Mission impossible! or ?

[joseph173]

This topic is not about Tom Cruise or...

After the reading of "Education System of Malaysia", i went on to search in google and found the following link:

http://lamankm2.tripod.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=7372

it is about: "English in schools divides Malaysia", the author's reasonings were most opposing our "Ex" PM. Dr. Mahathir.

Regardless the details in the above link, the ending sentence caught my attention:

Mahadzir Mohammad, said recently: "I'll give the analogy of a movie. The movie's name is Mission Impossible, but the mission is actually possible...




Personally i think Dr. Mahathir had a good intention, which Dr. Mahathir insisted his proposal is not political oriented, and i believe so.

But the outcome was the backfire from both opposition party and his own
allies(BN: chinese, indian). even some UMNO leaders also oppose ex-PM proposal, fearing that they will lose popularity among their own people.

Some of you may not agree with ex-PM's idea. But i'm sure he wasn't doing it for his own interest. Somehow this act threaten his popularity among his race(malays), and his relationship with chinese and indian.
(chinese and indian community fears the change to their chinese or indian government's primary school)


I wanted to emphasize that my topic, that " language or school" is not the things that impact me, but the current atmosphere or "civilization" in Malaysia might fail us, making another mission impossible for wawasan 2020. My main point is, i personally feel that lots of our malaysians are still living in the shadow of race, personal interest, rather than thinking right for Malaysia, which would eventually benefit all race, all the citizens.

[jiinjoo]

By the way, Guardian is an extreme left wing (socialist) paper in UK. So read their articles with a pinch of salt.

I wanted to emphasize that my topic, that " language or school" is not the things that impact me, but the current atmosphere or "civilization" in Malaysia might fail us, making another mission impossible for wawasan 2020.

We've just started a discussion on civics classes to address that issue. See if you can come up with some ideas?

As an aside, 2020 is not a hard deadline like your project. It's a projected time that's used to build a framework. If you put 2050, then you'll put in more goals etc.

My main point is, i personally feel that lots of our malaysians are still living in the shadow of race, personal interest, rather than thinking right for Malaysia, which would eventually benefit all race, all the citizens

We were, we are and we will always live in the shadow of "race" and "personal interest" (oops, don't spank me).

I once had a deep discussion on this with my comrades, and the conclusion we came to is that unless the world have evolved safely for milleniums with so many cross marriages until the only skin color is this light shaded brown (or whatever color is the most dominant of al in our gene pool), we will always gather by skin color. 100% guaranteed times 2 to the power fo 5, bonus free T-shirt.

In fact, we humans always gather by color, by religion, by nation, by historical binding, by whatever it takes to create a virtual enemy such that we have insentive to propel ourselves forward, to succeed. They say overseas Chinese for example are always "successful", why? Don't you think that somehow since young we're told that we need to strive to overcome some hardship given by all sorts of ruling majority? Ask any Chinese in any country other than China. Even China, just read their national anthem's lyrics. It's all about this vicious enemy coming to tear up their land, and they have to use all their blood and body to built a new Great Wall to fend them off. Now Malaysia too have enemies (Mahathir made too many hehe), and somehow we're told that we needto work hard to overcome this hardship etc. That's how we "succeed". Sigh I wish my English is better to express this idea. Someone help.

As for "personal interest", this has shifted a bit throughout the history of mankind. We're now living in the era of individualism. The commercial world tries to put the power on the individual consumer, the political world allows every single person to vote, the prevalent moral is "don't touch me or I'll sue you", human rights, online privacy, so on and so forth. The more a policy empower the individual, the more it is welcomed. So little has been done to encourage the individual to suffer for the greater good. Recycling is not a law. Overseas students from Malaysia are told to study hard and get good grades and learn and network so that when they go back they can "contribute to the country". Oh yeah. Interesting. I thought it is so that they can be a closely knit elite group of the country, keeping their pockets full (or at least full'er') while ensuring that everyone continues to do what they do, as a side effect have a prospoerous and peaceful country. Note that I'm not referring to the negative picture people like to paint with graft and all that, I'm referring to a very positive picture, where the rich and powerful learns the system better than others, and are able to utilize the system to the benefit of the communicty that they care for. And That, is personal interest of benefactor.

So you want communism?

(haha - ok i think blabber enough already - sorry for hurting some people's feelings, but hey this is one of the proven ways to get people to post hehe)

[joseph173]

:)..... :) ....
i used to be a perfectionist for a while. For which, i used to believe we should pursue a right idea even if it might not possible in the current stage. regarding "living in the shadow of race", u r right that it is not possible to break the barrier. perhaps it is the way it is. but we see some progress. for example, the blacks in america has a significant improve in human rights.

:twisted: no communism please :twisted: hehe

after i've been in U.S for a while i saw one interesting thing, individualism and group interest. ESL classes gave us the preparatition for the culture here, individualism, and a contrast to group interest(e.g asian value).

it is interesting to know that i feel that the americans manage to fullfill the group interest by fullfilling individual interest, especially after 9/11 i see tat.

communist try to benefit everybody but they lost everybody :)



also, i'm very tired of propaganda(virtual enemy). for example the politician in china make propaganda to make japanese look bad, and some of the left wing japanese always do the same thing. some india politician also made propaganda that china might be the potential regional threat.
UMNO make propaganda, DAP make propaganda, .....bla bla bla

we need a break, to do solid homework for malaysia rather than making more mission impossible for ourselves. personally, i believe, minimizing the race or political problem, would help us relocate our strength on other matter.

good example: in recent years singapor has aborb the "cream", or expert around the world to work or teach in singapore(from africa,malaysia,...)
i think this is the way to make a country strong.

[Schye]

I once had a deep discussion on this with my comrades, and the conclusion we came to is that unless the world have evolved safely for milleniums with so many cross marriages until the only skin color is this light shaded brown (or whatever color is the most dominant of al in our gene pool), we will always gather by skin color. 100% guaranteed times 2 to the power fo 5, bonus free T-shirt.

I believe that is why there is propaganda.
Our government always labels US the enemy but we still send student there, and in fact US is our biggest trading partner. Japan has now turned their target to North Korea and so does North Korea. Without this propaganda, the country won?t have a public enemy which will unite them. We will just think about we are Malaysian whenever Malaysia is attacked or condemn by others. Don?t you feel that when you heard someone criticize Malaysia?
I belief if one day, when aliens from outer space attack, we wont think about skin color, race, religion anymore but human from the Earth. There will be no more war among countries, no more propaganda: wink:

As long as there are human, there are chaoses; there are problems as we are all individual.

[joseph173]

propaganda does help a group or country to unite to focus on foreign threat. but it is a dirty tool which has been used for a centuries.

remember the cultural revolution in china, the president used propaganda to eliminate potential political threat, their own people. more people die in cultural revolution than die in the war with japan.
But the successor, Teng Xiao Peng, focus on economy rather than playing hte propaganda game, he did very well !

propaganda keep north korea to unite to demonize other capitalism country.
propagand kept Sadam in power.

even though it is the way it is(using propaganda to strengthen one own group), but i think that is for immature group to do that.

propaganda harms innosent outsiders, propaganda even harm our own people.

propaganda benefit one country in certain extent for unity(too much will also trigger war!) . the worst case is, for examle, malaysia's is not really unite, somebody use propaganda to play the issues of race, then tat is too bad. america does have propaganda all the time, but they use the right amount, at least they don't use it against or among themselves too much, they prefer the propagand that benefit their country interest.

[chenchow]

I think in this case, both Malaysia and Singapore do use the bilateral issues as a way to unite the citizens of each country. Don't you think so?

[suge]

Just a sec... people don't always gather by skin colour! One big example is myself... although living in a student hostel with lotsa mainland Chinese I would stick to Malaysians and other nationalities more. One big reason... I speak only a bit of Mandarin! (insufficient for intelligent exchanges :lol: )I'm saying language and mentality are the other factors at play here... skin colour is only one component of cultural background.

[joseph173]

suge brought up a very new dimension or perspective, which i didn't realize b4.

[Schye]

Yes, people don?t group by only skin colors, but as human being , we always stick with those who are similar with us, either in background, language, culture, religious, profession etc.It is just like the fish with the same kind will group together.
For example, in college or university, you will find that those with the same interest will become close friends. Those Chinese who speak mandarin and those who don?t, Indian who speak Tamil and those who don?t will form their own groups (not those who speak Bahasa Arab though).

In the other way, people always focus on those the differences among one another. For example, Ali was a Malaysian who has been staying in Indonesia since he was two years old. So, basically he will be same as the other native Indonesian but many will still always focus on the point that he is a Malaysian and cant fully accept him - kisah benar. They may tease him or bullied him, but there is nothing that Ali can do about it, as this is the way human act. Sad huh...

It is the same here. I believe that most of us are here because we have something in common. Of course the main one will be we are Malaysians, then maybe some are here because they want to have a better Malaysia, or like to discuss in forum , or like to learn etc. I am sure most of us appreciate waht we have in common rather than those differences. Let the differences be something which make one special :wink:

[littlebigone]

i was in the bar yesterday and this dude came over. He started talking shit about black peope. He was so ignorant that it brinked on comedy.

Anyway, white American friends who were with me were very annoyed by this.

Looking at the my friends and this guy, the only difference I saw was that my friends seemed more educated and exposed to different cultures because of the place they live in. This guy...I guess the best way to describe him is that he is a redneck (sorry for the racist jibe) My friends will someday lead the country in some way or another while this guy may also become a leader (Think dubya).

I didn't really have a point to make. :P. Other than, I think Malaysia is actually moving towards a better harmonized community. I think that most of us realize this problem and as long as we keep educating and also try to diversify races that live in an area, I think we can actually become a Bangsa Malaysia. Each generation will lose a little of it's proudness for race. Soon we will make it.

[iQing]

^bump