I was lucky and had joined an MNC retail giant as middle management then when I was home. I also had the opportuniy to recruit and interview new management trainess.

I can still remember those days whenever our company advertise for any management positions or just one specific management position thru our biased mainstream media, hundreds of resume poured in after a few days!! Many were local graduates ie USM, ITM, UKM etc.etc …of course there were also a number from foreign uni.

I remember filtering out those “uncompetitive” resume and sent it to the trash can and was given the opportunity first hand to call in those few “competitive” ones in for interview. To my surprise, most of the applicants who came in were either didn’t have a good command of English, lack of management skill and knowledge or just needed to find a job!! And, well… they were all business degree holders!!

I was thinking then about my days in the US in college. 30% of the grades were given thru class participation and debates. Some of the graduate classes didn’t even have a text book and exams!! Grades were given by how we make our presentation or arguments relevent to our topic!! In short, nobody (regardless of age, sex, race and religion belief) were allowed to pass just by fluke or mere luck!!

Students were not only taught to think outside the box. They are trained not to “study” in school or college but to “learn” in school or college. And I found out most of our local university students are trained to “study” (spoon fed) instead, what we need it to “learn”!!

Well, fortunately, after a week of interviews, I finally found one very competitive graduate and had become my assistant till the day I quitted my last job in Malaysia.

I was toying for an idea then to start up my own retailing business in Malaysia and thought about doing my part of employing more Malaysians but was discouraged due to all the red tapes in Malaysia to get a business started…all is a chain reaction by our BN ruling goons!! In short, it’s not “what we know”…it’s “who we know” to get things done especially for the layman!!

I left the country again after a short 2 years home and returned to the US and never look back.

I totally agree with our Malaysian intellectual thinker,and scholar, Dr. Azly Rahman…”don’t just think outside the box…get rid of the old box…and create a new one…”

In short, don’t go to school to “study” (spoon fed), a better way to say is go to school to “learn”!!

I am still ready to go back home oneday to a place call Malaysia, a place that I still call a home. Hopefully, when Pakatan Rakyat comes to power oneday, all those BN idealogies will be gone and replaced…..

Firstly before we can even talk about improving quality education in the Unis in Malaysia, we must first look at the first year intake of students. Most of them are all spoon-fed in schools and do not have the caliber of intelligent thinking of their own (don’t blame them, its the poor education system from the ministry). This must change, the intake of of too many from one ethnic group and the whole school education system be revamped, it may take years but is worth it.

Secondly, Universities are too politically involved and controlled by the govt. One very good example was a few years back, a certain vice-chancellor was sacked because he promoted a non-malay professor to a faculty dean and a few lecturers to professors and associate professors. He was trying to up lift the quality in the university because he noticed the university was losing its ground in the international arena. Universities should have autonomy, politicians should not be allowed sit on the univerisity board or to influence the administration of the university.

During my employment in the university, undergrads were spoon-fed, not by choice by the lecturers, but because the students could not grasp the topics taught, it’s too advanced for them. These students were young and not stupid, they found a way to over the yearly exams, by simply re-producing lecture notes. Very intelligent students were hindered in certain ways as they were not given chances to explore or expand their ideas. Lecturers were disillusioned by the lack of competiveness among the students.

As for the heads of departments and lecturers, the present lots are very different from the old days (in the 1960s and 70s) but I am not going to delve on this issue. It’s too painful. All I can say is when the govt. tried to lure overseas academicians back , they did return but after a few years of teaching, they gave up. The enviroment was not condusive for intellectual teaching.

For the UMNO goons, whether the country go up or down depends very much on the quality of the graduates. Just imply look at Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. We were at par with them in the 50′ and 60’s, now these countries left us far behind. If we do not CHANGE , it will be lights years away !!

Intellectual thinking means being able to assimilate all the facts and come uip with a smart workable solution to a problem, besides being visionary and believe in one self. University education is part of this road map to better living and for a better country.

Dr. Azly’s article seems too good to be true and very idealistic in nature. While he has suggested many ways to ‘radicalise’ the public unis, they are not the concrete solutions by themselves and instead, leaves the statements much more to be desired. I suggest Dr. Azly comes up with more concrete and viable plans to make all these a reality.

There is an undeniable staunch relationship between the State and the public universities. Even if the State grants them autonomies in daily management and operations of the whole institutions, they will still be begging the State for more fundings no doubt. When it comes to fundings a.k.a taxpayers monies, the people and the State will have certain requirements or conditions to be fulfillled for the unis to get more grants. The same goes to private ones. Without fundings from corporations, how would we think the private unis would be?

While we could detest the corruptions and the hegemony of the past and present regimes, we couldn’t deny the fact that capitalism is the order of the day. Because of the capitalist system can we enjoy what we have today. One simple example is right in front of your desktop where you read these blogs and comments. Unless we have obtained the cutting-edge knowledge provided by the so-called capitalists to become the trend-setter, we are bound to follow whatever the trend-setters dictate or else, be left behind.

I concur with Dr. Azly regarding the abolishments iron fist rules that are currently found within the adminstration of public universities as universities are the places for liberal learning for adults, academicians and students alike, who are old enough to make decisions about their lifepaths. These rules simply make these institutions merely extensions of the secondary schools where the canes do much of the talking.

Dr Azly mentioned the above - better kick out the current education minister for not doing his job. Students are spoon-fed since primary school until university level in Malaysia. Have seen many Malaysian students in my uni days (in the States) that seem to be in fix when they are required to interact in class.

For pakpandil……………..i guest u’re not graduated from uni after all when u just didnt know how evaluation of the firm been done………………….i guest u can ask Uncle Lim for his opinion if he knows la………….