Brain drain or brain dead

Three Higher Education Ministers in 4 years while universities continue plunge in international rankings and losing out to Indonesia after left behind by Singapore/Thailand

http://blog.limkitsiang.com

Three Higher Education Ministers in four years while Malaysian universities continue the plunge in international university rankings – this is the second consecutive year Malaysia is excluded from the Times Higher Education Supplement’s (THES-QS) World’s Top 200 Universities.

Are these two matters inter-related?

This is the question I posed to the third Higher Education Minister in four years, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin in Parliament this morning when he replied during the winding-up of the 2009 Budget debate, but as expected, he could not throw any light on the conundrum.

It is a sad reflection of the “paradigm shift” in university quality and excellence in Malaysia that while the first two Higher Education Ministers (Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh and Datuk Dr. Mustapha Mohamed) talked about how to defend Malaysian university rankings in the Top 200 World Universities, Khaled spoke with pride this morning at the inclusion of Malaysian universities in the Top 500 world universities!

I warned this morning that Malaysia is seriously losing out in competitiveness, with our univerisites not only left behind by Singapore [National University of Singapore (NUS) ranked 30th and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore ranked No. 77] and Thailand (Chulalongkorn University ranked No. 166), we are beginning to straggle behind Indonesian universities!

Until last year, Malaysian universities were all ranked well ahead of the Indonesian universities, but in the 2008 THES-QS World Top Universities ranking, Indonesian universities are catching up with Malaysian universities in leaps and bounds.

Last year for instance, the three top Indonesian universities were all ranked behind the Malaysian universities – University of Indonesia (UI) No. 395, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) No. 369 and Gajah Mada University (UGM) No. 360, as compared to the three top Malaysian universities University of Malaya (UM) No. 246, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) No. 307 and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) No. 309.

In this year’s ranking, University of Indonesia has improved by 108 placings to be ranked as No. 287, Bandung Institute of Technology No. 315 and Gajah Mada University No. 316.

This means that in the 2008 THES-QS Ranking, University of Indonesia (No. 287) has narrowed the gap with University of Malaya (No. 230) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (No. 250), while ahead of Malaysia’s apex university, Universiti Sains Malaysia (No. 313), University Putra Malaysia (No. 320) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (No. 356).

Papa, can you give me some more money?

DAP wants Silterra losses investigated
By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 - The DAP wants the federal government to investigate Silterra Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the country's leading manufacturer of semiconductors and wafer fabricators and a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional, for its continuing "calamitous" losses over the years.

Its national publicity secretary Tony Pua told reporters in a press conference in Parliament this morning the company which makes computer chips had been suffering significant losses despite the government's injection of RM5.2 billion since 1994.

He noted that Silterra incurred a loss of RM1 billion last year, RM646 million in 2006 and RM864 million in 2005.

"What is most fearful is the fact that Silterra is seeking an additional RM8.5 billion to fund its expansion in operations despite the fact that its shareholder capital has been reduced from RM5.2 billion to only RM798 million in 2006, possibly even lower in 2007," added the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara.

Pua said that Malaysia had fallen behind in manufacturing technology in the past decade and were no longer regionally competitive as Singapore.

He noted that the island nation had managed to convinced a French semi-conductor company, Soitec which produces a sophisticated chip used in popular game consoles such as the latest version of the PlayStation3 and Xbox, to set up a S$700 million manufacturing plant there last year.

"Singapore became the only country in Asia that it trusts well enough to set up its first manufacturing campus outside of France," Pua said.

"Khazanah Nasional and the Finance Minister must explain to Parliament on the extraordinary losses incurred to date, the continued viability of Silterra and if viable, what are the critical measures being put in place to rescue its subsidiary from the intensive care unit.

"Do we have what it takes to compete in this particular sector, or would it be more beneficial for Malaysia to lay emphasis and invest in high-technology sectors which it actually possess competitive advantages?" he queried.

Also at the same press conference, party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said he hoped Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would speak on this matter in Parliament tomorrow when he is expected to present his economic stabilisation package.

"Look at the size. It's RM5.2 billion going down the drain," the Penang Chief Minister observed.

He asked that Najib who is also the Finance Minister to include measures that will benefit the citizens directly and not just corporations.

Lim emphatically urged Najib to consider the DAP's 4-pronged economic survival strategy: to give RM6,000 a year to each Malaysian household earning less than that sum a month; to reduce corporate tax rates to 17 per cent; to reduce the current electricity tariff and to adjust fuel prices on a daily basis.

Royal rumble (Not WWF)

Malaysian princes come to blows

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — An alleged thrashing of a member of Malaysia's royal household and his friends by the grandson of the Sultan of Johor and his bodyguards last week looks set to renew debate over the indiscretions of the royalty and whether they are immune from prosecution.

Tunku Nadzimuddin Tunku Mudzaffar, the son of the eldest princess of the Negri Sembilan royal household, filed a police report over the weekend that he was hit with the butt of a pistol on his head and face by a grandson of the Sultan of Johor.

The alleged offender was identified only as Tengku Ismail, and his father is one of the Sultan's sons.

The scuffle allegedly took place at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of Saturday and Tunku Nadzimuddin suffered a fractured nose.

A friend of the Negri Sembilan royal family, Shamshuddhuha Ishak, also filed a police report that he was beaten by the bodyguards of the Johor royal family member and lost consciousness and a front tooth, according to people close to the situation and familiar with the police report.

The alleged beatings took place following an altercation between groups from the two royal households at a popular nightclub in Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of Saturday.

There has been little publicity in the local newspapers over the incident. Sources close to the Negri Sembilan household said that there is intense lobbying to get Tunku Nadzimuddin and his friends to withdraw the police report.

A close source to the Negri Sembilan royal household said that the family wants the police to investigate the alleged beatings and bring charges against the assailants.

The police have yet to comment on the alleged incident but a senior government official told The Straits Times that investigations are ongoing and that several suspects are expected to be called up for questioning soon.

Allegations of indiscretions by members of Malaysia's royal households are not unheard of. In the early 1990s, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad pushed through sweeping constitutional amendments that removed provisions granting the royalty immunity from prosecution.

Under the country's Constitution, the country's nine sultans, who take turns to serve as king under a unique rotation system, are above prosecution in the ordinary courts of the land and can be tried only by a special court.

Royal personages below the level of sultan are not protected from prosecution under the country's laws. Lawyers and political analysts say the latest incident involving the royal households of Negri Sembilan and Johor is likely to be watched closely and will be a test of the government's determination to bring the country's royalty to legal parity with commoners.

Several people familiar with the alleged beatings on Saturday say that friends of the grandsons from the Johor and Negri Sembilan royal households were in separate groups at a nightclub in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on Friday night.

Just after midnight, an altercation broke out between the two groups but the matter was resolved by the nightclub's bouncers.

According to people close to Tunku Nadzimuddin, the 36-year-old prince from Negri Sembilan, received a call requesting him to show up at a hotel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's financial district to meet the prince from the Johor royal household.

When Tunku Nadzimuddin arrived at the hotel, he and his friends were confronted by the Johor prince and his bodyguards before they were assaulted, people close to the Negri Sembilan prince alleged — Singapore Straits Times

The cows will come home one day

Talkin’ ‘bout my generation
By John Lee

OCT 31 — In Parliament not too long ago, some MPs expressed outrage that road signages in Penang now feature multiple languages; the controversy over language, the royalty, and other aspects of the "special status" of the Malays has been simmering for decades, and these culture wars seem doomed to be with us always.

But the problem with our politicians who have been the product of these culture wars is that the present generation of Malaysians don't relate to issues that aren't issues; whether Malay is the only language on signs or the Sultans are given unquestioned authority are simply not as important as the reality on the ground for a whole new cohort of Malaysians; Malay or non-Malay.

In Malaysia, our culture wars were fought over what identity Malaysians should take; whether we should all call ourselves Malay and adopt the Malay way of life, whether we should cleave to the cultures of our ancestors and refuse to budge, or whether we should opt for a third way.

In the 1960s and 1970s these were very real and potent issues; cementing the status of Malay as our national language and the institutions of the rulers were the sites of fierce political battles in our history. But our politicians today are refighting wars that have frankly long been settled.

Nobody today seriously wants to throw anybody out of the country, as many angry demonstrators in the May of '69 demanded; nobody wants to abolish Malay as the national language, or overthrow the Rulers. You can make the case that the Sedition Act and other draconian laws are merely keeping the lid on such radical sentiments, but it's a pretty groundless case; even on the most extreme of extreme internet sites, nobody is even throwing these ideas out there — these ideas simply do not have any more political relevance.

So why are we refighting the culture wars —why do we still act as if the position of the Malays or the position of traditionally Malay institutions remain under threat? Is it because a handful of road signs in tourist destinations or a review of an economic policy somehow will completely and radically reshape the foundation of our country? Of course not — if the basic structure of our country were under threat, you would have people in the streets yelling that Kuala Lumpur belongs to the Chinese. You would have politicians suggesting that we overthrow the Rulers and establish an Islamic or socialist republic. The fact is, public sentiment is overwhelmingly uninterested in these issues of years gone by.

For Malaysians who have grown up as Malaysians, these things are set in stone. We don't care too much about arguing over whose culture is better. We eat each other's food, we listen to each other's music, and we feel as comfortable in batik as we do in the samfu. Some of us are more insular than others, but in general, we grew up as Malaysians; we don't feel out of place, we don't feel our culture under threat, until someone tells us that it is.

And the problem with our politics at the moment is that literally every prominent national leader, be he Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, or Karpal Singh, is a product of the culture wars that raged from the '60s till the early '80s; everything they do is framed by the political experiences which burnished and tempered their characters.

They innately speak of things as if the key issue is Malay identity, or Chinese identity. They think in terms of the politics of old; everything is a threat to somebody's race, somebody's culture, somebody's institutions. They are almost physically incapable of conceiving of a Malaysia where people have grown up living under the status quo ante; where for many, these issues are long dead and buried.

The generation that is coming of age today cares more about jobs and opportunities than it does about the ketuanan of someone. People understand the inherent injustice of a policy that treats everyone from one race as innately disadvantaged, and everyone from another race as innately advantaged. People want to be able to go to college, to hold down a steady job, and enjoy life — not get embroiled in some massive debate about a national identity that, for them, has already been settled. This is how the generation of today views the world.

To the credit of many of our leaders, they have tried to reshape their political paradigms into something that better accords with this new generation of Malaysian. Anwar, in particular, managed to seize on these ideas and coasted on them to unheard of political success in the last election; Lim Kit Siang has also managed to adjust to the new pragmatic realities of the Malaysia we know today. Even Najib is playing catch-up, trying to talk of more liberal and less heavy-handed approaches to governance. Yet, the culture wars of yesteryear continue to be refought by politicians like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Karpal, who seem unable to realise that for a whole new generation of Malaysians, the nonsense they blather about the ketuanan of some race, religion or culture is mostly irrelevant.

I have long held that we cannot truly move forward in Malaysian politics, and truly get down to the business of government, until a new generation of politicians in tune with this new generation of Malaysians can take power. This seismic shift in how we view the world is something young leaders like Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Nurul Izzah Anwar, Khairy Jamaluddin, and Tony Pua seem more comfortable with. They understand that most young Malaysians just want a government that can give them every reasonable opportunity to succeed, regardless of where they come from or who they are, politics of culture or identity be damned.

For all the good our old guard is presently attempting to do — and I do support them in whatever efforts they may make to change Malaysia for the better — they are simply not a credible vanguard for a seismic shift in how Malaysian politics works. I like Anwar's race-blind approach to welfare economics, but he cannot be a credible spokesperson for efforts to promote this when he built his political career on fighting the culture wars. I may agree with Najib that the NEP needs to be at the very least rethought, but he can't seriously speak for that when he was eagerly out there battling for ketuanan Melayu as a young politician.

Even if Lim Kit Siang can present a pragmatic and open-minded case for secularism or the promotion of alternative streams of education, he has no authority to speak on these issues when he exploited them to fight the culture wars. These men clearly mean well, and I wish them the best in implementing these various agendas they have laid out. However, as an objective observer, I cannot see them getting very far when they are all waist-deep in a heap of dung they have flung at each other — it is a bit too late to start digging themselves out of this now.

All this is not to say that culture and identity are no longer potent issues, because they are; there are still longstanding rifts in our society that must be healed, and our government must play a huge role in that. But the key difference is, the generations of old viewed the world through the lenses of culture and race; the generation of today views the world through the lenses of opportunity and joie de vivre — we want to live life to the fullest, to accomplish all we can with what we have. Every generation of Malaysians has made these things their priorities, of course — the difference is in what tops the list: identity topped the list for the generations past, but opportunity tops the list for the generation today. This key difference of priorities is what so drastically swung the tide in the March elections, where one side promised opportunity, and the other side promised another clash of cultures and races.

The leaders of tomorrow will be those who can deliver the best opportunities for Malaysians to use the talents and ability they have, to enjoy their lives to the fullest. Those who try to build their political careers on fighting the wars of decades gone by will soon find their staying power limited and in short supply. We are on the verge of a new kind of politics, one built on more than stale issues of cultural superiority or ethnic dominance — one built on pragmatism and the ability to deliver the goods.

John Lee is a second-year student of economics at Dartmouth College in the United States. He has been thinking aloud since 2005 at infernalramblings.com.