9 January 2012; The Acquittal of Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim.

Such is a personality that he continues making headlines despite countless of allegations hurled at him & family, or more accurately – anyone who can be closely affiliated to him. For a progressive democratic nation, the Sodomy II is deemed weak, uncalled upon, and dubious in the eyes of truth-seeking public. In fact, this latest political setback has been more of a concern to majority Malaysians of late than perturbing economical issues.

9 January 2012′s verdict holds much significance as many predicted that upcoming election may be the Opposition pact’s only chance of taking Putrajaya. The turnarounds of 2008′s political tsunami has made the public more courageous to question Government’s unpopular moves. The once impossible coalition pact of Chinese-dominant DAP and Islamist PAS, together with PKR is beginning to portray the new image of Malaysia’s political landscape, calling for the ruling party of Barisan Nasional to liberate the public as the roars are beginning to extend to rural constituencies.

I was fortunate to be one of the thousands witnessing Anwar’s acquittal of the Sodomy II allegation.

Why fortunate? What’s so special of witnessing just another person coming out of court?

Anwar’s case is probably the last of such in the history of Malaysia’s judiciary. Having said that, the last (and first) Sodomy case recorded was also one involving Anwar and his personal aid, in which the later eventually confessed -in an undated video recording- of him being forced to concede to lies of politically-malicious intent. This verdict also bears weight to Malaysia’s future political landscape as the next General Election looms nearer. Anwar is said to be the unifying force of Opposition’s Coalition and it’s usually uncalled for political parties of different ideologies agreeing to one as their potential Prime Minister. However, the image of a sodomiser Anwar works more harm than good for a formidable Opposition force, especially when the connotation of Anwar being one is a major catch-word for the 150,000 daily readers of mainstream newspapers.

So..why was I there?

Having my political freedom restricted by AUKU (though not of the case here), it’s the usual wish for conventional parents not wanting their children to be affiliated to politics (especially Anwar) before the about time. It was the least of expectation for me to be part of the atmosphere, nevertheless one can always change his fortune of life, and unrelatedly – I did mine by doing my legal attachment at RamRais & Partners on 6 January 2012.

Syahredzan Johan, a partner of RamRais & Partners whom I was with.

Coincidentally, I was tasked on an immigration case (on my first day of work) handled by Syahredzan Johan and it happened that its case trial will be on the 9th at Jalan Duta Court Complex; the very place where Anwar’s verdict is to be released at.

I was walking behind Justice Bao.

Contrary to the previous rallies, the PDRM was surprisingly co-operative and non-violent to the public. Traffic towards the complex didn’t turn out to be as horrendous as many had anticipated, in fact, there were no road-blocks leading to the Court Complex despite the sporadic presence of PDRM. The amassing crowd started chanting as early as 8 in the morning, followed by speeches of Pakatan Rakyat’s politicians. (Fuziah of Kuantan and Nizar were the few I managed to listen to).

One of the common sights during the rally.

By 830, I had to get moving from the speech-platform and squeezed myself through the impatient, unnerving crowd as chants to release Anwar and reformation continues reverberating just outside the main entrance.

“HIDUP HIDUP! HIDUP ANWAR!”

“REFORMASI REFORMASI REFORMASI”

What happened inside the Court Complex?

It’s work as usual for the BlackandWhites inside the Court Complex, though a commotion can be obviously seen at the far-end of Level 5, mostly lawyers and journalists. As the case on immigration was postponed to 11am, Syahredzan and I waited along the corridor-approximately 20 metres away from the commotion- for the verdict on Anwar to be released.

*A BBM notification to Syahredzan verifies Anwar’s acquittal from the sodomy allegation.

Both of us were startled of this verdict, which led to the checking of Twitter updates to verify the information.

“YEAH YEAH BETUL LAH TU, EVERYONE IS SAYING SO”

Merely seconds after, a thundering roar erupted from the Court Complex’s parking place vicinity as Anwar’s supporters rejoiced at this triumphant verdict.

The actual atmosphere (from the ground) after verdict is out.

From the look at it, most lawyers (from the commotion) looked relieved as the jubilant crowd celebrated this emphatic win. A lady who later engaged into a conversation with Syahredzan said:

“I don’t care about Anwar or Najib, I’m just glad Anwar’s family doesn’t have to go through this suffering any longer”

Minutes later, Anway and his envoys came out from the verdict chamber, happily waving to the photographers. Meanwhile outside, most of Anwar’s supporters have started making their way home, leaving the few hundreds faithful ones by the Court Complex’s main entrance.

Selangor Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim was the most exuberant as he walked out of the chamber, being among the earliest to give out interviews to info-hungry reporters. Khalid gleefully walked past us, and started lauding the victory to recognizable individuals as “A NEW START. THIS IS A NEW START”.

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That was my short account of the much-hyped 9 January 2012 and I feel compelled to share my fortunate experience as I’m sure many would have longed for such opportunity. Likewise, let’s hope that this case won’t be prolonged & taken to the Court of Appeal as the judge had already made it clear by saying that he could not rely on controversial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution in the case lodged by Anwar’s aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

“The court is always reluctant to convict on sexual offences without corroborative evidence. Therefore, the accused is acquitted and discharged,” were the final words uttered in the verdict chamber. Malaysians are generally tired of this dirty politicking and enough is enough.

Can ‘Unity within Diversity’ Truly Unite Us All?

 by Dian Mashita

Just about 2 weeks ago, I was among the 120 government scholars who attended Biro Tatanegara (BTN) camp; it was basically a camp made compulsory for us to attend in order to deepen our understanding on the Federal Constitution and what 1Malaysia is all about.

I can’t help but notice that during the first 2 days there; before all of us were divided into groups enlisted by the organizers; in the Dining Hall, the Malays would sit with the Malays, and the same case goes for the Indians and the Chinese. Only one or two tables had the multi-racial ‘population’.

On the 3rd day of the camp, when all of us were assigned into 12 groups of 10; only then the tables in the Dining Hall were filled with mixed races; and this was because we were told to sit with our assigned group mates. This continued till the 5th or last day of the camp.

As I see it, this pretty much resembles how most of us Malaysians truly are. Most of us won’t mix around unless we’re told to.

“Melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya”.

This Malay proverb reminds us that in order to change something, we have to start from the early stage.

Therefore, here comes what I truly am opposed to; vernacular schools.

Some of us were already racially divided since the age of 7; how could 10 years of being among the same creed without having friends of other races; truly unite us?

I’m afraid what we have right now, is merely tolerance.

We accept the presence of one another, but do we embrace one another as how at least a family should be?

Unity in Strength

According to Tan Sri Professor Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim, prior to Malaya’s independence, vernacular school was set up by the British for the Chinese and Indians as they were very transient during those times. They were not looking to stay back in Malaya permanently, so British set up those schools to prepare them, and help them to get transitioned back to their home countries, if needed.

So, why do they still exist in this current time?

If the government is truly serious on conceptualizing the 1Malaysia slogan in reality, then there should only be one education system in Malaysia, where every Malaysian child could interact with one another and learn to genuinely embrace each other.

Although, I can’t deny that even in a national school with multi-racial students, some of them still prefer to group with their own people but won’t the increasing number of vernacular schools divide us more?

If one wants to learn their people’s own language (I did not say mother tongue because mother tongue is a language spoken at home, not necessarily by a race), then a special school could be set up as an extra class; just like how some of the Muslims attended national school in the morning, and religious school for another 2 hours in the afternoon.

I believe that for the sake of unity, all Malaysian children should attend the same kind of school; and if they must, learn the 3 languages of the 3 apparent majorities of this land: Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil; because language is the window to the soul. If we can effectively communicate with one another then it could be the start of true unity.

PPSMI Madness

Hafidzi Razali thinks it’s time for a student of Malaysia’s two education policies in the past 10 years to voice out his opinion, as he can’t seem to stand having the loud voices of parents-who-know-it-all dominate this policy debate any longer.

I am part of the policy-tinkering generation of Malaysia’s education system, having studied Science & Mathematics both in Malay and English throughout 10 years of public schooling. It bothers me to read newspaper reports and articles of activists supporting either side, and honestly speaking, opinions that speak the greatest volumes must be from the students in this policy-changing phase themselves,  rather than parents who probably earn a handsome income.

Before indulging deeper into this most controversial policy debate, a brief account of my public education history does well to put me in such a position for my views on this matter to be respected.

Like most middle-income Malay families, I was raised in a family which speaks Malay nearly all the time but which also places strong emphasis on learning English as a pivotal learning tool. Despite not using English as the mother tongue, I’d describe myself as someone who can speak English fluently, and I guess good enough to write articles with minimal (or no) grammatical errors with extensive vocabulary. But then again, I wouldn’t credit the Government’s policies for it was my personal effort plus my supportive parents which enabled me to master English, which brings me to the whole dilemma this case is all about.

If anyone were to reflect on the effectiveness of policy-making, you’ll first have to place yourself in the position of an average Jack, not view things from the perspective of parents with professional backgrounds worrying about their children’s academic future. As a Malay guy hailing from a sub-urban area of the ‘modern state of Selangor’, the level of English competency among students is admittedly worrying. In fact, the core of this critical problem isn’t racial-centric, as the majority of Chinese and Indians from vernacular schools are not as fluent in English either. As students, we’re often taught to study English for the sake of scoring well in exams, hence you can see 17-year-olds writing a decent 10-year-old-standard essay scoring As for English in SPM, what more when speaking English, if not merely constructing sentences, in is a bane.

Politics aside, I agree with the DPM’s major concern of prioritising the pinnacle of the problem first. If English is really the main problem, let’s improve on how we teach English first before anything else. If students are grappling to even construct decent, grammatically-correct sentences, how can they even understand a Biology text to begin with?

I’ve gone through these phases of learning Science and Mathematics in both languages, and I reserve no credit to PPSMI for my current level of English, in fact, it saddens me to see the ridiculous approach adopted by some students who read dictionaries and ‘example essays’ for their English writing papers.

It’s best if we look beyond the strive to have English as the medium for Science and Mathematics and figure out first the best way to learn English, rather than the unproven successes of merely using the language on the basis that ‘the world of Sciences is in English’.

Conical flask or kelalang kon? | Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vissago/

We know for a fact that it’s beneficial for our students to know English, so that it’d be much easier for them upon reaching tertiary education. However the mindset transformation doesn’t start by tweaking the medium of instruction. Even worse, the already-inept English teaching system is making it harder for rural students especially to comprehend the essence of Sciences, which may result in their inability to grasp the ‘why, when and how’ concepts. Truth be told, reality is far from what we may imagine our students to be. We can’t deny that the policy may in fact spur the English learning process, but again let us get back to the root of the problem, which is English incompetency. I see no reason for our students to struggle with tertiary commitments in Sciences if they can already master the concepts while in high school, even if it were to be in Bahasa Melayu.

Using Bahasa Melayu to learn will enable almost everyone to understand the concepts first, and once they do, it’d be much easier to deal with the various nuances of Sciences rather than looking at them from a single viewpoint. Provided that our English learning system is going to be implemented in as heavenly a manner as the DPM envisioned, not only students are able to comprehend the essence of Sciences (on the assumption that everyone understands Bahasa Melayu), the supposedly improved system of English education can provide the necessary tool for students to explore Science more deeply, in contrast with the status quo of being spoon-fed by SPM reference books.

My fervent hope is for English to be enhanced again, and having said that, I don’t think the right way is by making it the medium for learning Science and Mathematics. We know that most Malaysians of late are grappling with English. It’s time for us to reflect on this fragility of our education system first before more of our students get left out, not just with regard to English but to Sciences and Mathematics as well.

It’s time for the ruling party to revamp our English syllabus. As of now, the status quo has clearly failed to produce the English-speaking generation we wished for. If my opinions were ever to be taken into your mindful thoughts, please consider these reforms for the sake of our nation:

1. Your textbooks are mostly useless to inculcate the fun of learning English. Students don’t usually grasp the idea of grammar and comprehension, thus are unable to apply the basics in their everyday use of English. We must now seek help from acclaimed linguistic experts to meddle with our syllabus. We can’t go far if 17-year olds are still getting diagrams and excerpts from passages. Circling the right answer from a choice of simplistic statements do not by any means develop a student’s critical insight, but merely spoon-feeds answers in the study of literature.

2. It’s time to do away with our one-off oral test. There should be many avenues for students to be continuously aware of the need to speak English, rather than just a pre-memorized casual conversation with their English teacher once or twice a year. Sadly, some English teachers even speak Malay in class. Perhaps things would be much better if English teachers can start conversing entirely in English as how foreign teachers may do.

Sit and listen, sit and listen | Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mg315/

3. Communication is often missed out during English classes. There’s minimal or no interactivity between learners and educators, which is something to be focused on during lessons. In the USA, the first and last phases of learning are always about recap-ing discussions and getting feedbacks from the majority of students. As far as my experience has shown, learning English in public schools constitutes more of bringing homework home after 20 minutes of jotting down notes, and another 20 minutes of listening to explanation, rather than a time for reflection on what has been studied in class by the students themselves.