Audacity of hope for higher education

IN his acceptance speech last year as the newly-appointed Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Nordin pledged full support to implementing the National Strategic Plan for Higher Education launched by his predecessor.Admittedly, in his own words then, the task was a daunting one, given the complexity that surrounds higher education, which prevails not only in Malaysia, but globally.
Even in developed countries where higher education has existed over centuries, the confronting issues are very similar. The difference, perhaps, is that the issues are dealt with in a more sobering approach, involving mostly academics and their fraternities.Collectively, they thrash out the issues and arrive at a solution backed by their peers. By and large, politicians and political parties are seldom involved, less still turning the situation into some kind of political football, with points scored over one another at the expense of education itself. Thus, in this sense, Khalid has a tough job at hand. To use the football analogy, he must both ensure that the game is properly played according to the international set of rules and, at the same time, defend the goal post from being ravaged by others, who may not be interested in the rules at all. To his credit, Khalid has defended the goal post rather well, while taking various initiatives to further move the game into the big league. So, when he gave his annual address last week to the higher education community, he did it with a sense of pride and achievement. True to his words, he not only supported but, more than that, also facilitated the implementation of the first phase of the strategic plan in a systematic way. The Accelerated Programme for Excellence (Apex), MyBrain15 and enhancing the delivering systems are among the more visible and difficult initiatives that were launched, putting higher education on a different trajectory from the past. Indeed, he is more interested in creating the future while leveraging on what has been successfully carried out previously. This point was well taken when Khaled underlined that there would be no more new public universities.Instead, the emphasis is on the need to build better "intellectual infrastructure" which is well-captured in the ministry's new tagline: "Meneraju Kegemilangan Ilmu".Khaled talked about the need to populate the universities with high quality and talented people, ranging from students to staff. The fact that the 2009 budget allocation is about RM14 billion, a 15 per cent increase from what it was last year, is certainly not a pipe dream. Further, under the MyBrain15 agenda, some 60,000 PhDs will be trained by 2015. Thus, moving forward, Khalid expanded on 18 critical agenda which are part of the strategic plan, all except one -- academic-industry collaboration. The tone of his address was accommodating and facilitating. This can be illustrated by a number of concrete steps to ensure a more conducive future. One important change is the implementation of the new amended Akta Universiti and Kolej Universiti (Auku) next month. Therein is a recognition that autonomy is a critical element in the university's search for excellence, accompanied by a sense of accountability. It follows that the "command-and-control" mode of operation that has long beleaguered our universities is being gradually dismantled.The new relationship with the universities is now based on trust and respect, instead of fear.For too long, the act, rightly or wrongly, has been perceived as an instrument of fear. Universities are now given the flexibility to plan for their own "destiny", as it were, using approaches of their choice in arriving at the strategic goals. Some of these flexibilities outlined include the mechanism of hiring and rewards, benchmarked against world standards. Non-conventional modes of degree-awarding courses are encouraged, so too self-accreditation and self-auditing to enhance quality. Sharing and exchanges of "best practices" between universities and with the industry ought to be more creative beyond what is done today.There must be an unshackling of the minds in trying to translate the strategic plan for the future where "speed" is of essence. In summary, the minister's address presents renewed hope for Malaysia's higher education. With the return of the all-important "trust" to the universities, the uncharted waters are now within reach to make higher education more relevant for the future.In a way, this perhaps represents our "audacity of hope" as championed by the new US president who took office the same day. If so, this too will mark a new chapter for Malaysia, particularly in the history of the higher education sector.Wishing all Chinese readers Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The Politic story

Taib, Jabu urged to step down!
First, he called Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and Umno ‘bullies’.
Now Parti Rakyat Sarawak’s (PRS) former publicity head of its Balleh division Beginda Minda has boldly called on PBB president Abdul Taib Mahmud to step down as Sarawak chief minister.
Revealing bundles of flawed strategies in the Taib administration onMkini.tv’s ‘Uncensored’ talk show, Beginda also held long-serving Iban Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu equally responsible for the agony and sufferings of the Dayak community, adding that “Jabu should also seriously consider retirement as soon as possible”.
“Taib’s era has passed. It is time for him to give way to the younger generation to take over the reins of power in Sarawak.
“Twenty-seven years as chief minister is long enough,” Beginda told ‘Uncensored’ host Francis Paul Siah.
Beginda insisted that he was not launching a personal attack at these two Sarawak leaders but that he has decided to come out publicly to “say what has to be said” as he (Beginda) is also a member of a BN component party.
“My request is for Taib and Jabu to step down gracefully and retire as honourable and respected statesmen. Surely, it is better to go that way than to be forced out of office through people’s power,” he reasoned.
“It is clear to most people that the days when they (Taib and Jabu) have been most effective and most active are nearly gone. There are now many capable and qualified younger people with fresh ideas and bolder visions to lead the state.
“Taib has been active in politics since the first days of independence in 1963 and has been chief minister of Sarawak since 1981. Alfred Jabu has been in active politics since 1974 and was made deputy chief minister shortly after.
“Admittedly, these two gentlemen have done much for Sarawak. There have been pluses, I grant that, but there are many negatives as well,” he said.
Row, row, row your boat to Kapit
Beginda touched on several issues close to the hearts of Sarawak Dayaks during the interview.
He spoke at length on the land issue, lopsided development in the state, lack of employment opportunities and the “sufferings” of his Iban community.
“It is a fact that after 45-long years of independence, many areas in Sarawak are still not being developed, including my hometown of Kapit.
“Kapit is still the same as it has been during the colonial time of the British. During the time of Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke, we were rowing sampans as there were no roads to get out of Kapit.
“Today, there are still no roads linking Kapit to other towns and we still have to use boats … only that this time, the boats have engines.
“I know that the two gentlemen (Taib and Jabu) will not be able to tolerate my public expression of these grouses. But the truth must be told. Enough is enough … my advice to them is not to wait until people demonstrate in the streets,” he said.
Beginda also reiterated that PBB has an ‘apparent policy’ of undermining their coalition partners in “varying degrees of subtlety”.
“The BN partners - Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp), PRS or Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) - are in themselves complete organisations and their interests need to be respected. Interference by a senior partner, no matter the guise, is a form of bullying.
“Bullying goes against the grain of good and just participation in political affairs and dilutes the effectiveness of coalition partners when in fact they (the partners) should be effective and are seen as effective.
“Inevitably, a coalition partner which is denied an effective delivery system will be held in ever diminishing esteem by the electorate,” said Beginda.
Beginda was removed as publicity chief of the PRS Balleh division on Oct 27 following his ‘bully’ statement published in Malaysiakini two days earlier. He maintained that he has no regrets over what he said.
Asked whether Taib could be behind the disbandment of Dayak-based parties, Beginda said: “It is very clear.”
“One of the impacts of political interference has been to wreck the political cohesiveness of the Dayak people.
“Every decade, it seems that the Dayaks have to create a new party and as long as the party is young and new, it will be a junior partner. This is what PBB wants,” said Beginda.
“If you look at the history of Snap, PBDS, SPDP and PRS, you will know what I am talking about,” he added.Allow Dayaks to own their land
Beginda also rebuked Sarawak’s land policies which have not been reviewed since the 1960s although Taib has been in power for 27 years.
“There have been many disputes over land ownership and the exploitation of resources, such as timber, which have pitted timber companies against natives who have traditionally regarded tracts of land to be theirs,” he lamented.
“In Sarawak, million of acres of NCR land are affected and the economic opportunity for the Dayaks from their lands are lost. The natives need the ownership of their lands to be put in order through proper surveying,” said Beginda.
He urged the state government to adhere to growing public dissatisfaction regarding land policy and ensure commitment to review current land policies.
“The uproar last month in Bekenu Sibuti, where the Kedayan people were under threat of an eviction order apparently made to make way for plantation development, need not have happened if a proper land policy that protects native lands and if a proper land adjudication had been put in place.
“This is no longer just an abuse of power but oppression of the people. If this goes on, the natives will lose everything,” he said.
On the matter of Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) which maintains land development and social-economic wealth of the state, Beginda said: “Salcra could do a much better job but it is not doing that”.
“There are grumblings that participants do not get the so-called ‘dividends’ that they feel they are entitled to or that their lands have been bought over by those with vested interests.
“Yet it is possible for Salcra to do very well and earn the participants plenty of rewards had legislations and measures been introduced which prevent estate lands from being sold and transferred to other parties.
“For instance, Felda, the federal government’s land development agency, is so well run that it is now prepared to spread its operation overseas. Why can’t Salcra be as successful as Felda?” he asked.
No job opportunities in Sarawak
Beginda also raised grouses relating to employment opportunities in the state, where although Sarawak is rich in resources, large number of the natives still flee to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore in search of employment.
“We have plenty of timber, coal, oil and gas. These are ingredients for a strong economy. We should be an employment haven … yet now in Sarawak we have problems regarding the economy and employment.
“In Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, there are as many as 60,000 Sarawakians. In Johor alone, more than 16,000 Sarawakians are employed there.“Ask them why they prefer to work in Peninsular Malaysia and most will reply that there are better job opportunities there.
“Why can’t Sarawak create jobs for its own people? Surely, it is now time for a change of leadership,” he added.
Towards the end of the show, Beginda spoke in Iban as he made an impassioned appeal to his community to stay focussed and united as they demand for their rights in Sarawak.

Should Taib Step Down

Should Abdul Taib Mahmud - the chief minister of Sarawak - step down, after 27 years at the helm of near absolute power in the resource rich state?
Does PBB - his party that holds half the number of seats in the Sarawak State Assembly - bully the other component parties of the Sarawak Barisan Nasional? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes!
But this kind of questions is only relevant to members and supporters of the Sarawak BN. Other Sarawakians know very well that Taib will not step down on his own accord.
He has to cling on to the throne in Sarawak, to protect the future of his gargantuan family conglomerate CMS (an acronym that could designate the company Cahaya Mata Sarawak or the title Chief Minister of Sarawak - an interesting coincidence).
Whenever conversations meander off onto the topic of the Sarawak CM in private circles, it is hard for people not to mention CMS in the same breath. Its dominant presence in the Sarawak’s economy - especially in the public sector in the state - is well known.
Actually, the acronym for CMS has its origins in a precursor to the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC): Cement Manufacturers Sarawak.
The report in The Edge
The repressed press of Malaysian media have seldom told the story of CMS. On the other hand, there have been a few reports by international media on Taib’s family business. The following report by Michael Backman, entitled ‘In Sarawak, politics and cash are all in the family’, was published in The Edge on March 15 2001 in Melbourne, Australia:
CMS Group was originally a joint venture between the state government’s Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) and the neighbouring state of Sabah.
The group started as a monopoly cement producer to feed the building boom in both states. In 1989, the Sabah government sold its stake and the Sarawak government decided the company should be listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. At the same time, the chief minister’s brother, Onn bin Mahmud, and his two sons, Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib and Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib, were brought in.
The Taib family owns about half the company and the SEDC’s equity has been diluted to about eight percent. Effectively, the chief minister had decided to privatise CMS - and it was his family that bought it.
CMS has since expanded to more than 40 subsidiaries that operate in infrastructure development, water supply, steel making, transport, manufacturing, property development, financial services and stock broking.
But CMS is not the Taib family’s only business concern. Timber is the main source of Sarawak’s wealth. Logging concessions, which the Sarawak government hands out, are are a license to print money. The chief minister’s family happens to possess significant logging concessions.
Indeed, claims have been published that companies associated with Taib and his supporters hold about 1.6 million hectares in timber concessions with a combined logged value of up to US$12 billion.
Taib’s time in politics has coincided with the apparent accumulation of enormous family wealth. He is known for his expensive tastes - he is rumoured to have paid almost US$2 million for the grand piano that belonged to late American showman Liberace.”
There it is. The above report, published in 2001, is still relevant today. The question of whether Taib’s discharge of his official duty as CM amidst the meteoric rise of CMS constitutes a conflict of interest or outright corruption is a purely academic one.
As long as he can deliver all or nearly all 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak to keep the Umno prime minister in power, as has been proven during the March 8 general election, the PM and all the federal agencies under his jurisdiction will not touch the Sarawak CM with a ten-foot pole.
A dynasty in the making?
If you check into the traffic on Sarawak Internet, you will find the name of the CM, together with the name of Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, the most vilified and defiled names in the state. A referendum among Sarawak netizens will conclude that indeed the CM has overstayed his welcome.
But the CM will not go gently into the good night in more ways than one. His brother joined the Sarawak State Assembly as a member in the last state election in 2006.
In the May parliamentary election, his son Sulaiman was elected as MP, and was promptly co-opted into the federal government as a deputy minister, presumably to learn about the art of government. Do we see a dynasty in the making? Only time will tell.
Therefore, for Taib’s detractors to fulfill their dream of changing the chief minister of Sarawak, there is only one way, and that is through the next state general election speculated to be held as early as next year.
Slightly more than a week ago, during a dinner in Sibu organised by “Friends of PKR”, 4000 people of all races turned up to welcome Anwar Ibrahim and witness a public ceremony in which Gabriel Adit, the current independent state assemblyperson representing Ngemah and a former vice-president of the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) submit his application to join PKR, together with 12,000 others.
The choice of Sibu as the dinner venue is significant. Sibu is sited on the bank of the mighty Rejang River, and upstream, the Rejang basin is one of the most notable Iban heartlands in Sarawak. Adit’s dramatic personal political make-over is symbolic for many disgruntled Dayaks in Sarawak. Some Dayaks have already predicted a new dawn for Sarawak, a revival of Dayak power on the political scene in the state.
Nothing is impossible in politics I suppose, having just witnessed the historic conclusion of the American presidential election. But Sarawak is no America, and Sarawakians are a far cry from Americans in many political aspects.
The opposition parties in Sarawak are now fragmented and weakened, divided by race, region, and personal feuds among their leaders. The hounds also run with the hares. The Sarawak political arena is quite a muddied pond full of all kinds of reptiles, swimming along with the real dragons.
Eventually, the Achilles’ Heel of the opposition parties in Sarawak is their lack of funds, in sharp contrast to the seemingly inexhaustible source of funds lying in the Barisan Nasional war chest.
Unlike politics in the peninsula states, Sarawak politics, especially in the rural constituencies, is still mired in money politics. That is why the cash-rich Sarawak BN has been so successful in so many past parliamentary and state elections.
I have met many rural voters who actually would demand cash for their votes. Ugly as it may seem, it has become one of the less savoury features of Sarawak democracy.
To break this distasteful tradition, the opposition must not buy votes, or give all kinds of largesse during general elections, including building materials, personal gifts in kind, or standing feasts that can last throughout the duration of the campaign period. (Yes, this is how things are done in Sarawak.)
They must device more meaningful and innovative methods of campaigning, the likes of which Sarawak rural voters have never seen before.
Anwar’s full attention
But then there is still the huddle of reaching the rural voters. There is still the question of funding, needed for large groups of canvassers and campaigners to travel long distances across difficult terrain to motivate and organise local grassroots leaders in every village and every longhouse throughout this vast and sparsely populated state where modern infrastructure for communication and transport is primitive at best.
We are talking about hundreds and thousands of ringgit for one rural constituency alone. Multiply that by the 50 or so rural and semi-rural constituencies and you get the rough estimate of how much money it takes to change the CM of Sarawak.
This is only one hurdle. I can write a book on the problems and experiences of contesting in Sarawak alone.
But the great dinner in Sibu is a good start towards solving those problems. Obviously Anwar was suitably impressed; he said that if the response from Sarawakians is so good, he should perhaps visit Sarawak more often.
I believe PKR is a suitable vehicle for positive change in Sarawak for various reasons, not least of which is the clout of the party in national politics and in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
For that change to happen, Anwar may have to turn his full attention to this vast eastern state of Sarawak - now.
He has to go there often, to heal wounds among the opposition camp, to build consensus and coalition, to work out a statewide strategy, coin mission statements, supervise organisation, to recruit new talents who will be free from negative political baggage, and above all, squeeze out the funds from whatever resources at his disposal for the big campaign. He has to do it, like yesterday.
The prize is worth his trouble. In Sarawak, state power determines the outcome of the parliamentary elections most of the time. A change of the chief minister will greatly improve Anwar’s chance of becoming the prime minister of Malaysia in the next parliamentary general election.
For justice in the Land of the Hornbill in the emergence of a new Malaysia!