My Say

Every year, from July to September, there is one certainty in Malaysia - a thick haze will envelope the whole country, caused by rampant, unchecked open burning in neighbouring Indonesia. The situation is so bad that visibility can be down to a mere 3 kilometres, endangering flight operations. The haze causes numerous problems for Malaysians, ranging from health problems to loss of tourist dollars. Yet people have accepted the situation and stopped talking about it. Only one newspaper has a daily ‘haze’ watch with an air quality index.

Our government, sadly, has done nothing at all. Maybe it’s for the sake of maintaining good ties with Indonesia, who incidentally also supplies up to 3 million workers to the Malaysian labour market in the domestic help, construction and plantation sectors. But can we afford to keep closing the proverbial one eye? In the longer term, the costs, both real and hidden, will be huge to Malaysia. Indonesia should learn to be more responsible and ensure that it’s farmers stop the ’slash and burn’ way of clearing land for cultivation. Perhaps the ASEAN countries can chip in to provide some funds to the farmers to clear land in an environmentally responsible manner. Let’s hope somebody will do something about the situation…

The higher education minister is extremely optimistic in making this statement that Malaysia is hoping to attract 100,000 international students to its institutions of higher learning.

But what can Malaysia really offer in terms of education? The emphasis of the minister seems to be on the ‘experience’ of living in Malaysia rather than the quality of education. The fact is that some of the best Malaysians go abroad for higher education and quite a number never return, having found better job prospects with higher pay in the US, UK, Australia. Other than cheaper tuition fees and lower costs of living, the universities and colleges in Malaysia don’t stand a chance to compete with other institutions of higher learning in other countries. The recently released list of top 100 universities worldwide released by Newsweek did not include a single Malaysian university.

Perhaps the minister needs to do a bit of soul searching before embarking on such an ambitious plan.

The Deputy Prime Minister has suddenly taken an interest in toilet habits of Malaysians. Read here. If you are not a Malaysian, you must be scratching your heads and wondering whether the DPM has lost his marbles? Well, if you have been to a Malaysian public toilet, even the ‘exclusive’ ones that you have to pay RM2 to use, you’ll know that when it comes to keeping the toilets clean, the attitude of the people here leaves a lot to be desired.

However, the problem is not just with toilet habits. The general populace in Malaysia still lacks any sort of civic mindedness. They will not hesitate to throw rubbish anywhere. Many natural tourist spots such as pristine beaches and virgin forests have been all but destroyed by this callous attitude. This mindset will have to be changed if there’s any hope of transforming Malaysia into a developed economy.