PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom has been named the Education Ministry’s new director-general.
Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein described Alimuddin, formerly deputy director-general (schools), as experienced, fair and hardworking. [Alimuddin named Education Ministry’s new DG. The Star. August 17 2007]
He was appointed to the position of deputy DG back in March.
While I was at Fraser’s Hill last Sunday exploring the Pine Tree Trail — rock climbing, really, towards the highest point in the Fraser’s Hill area — I received a message in the middle of the jungle. Being dangling in the air after the trail decided to take a radical right angle turn to the sky, it was an awkward moment to receive a message. It rudely remained me of how I am reachable event in places where I should be unreachable. I wanted to ignore it but curiosity got the best of it. I collapsed to temptation. I just could not resist checking it out. With one hand gripping a strong tree root and another on my cell, I read this: Agung puji projek sayong!
I was unsure of the context of the exclamation until I read this today:
KUALA KANGSAR: Educational institutions should copy projects like the Malay College Kuala Kangsar’s 100-year development plan to make the country’s education system globally competitive.
The “Sayong Project” takes into account the school’s future development, its administration and direction in terms of academic and extra-curricular excellence, said Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin at MCKK’s Speech Day yesterday.
“I am really impressed that such plans have been drawn up and have been acknowledged in principle by the Education Ministry,” he said. [King: Go the MCKK way. NST. June 24 2007]
That praise makes my involvement in the initiative all the more satisfying.
There were some really radical suggestions made during the initial course of the project. Some of it made it to the final document. Some were thrown out of the window because it was deemed to crazy or plainly politically unfeasible. During discussion, harsh criticism but not entirely unfair were directed towards various parties. I think it was most heated when a question on Malay agenda was posed.
In the end, at least from my point of view, the project is about giving students’ the power to manage their own lives. It is about trust on individuals slightly tempered in the name discipline. The project try not to place trust on some bureaucrats that have never set foot on the sacred ground which the green lady is alleged to roam. It is liberalism by any standard within the Malaysian public education system.
If this Project goes through, I stores high hope in my heart to see a true beginning of liberal education in the country. Perhaps, slowly, sculpting the society towards a liberal one.
Seriousness asides, the project members, and definitely I took pleasure in redesigning the College ground. So, I cannot help but wonder which structure does this refer to:
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein commented that cluster schools should prove their excellence, and not be too engrossed in physical infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is the least of my problems,” he said after announcing that MCKK will receive an unspecified sum from the Education Ministry to build a new school hall. [King: Go the MCKK way. NST. June 24 2007]
And heh, because of the praise, I am more than willing to tone down my republican sentiment whenever I speak of the Malaysian monarchy.
The issue of vernacular schools funded by public money is a very difficult subject for me. The difficulty arises due to choices involving coercion, cohesion, unity and liberty.
For liberals, the racially divided Malaysian society is a painful reality to live in. The history and nature of our society give rise to our current predicament where most issues could be seen through racial lens, be it right or wrong. Our education and political systems reflect exactly that primitive thinking that we suffer.
Before I progress further, the importance of education must be emphasized. Liberals in general, including libertarians, place education very high in their list. Through my readings, the birth of liberalism would not be possible without the accessibility of knowledge to the masses. It is through knowledge, or education, that individuals could fully appreciate personal responsibilities, placing the individuals — the basic unit of a society — on a higher plane compared the situation in a centralize society. Liberalism at its heart is about trust in the individuals; the trust that one shall respect others’ same rights. It is trust that individuals are able to do good. Aristotle’s words describe part of that trust: “I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law“. It is through this trust, through personal responsibilities that one frees oneself from shackles imposed by tyrants. Without education, it is hard for any one of us to build that trust. Lack of education provides fertile ground for dictatorship.
Education is the sculpture of a society. It is a tool. The greater the education level of individuals, the greater the possibility of a creation of a freer individuals and freer individuals create freer society; liberal society. For liberals, primitive communal thinkings do not appeal to them.
The tool could be used to eliminate the primitive division we suffer. This is why the education system receives so much attention, at the very least by liberals, within our society. Liberals understand the gravity of the matter. We understand that the education system could mole a new society that would do away with outdated communal-based politics.
There are liberals that believe the promotion of multicultural society to erase the legacy of divisive communal politics from Malaysian society. They would actively promote the creation or the enhancement of multicultural society — such policies are called multiculturalism — to answer the division that could very much lead to clear expressed bigotry. Once, this appealed to me but I found a clear hint of coercion in multiculturalism. That leads to my rejection of multiculturalism. That however does not mean I reject multicultural societies. I enjoy diversity but I do not wish to have such societal characteristic to be stuff down my throat to suffocate me.
One aspect of multiculturalism through Malaysian context, at least, I seem to think so, is the rejection of vernacular system and promotion of a religiously unbiased national system with the national language as the medium. Through this, tolerance, which is a goal of multiculturalism, would be achieved. After all, inculcating tolerance in the young is easier than trying do to the same thing for an already bigoted adults.
Rejection of multiculturalism however left me grappling to answer a question: how do we overcome this primitive communal politics without multiculturalism? Could a source of bigotry be solved with coercive cohesion at the expense of liberty? Is the liberty so sacred to liberals — libertarians — worth bypassing the unity that all liberals dream of?
The questions relevant to the Malaysian education system, with all those factors in mind is this: should the vernacular system be abolished in favor of national system in the name of unity or should it be left as it is in the name of liberty, for fear of forcefully committing active assimilation against others’ will?
My status quo position until now was the abolition of the vernacular system and placing full support for the national school. Of course, the support for the national system requires qualification and few of them are meritocracy and independence from religion.
Through limited time that I had to contemplate on the matter, I have come to a conclusion that strengthens my trust in the individuals. It is a conclusion that satisfactorily breaks the dualism between coercion and cohesion, between unity and liberty; it is possible to achieve cohesion without coercion, liberty with unity.
This is how: as mentioned earlier, education is the sculpture of a society. Greater level of education introduces greater possibility of one thinking for oneself. This enables one to trust oneself, breaking away from superstitions and illogical orthodoxies, creating confident individuals that rely on the mind to move forward towards enlightenment and beyond. The ability to self-regulate transfers sovereignty from leaders or society, benevolent or malevolent, to individuals.
Higher education level increases the possibility of the birth of another liberal individual, regardless of strain, or at least, individuals that respect others’ liberties. If all liberals are allergic to the communal politics and to an extent accept that vernacular system promotes communal politics and are concerned with coercion and liberty, they would support the national system without actively depriving others of opportunity to vernacular system, assuming all else the same, assuming all qualifications that I stated earlier are incorporated. As the education level of the population goes up, there will be a point that most would like to do away with vernacular education system and thus, only one system that is supported by public money. For a liberal that values tolerance, he would try to inculcate the liberal value in his child and he would likely enroll his child in a system that offers exposure to tolerance. Between a national and a vernacular system, there is more exposure opportunity to tolerance in the former. Hence, the liberal would choose the national system over vernacular system, with all else being the same. Through this, slowly but surely, we will phrase out the public-funded vernacular system without coercion.
If my reasoning is sound, then what we need to do is to increase the quality of our education system to create a less communal politics within our society. This would mean that all we need is the patience and resilience to improve the quality of our education system and eventually, through that system, a quiet revolution for a liberal society.
My headmaster while I was at the Malay College has been promoted:
PUTRAJAYA: Chief Inspector of Schools Alimuddin Mohd Dom has been promoted Deputy Director-General (Schools) at the Education Ministry.
Alimuddin, whose appointment was effective yesterday, received the news from Director-General of Education Datuk Dr Ahamad Sipon three days ago. [Alimuddin named Deputy D-G in charge of schools. The Star, March 2 2007]
Therefore, congratulations sir!
The last time I met him was last year during a brainstorming session.
The Malaysian government is committed towards the national school system. From time to time, the current government reminds us of that; today, the Prime Minister reiterates his support for the system:
KUALA LUMPUR: National schools will become the schools of choice again, according to the Prime Minister.
Lamenting their decline yesterday, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said: “Everything is being done to make the schools attractive to all the races.”
Abdullah said the government had realised that national schools played an important role in nation building and bringing the various races together.
I have a suggestion, out of few, on how to make it a system of choice of many Malaysians.
Bring religion, in most cases Islam as far as national schools are concerned, to where to belong — as equal among many other courses.
When I was a students within the national school system, I loathe the very idea that religion was being forced upon me. I dislike that fact that because I’m a Muslim, I had to do things that are deemed as Islamic by my religious teachers. I’m sure some girls disagree to being forced to wear headscarf at school, just because they’re Muslims.
For me personally, the reason I attend school is to learn arts, humanities and sciences, not to have my personal life and belief dictated upon by strangers.
Further, I believe all the stress on Islam makes believers of other religions, atheists, agnostics and even Muslims that are uninterested in religious conservatives’ wet dream alike feel alienated. Surely, that doesn’t increase the appeal of national schools to many.