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10
Oct -
First World Mentality?
- With 2 comments
We hear so much about Malaysia becoming a fully developed nation by the year 2020. In order for us to make that date, we as a nation need to be well prepared from all aspects to compete against the worlds best without the help of anyone else. To meet this aspirations the nation must start developing a 1st world nation mentality as well.
How do we do that?
Im no expert but these are purly my thoughts.
There is one area which i feel that we are rubbish at and needs to be revamped and improved tremendously. What am i talking about? Its our Education system.
The education system is the one system that can help contribute towards a mentality mature nation. If you have a shit education system, then the system will be cultivating a backward thinking soceity that is irelevant to the world at large. Since the Internet came about borders have opened up.
Terms like jaguh kampung etc are a thing of the past. You are competing against the rest of the world.
Before you start comparing the Afganistan’s and Pakistan’s. We have to set our benchmark much higher that we currently are. The latest list of top 200 universities has been released. Like the previous reports none of our universities are in the top 200. Have a look at the top 4, we have the likes of Harvard ,Yale ,Cambridge & Oxford. These universities have been in the top for such a long time and they constantly maintain their quality and are constantly improving to stay ahead of the pack.
Aren’t the top 4 a good enough benchmark?
A wise man once told me to always aim for the sky, if you miss your target you will fall at a decent space. That’s exactly what we should be doing and not giving lousy excuses on why we cant reach those heights!
Now what if we have a good education system in place?
This would result in high quality graduates coming out of our system that will ultimately give us the edge over the rest of the world. But in order to have such radical changes, we must have good leaders in place who are capable of such measures.
Another thought i have is that a good educationist can not necessarily guarantee a good leader. There has got to be a ace of a leader who can help reform the education system with the right team of educationist,economist and other professionals to act as advisers in achieving such goals.
Some of the universities that made the top 200 this year.
National University of SINGAPORE(NUS) - Singapore - 30
Hebrew University of JERUSALEM Israel - 93
TECHNION - Israel Institute of Technology Israel - 109
FUDAN University - China - 113
TEL AVIV University - Israel- 114
National TAIWAN University - Taiwan - 124
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi - India - 154
So are we really ready to be a fully developed nation??
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There are 2 comments
¬ The King
#5037 October 11th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Dato’ AB,
Cekap la, although you have now robbed my forthcoming article. Nevertheless, a juicy topic for discussion. I concur your idea by highlighting that we need to have the right mental state in-order to advance our nation. Jaguh Kampung, Malaysia-Boleh & Dollahland are the thing of the past. Obviously, we need to start at the education level by grooming and prepping the young by encouraging critical thinking, supporting foreign language fluency and advancing meritocracy.
The situation of our local universities is in dire. I haven’t come across any of our professor’s publication in major journals - I must admit here that my focus is on business, management & technology. The universities, like the present government, are managed through fear and cronyism.
Next, the citizen’s outer behaviour. Just observe how Malaysians drive and use public transportations. There might be myriad signs and ‘pleas’ to drive safely or queue but in many occasions none of them are observed. Simply shameful! Former Indian president, A.P.J Abdul Kalam, had this one predicament; he wondered why Indians in India did their ‘business’ anywhere and everywhere except in the toilet. But when they visited foreign countries, their natural instinct to use the toilet took precedence. Same goes for the Malaysian.
Third, we need to have a coherent and sold vision that can tap into the minds and soul of each and every Malaysian. By having said this, I’m citing the Japanese as an example. Japan’s rise after the WW II is simply spectacular. A country that lacks natural resources is now the second largest economy in the World. One underpinning factor for the rise of the Japanese is the strong vision to ‘consolidate’ each and every citizen in-order to rebuild the nation together and as one. The result is obvious.
Change we believe in and change we can – One Malaysia
The King
¬ abi
#5046 October 11th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
One Malaysia is a concept that the law makers should be championing but somehow its doesnt come across that way at all.
As a nation we are seem to have got the fundemental things all wrong and that needs to be fixed. We have to get back to basics and fix those problems before taking any further steps in my view.
Education system is one part of the whole thing and then there is national building which is another broad topic..
I still have hope that we will make it and hope everyone else does as well!!