The products of the Malaysian educational system have for several batches passed through the conveyor belt. The issue of race relations has become more and more exacerbated, partly as a consequence of the inability of the education policy makers to design peaceful educational settings and peaceable learning environments to allow respect and appreciation for each other's culture to flourish.   A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE Dr Azly Rahman I read with interest about ongoing governmental discrimination against Chinese schools, as highlighted by Dong Zong. Why are quality teachers and an abundance of resources still channeled only to Malay-dominated schools? Why are children in Chinese schools criminalised by the 'sanction on teaching staff" which will ultimately dep! rive stu dents of a good mother-tongue education? What actually is our illness with regard to denial of the students' right to their own language? Do policy makers actually understand the relationship between culture...

Who is it that banked on Islam as political currency? None other than ex-Umno man Anwar Ibrahim himself. COMMENT Like a pot calling the kettle black, Anwar Ibrahim made the audacious claim that Umno, being "in charge of religion", is fear-mongering the apostasy issue for political mileage. Anwar was quoted in an FMT report on March 29 as saying that the teachers' seminar scheduled to be held in Johor on Saturday was "part of an effort to manage control through the use of fear and faith". He was referring to the planned weekend training programme titled "Pemantapan Aqidah, Bahaya Liberalisme dan Pluralisme Serta Ancaman Kristianisasi Terhadap Umat Is! lam. Apa Peranan Guru?" Meanwhile Malaysiakini had the same story headlined 'Christian threat is Umno propaganda' whereas The Malaysian Insider pointed out that "the opposition leader was quick to link the matter to Umno". Anwar had told a press conference in the Parliament: "I wa...

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today admitted that Pakatan Rakyat has not hammered out the details over its promise to waive the PTPTN students' loan, but offered a glimpse of how Pakatan would handle it. The PTPTN debt which amounts to RM43.6 billion, he said, could be written off within three years. "If we allocate a few tens of billions from the (country's) RM150 billion annual revenue each year, we should be able to clear it," said Anwar in a dialogue with over 100 young professionals in Putrajaya. The funds he said, would come from cuts to wasteful spending such as expenditure to boost the country's image, and from huge profit-making GLCs such as Petronas. "For families who make more than RM10,000 a month, do they need to pay back (the loan)? These details we need to work out. "Have we? No. But the principle will be that the poor cannot be punished," he said. The details, adds Anwar, is being worked on by a committee. When approached later ho...

NFCorp wants PKR leaders charged with disclosing private bank documents Déjà  vu? Aliran published the following: ... that [Lim Guan Eng] was first charged with falsely and maliciously publishing pamphlets in the following words: (Lim Guan Eng v Public Prosecutor (1998) 3 MLJ 14.) The Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik sex scandal. Wither justice and women's rights. Victim imprisoned, criminal free. But the fifteen old year schoolgirl had not been "imprisoned" but merely "detained" by the police. The statement in the pamphlet was therefore false and held to be malicious. Second, Lim Guan Eng was held to have uttered the words, "that he was dissatisfied with the fact that the court had ordered the minor to be detained for three years whereas Rahim, who should have been imprisoned for violating the law, was instead set free". It is important to note that while the accused was held to have published the word "imprisoned" he had uttered in his speech the ...

Hasan Ali is an epitome of an ambitious and desperate politician who would not mind manufacturing lies and deceits in order to stay in power. Much like others before him, Zulkifli Nordin and Ibrahim Ali, Hasan has been threatening to release a video to prove Christia! n prosel ytisation of Muslims. Again, he said he would release excerpts of the video featuring an apostate Muslim couple, now returned to Islam, who he said would reveal details of methods employed by Christians to foment apostasy among Muslims. Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing urged Hasan Ali to opt for "full rather than striptease disclosure". "For a man of his academic rigour, I'm surprised that he thinks piecemeal disclosure is sufficient," he argued. "He has not only to show the entire video but also produce the couple for questioning by a full court press before others can be convinced of the authenticity of his claims of devious means employed by Christians to proselytise Muslims,...

Strengthening faith (Perfect idea. No one's going to say "no"). Liberalism and pluralism are dangerous (Emm...This is questionable, at least I think lack of liberalism and pluralism is the real danger). Christians are threatening the Muslims (Wow! This one is real sedition that could threaten national security and solidarity). Don't misunderstand me. Those are not slogans of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Neither are they slogans of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They are the core ideas of a seminar jointly organised by the Johor state education department and the state religious affairs department aptly titled Pemantapan Aqidah, Bahaya Liberalism dan Pluralism Serta Ancaman Kristianisasi Terhadap Umat Islam. Apa Peranan Guru? (Strengthening Faith, Threats of Liberalism, Pluralism and Christianity Towards Muslims: What is the Role of Teachers?) National schools in the state have been instructed to send representatives to the event. It is absolutely not a problem to streng...