Why The Bad English?

Hantu Laut

Why is he so adamant to get rid of English in PPSMI in spite of overwhelming demand from the people, particularly parents, to continue teaching the subjects in English.

Should one man be allowed to dictate his will on the whole nation and the future generations?

Muhyiddin finally revealed that the Prime Minister is in the know and has given his assent to make the change.

If Najib and his cabinet think they could win the hearts of the people, particularly the Malays, by this politically motivated decision, they are making a big mistake.Some lazy educationists must have fed them wrong information.

Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad had asked Najib to overrule Muhyiddin and put the issue to a referendum.

The claim that the standard of education has gone down because of using English as a medium in Maths and Science does not make sense and is hard to believe.The government should publish data to convince the people that what it claimed is true.

Why the bad English?

New Straits Times 20293165.html
Sunday, Aug 07, 2011

By Rizalman Hammim

LABIS – Are teachers incompetent, or school books unsuitable?

The Education Ministry will look at these factors to determine why students continue to have a poor grasp of the English language.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, said the ministry would review the curriculum with regard to the teaching of English as well as identify the reasons behind students’ poor command of the language.

Muhyiddin said even after learning the language for 13 years at primary, secondary and matriculation levels, some students still could not master English.

“I have no answers for this problem. I will ask the (Education) director-general to review the English curriculum to find out the reasons behind the problem.

“Is it because the teachers are not competent or there are not enough teachers, or because the books are not suitable?We can’t ignore this anymore.” He said this during his visit to SMK Maokil here yesterday.

Present were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan, Bukit Serampang assemblyman Tahir Taat and school principal Noor Hashimah Hassan.

He said many parents were worried when the ministry changed its policy from the Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) to the Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening Command of English (MBMMBI) policy.

“They were concerned that English would be ignored and considered as unimportant.

“This is a wrong assumption.

As the education minister, I have always stressed the importance of mastering English as a second language as it is a language for international trade.” He said students must be given the opportunity and exposure to speak and understand both languages.

During the visit, Muhyiddin presented awards to the school’s top Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia students of last year.

If the standard has gone down it is the fault of the government, not the students or teachers.If you don't provide them with proper tools how can you expect them to do well? Bad teachers make bad students.

"Seperti tikus memperbaiki labu" Why after 13 years of learning English students still can't master the language? Are Malaysians that stupid? As they say "you pay peanuts you get monkeys" The answer is because you employed incompetent teachers who themselves are poor in English.

The whole education system is screwed up and should be revamped.English should be made compulsory subject at least two years before leaving primary level if the government is serious to make Malaysians proficient in the language.

If our coloniser can do it why can't this government.During the colonial days, if you are from Malay or Chinese medium primary school you have to attend two years of "bridge class" before going to English medium secondary school.It teaches you the basic workings of the English language and prepares you for the secondary level.

The government have to invest time and money to make it successful, not simply give in to some myopic and incompetent educationists who prefer to take the easy way out.Just like a business if you don't invest there would not be profit.

Bigger budget should be allocated to education to make the programme successful. What's the point of building nice looking schools that churned out under-achievers and mediocre students.

Speak to some of our local graduates in English and judge for yourself how emasculated the education system is.

The government is taking a defeatist attitude and the biggest losers would be the Malays.This is akin to keeping the Malays under the "tempurong." The future generations would lose out in the job market.Forever, the Malays would be confined to working for the government and GLCs.

Some Malay parents are so disillusioned with the system they prefer to send their children to Chinese vernacular schools where, if they already know English, pick up a third language, Mandarin.

Unlike, majority of Chinese and Indians the Malays in rural areas do not have the means to send their children to private tuition.

It falls on the government to provide the best education for its citizens, particularly the less fortunate, which is a future investment for the nation.

Should we allow 10 or so people decide the future of our children? Do we want a knowledgeable society or one mired in ignorance?

A referendum is one way of going to the people but it would incur unnecessary costs.It would be cheaper and faster to bring it to Parliament and let the parliamentarians vote on the issue.

Another Pathetic Moron!

Hantu Laut

Don't they read how many times such scams have been publicised in the newspaper.

What is wrong with these people? I can only conclude it is greed coupled with stupidity.

Reported in the Daily Express:

Labuan: A 34-year-old self-employed Chinese is the island's latest victim of a syndicate-operated Internet scam.

A "convincing story" which came through the email resulted in the victim losing RM420,100.

Labuan Police Chief, Supt. Saiman Kasran, said: "When the victim received the email on Oct 9 from a woman named Lyanna Adin (believed to be fictitious) informing the victim that a 29kg parcel stuffed with expensive items such as a gold watch, cash, laptop and cell phone was delivered to the victim from UK, the victim without hesitation replied the email with his personal details such as MyKad number, home address and cell phone number."

The next day, Saiman said, the victim received another call from a private number with the caller identifying himself as "Robert Jestkins" from air courier company informing the victim of the parcel and the need to pay RM3,800 as penalty that the parcel was overweight.

The victim was further asked to pay RM18,700 to the Customs Department to have the parcel released and also RM48,000 twice for the first and second stamp charges and penalty to Bank Negara.

The victim, still not suspecting anything amiss, dutifully carried out all the instructions and banked in the requested amounts into several accounts provided by the caller.

Following this, the victim was introduced to a so-called UK embassy staff.

On Oct 18, Lyanna contacted the victim again and requested him to visit a website.

Upon checking the site, the victim noted that 57,000 pound sterling would be transferred to the victim's Maybank account, but the victim was required to pay another RM147,800 for insurance and other charges.

Saiman said the total amount paid by the victim for the parcel was RM420,100 via 15 transfers from Maybank.

But the parcel never came and neither could he contact anyone of them who had communicated with him about the parcel and payments.

Following this, a police report was lodged.

Saiman advised that with so many cases of Internet scam, the people should be smarter and not be credulous to fall for "easy money."

He said there is no such thing as easy money.

In Labuan alone this year, there had been 17 reported cases with losses incurred reaching RM736,849.63 and most of the victims were women.

The victims parted their money over offers that came through email and Facebook, mostly pertaining to products, auctions and parcels.

The Rinky Ding Sabah Railway

Hantu Laut

What was I thinking?

Something that should not have happened, happened!

The train and oil tanker collision in Kota Kinabalu on Monday that exploded and incinerated both tanker and train which should not have happened if common sense had prevailed.

The stupidity and tidak apa attitude of our civil servants, politicians and people given the contract to rebuild and upgrade the tracks has contributed to the disaster.It's obvious, common sense is not common amongst these people.The only thing common in them is the lack of social responsibility and insatiable greed.

The only reason there was no heavy casualty, except for a few injured was because the train travelled at crawling speed and quick thinking Sabahans fast reactions to save themselves.If the train had been fast the result would have been catastrophic.

A project which is not even worth salvaging because it serves no economic benefits except for putting hundreds of million ringgit in the wrong pockets at the expense of safety of the people.If you are proletariat life is cheap. Who cares?

DCM Pairin Kitingan called for all illegal crossings to be closed and CM Musa Aman ordered full probe.

The probe should be on the people who planned and executed the project, not the truck or train driver.

The question I would like to ask those involved with the project why did they not close those crossings knowing the area is heavily populated before they restart the train service? Why no fencing was put up and alternative road bypass built to stop residents from using the illegal crossing.

Crossings can be minimised by building parallel road on the other side of the track to serve the residents living in the area.Automatic gate crossing is not rocket science and they are cheap to build.

Everytime, I pass the Petagas/Putatan area I visualised a disaster waiting to happen as one can see how much human activities going on along the tracks with humans and vehicles crossing the tracks at regular intervals.

Yes, let the MACC probe how a project of such nature can be allowed to proceed without provision for safety to protect the people.

Like everything else, Sabahans always get crappy facilities from the Federal government.

Is The West Going Bankrupt ?

Hantu Laut

Be it an individual, a corporation or a nation, the consequence of over spending and over borrowing could be fatal.Many Western nations are now in deep financial trouble due to over spending.

Being highly geared is risky business.Many eurozone nations have debt to GDP ratio of over 100%, some as high as 400%.

Greece, the first victim of financial gluttony is having problems meeting its debt repayments. The financial debacle sent shock waves to members of the eurozone and financial institutions, which may have to give huge write downs and moratorium on repayments to keep the country afloat.The rescue plan announced in May by IMF and the European Union have not had its desired effect.The 110 billion euros rescue package came with expressed conditions of Greece cutting its public spending and boosting tax revenue.Plan to cut spending was met with violent street protests by unemployed youths.

Greece external debt is now at 182 % of GDP.Every man,woman and child in Greece now owed the rest of the world $53,984.per capita. Greece's trouble is not so much the debt to GDP ratio but more due to a stagnated economy, negative growth, living beyond its means (budget deficit) and rising debt level.In 2010 Greece showed a negative growth of - 4.5 %.Rising unemployment had contributed to violent and deadly street protests.

There is much talk that Greece's economic debacle would bring the demise of the euro currency club.Many US investment funds have taken flights pulling their money out of the eurozone to safer havens.S&P has downgraded Greece's debts to junk status.

Greece, is just tip of the iceberg, many European countries are in for much bigger trouble should they not able to service their debts.

Countries in the economic doldrums that may need lifeboats are Portugal,Spain,Ireland and Italy with Ireland faring the worst with current debt of 1382% 0f GDP.

In term of GDP the UK is at No.2 of the most indebted nation in the world, a whopping 413% of GDP and its every citizen owing the rest of the world $146,953 per capita.The country that wears the top hat for indebtedness is Ireland with a whopping per capita debt of $566,756.

With the exception of Japan, all 20 top debtors of the world are the highly industrialised countries in North America and Western Europe.

Surprisingly, the world's biggest debtor in term of value came out looking much healthier than most European countries.The US stood at No.20 for indebtedness and 101% of GDP and per capita debt of $48,258.It has raised its debt ceiling to borrow more money and its continuing deficit and slow growth rate would eventually render it a sick bill of health.If the US goes under the rest of the world goes with it.China and Japan hold $1.7 trillion of US debts.

It is not possible to foresee the next financial crisis, where it will originate from and how severe the impact on the world's economy.With available data, the low growth and highly geared Western economies appear to be likely candidates triggering the next financial crisis, probably bigger than the 2008 financial meltdown with some countries in the West going bankrupt.

The West have been living beyond its means for far too long at the expense of the poorer East.It's about time they trim their waistline.