Today I escaped from eVillage, as they call it Elephant Village (Kampung Gajah). Through out my stay there, I did not see any elephants but we came across a snake, few frogs, lots of mosquitoes and even a bee hive.
I am exhausted after 11 days of didactic lectures and sleeping late last night studying for today's exams. I slept all the way home on the bus. The whole 11 days were an experience but I will not miss it and hope that I will never have to go through anything similar ever again in my entire life. No offense to Kampung Gajah, it was a beautiful place.
However, it is always important to take the positive view of the world so, I am glad that I have a better understanding of Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB), Dasar Pembangunan Nasional (DPN), Perolehan Awam, Pengurusan aset kerajaan etc...etc...and it so happens that we are having our Perolehan meeting on Tuesday, so I will surely show off my knowledge with clauses and legalities.
I'm tired and lost for words...for the first time in my life, I am unable to express my true inner feelings and what I'm really thinking. Maybe things will start to make more sense tomorrow...
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Monday, 27 June 2011
Day 8 Kg Gajah: tired...mental saturation
After 8 days of non-stop didactic lectures from 8am until 7pm...I have reached mental saturation. Today we discussed about "vision 2020" which is to make Malaysia a developed nation by the year 2020.
In paper, it sounds like a reasonable plan. However, I asked this question to the lecturer with regards to the challenge of the just distribution of wealth to the population. I said "The world today is implementing the Capitalist economic system. We know that the Capitalist economic system is about profit making, obtaining wealth for one's own benefit. Even if we look at developed nations like the UK the quotes that we often hear about the inequality between the rich and the poor is that 90% of wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population so, how do we propose to achieve a just distribution of wealth if we are also following the Capitalist economic model?"
Unfortunately, I did not get any answer.
Let me just answer myself.
Firstly, if we were to follow the Capitalist economic model we will never achieve a just and equitable balance of wealth in society because of the nature of Capitalism. It is as though we are trying to make "sambal tumis" whilst using the cooking ingredient and method of making a "rendang". We will not be successful in making "sambal tumis" and who knows, we might not even be successful in making "rendang" because our intention was not to make "rendang". So, there you go!
Actually, some of the policy ideas are brilliant ideas thought of by a brilliant man. However, there are two issues:
1. The objective is unclear. To achieve a status of a developed nation we need to have a clear IDEOLOGICAL objective. Ideology means a system of life that is based on a concrete basis that has answered the fundamental questions in life such as why we are here? So, do we wish to become a developed Capitalist nation or do we wish to become a developed Islamic nation? or are we thinking that we can come up with a new formula of a developed 'rojak' nation?
2. In paper, the policies and vision sounds great but in reality are we able to translate the theory into practice? Our education system and our culture is geared towards theoretical e.g. I was waiting at my son's school to pick him up and I had the opportunity to listen to his ustazah teaching the class. She was talking about the importance of solat...a very important topic. However, as she was chatting away information these year 2 pupils all about the importance of solat, a little boy said "but teacher, we haven't prayed Asr". What did the teacher do? Nothing...she carried on talking about the importance of solat. To me, it would've been better if she stopped yelping about the importance of solat and just took the children to the prayer room and asked them to pray.
This is what I mean, the emphasis on theory but not putting the theory into practice. I'm not blaming that one teacher because she is not an isolated case. It is the culture and mentality of the people AND that needs to change. We need to develop the clear thinking and the clear objective and then, to be able to take the necessary steps and actions to translate that thinking and objective into reality.
In paper, it sounds like a reasonable plan. However, I asked this question to the lecturer with regards to the challenge of the just distribution of wealth to the population. I said "The world today is implementing the Capitalist economic system. We know that the Capitalist economic system is about profit making, obtaining wealth for one's own benefit. Even if we look at developed nations like the UK the quotes that we often hear about the inequality between the rich and the poor is that 90% of wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population so, how do we propose to achieve a just distribution of wealth if we are also following the Capitalist economic model?"
Unfortunately, I did not get any answer.
Let me just answer myself.
Firstly, if we were to follow the Capitalist economic model we will never achieve a just and equitable balance of wealth in society because of the nature of Capitalism. It is as though we are trying to make "sambal tumis" whilst using the cooking ingredient and method of making a "rendang". We will not be successful in making "sambal tumis" and who knows, we might not even be successful in making "rendang" because our intention was not to make "rendang". So, there you go!
Actually, some of the policy ideas are brilliant ideas thought of by a brilliant man. However, there are two issues:
1. The objective is unclear. To achieve a status of a developed nation we need to have a clear IDEOLOGICAL objective. Ideology means a system of life that is based on a concrete basis that has answered the fundamental questions in life such as why we are here? So, do we wish to become a developed Capitalist nation or do we wish to become a developed Islamic nation? or are we thinking that we can come up with a new formula of a developed 'rojak' nation?
2. In paper, the policies and vision sounds great but in reality are we able to translate the theory into practice? Our education system and our culture is geared towards theoretical e.g. I was waiting at my son's school to pick him up and I had the opportunity to listen to his ustazah teaching the class. She was talking about the importance of solat...a very important topic. However, as she was chatting away information these year 2 pupils all about the importance of solat, a little boy said "but teacher, we haven't prayed Asr". What did the teacher do? Nothing...she carried on talking about the importance of solat. To me, it would've been better if she stopped yelping about the importance of solat and just took the children to the prayer room and asked them to pray.
This is what I mean, the emphasis on theory but not putting the theory into practice. I'm not blaming that one teacher because she is not an isolated case. It is the culture and mentality of the people AND that needs to change. We need to develop the clear thinking and the clear objective and then, to be able to take the necessary steps and actions to translate that thinking and objective into reality.
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