RECENTLY, I chanced upon an Indonesian — apparently a teacher and who had recently done a series of YouTube videos singing his wild-eyed praise for all he saw on a visit to Kuching — who posted a video of himself and a friend watching Maybank’s Merdeka Month video.
The video was on several teachers dedicated to their vocation schooling young Malaysians under their charge. The Indonesian teacher ended up weeping un-ashamedly through the video.
It so happened I recently chatted with another Indonesian working in a high-end Kuala Lumpur eatery; he works part-time while pursuing further studies at Universiti Kuala Lumpur.
I highlight these to show what Malaysians too often take for granted these days: that while they (with some good reasons, it must be said) talk down our education system, non-Malaysians (including growing numbers of Chinese nationals) are ironically finding education in Malaysia an increasingly attractive proposition.
While our public education system — slow to change with the needs of the time — is in for some criticism, the saving grace is perhaps that a private sector-led education industry is allowed to thrive and fill in the needs of both Malaysians and foreigners alike.
The case of the Indonesian student reminds me of my own time when those not fortunate enough to land a place in a local university had to opt for an expensive foreign education; in faraway Canada in my case.
But why, you may ask, is it so difficult to reform our public education system? Of course, it is not unique only to Malaysia that political inertia oftentimes makes progress through reforms difficult.
On this, I also want to disabuse Malaysians in Sarawak (and Sabah) who are nowadays in the disingenuous habit of blaming “Malaya” for almost everything and refusing to acknowledge that sometimes, the fault may also be that of their own leaders.
Lest we forget, our current education system was very much the product of a Sarawak-born education minister, the late Tun Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, who went on to become the Sarawak chief minister and later, governor.
He was so convinced that the system he gave birth to is so perfect that when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad visited him later to try to convince him to personally endorse the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, he turned the then prime minister down point-blank!
Meanwhile, we must thank Malaysian ingenuity and foresight for letting our private education system, up to tertiary level, to flourish and to let both Malaysians and foreigners alike benefit from it.
It is perhaps second nature to us as a nation that we do not dwell excessively on what cannot or is slow to change for one reason or another and find practical workarounds when confronted with stumbling blocks of one kind or another.
As neighbouring countries face challenges and quite formidable odds in similarly getting ahead, we need to pause and count our blessings — both big and small — that while we face challenges of our own as other nations do, we will not let just foreigners in our midst be more readily appreciative of those blessings we enjoy.
* The writer views developments in the nation, region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching
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