Dear all,

Just posted below comment on Tun’s blog:

Dear PM Tun Dr. Mahathir,

https://www.newmandala.org/business-as-usual-regime-change-and-glcs-in-malaysia/

Please allow me to point out the fact that the Malay are actually controlling almost all the economic activities of Malaysia thro’ government-linked companies (GLCs). Many Non-Bumiputra feature in Forbes Malaysia richest had move beyond Malaysia and gone global.

For the Malay, please stop feeling insecured and threatened by the non-Malays. You have the numbers, the political power, the administration power, the institutional support and control of economic thro’ GLCs. In fact almost all the positions in government, institution, GLCs and etc are dominated by the Malay hence Malay cannot be poor, just check out yourself why restaurants in all 5 star hotels are fully booked for Buka Puasa?

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2019/01/04/tun-betulkah-melayu-malas/

Tun, betulkah Melayu malas? Tajuddin Rasdi - January 4, 2019 7:00 AM

All this while with New Economic Policy NEP (1971-1991) follow by National Development Policy (NDP) and others similar race-based affirmation action for Bumiputra (Implementation of: Bumiputra quotas in ownership of public company stock, business (AP) reserve for Bumiputra, quotas for admission to public universities, scholarship and Mara institute for Bumiputra, Monopoly of Bumiputra in government, civil servant, institution and GLCs, house discount for Bumiputra and etc) by now all Malay should be at least a middle class (earning between two-thirds and double the median household) then why despite all the affirmation actions for years many Malay remain in B40? Can these be due to?

1. NEP, NDP and others similar Bumiputra affirmation action had been hijacked by Elite Malay and Malay politicians to enrich themselves (race based) rather than uplifting the incomes of the needy (Need based)?

“Saya tidak pernah lihat Melayu malas. Yang saya lihat Melayu perasuah, ramai. Yang saya lihat Melayu pagar makan padi, berlambak. Yang saya lihat pemimpin Melayu melaungkan ketuanan Melayu dan keagungan Islam, tetapi merompak khazanah negara yang boleh diagihkan kepada anak-anak Melayu, Cina, Kadazan, Orang Asli miskin, yang ini memang banyak dalam satu parti…tak salah saya, parti Tun sendiri suatu ketika dahulu!

Sekarang kita tengok sendiri, 2 presiden Umno berdepan pertuduhan songlap wang berjuta-juta dan berbilion-bilion. Kalau kita bahagi, tak banyak, katakan RM60 bilion dengan RM10,000 bagi seorang anak Melayu, kita boleh sara 6 juta anak Melayu.

Jumlah RM60 bilion tu “minimum estimate”. Jangkaan saya, sejak Tun memerintah Umno pada 1980, 40 tahun lalu, saya agak lebih banyak bilion lagi dah hilang kepada puak-puak Melayu yang melaungkan ketuanan Melayu, keagungan Islam dan mungkin juga puak-puak yang kata Melayu malas.”

2. Malay political appointees appointed to head GLCs and government agency entrusted to eradicate poverty are hard-working in enriching themselves rather than uplifting the earning of Malay?

“Sekarang, kita tengok kenapa Melayu tak boleh maju? Tun kata banyak program dilaksanakan, Felda, Felcra, Mara, Lembaga Padi dan Beras Negara (LPN) serta banyak lagi, tetapi siapa yang kaya-raya? Pemimpin Umno dan kakitangan kerajaan yang mengurus.

Pekebun tak kaya pun, yang teruk mengait buah kelapa sawit tak kaya pun. Peladang padi lebih kurang macam dulu juga.

Tun, sebenarnya kegagalan sistem politik dan pentadbiran Melayu yang bersekongkol membiarkan rasuah dan salah guna kuasa berleluasa.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak betul, “Cash is king”. Cuma zaman sesetengah pemimpin itu, dia tak beri “cash”, tetapi beri projek, beri jawatan pengarah ini dan itu yang gaji beratus ribu ringgit sebulan. Sampai ketua polis yang tidak cerdik sekolah dan berfikir pun boleh jadi pengarah besar syarikat gergasi kerajaan”

3. National Education/Religion Education that indoctrinated and closed the mind of Malay?

“Saya boleh bersetuju dengan Tun bahawa Melayu malas berfikir. Buat apa fikir pasal agama, ustaz kan ada, ustazah pun ada, dengar ceramah sajalah. Buat apa fikir Islam dan modenisasi, kenapa rajin pergi surau, selalu pergi umrah, kerap pergi haji, bersih putih masuk syurgalah Melayu semua.

Melayu tak malas. Pelajar Melayu tak malas, petani Melayu tak malas, guru Melayu tak malas, peniaga Melayu tak malas dan pensyarah Melayu pun tak malas. Kelemahan mereka adalah fikiran di bawah tempurung, tidak kritis, tidak luas dan tidak berfikir di luar kotak. Itu memang betul.

Tetapi, yang merosakkan peluang-peluang bagi orang Melayu berfikir, berpotensi dan berinspirasi adalah pemimpin-pemimpin Melayu Umno, PAS dan mungkin selepas ini, PPBM.

Yang mengkayakan diri dan seperti pagar makan padi adalah kakitangan kerajaan yang kebanyakannya Melayu. Ini sebenarnya penyakit orang Melayu. Tak payah buat kajian PhD, sudah terang-terang di depan mata kita.

Tetapi, orang Melayu masih terkongkong dengan penjilat, pembohong dan pemimpin politik, agama serta kerajaan Melayu yang asyik mendendangkan Melayu terancam oleh orang bukan Melayu dan Melayu masih tidak cukup kuasa ekonomi. Itu masalah sebenar Tun.

Bukan orang Melayu malas Tun, tetapi sikap dan pemikiran sempit. Orang Melayu kalau nak berjaya senang saja, buang pemimpin Umno, PPBM (terutamanya Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman) dan PAS yang mengongkong pemikiran dan sikap terhadap masalah sebenar orang Melayu.”

4. Can it because Malay has it easy with crutches for support all the time, thus they fail to plan and expect government to bail them out again and again?

“Melayu malas berfikir tentang pelaburan jangka jauh, ini saya setuju dengan Tun. Memang Tun kata benar, kalau Melayu dapat duit banyak, tengok saja keretanya, barang kemas baju wanitanya, “shopping”, “travel” pun cukup hebat. Pelaburan pendidikan tak buat. Sebab? Tak apalah, ada Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) dan Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)

Tidak ada siapa pun yang sempurna, diri saya pun begitu. Kalau ada perbahasan saya baik, tetapi pedas dan pahit, cuba telan. Banyak ubat yang pahit, tetapi mujarab. Jarang kita jumpa ubat sedap seperti minum teh tarik.

Kita perlu telan ubat pahit untuk membaiki diri kita. Tetapi, kita perlu beli ubat daripada profesional, bukan daripada P Ramlee atau AR Tompel dalam filem klasik Melayu”

Tun,

Please forget about the 7 millions 3Ds low-pay jobs by foreign workers. The million dollar question now “Are we in Malaysia ready for knowledge-based economy and are our education system prepared our workforce to meet the demand of high pay IR4 jobs?” Let’s be brutally honest here – we are not. In fact we are far from being ready for the changes happening globally around us. We are far from being a united people. We are far from being able to compete at the global level. We are far from being able to embrace differences and changes. And underpinning all of this unpreparedness is education. Our education priorities are increasingly become one of form over substances. Our school graduate hardly able to master the 3 R’s “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic” when the world is preparing children on the fourth R “Algorithm”

https://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2011/10/31/what-are-4-rs-essential-21st-century-learning

The 4 R's of education: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Algorithms. "Algorithm: A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, esp. by a computer."  Algorithms are the basis for computational thinking, programming, writing code, and web-craft. 

Here's some of what the fourth "R" of "algorithms" adds to the standard syllabus of 21st century learning.

• Algorithms and algorithmic thinking give kids of the 21st century the ability to write software and change programs to suit themselves, their own creativity, and their desire to self-publish their own multimedia work. Wonderful open source, nonprofit (free!) multimedia programs like Scratch inspire kids to learn and do, think and create, in moving images as well as text. 
• It allows them to create not just content but the actual structures of web-craft that govern their lives today.  
• It allows for more diverse participation in the creation (not just the consumption) of the digital cultural, as well as the economic, educational, and business products of the 21st century.
• It helps to end the false "two cultures" binary of the arts, humanities and social sciences on the one side, and technology and science on the other.   Algorithmic thinking is scientific but also operational and instrumental--it does stuff, makes stuff, allows for creativity, multimedia and narrative expression--all worked out within code that has been generated by these larger human and social and aesthetic priorities. 
• By making computational literacy one of the basics, it could help redress the skewed gender balance of learning right now, with an increasingly high proportion of boys failing and then dropping out of the educational system, a disproportionate number of women going into teaching as a profession, and an abominably low percentage of women going into technology and multimedia careers.  Starting early might help level the playing field in several directions at once.
• If we don't teach kids how to control this dynamic means of production, we will lose it.  Computational literacy should be a human right in the 21st century but, to access that right, kids need to learn its power, in the same way that the earlier literacies are also powerful if you master them.
• For those kids not destined to be programmers when they grow up, it gives them access to computational thinking, it shows them what web-craft is and does, and it shows them how the World Wide Web was originally designed; that is, with algorithms that allow as many people to participate as possible, allowing as much access and as little regulation, hierarchy, and central control as possible.

Interestingly, unlike math, which can often be difficult to teach in all of its abstraction, algorithms do stuff.   Algorithms are operational.  You show kids how to use a program like Scratch or Hackasaurus and, very soon, they can actually manipulate, create, and do, in their very own and special way.   

Thank you

Yours truly,

SS LEE