Mexikaner wrote:the lynx wrote:
Zahid Hamidi (like many Malay politicians) have the notoriety of shooting from foot, without studying facts himself beforehand. These politicians have been too comfortable within the local media because they often do not face direct repercussions from their ill-thought comments in public (and the fact that the local media is censored or under direct control of the government. The fact that many of them are not well-educated and got the positions not by merit (but by birthright and popularity) makes the whole thing worse because they are not well-equipped to carry themselves well in their positions (and of course, to do their actual effing jobs).
Now that this crisis has garnered global attention, they need to be careful that Malaysians are not the only ones who are their audience and that the international media is beyond their control. The whole world is watching (and also laughing at some clowns they have in the cabinet). Any politician worth his salt would have sought clarity on the subject at hand before making a press statement.
Be careful, Zahid. Be careful.
Could you please share with us your facts? or why do you imply that Mr Zahid is not well-educated and possibly got his position by
popularity (which politician doesn't???)
To answer your question about popularity, let me start about the political background of Malaysia. I will have to assume you have yet to know.
UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) which holds more than 50% of the cabinet minister positions, is the largest constituent parties under Barisan Nasional party. Membership of the Malays form that constituent party. Candidacy to positions within UMNO is by in-party votes and we all know that voting is always about how popular you and your ideas are with the party members (so pro-Malay ideas are, evidently, much more popular than pro-unity ideas within UMNO). Subsequently, support from constituent party also enables one to contest for general election. Since it is no longer mandatory for one to be a resident of that state to contest for that particular seat, a party can choose to throw any popular candidate to that zone to secure that seat.
So popularity plays. And in UMNO case, birthright as well.
Back to the education part, I tried looking for the authoritative source of information but apparently my search ended in a 404 situation. Since you highlighted my parts in bold, you'd realise that I said 'many' but not 'all'. Here is the closest I can give you but I can't vouch for the details.
http://arminbaniaz.com/2009/12/academic ... ysian.html
While some of them have good credentials (reading from the list) having studied abroad (mostly in UK), the others have local degrees. I'm not sure if you are aware but local Malaysian universities are not good in general (not all and I'm very lucky to be enrolled to the least bad of all, and under only a couple of good professors). And the rankings have been going down as the backward supremacist policies reversed the general progress of the universities. So for me and many people abreast with education policy, a local degree in current times isn't much. While I'm glad even the PM has a degree from UK, it is alarming to note that others that do are mostly Malays. In Malaysia, Malay-first policy affects education benefits too and prospective students are assessed if they are eligible for scholarships for education abroad by their race first, then meritocracy. A 4.0 non-Malay student will have to yield to a 3.33 Malay student for a spot to study medicine in say, Australia (example from 2009). So it is sad to say that some of them didn't even work hard to be placed in a good school, let alone to actually study. While I'm not including Hamidi specifically in this case, I'm not excluding the rest of them too.
So race-based policy applies to education too. Not all who gets to study in good schools are truly educated. And hence, the products are just people who have the paper certificates but without skills required to make it work.
What we have and what you see now is the result of all these working in the background for decades. It is easy to judge on the surface because it is hard to delve into issues deeper inside that. You either have to live in it and experience it to understand it, or read a lot.
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/1 ... velopment/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Malaysia
Hope that helps to enlighten you.
.
