February 24, 2012
Populist Democracy done cowards of us all
by Farish M. Noor (02-22-12)
The older you get, the grumpier as good as some-more asocial you become; as good as as you grow some-more asocial by the day, zero gets my goat some-more than carrying to watch as good as read about the developments in Malaysia where the lowest usual denominator rules the day.
On this arise you find myself riled once again by the renouned as good as populist demand for vernacular education, as good as to contend the multi-track preparation complement in the country. Again as good as again this emanate bedevils the inhabitant politics, as good as again as good as again most, if not all, of the political parties in the republic tumble behind to their protected positions whilst promissory note upon what they courtesy as their natural as good as protected political constituencies.
In this courtesy both the ruling bloc as good as the antithesis bloc appear to be equally during fault: Neither side seems prepared to take the longhorn by the horns as good as do what seems simply necessary if you still starting to perform the notion which there is the little form of nation-building during work in this country. Malaysia boasts of the uniqueness, though in this the single courtesy it does appear to be unaccompanied indeed.
After some-more than half the century of independence you still adhere upon to the notion which an thorough inhabitant account can come about through not one, though multiform vernacular preparation systems. Nowhere else in the universe (or the grown universe during least) can you consider of an example of such an arrangement, where both the supervision as good as the antithesis appear prone to support the! renoune d demand for vernacular-based preparation streaming.
Nowhere else in the universe would the plural society be done all the some-more alienated from itself by allowing kids to investigate in the association of those who have been some-more culturally as good as linguistically closer to them. We lament, as you often do, the declining levels of inter-ethnic hit in the country; as good as you bemoan which the supposed 'golden years' of Malaysia in the 1950s as good as 1960s have been long gone. And yet you contend this inane belief which by segregating young kids from an early age along linguistic-cultural lines you can still forge the Malaysian nation, together. How? And upon what basis would which common clarity of inhabitant belonging be found?
We consternation how as good as why the eremite functionaries in the republic can have the pronouncements they do, though what do you design if you concede the condition where young kids from the same linguistic-cultural credentials have been kept in the association of people identical to them from primary to delegate education, as good as perhaps even beyond? you have said the same thing so most times by now which you am usually grateful which the internet does not incur the waste of ink as good as paper: Yet today, in Malaysia, it is fathomable which the kid of the sold linguistic-cultural group grows up in the association of identical young kids up to the age of 18, without ever carrying to shake hands with someone of the different ethnic, linguistic or eremite background. So much for farrago then how upon earth can you design Malaysians to confederate if the educational complement keeps them detached for so long?
And whilst upon the subject of comparisons, can you suppose the identical situation in any grown country, similar to the UK, Germany or France? Where would France as good as Germany's minorities be if they were segregated from childhood in Arabic or Turkish schools? How could they hope to come in the mainstream of society which is! still d efined as good as done by the inhabitant denunciation of those countries? On the contrary, whilst you was living in Germany you came across scores of German-Arab as good as Turks who longed for their kids to come in as good as attain in the mainstream educational system, knowing which in which republic which is the usually trail to higher education, as good as possible ceiling social mobility as well.
Yet what it takes for this to happen in Malaysia is political bravery as good as the will to put forward in advance proposals which may not be popular, in fact officious unpopular. It takes the politician with guts to contend which Malaysian kids ought to be means to meet, study, contest as good as attain in the unaccompanied inhabitant educational complement which mirrors the being of Malaysia's plural as good as formidable society. And it takes the little bravery to state which if any Malaysian parent wishes his or her kid to investigate Mandarin or Tamil, he should be means to do so in the same unaccompanied inhabitant drill complement where these languages should additionally be taught as Malaysian languages languages which have been oral in the segment for centuries.
But politicians lend towards to be timid in the face of approved populism, as good as the will of the voter no matter how uninstructed, how hypocritical or inequitable seems to reason lean over their own opinions. you have met politicians upon both sides of the fence who have confided in me their fears as good as anxiety over where the nation-building routine in Malaysia is heading, as good as who know which if this direction continues there will not be the single Malaysia though multiform Malaysias, which live side by side though remain clueless about their neighbours. But these really same politicians appear serf to the list box as good as inept when it comes to doing what is necessary, albeit unpopular. They cannot verbalise out for fear of losing their supposed 'natural opinion bases', which happen to be racial as good! as ling uistic opinion bases, contemplative of the fractured society.
And so the charade continues, as good as you remain the republic which studies, as good as lives, apart. Thus has Populist Democracy done cowards of us all.
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