Growing up, Mr Najib attended the renowned Malay College Kuala Kangsar before studying for a bachelor’s degree in industrial economics in the UK. [Profile: Najib Abdul Razak. BBC. April 2 2009]
I do not think that is right. Did he attend the Malay College?
I thought he went to St. John in Kuala Lumpur instead?
Heh.
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.