Internal Security Act

This is not an article about Internal Security Act. Just a thought about an issue related to this act.

There was a recent incident in the United States where a Christian Pastor planned to burn the Koran. I was having a conversation with a Singaporean, an American and a Danish, and we began to dwell into this topic. Then my Singaporean friend said, "I guess this will never happen in Singapore and the issue won't even get out of hand, simply because, when such a plan is revealed to the public, the Singaporean government is likely to arrest him under the Internal Security Act".

Although I do not agree to the principles of ISA to detain without trial, this could be a case where the ISA can be useful. This led me to think further about the ISA in Malaysia. I am very sure if this US-incident is to happen in Malaysia, the government will without much doubt use the ISA to arrest the person who instigated such provoking act.

However, let us assume hypothetically, there is a Buddhist monk burning the Bible and a Muslim cleric burning the Tipitaka (the sacred book of Buddhism), I wonder will the same ISA principles be applied in all hypothetical cases?

The Last Interview

The last interview with Yasmin Ahmad, a few days before she passed away. In the interview, she talked about 1Malaysia and race-relations in the country. Indeed, a meaningful farewell message.



Video from Youtube, courtesy of The Star Online.

My Prayer for Malaysia

My prayer for social justice in Malaysia.

"Almighty God, who hast created man in thine own image; Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice among men and nations, to glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. "

Prayer taken from The Book of Common Prayer (1928). May God be merciful to the nation of Malaysia, despite the constitutional and political turmoils.

Back to Square One

The equation starts with two problems. First, there are 45,000 vacancies in the civil service. Second, only 1.78% and 2.5% of Chinese and Indian are currently in the civil service, whereas, these two ethnic groups accounted for almost 40% of Malaysian population.

After these problems were reported in the media, representatives from MCA and MIC, two leading political parties representing Chinese and Indians respectively, made an appeal for more Chinese and Indians to join the civil service. Next, it was reported by the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department saying that there were high level meetings among senior civil servants and ministers to determine the best racial composition of their respective agencies.

The discussion surrounding the issue reflect the superficial way of dealing with the problems without understanding the underlying factors. First, one need to ask why Chinese and Indian do not want to join the civil service. I can safely bet that the most frequently reported answer would be "discrimination". Compared to working in the public and private sector, there isn't much different in terms of the benefit and wage. However, the career prospect and development in the civil service is very much associated with discrimination. I could clearly recalled my boss telling me this when I was in the civil service, "Why you join the civil service? You know, as a non-Malay, you will never be the Secretary General of this ministry. The best you could achieved is probably the Deputy Secretary General II". I do not blame my boss for being straight-forward, but in fact, I appreciate his frankness to point out the reality. Four months later, I left with my boss' blessings.

If the perceived discrimination is hindering people from joining the civil service, why is the issue about racial quota continues to be discussed. This simply will reflect that the best people will not be placed in the position or ministries according to their ability, but according to the racial quota.

How do you expect the Chinese and Indian to respond?

Therefore, a safe prediction is more than 95% of the vacancies will again be filled by the Malays and the racial composition in the civil service will continue to be skewed.

It's back to square one again!

As a way forward, I am indifferent of using the racial quota for intake to the civil service. After, all, the ethnic composition in the civil service should reflect the country's ethnic proportion. However, within the civil service, racial quota should never be used as it contradicts the very important principles of meritocracy. For the sake of the country, the best people should be placed in position that best utilised their expertise and rewarded accordingly, regardless of background, ethnicity or political affliation. Even if we can't practice this entirely, at least, the system must begin to re-structure towards the direction meritocracy, in order for the civil service to be considered an interesting career choice for all Malaysians.

Which is More Important?

This is just one small little question that I could not understand. I was watching the news about the request to debate about motion of no confidence for the Prime Minister. The Opposition head informed the press that the request has been submitted to the Office of the Parliamentary Speaker.

Here comes the irony. When the Speaker was asked whether will the request be accepted or rejected, he answered that he has yet to make any decision about it. He further added that now he just want to go back to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and see his animals (cows and goats were mentioned). He said, "I'm a Kampung boy and I want to go back and see my animals first. Then I'll decide."

Is the debate about the country's leadership not as important as the animals in Kota Kinabalu? Which is more important?

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Fifty years ago, this very day, Malaya gained its independence from the British empire. Being a Malaysian, it was indeed a day to be proud of the achievements that this 50-year old country had achieved.

Taking a few moments this very minute to ponder the meaning of Merdeka, I wish to pen several of my thoughts about the independence of my beloved country.

What is patriotism? I guess I could call myself a patriotic Malaysian. I have always felt proud being a Malaysian. Proud that I have the freedom to practice Christianity and living peacefully in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community.

Pondering deeper, I would think that this 50th celebration is not only counting the achievements of the past, but rather a good opportunity for Malaysia to reflect on the past and move forward. The country is at a crucial junction in many areas. As the country geared towards this celebration, many critical issues continued to head the headlines almost everyday.

The nation is still caught in debate about :-
about the role of Constitution;
jurisdiction between civil and syariah court;
increasing corruption;
continuation of affirmative policy;
the proposal of Common Law being replaced by Islamic Law;
the conduct of parliamentarians;
inefficient public service;
decreasing competitiveness; and more importantly
"is Malaysia an Islamic state?".

Why is the country still uncertain and indecisive about so many crucial issues?

Is it because Malaysians in the past were ignorant?

Or is it that Malaysia nearing the age of 50, began to need a pair of reading glasses, and therefore these issues were magnified?

Well, as the country celebrates its' 50th birthday, let all Malaysians take this opportunity to ponder on our stands in these issues. These issues have serious complication because Malaysia is standing at a crucial junction in this globalised world. We just could not afford to screw up any of decision pertaining these issues.

As for me, I will dedicate my prayer as a gift to this country.

"Dear Lord, thank you for Malaysia. Thank you for the blessings You have showered upon this country for the past five decades. More importantly, I must thank You for the freedom of religion, that Your children could worship You without persecution. I continue to commit this country into Your loving hands that You will continue to bless and guide her. Grant wisdom to the King and leaders that they will govern this country with fairness and put the nation before themselves. Grant that Malaysians would continue to live in harmony with one another and appreciate the diversity that You have granted in this land. Bless Malaysia O Lord! Amen. "

Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Pondering on 50th Independence Day

Reflecting on Malaysia's 50th year of independence, I could not but felt obligated to share my racial experiences growing up in this multi-ethnic country.

I attended the "national" primary and secondary school. It was so-called "national" because it was suppose to be schools catering for all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity. The 13 years of education in multi-ethnic schools have created the "Malaysian" in me. In school, besides during Moral Education/Islamic class or religious' fellowship, ethnicity was rarely a factor. Majority of the decision were more inclined to meritocracy. I have friends who were Malays, Chinese, Indians and Sikhs that I am still in-touch with. Perhaps I was too naive to think so much about ethnicity during my school days.

In 2002, I was offered a place in University of Malaya. After the week-long orientation, I stayed on in the residential college. This was when I had my first experience of what is racial segregation. Students were grouped or classified according to ethnic groups. Conscious or unconsciously, segregation policy has been in-placed in different ways, such as room allocation. Chinese students will all gathered in the basketball court and the seniors will tell us to be united and vote for the Chinese candidates in the residential college student council election. Subsequently, we juniors, were also told to be supportive of the so-called 'Chinese' projects.

One year later, a new Master took over the administration of the residential college and introduced a quota system for the election of the student council. All ethnic groups will be represented in accordance to the ethnic ratio. I was privilege to be one of the Chinese nominated to serve in this council.

In the council, the Malaysian in me began to resurface. To my surprise, the members of the council were actually non-racial although we supposed to represent our ethnic groups. Due to the cooperation and the non-racial viewpoint, we introduced many drastic measures in the residential college to eliminate or reduce the racial segregation. These measures were met with resistance and we were also being viewed as traitor by our respective ethnic groups.

Along the way, the wonderful friendship between Shakirin and Murali, both who served together in the student council, were eventually bonded. We were known as the Petronas group because we were always seen to be together (Petronas is the national oil company that always produced meaningful advertisements that reflect strong sense of interaction between the three major ethnic group in Malaysia). We began to have good long conversation, sharing our opinion, criticizing each other constructively and even sat for hours enjoying our supper at Abang Zul's foodstore. The working relationship in the student council eventually became true friendship that have no boundary of ethnicity. We even came to a point where I began to learn eating with fingers, while Shakirin began to use fork and spoon. I also clearly remembered how Shakirin helped Murali and me to feel at ease while attending a fast-breaking dinner, which we were the only non-Muslims in the dinner.

We began to see each other as Malaysians, rather than as Malay, Chinese or Indian. We began to discuss more complicated and sensitive issue like religion and politics with racial elements. More importantly, we have the understanding to "agree to disagree" and this prompted frankness and openness. No doubt, the strengthening of our friendship has further re-affirmed our strong sense of being a Malaysian.

More gladly, our spirit of friendship that has no racial boundary, also began to spread, as we began to see our juniors in the residential college began to develop such multi-racial friendship. We began to see students from various ethnic group sitting together during meals, watched TV, participated in sports, going for supper together, and more interesting taking part in each others' cultural activities and dance.

Indeed, Malaysia can truly look forward ahead with brighter hope as we celebrate the 50th years of independence, if all Malaysians began to see themselves more as Malaysian and less as Malay, Chinese or Indian.

Happy 50th Birthday, Malaysia!

Hope for Wisma Putra

I was reading "Servicing the Foreign Service" with joy and hope for Malaysian Foreign Service.

Finally, the ministry is able to recruit its own Foreign Service officers instead of selecting from the pool of Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (PTDs). I view this step as a positive development in rebuilding the Malaysian Foreign Service.

This direct recruitment exercise is certain to solve the problem of shortage in manpower. I can personally testified the seriousness facing this ministry as I once was asked to handle the workload of two Assistant Secretaries. The shortage of manpower has resulted in officers not being able to perform their task efficiently and contributed to consistent overtime. Many thought that government servants clocked out exactly at 5pm, but I have never done so in Wisma Putra. The earliest record I have clocked out was 6pm and the latest being 3am.

This is also a positive step in enabling the truly passionate and aspiring applicants to apply for the position of diplomats. Previously, the applicants have to applied through a common scheme of PTDs and to be posted. The competition was intense and sometimes the most suitable officer might be posted to other ministries rather than Wisma Putra.

Therefore, I certainly see this change to the recruitment policy as a stepping stone for the revamp and rebuilding of Foreign Service in Malaysia. However, I would also like to see further changes to the human resource management within the service, in line with the current development.

Although many people view the job as prestigious and glamorous, nevertheless, officers in the ministry has to faced many uncertainty in life. Malaysian Diplomats do not seems to have the choice in selecting their posting and is expected to be obedient in whatever decision made on them. However, many countries do not practise such policy. For example, Foreign Service officers in Australia and India, will have to apply for posting to overseas mission when there is a vacancy. This separate application process enable the officers to determine and plan their own career, in accordance to their family and personal needs. On the other hand, this also enable the ministry to choose the best candidate for every position and ensure that only the best deserving officer will be posted. The less competent officers will have to stay home and continue to improve themselves.

I take this opportunity to urge my former colleagues to continue striving on towards excellence with great hope that their over-burdened workload will soon be over. Gambateh!