Malaysiaku, Negaraku

I HAVE TO be upfront about this.            I believe we have a government that will at least now listen to the voices of the people who love this country, and seeking for its welfare.            This is contrary to those who think they are more patriotic because they think they are defending the status of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.          Let me begin by saying that no one is disputing Bahasa Malaysia is the national language.  I speak reasonably good Bahasa Malaysia myself, being the batch in the second year when Malay was used as a medium of instruction.           Lack of Political Will          However, after nearly 50 years since the introduction of the national curriculum in Bahasa Malaysia, we are seeing a sharp decline in the standard of the English language, much to the chagrin of many of us who still believe English has an important place in the country.           Our politicians know about this sad state of our country's standard of English. With the exc

Credit mention: Malaysiakini I HAVE SEEN comments that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been spending too much time overseas when the country's economy is in the doldrum, ringgit down and inflation up.           It is important that we apply some critical thinking and analyse why he is doing this. Is it to make himself a popular figure internationally as some of his critics suggest? Or, is there a reason more important than that, which you and I may have so easily forgotten.  Ability to Think Critically is Important          Critical thinking is not about being critical about another person, the way Penang former deputy chief minister, P. Ramasamy is demonstrating. He is critical about everything that Anwar or for his former party DAP does. That is skepticism to the extreme, not critical thinking.           Because of our education system through the years, my generation has lost out on being able to think critically and analyse things.           To put it simply for the

  ( This article is a collection of stories from our brothers and sisters at  Soscili  and some of the stories we couldn’t use for our  earlier article on  May 13th experiences ) For a lot of Malaysians, the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing the date 13th of May is  a dark event that happened 48 years ago . In 1969, the long-brewing racial tension finally exploded, resulting in one of the greatest tragedies to ever befall Malaysians. The racial riots officially caused  200 lives to be lost , although some claim it much higher. While there are plenty of sites and news stories that offer an explanation of what really happened, those of us born  after the 13th May event (e.g. everyone at CILISOS) may not understand what exactly caused it. All that we know about the incident are  what had been passed down to us through reports, blogs and stories from the survivors . Two years ago, we collected some both chilling, and uplifting stories from our readers and their parents, but with