Cold War and Frozen Minds

There should be an intellectual renaissance to open up and liberate the minds of students, and this should start in the universities, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“Our education system must chan­ge. Our children are just not curious enough. They must be curious about the world. They must ask questions,” the Deputy Prime Minis­­ter said.
He cited a question at his daughter’s university that asked if the Cold War had ended, a question which even he would have difficulty answering.

The Star, Nov 14, 2008

So at last someone's talking about that huh? Then, walk the talk. Make sure we're not penalize when we speak up. You can have liberalized mind just for academic purposes can you? To be liberalized, I believe, is to be able to see things in perspective and not be biased towards the crowd favourite. We shouldn't be cowed into accepting completely/blindly policies and implementations by the government right? Then the AUKU must go. Or if it's not possible (never will be), then review it.

To be curious about the world eh? Are you people in Putrajaya ready to answer our queries and satisfy our curious minds? Are you ready for criticism or will you use the ISA? If you speak of liberalization, it's more than just for academic purposes. Can you open up the market and expect international traders not to influence the Ringgit?

As I suspected, even if this liberalization do occur, it'll be nothing more than a partial one. Half-hearted. Lukewarm.

Allow me to digress to ponder on an interesting question. Has the Cold War ended? I'd say yes since the collapse of the Soviet Union but judging from today's events, the tension is always present. North Korea, Iran, China, India, and now US-Eastern Europe-Russia. The latter being attributed to the proposal to set up a missile defence installation to be placed in Eastern Europe (Poland and Czech Republic). The Russian responded that they'd take some sort of military action if it goes ahead. The Cold War has ended but even so, there's always tension between the two. Although the active espionage, propaganda, military coalition, and weapons development activities that marked the Cold War era are absent, there are some going on below the radar. Everyone today is racing to be superior in economy and a recognized military might.

Coming back, I tend to agree with Datuk Seri that the education system here is merely for the sake of passing exam. It's normal to hear sophomore student saying, "I studied that before but forget already". No one bothered to look up anything other than the ones involved directly in an assignment to get the highest grade. Sometimes, the lecturers' response killed any remnant interests left for a subject. They'd say, "Can't you understand my language?" or "Go and find out". The latter is understandable but not each time they're asked a question. Maybe they're like us too - difficulty in answering.

Then there're talks that English in Science and Math may be scrapped. Just because they haven't got the hang of it? Remove the crutches if we'd want to see Malaysia emerge a strong nation. But after 50 years, we're still lagging aren't we?