MRSM schools a successful failure?

UPDATED INFORMATION:

ON MRSM as 'SUCCESSFUL FAILURE':
A QUESTION on ITS CONSTITUTIONALITY

"was MARA's MRSM set-up unconstitutional? "

A well-respected, and nationally-reknowned lawyer and columnist good friend of mine Art Harun had recently provided this piece of information (via a threaded discussion) on the setting up of MARA Junior Science Colleges:

1) " ... Actually Doc, the MRSM is unconstitutional If it is a government initiative. Why? Because under article 153, the government, through the King, can only give preference to the Malays and the natives from Sabah & Sarawak, in areas concerning education AFTER MCE/SPM. I subscribe to affirmative actions being a necessary evil in order to elevate the economics status of the poor and rearrange the society into a more balanced economical sphere. But it must be done properly and fairly. .."

2) " ... Doc, just fyi:

(8A) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, where in any University, College and other educational institution providing education after Malaysian Certificate of Education or its equivalent, the number of places offered by the authority responsible for the management of the University, College or such educational institution to candidates for any course of study is less than the number of candidates qualified for such places, it shall be lawful for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong by virtue of this Article to give such directions to the authority as may be required to ensure the reservation of such proportion of such places for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may deem reasonable, and the authority shall duly comply with the directions. ... "

3) " ... Putting it simply Doc - where any learning institutions providing education ABOVE MCE level, has less places offered than the number of qualified students, The King may reserve places for Malays/natives of Sabah & Swak in reasonable proportion. "

4) Article 153 in detail

Special position of bumiputras: In relation to the special position of bumiputras, Article 153 requires the King, acting on Cabinet advice, to exercise his functions under the Constitution and federal law:

(a) generally, in such manner as may be necessary to safeguard the special position of the Bumiputras[23] and

(b) specifically, to reserve quotas for Bumiputras in the following areas:

positions in the federal civil service.
scholarships, exhibitions, and educational, training or special facilities.
permits or licenses for any trade or business which is regulated by federal law (and the law itself may provide for such quotas).
places in institutions of post secondary school learning such as universities, colleges and polytechnics.

Legitimate interests of other communities: Article 153 protects the legitimate interests of other communities in the following ways:

civil servants must be treated impartially regardless of race – Clause 5 of Article 153 specifically reaffirms Article 136 of the Constitution which states: All persons of whatever race in the same grade in the service of the Federation shall, subject to the terms and conditions of their employment, be treated impartially.
Parliament may not restrict any business or trade solely for Bumiputras.
the exercise of the powers under Article 153 cannot deprive any person of any public office already held by him.
the exercise of the powers under Article 153 cannot deprive any person of any scholarship, exhibition or other educational or training privileges or special facilities already enjoyed by him.
while laws may reserve quotas for licences and permits for Bumiputras, they may not deprive any person of any right, privilege, permit or licence already enjoyed or held by him or authorise a refusal to renew such person's license or permit.

... .
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MRSM schools a successful failure?

by Azly Rahman 
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As hypermodernising societies such as Malaysia progresses in syncrony with the advancement of capitalism, and as race and religion becomes the foundation for decision-making in education, especially in elitist well-funded schools, Malaysia is faced with another dilemma of education and national development.

Is this country creating sophisticated ethnocentrists that will continue to sustain race-based ideologies?

Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (Mara Junior Science College) schools, well-funded, well-staffed with advanced degree faculties, and well-taken care of by the Malay-centric government may be one example of a phenomena of a successful failure in the system's 40-year evolution.

The school system prides itself in innovative curricular experimentation drawn from best practice of schools, particularly those of the United States; as its original template was based upon.

What educationists will see in the list of innovations are merely aspects of the formal curriculum; upon further analysis lies the hidden and informal curriculum as perceived from curricular theory; hidden is the deeply racial socialisation aspect.

The overall picture lies in the impact of politics and education in the socialisaton of MRSM students. they parrot the teachers, the teachers parrot the politicians, politicians kowtow to money and power - that's an example of successful failure.

We are all economic beings, homo economicus undoubtedly but it is education and only education that is the best means to re-engineer, restructure, re-level, and redesign society.

It is the only means to sustain individual and social progress, as philosophers Dewey and Freire would argue.

Valueless ideologies

While the advanced nations are prioritising multiculturalism, honoring cosmopolitanism, and globalising education, Malaysians, through their endless fights over education are making many steps backwards. MRSM has produced a breed of sophisticated professionals to sustain ethnocentric valueless ideologies out of touch with current cultural realities.

Consider, in a similar vein, how much is spent and attention paid to on yet another high-priced elitist project such as the Pintar Permata at the expense of other schools in dire needs of even basic amenities such as those in Sabah and Sarawak or in many poor states - is that equity and equality for all races? Or is it a showcase based on ignorance of the meaning of equality and education?

With all due respect to the administrators, teachers, parents, and students, I must say about the MRSM school system.

With its insistence on being a Malay-centric, MRSM these days are not preparing children to survive in a multicultural, cosmopolitan, and ever-changing world that requires English as an important skill, and an outlook that is more open to learning about other cultures especially in the context of a rapidly changing Malaysia.

Those specialisations in each MRSM school are merely cliches filled with educational terminologies that are not fully understood but fully acceptable as a platform to appease the needs of the current regime.

Regimentation is necessary it seems to tune the mind of the monolithic mono-cultural students to accept governmental dictates making them in turn, one-dimensional beings.

Are any of those MRSMs suitable for Malaysian children? Or are they merely training and indoctrinating grounds to prop up yet another breed of leaders that will sustain the culture of blind following neo-feudalism of Ketuanan Melayu that itself is a dying specie?

Do parents know what goes on in the culture of the MRSM boarding schools and what goes on in the minds of your children?

In this context, we must look at the difference between education, schooling, indoctrination, mind-control, and liberation in thinking. I would say that the MRSM system is a successful failure.

Retrogressive ideologies

In MRSM, that predominantly Malay-elite secondary institution for the best and brightest young Malays, Malay-centric indoctrination work have been happening since the 1980s. Courses such as Kursus Kesedaran (Self Awareness Courses) are conducted to instill the questionable idea of Ketuanan Melayu, making the children afraid of "Malaysian bogeymen and bogeywomen" and their own shadows.

Open-mindedness is rarely encouraged and students take control over each others' lives transplanting retrogressive ideologies into each other's head, with the help of ultra-nationalist and anti-multiculturalist teachers.

Even if these children survive the ideological ordeal and experience 'tough love' and go on to get their degrees from top American and British universities, they will still be Malays with a shallow understanding of multiculturalism or become more sophisticated Malays with more complex arguments on Ketuanan Melayu.

They will then design policies to affect the needed sustenance of ideology in order to protect the interests of the few. Neo-feudalistic cybernetic Malays are then the new creations of the political-economic ruling class. They run the country and many are now running it down.

As an educator wishing to see Malays progress alongside in peace and prosperity with other races, I call upon us all to put a stop to all forms of indoctrination held especially by the BTN (Biro Tata Negara); an organisation that is of no value to the advancement of the Malays they claim to want to liberate.

It should be taken over by progressive Malaysians and replaced with a systematic effort to promote not only racial understanding through teaching respect and deep reflection on the cultures of the peoples of Malaysia, but also teach conflict resolution and mediation through cross-cultural perspectives. All must question the presence of BTN on campuses. All must reject BTN's programme for indoctrination.

Let us no longer allow any government body of that sort to set foot on our campuses or our schools. As Malaysians we have to demand an end to the further dissemination of racist ideologies.

Open up, not only institutions such as UiTM (Universiti Teknologi Mara) and MRSM but also Umno to more students of the major cultures. We will then have a great celebration of diversity and respect for human dignity in the decades to come.

We need to turn succesful failures such as MRSM into truly successful Malaysian educational ventures; an organic system able to prepare young Malaysian citizens for a diverse, multicultural, and rapidly challenging world - minus the cliches of educational innovation and blind nationalism that will be anti-national in character.

---

DR AZLY RAHMAN, born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York City) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters degrees in four areas: Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 350 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience in Malaysia and the United States spans over a wide range of subjects, from elementary to graduate education. He has edited and authored four books; Multiethnic Malaysia: Past, Present, Future (2009), Thesis on Cyberjaya: Hegemony and Utopianism in a Southeast Asian State (2012), The Allah Controversy and Other Essays on Malaysian Hypermodernity (2013), and the latest Dark Spring: Ideological Roots of Malaysia's GE-13 (2013). He currently resides in the United States.

THIS ESSAY APPEARS in MY THIRD BOOK on The Allah Controversy , available here and in major Malaysian bookstores : http://gbgerakbudaya.com/2013/05/the-allah-controversy-and-other-essays-on-malaysian-hypermodernity/ 


RELATED and LATEST ESSAY:

Making Mara's MRSM smarter

Azly Rahman 12:35PM Nov 21, 2013

I read with interest the news story of the progressiveness of Majlis Amanah Rakyat’s (Mara) Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) system to offer the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) to a select elite of the elites of this elitist franchised school, as a dual-international high school graduation certificate.

I think this is not just forward-looking but will help show Malaysians that a high school system exclusively for the bumiputras can teach all the subjects, including Mathematics and Science, in the English language. As we know the purpose of the creation of MRSM schools is to grow and groom future bumiputra professionals that will not only help the nation develop but to maintain the status quo of the ruling party and to advance the agenda of the Malays.

Mara was created to promote this ideology of exclusivity and to ensure that through the past four decades of schooling, Malays, especially those from poor families, will be given the best opportunities in education for social mobility. The Najib Abdul Razak administration had recently announced a RM1 billion education fund allocation exclusively for bumiputra for MRSM’s umbrella organisation, Mara.

But is this ideology of one-dimensionality and one-race schooling philosophy relevant in this day, when the world has already revolved into the galaxy of cosmopolitanism rather than be shackled in communalistic thinking?

Can education, that “gentle profession for the advancement of the human race”, be used as a tool for the advancement (still) of one particular race (ill-conceived) in an age in which poverty now cuts across racial and religious lines and limited resources in education need to be shared for the good of all?

Do we not realise who has become more impoverished since the New Economic Policy was introduced and the Rural Industrial Development Authority (Rida), a precursor of Mara was established during the Abdul Razak Hussein Administration? Who has become the “new poor” these days?

My view on MRSM is simple: It is a good system that has helped the “poor Malays”, it has helped made many of them very wealthy and released the cycle of poverty from the samsaric cycle. It has achieved its objective.

I believe it is now time to use this best practice and proof of concept to help “poor Malaysians, of all races, religious background, etc.” The MRSM system cannot be kept only as a conveyor belt or human engineering factory to produce one-dimensional mono-cultural beings, but to be used for better purpose: racial integration and national unity.

These days, children of wealthy Malays, children of the privileged, and of MRSM alumni, claim their place in the system - places that are supposed to be reserved for the poorest but the best and the brightest of all races. Let me suggest a new paradigm for MRSM’s modus operandi, to make it smarter and more relevant in this age of smart machines and bio-technology that celebrates cultural diversity.

Revamping the entire curriculum

The new paradigm should urge the revamping of the entire curriculum to meet the challenges of the a global and multicultural world, putting the MRSM school system under the Education Ministry and resources allocated to be used to democratise learning and teaching, and to bring “elitism” to the level of the masses, and most importantly to open up the system to children of poor families from all races.

No longer can MRSM be allowed to have 99 percent Malays and let the schooling process be mono-cultural and create future citizens/leaders who will think only about the Malays and let other races be alienated and marginalised.

Hence my suggestion that 50 percent of the places in the well-funded MRSM schools be allocated for the children of the now-irrelevantly classified as ‘non-bumiputras’. Wouldn’t this be the right policy to pursue?

This is where my proposal to “correct economic imbalances”, “eliminating poverty that cuts across racial lines”, and to “restructure society based on newer economic realities”, will be helpful in order to create a truly nationalistic and inclusive economy that harness the power of multiculturalism rather that one-race-dominant idea of bumiputraism.

This is where MRSM places need to be available to 50 percent of ‘non-bumiputra’ as the next stage of equitable educational evolution so that the dream, albeit sloganised, of a 1Malaysian Truly Asia Strength-in-Diversity Malaysia will be fully realised.

At an early age of socialisation, MRSM students need to learn to interact productively and progressively with each of the country’s races so that their early set leadership skills will include acquiring those of embracing diversity and improving themselves continuously.

Only by restructuring and re-orienteering the inner-workings of schooling systems such as MRSM and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) - the all-Malay-and all-too-Malay university - into a global and multicultural learning spaces and experiences, will we be able to dismantle race-based politics that has become a scourge and a curse to the aspirations of a developed and civil society we Malaysians wish to leave for our children and grandchildren.

I have a few questions to end this brief note on ways to make the well-guarded well-funded MRSM system smarter and to function better: Why not use Mara’s and the government’s money to help ALL Malaysians that are poor? Aren’t we all Malaysian citizens, regardless of race and religion? Isn't this what religion teach us to think about the future of our children - to think beyond race, creed? Who owns this country anyway?

Is the MRSM philosophy of education crafted, in the form of a hidden curriculum, to teach people to be excessively ethnocentrist and to perpetuate race-based ideologies useful as “commanding heights” to guide polices to maintain the withering Malay-bumiputra hegemony?

For these questions, all Malaysians concerned about a common future, will have to answer.

---

DR AZLY RAHMAN, born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Baru, holds a Columbia University (New York City) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters degrees in four areas: Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 350 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience in Malaysia and the United States spans over a wide range of subjects, from elementary to graduate education. He has edited and authored four books; Multiethnic Malaysia: Past, Present, Future (2009), Thesis on Cyberjaya: Hegemony and Utopianism in a Southeast Asian State (2012), The Allah Controversy and Other Essays on Malaysian Hypermodernity (2013), and the latest Dark Spring: Ideological Roots of Malaysia's GE-13 (2013). He currently resides in the United States. Twitter,
blog. BOOKS by Azly Rahman: http://gbgerakbudaya.com/bookshop/index.php?main_page=index&book_authors_id=108&typefilter=book_authors

 

RELATED ESSAY on MARA and UiTM

MARA is progress not fascism

Azly Rahman 12:49PM Aug 18, 2008

Mara means "to advance (forward)". It is the opposite of "retreat" and the declaration of defeat. It does not mean Undur.

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) must live up to its name. So must its younger brother Maktab Rendah Sains MARA. It is in the interest of the public to suggest good ideas for reform - and to advance.

In my lifetime I have been affiliated with both organisations. I taught in the former institution and I was schooled in the latter. Whether a product of historical accident or not, I am proud of my experiences in both. There is a reason for things to happen. I came from a poor family and was given the chance to have an education I wish many more Malaysians, my parents included.

But I wish to share my view on this troubling phenomenon that is plaguing a certain segment of the Malays. My argument will be largely linguistic.

What is the Malay view of the recent protest of UiTM student - of those young "men-in-black" whose are mourning and calling for the death of reason and rationality and for critical sensibility?

I think Malays in general are angry at the protesters. I think they are embarrassed that those few thousands of Malay students were displaying their ignorance of what Universiti Mara means.

While other universities have advanced (sudah mara ke hadapan) and are proud that they are embracing diversity and sharing resources for the benefit of deserving children of all races, those protesting UiTM students are experiencing the opposite.

They are yelling with pride the word "defeat" and "retreat". Instead of Ayuh Mara they are actually saying Jom Undur. While thinking needs to advance, these students are saying that they need to digress (Ayuh… mari mundur ke belakang). Mundur is the derivative word.
Should a university embody the philosophy of mundur rather than mara? Should it even be proud of being and embodiment of that philosophy? I doubt it. Only a misguided leader will be proud of being a guide to 'defeat and retreat' while the world around 'advances' and moves.

But these students are not entirely at fault. It is the ideology and perpetrators of the ideology of undur itself that's at fault. It is the leaders implementing the retrogressive ideology that are at fault.
It is the systematic indoctrination programme of ketuanan Melayu run over the decades that are advancing this UiTM philosophy of retreat.

It is an overdose of the work of government-sponsored Biro Tata Negara (BTN) that is making the mass retreat and defeat possible. It is the work of Malay-dominated agencies like these that are imprisoning the minds of the Malays. This is an anti-Malay-progress establishment that is using deformed arguments on race and ethnicity to pursue an educational ideology that has gone bankrupt.
Docile Malay intended
This is an anti-Malaysian mode of thinking that is still allowed to shackle the mind of the Malays. The idea is simple: make the Malay mind docile and afraid to think and you will divide and conquer them.

UiTM students need to instead protest against the continuing oppression they are experiencing through the work of their own institution and through BTN. They should demand that multiculturalism instead of blind nationalism be made the foundation of their college experience. UiTM students are more intelligent than those who protested against the suggestion.

In the 1980s UiTM's (then ITM) orientation programme used to be conducted using the tactics of sheer humiliation and stupidity; meant to stupefy the young, bright Malay minds.
The ROTU (Reserve Officers Training Unit then) was part of the week-long organisers of the orientation to create an awareness of how ITM students must learn to live in a tough and challenging environment.

Senior students would prey upon the incoming freshmen to make them 'tough' through humiliation – name-calling, physical threats, psychological abuse, etc. Minggu Orientasi (Orientation Week) is a week for the seniors to have control over the mind of the Malays; oftentimes in a gangsterish way.
Of course, it is also the time for the senior boys to show toughness to the young girls in this 'big brother-little sister' game of tough love. Many of them fell involved with each other in this 'Master-Slave' relationship. Even senior girls prey upon young boys, acting rough and tough on them. Pathetic paternalistic philosophy in progress.

At times the freshmen would be roughened up by students in army boots and told to just follow instructions if they are to survive in ITM. They will be screamed at for trying to speak up. This is the ideology of ketuanan Melayu at work; how to enslave the mind of the young Malays and continue to do so through the hidden curriculum designed by those who wish to have control over the mind of the bright young and eager-to-learn Malays.

Instead of teaching the in-coming students how to take good notes, listen to lectures, speak up in public, pay extra attention to English Language, and be open to new ideas, respect each other, and learn from other cultures, the Malay students are subjected to humiliation in a place that called itself a university.

Retrogressive ideologies

In MRSM as well, a predominantly Malay-elite secondary institution for the best and brightest  young Malays, similar things have been happening since the 1980s as well. Kursus Kesedaran (Self Awareness Courses) are conducted to instill the questionable idea of Ketuanan Melayu, making the children afraid of "Malaysian boogeymen and boogeywomen" and their own shadows.

Open-mindedness is rarely encouraged and students take control over each others' lives transplanting retrogressive ideologies into each other's head, with the help of ultra-nationalist and anti-multiculturalist teachers.
Even if these children survive the ideological ordeal and experience 'tough love' and go on to get their degrees from top American and British universities, they will still be Malays with a shallow understanding of multiculturalism or become more sophisticated Malays with more complex arguments on Ketuanan Melayu.

They will then design policies to affect the needed sustenance of ideology in order to protect the interests of the few.  Neo-feudalistic cybernetic Malays are then new creation of the political-economic ruling class. They run the country and many are now running it down.

As an educator wishing to see Malays progress alongside in peace and prosperity with other races, I call upon us all to put a stop to all forms of  indoctrination held especially by the BTN; an organisation that is of no value to the advancement of the Malays they claim to want to liberate.

It should be taken over by progressive Malaysians and replaced with a systematic effort to promote not only racial understanding through teaching respect and deep reflection on the cultures of the peoples of Malaysia, but also teach conflict resolution and mediation through cross-cultural perspectives. All must question the presence of BTN on campuses. All must reject BTN's programme for indoctrination.

Let us no longer allow any government body of that sort to set foot on our campuses or our schools. As Malaysians we have to demand an end to the further dissemination of racist ideologies.

Open up, not only UiTM and MRSM but also Umno to more cultures. We will have a great celebration of diversity and respect for human dignity in decades to come. I speak as a silent reproduction and capitalised human of both MRSM and UiTM; a product of the human capital revolution of the Mahathir era.

MARA means progress. Malays are now sick of contradictions and doublespeak. They do not wish to Undur. Let us all protest against the stupefication of the Malays. Let us dismantle racist institutions.

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

MRSM SYSTEM OBSERVED: EDUCATIONAL APARTHEID .. be fair to all .. change this policy please ...

EDUCATIONAL APARTHEID in THE MALAYSIAN SYSTEM:
MRSM as CASE STUDY .. This is what I have been writing about and folks need to correct this and to be fair to all regardless of race and religion ... Parliamentarians please discuss this issue ...
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IGCSE for only MRSM students! What about the rest?
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Last updated on 19/11/2013 - 10:49
Posted on 18/11/2013 - 20:00
Lokman Mustafa

KUALA LUMPUR: When an internationally recognised qualification is only offered to a certain group of students in the country while others equally qualified do not get the same opportunity, it’s bound to create an uproar.

And this is exactly what happened in the case of the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) which was offered only to several Mara junior science colleges (MRSM) early this year.

Two Pakatan Rakyat leaders are unhappy with the move as it is seen as an unfair and lopsided decision by the Education Ministry.

The Cambridge IGCSE is to add value to the Sistem Pendidikan MRSM (SPMRSM) which provides school leavers the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysian (SPM).

By the end of their school term, MRSM students will be able to obtain dual certification; a move expected to be implemented in all Mara colleges in three years.

However, as the junior science college is only accessible to a certain group of students, this means that only a select few are afforded this opportunity. Students in daily secondary schools will have to be satisfied with the Form Five examination.

The Cambridge IGCSE is arguably the world's most popular international qualification for 14 to 16 year olds.

It is recognised by most higher education institutions as evidence of academic achievement and is offered in many international schools in Malaysia with an annual fee of up to RM60,000.

Selangor Exco member for education, higher education and human capital development Dr Halimah Ali said the move indicates that Mara is preparing its students for the higher education and critical courses which are mainly conducted in English as SPM alone is deemed insufficient.

“The move is a clear indication that Mara students are being targeted for an international market while others have no such opportunity.

"The focus is on MRSM students to excel, whereas students from secondary schools are at a disadvantage," Halimah told theantdaily.

"Their future will not be as bright as MRSM students. At the same time, the move suggests that SPM is just not good enough," she said.

On the use of English as a medium in selected schools, Halimah stressed that the Ministry of Education must be consistent in implementing its policies.

"There is a flip-flop culture in the Ministry of Education. After 56 years of independence, they are still unsure whether to use Bahasa Malaysia, or English, or revert to Bahasa Malaysia as evidenced through the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English (PPSMI)," she said.

Recently, Kampar MP Dr Ko Chung Sen was reported as saying that those able to enjoy the benefits of an English-language education in MRSM are only the privileged elite.

"If the IGCSE is good for Mara colleges, it must also be good for the rest of the country," said the DAP lawmaker, while pointing out that MRSM students only make up two per cent of the total student population in the country .

"Our SPM alone is not sufficient to produce enough human capital to meet the demand from multi-national companies, either local or overseas," he explained in a media statement.

However, Ko believed IGCSE would not be viable for all secondary schools in Malaysia due to its high costs and difficult management.

"IGCSE is not suitable for subjects like geography and history, which requires local context," he said, adding that English medium schools should be brought back instead.

There are currently three Mara colleges which offer the dual-certification system, with all Mara colleges throughout the country expected to offer the same by 2016.

With the IGCSE, students can enrol directly in international universities, without the need for a transitional qualification through pre-university courses or the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM).

RELATED ESSAY on BUMIPUTRAISM

Non-bumis no more?

Azly Rahman Aug 27, 07 1:06pm

Sometime ago in a column I wrote the following: We are in the 21st century. About three years from now, we will arrive at the year 2010. The non-Malays and non-bumiputeras have come a long way into being accepted as full-fledged Malaysians, by virtue of the ethics, rights and responsibilities of citizenship. They ought to be given equal opportunity in the name of social justice, racial tolerance and the alleviation of poverty. Bright and hard-working Malaysians regardless of racial origin who now call themselves Malaysians must be given all the opportunities that have been given to Malays since 40 years back. Islam and other religions require this form of social justice to be applied to the lives of human beings. Islam does not discriminate one on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed nor national origin. It is race-based politics, borne out of the elusiveness of nationalism, that creates post-industrial tribalistic leaders; leaders that will design post-industrial tribalistic policies. It is the philosophy of greed, facilitated by free enterprise runamuck that will evolvingly force leaders of each race to threaten each other over the control of the economic pie. This is the ideology of independence we have cultivated. I want to elaborate the point further: A Malay child of Merdeka As a child born into a Malay family a few years after the shouts of "Merdeka" filled the nation's stadium, and as a child privileged to be given the opportunities accorded to a "bumiputera," I have a statement of hope to convey to our nation. As an adult growing learning multiple ways of knowing about the world, through people of multiple cultures, I often ask the question of what will happen to the children and grandchildren of Mr Wong, my Jawi teacher in Johor Bahru, Ah Lan the lady who taught my mother how to sew clothes for a living, Dr Das who treated my childhood illness and taught me how to be "patient" about wanting to make changes in the world, Mr PV Kulasingam my fearful headmaster, Miss Chan my favourite Maths teachers who suddenly became angry at me a day after the May 13, 1969 riots, Miss Yap and Mr Ambrose my English teachers who taught me to love the language when I was struggling with other subjects, and countless other "non-Malays non-bumis" I have come to be indebted to – those who have contributed to the "subjectivity" of what I am as a "cultural being living in an ever changing and evolving world of shifting cultural constructs." In short, I ask the question – what have this nation done to the children and grandchildren of these people through the policies we create to alienate each other? Because in my profession as an educator, questions are more important than the answers, I present them as such below: After this Merdeka, celebrations will we all be called the "new bumiputeras"? Will the false dichotomy of "Malays" versus "non-Malays" and "bumiputeras " versus "non-bumiputeras" be abolished? Will we come together as "true blue Malaysians" that will progress through the guiding national development philosophy crafted by the principles of scientific socialism, multiculturalism, affirmative action and meritocratic principles in a balance, and the respect, cultivation, and preservation of indigenous cultures that sustain the dignity of each race? Will more financial aid be given to the deserving students of all races? Will more scholarships be given to "non-Malays" or "non-bumiputeras" so that they too will enjoy the fruits of labour of the parents and grandparents who toiled for this nation? Will more deserving "non-Malays" be given the much needed aid to study abroad and to come home and serve, so that they will take pride in building the nation that has been kind to them? Will this new preferential treatment cure the ill-feeling and silent animosity over the awarding of resources amongst the different races? Will the children and grandchildren of great Malaysians – Soh Chin Aun, V Arumugam, Santokh Singh, (the grand-daddies of the real Beckhams of the Malaysian cultural iconoclasm) and Andre Goh, M. Jegathesan, be given scholarship they deserve? Will preferential treatment be given to those born after the Aug 31, 1957 to their children and grandchildren as well? It will be a shame to the hard work of the "founding fathers" of Merdeka if we do not work towards providing equality, equity, and equal opportunity to the children of all races. It would kill the spirit of Merdeka. Our Merdeka gone astray? This Merdeka, we have gone astray. Race-politics has reached its boiling point. It is predictable as a consequence of the outgrowth of politics in a pluralistic nation. Scholars who write about the difference between nationalism and socialism have predicted the bankruptcy of the former, in an age of globalisation and mass consumption – in an age wherein blind nationalism has become a blinder for the politics of plunder. This Merdeka, let us extend our special rights to all who deserve to live a life of dignity, based on the principles of universal declaration of human rights. In a nation wherein the three major races help build the nation, the nation must now belong to the children of all these races. It is the logic of the brighter side of Social Darwinism – that all must be made fit to survive, not through natural selection but through an inclusive philosophy of developmentalism. It is an antidote to racial discrimination based on a sound philosophy of peaceful evolution. We cannot continue to alienate each other through arguments on "social contract" that is alien from perhaps what Jean Jacques Rousseau the great wrote about some 300 years ago – a philosophy that inspired the founding of America, a nation of immigrants constantly struggling (albeit imperfectly) to meet the standards requirements of equality, equity, and equal opportunity especially in education. How do we come together as Malaysians, as neo-bumiputeras free from false political-economic and ideological dichotomies of Malays versus non-Malays, "bumi" versus "non-bumis' and craft a better way of looking at our political, economic, social, cultural, and psychological, and spiritual destiny – so that we may continue to survive as a specie of Malaysians the next 50 years? As a privileged Malay and a "bumiputera", I want to see the false dichotomies destroyed and a new sense of social order emerging, based on a more just form of linguistic play designed as a new Merdeka game plan. Think Malaysian - we do not have anything to lose except our mental chains. There is still a reason to celebrate.