Leaked papers smell of corruption

Are we brave enough to point out the reality when everyone is refusing to admit the truth?

COMMENT

By Steven Sim

Everyone knew the emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes wasn’t wearing anything, but it took the honesty and innocence of a young boy to say that the emperor was naked.

The recent leak in the UPSR papers is definitely not new. I used to hear of such things when I was sitting for the UPSR decades ago.

Everyone knows that exam questions are leaked one way or another. And it’s not just the UPSR, but other public examinations as well, going all the way up to the college and university level.

Meanwhile parents and students would search high and low in hopes of catching a glimpse of the exam papers. Some would even recommend tuition centres who were adept at “spotting questions” as if there was a formula to the random process of putting together a set of questions. Or is there?

The leaks are not extraordinary, so why is everyone so worked up this time around? After all, it’s only UPSR, kan?

Leaked questions are symptoms of the depth of corruption in our society.

Examinations are supposed to be some sort of measure of our children’s intellectual ability, as flawed as the system may be. Yet it has descended into a measure of a child’s self-worth: Grade A equals good person, Grade B equals lousy person. And hence, the pressure for parents and children to excel, whatever it takes.

The problem lies deeper than a mere failure of our education system. What if some parents can afford to buy “good personhood” for their children? Whatever it takes, right?

Michael Sander, Harvard professor and author of ‘What money can’t buy: the moral limits of markets’ asks a pertinent question when society has put a price tag on almost everything. In the case of buying leaked exam papers, the transgression is clear. But Sander also warned of the broader “corrosive tendency of markets”.

Under the conditions where money can buy almost anything, the corrupt weavers of the emperor’s new clothes were given state titles, the dishonest ministers and officials received approvals and awards from the emperor, whilst the leading townsmen who perpetuated the spiral of silence escaped the wrath of the government.

Unsurprisingly, one of the instruments to maintain this silence and the silence over other government depravity was aptly named, the Official Secrets Act.

Decades ago, people merely whispered about leaked exam papers. They were kept within the four walls of tuition centres or a senior figure’s home. It was a secret, available only to the select few.

But when the thing went viral on social media, it shattered the secrecy which shielded the depravity of our society.

The stark perversion became embarrassing and unbearable. Who knows whether the person scored well by buying leaked papers or through his or her own effort? The whole system has become a farce.

Now everyone can score.

What’s worse is that now everyone can be a so-called good person, not just the elite. Because now money can buy everything and now everyone can score. How preposterous!

Has the show ended?

As of Sept 16, Malaysia Day, seven people were arrested over the leaked UPSR papers and the director of the Malaysian Examination Syndicate suspended. The same law which was used to conceal the dark secrets of the government is ironically now being bragged as the solution to the problem; those who leaked the UPSR papers were threatened with punishment under the Official Secret Act.

Consider the scenario of the arrest of those who posted the leaked questions on social media. Will it be like arresting the little boy who called out the naked emperor?

The charade, I mean parade, goes on. Because unless we all become like the little child whose innocent bravery laid bare the mockery which we daily witness both as victims and participants, “the Emperor walked ever more proudly, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all”.

Steven Sim is the MP for Bukit Mertajam