Predictable Malaysia

Now that the tagline Malaysia Truly Asia has become stale and quite frankly unsuitable since Malaysia only celebrates diversity in advertisements, and Endless Possibilities was never ours to begin with, let's go with Predictable Malaysia.

There is little chance of anyone being surprised by what happens in this country anymore.

Predictable Rosmah Mansor

First, let's get this out of the way: there was nothing wrong when the wife of the Prime Minister told students that they must verify news reports.

That is the universal truth. Check and counter check because there could be bias in reporting and fiction dressed up as fact. Sound advice by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

Sadly, it was all downhill after that at Wanita Umno's Nadi Negara award ceremony today.

She attacked the opposition for twisting the "facts" to tarnish Putrajaya's image and urged Malaysia's young to read newspapers and watch television.

Someone obviously has not brought to her attention the latest circulation figures for her beloved newspapers. They are dropping and fast.

The New Straits Times has a circulation of some 75,000, of which only slightly more than half is bought by the man in the street. Even the Malay tabloids like Harian Metro suffered a cut in sales.

Fewer people are reading local newspapers or watching television to obtain a real picture of what is happening in Malaysia.

This trend started years ago after Putrajaya turned these newspapers into propaganda tools and platforms to spread racial hate.

The Malaysians who do buy newspapers are doing so out of habit – to read the obituary pages and classified advertisements.

Rosmah and the establishment would like Malaysians to devour and believe the spin from newspapers and government-owned or state-friendly television stations.

The spin that says that all is well in Malaysia and the person occupying Seri Perdana is doing a sterling job.

The predictable elite

In private, they consume expensive bottles of wine in their homes and palaces, enjoy the company of women who are not their wives, sit and plot with their Chinese business nominees on how to extract maximum from government concessions and even have some time to express concern over the worrying state of race relations in the country.

In public, some of them agree with Perkasa, Isma, Jais, Mais and every other collection of alphabets that is hell-bent on destroying multiracial Malaysia with their brand of right-wing and divisive rhetoric.

Others are guilty of staying silent on the sidelines even though they abhor the likes of Ibrahim Ali and Rithuan Tee.

Welcome to the world of Malaysia's political, business and royal elite. Enlightened in private but hypocritical in public.

Beneficiaries of government largesse and suction pipes for the leakages and corruption in the system, they talk a good game around the dinner table.

But the fact remains that they want the status quo. They want a Malaysia where the elite have the protection of the state to plunder.

In return, they offer the government and their acolytes protection, support and legitimacy.

Predictable Idris Jusoh

Pretty intelligent individuals tend to suffer amnesia or an attack of sillititis (illness only found in Putrajaya) when they join the Cabinet.

Once they become ministers, all intelligence is suspended and they just regurgitate the party line, no matter how nonsensical it sounds.

Take the example of Datuk Idris Jusoh.

The Terengganu politician was one of the most sensible chaps as a backbencher, often backing up his statements with empirical evidence and even urging Umno to really commit to serious reforms after it lost two-thirds control of Parliament in 2008.

Remember it was sensible Idris who sent Lynas packing when the rare earths company attempted to set up shop the his state.

These days, Idris is Education Minister II and so, predictably, he speaks like a minister.

Need a memory jig on minister-speak? Just recall these names: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Hasan Malek, Jamil Khir Baharom, Maximus Ongkili. Get the picture? Lots of bluster, hyperbole, in denial, etc.

In a recent interview with radio station BFM 89.9, Idris boldly predicted that parents who are sending their children to private schools will soon enrol them in national schools.

The reason for the reverse migration: the raft of reforms being introduced by the Education Ministry, including upgrading the quality of a drove of teachers listed currently as sub-par.

Here is a news bulletin for Idris: this is not the first time that the Malaysian education system is in the throes of "reforms".

The introduction of a new education minister in Malaysia is always followed by a new blueprint for education, as sure as night is followed by day.

And every new reform is nothing more than a grand-sounding scheme drawn up by expensive consultants.

Even Cabinet ministers usually pass judgement on these so-called reforms by continuing to send their children to Garden International School and other private institutions.

An increasing number of middle-class Malaysians believe that in addition to being  centres of mediocrity, most national schools also promote religious and racial chauvinism.

As a result, many parents are willing to pay between RM12,000 and RM100,000 a year to send their children to schools where there is a more multiracial mix of students – like in the national schools of 25 years ago.

Idris must know that an ever-increasing number of Malay students now attend Chinese schools in the country.

The reason for this phenomenon: the teaching of mathematics and the discipline in Chinese schools is far superior to that in national schools.

There is a better chance of the Malaysian football team qualifying for the next World Cup than Malaysian parents suddenly changing their perception about a national school system stuck in a quagmire of chauvinism and mediocrity.

The much-touted raft of reforms trumpeted by Idris includes the assessment-based system that most Malaysian teachers are having a trying time grappling with and some first-in-the-world technology none of the top schools in the top-ranked education systems of Singapore, Finland, Korea and China are using.

But hey, do not blame Idris Jusoh too much. He is just being a predictable minister, saying stuff for public consumption that probably even he does not believe in.

So, how about it Putrajaya? Replace Malaysia Truly Asia with Predictable Malaysia. It's catchy and captures the essence of the country.

- TMI