan-Joseph Kurup farce not so long ago.

But the cutest tale is this one which occurred in Kuching. Two weeks following his announcement, Dr M officially visited Sarawak and addressed the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB)’s Convention. In his address, Dr M had advised all veteran politicians to consider stepping down from office, along with him. In the afternoon the PM declared open the new Majlis Islam building. Then at the press conference which followed, a senior journalist from KL asked Dr M’s permission to pose a question to Taib Mahmud, Sarawak’s chief minister and PBB supremo, in charge since God knows when. In view of Dr M’s decision, the journo enquired if and when Taib Mahmud intended to step down. Taib responded that he did not catch (i.e. hear) the question. Seated next to Taib, Dr M then said directly to Taib “He wants to know when you plan to step down”. Forced into an awkward situation, Taib said that he would inform the press when the time was right. Then craaash, as everyone was rising to leave, Taib’s chair fell over backwards, the only chair to do so. Now was that an act of God ? Or was he so agitated by the question that he pushed over the chair? No doubt, the countdown has started.

Making Education Policy on the Run?

Another issue that has got Malaysians including the BN leaders all anxious is the issue of teaching science and mathematics in English. And here Dr M’s intervention has also been critical. Recall that the initial concern was over some 40,000 graduates of local universities, mostly Malays, who were unemployed. It was alleged, and then assumed by all, that it was their apparent lack of command of English and/or possession of IT skills that caused them to be unemployed. Dr M then floated the idea of re-introducing English medium schools “if the people wanted it”. Before the people had time to respond, the proposal was just as quickly withdrawn. For many powerful groups, in particular UMNO Youth, had objected to that proposal. Again, rather unexpectedly, it was next announced that science and mathematics would be taught in English instead, including in primary schools. Dr M further stressed that the government would not compromise on the matter and even threatened stern action against those who opposed — you know what that means. It was left to Pak Lah to clarify that the decision whether to implement the same policy in the national-type primary schools was still being discussed. Accordingly, the Chinese BN parties claimed that no decision had yet been taken by the Cabinet and they called for more studies and that discussions be kept out of the press, as “we do not want the issue to become political”, as Ling stated. As the politicians, one after another from within the BN itself, tried to hit the headlines, they further contributed towards the confusion.

UMNO Youth head Hishamuddin, for instance, called upon the people to be prepared to master English. Apparently addressing himself to the Chinese community who were reticent about the proposed policy change, Hisham declared: ‘The Chinese and the Japanese had now acknowledged the importance of the English language”. Statistics of the numbers of Chinese attending English classes or studying in the US were offered. But is the minister so daft ? The issue is not a reluctance to study English and to face up to IT and globalisation. Recalling the initial brouhaha about the 40,000 unemployed graduates, the problem is really the failure of the education policy which had allowed these students to emerge ill-equipped to face up to the demands of globalism – including a grasp of English and IT skills. Indeed, even if a consensus is reached with regard to the nature of the problem and that certain initiatives needed to be undertaken, wouldn’t we need time to prepare teachers, teaching materials and various others things ? Recalling past fiascos re: the inability to supply adequate text books in time, and even more disconcerting, the contents of the textbooks, are we not courting disaster by forcing the implementation of a major policy shift with less than six months to the opening of the 2003 school year? Part of the problem really is that the technocrats in the ministry of education were being by-passed again. And educational policy, as so often the case in the past, was being made by these politicians on the run, and to score political points. Didn’t Dr M vacate the Education portfolio quite some time ago? Isn’t Hishamuddin more adept in sports and youth matters?

Looking Foolish

Only months ago, the Government seemed rock sure of Chinese support, in the wake of the 911 attacks and PAS’ move to introduce hudud and qisas in Terennganu.

Things will look distinctly less rosy for the Chinese parties in the BN however if they screw up on this issue of teaching Science and Mathematics in English.

Meanwhile the apparent police harassment of Lim Kit Siang and other DAP leaders, repeatedly arrested on a who-knows-what charge, is raising eyebrows. The police are caught in a bit of a bind with Kit Siang at the moment. Having arrested him once for distributing the DAP’s “No to 929” leaflets, they seem obliged to keep doing it again and again, otherwise it looks like an admission of error. But every time they arrest him, it makes it more difficult to put it down to individual errors or over-enthusiasm on the part of officers. The police have to keep arresting Kit Siang, but the more they do, the more foolish they look. In this matter, again, it is Dr M who has sparked off the controversy. For it was his declaration on September 29 last year, that Malaysia is already an Islamic state, that the “No to 929” leaflet addresses itself.

The Youth

It looks as though that the only good thing going for us this past month, and which Dr M has yet to touch upon, is…Bond girl Michelle Yeoh’s RM20 million action-romance blockbuster movie The Touch. One week after it’s release, apparently, she’d hit the RM1 million box office mark. Golden Screen Cinemas, by playing the movie in their 44 cinemas nation-wide, helped. Michelle, now Datuk, has also been honoured with various local awards. But wrote a local film critic: Terrific, spellbinding. A classic. Rest assured that these words will never be used to describe The Touch…. Considering the way The Touch has been promoted in an irrational and unfairly over-the-top manner, seeing the end product on screen cannot be anything but a big letdown….Yeoh is unremarkable… Her co-star Chang is completely forgettable.” Hmmm.

Now is this why Michelle was so anxious to destroy any pirated VCD of her movie “Someone better stop me. Otherwise I will go right to the shop or stall and stomp on the pirated copy”. Way to go Michelle. But watch out for the Tontos. For someone ought to tell this Ipoh lass, who perhaps has been away too long, that these pirates are real, not simply celluloid. For if you stomp them, they will do more than stomp you! The Touch might be out of touch with reality, but quite frankly, if not for Michelle, where is our escapism from those comic politico characters ? What then do we do for relief? rakyatboleh@my

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