Dear all,

Just Posted another comment in Tun Mahathir blog:

http://chedet.cc/?p=2965#comment-145399

Dear PM Tun Dr. Mahathir,
Please allow me to congratulate and thank twinpeaks, our Muslim Brother from East Malaysia reassuring words that he considers himself as Malaysian first and a proud Sabahan too. Me too, I am Malaysian first and a proud Kedahan.

http://chedet.cc/?p=2847#comment-141074
GE14: I HAVE A DREAM; Democracy, Liberty, Justice, Unity and Prosperity. Apr, 27th 2018
I have a dream; I dream of a day where I shall call myself Malaysian and if you insist that I put in more detail in front of Malaysian, I will say I am a Proud Kedahan Malaysian.

To me all religions are beautiful
http://sharudinjamal.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-take-on-world-religions.html

The main thing about a religion is, all religions are based on faith; that is belief without evidence. Religions make us feel connected to the Creator. When we are sad or distressed, the first thing for religious people to do is pray. I just want to say that every religion is sacred to the believers. Religion to me is like a multi-facade lamp shade. Though the shade has various angles, the source of the light is all the same. It is this light that illuminates all the religions. No one religion can claim the exclusivity of the Source.

So my question: Why a foreign religion preacher who cannot speak Bahasa Malaysia is welcome into Malaysia to preach his so called comparative religion preaching?

You had travelled through many parts of Malaysia and sense the dire poverty stricken families struggle to survive and put their faith and hope on religion.
By Tun’s own words:
Politik yang menyelamat
Menjadi politik yang menghancur
Pemimpin semakin tamak
Untuk tempat dan kedudukan tinggi
Perbuatan yang haram dihalalkan
Nama Allah diperalatkan, dijual untuk nikmat yang sementara di dunia
Ya Allah lindungilah bangsaku
Sedarkanlah mereka
Sedarkan mereka bahawa Engkau tidak akan mengubah nasib bangsa
Melainkan bangsa itu sendiri cuba mengubahnya
Mengubah sendiri, membendung nafsu

The vicious cycle of poverty can be only broken if we have education that open mind and empower people (teach them how to fish) and not education that indoctrinate and enslave people (give them the fish).

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/08/05/face-the-truth-we-are-not-out-of-the-woods-warns-daim
NEP in the New Malaysia: Education Reform
No Economic Policy can be effective if we do not first attack the issues at the educational level.
29. We are still arguing over whether we should teach Maths and Science in English, when the rest of the world has embarked on advanced curriculums that focus of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4) so as to make their youth more competitive and relevant in a world that is going to be dominated by artificial intelligence and robotics.
30. To participate in IR4, we must go through a knowledge-based economy and here Malaysia has failed because the government, through the Ministry of Education, has not got its priorities right. The Education Ministry must not fail our nation.
31. While we are still mired in the political rhetoric of languages, others around us have moved beyond English or Mandarin or Bahasa Malaysia into the language of programming and coding. When will we realise just how far behind we are and lacking?
32. We have many things to consider when preparing our youth for the future – what are the uniquely human skills that we can develop for the future of the workplace? How can we work with technology to improve human life? How can we protect our country, and indeed our planet, against the effects of exploiting natural resources?
33. By asking the right questions and taking them into consideration in policy formation, we can create an environment where people are allowed to maximise their potential and pursue creative pursuits that are complemented by technology, not replaced by it.
34. While some are busy blaming “others” and foreigners of taking away our jobs, the reality is that technology will impact the most on future employment as robots replace humans in menial tasks. But where one window closes, another opens.
35. Fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics, Supply Chain Logistics, and Smart Manufacturing need skilled workers and indeed, the World Economic Forum has estimated that 133 million jobs will emerge as technology advances.
36. So the question is: “Are we in Malaysia ready for this leap?” Let’s be brutally honest here – we are not. In fact we are far from ready. We are still playing catch up with IR4 training when others are already gearing for the 5th Industrial Revolution.
37. But while we focus on skills, we must also not forget the education of the soul. How we teach religion to our young, and what sort of values we instill in them at home and at the school level, will impact greatly on the type of adults they evolve into.
38. We must empower them with the ability to think critically, logically, wisely and to make their own informed decisions, no matter the situation. We must raise a new generation of leaders and great thinkers, not of sheep and cowards.
39. Positive moral values must be inculcated amongst our youth, and emphasised in the Malaysian workforce. We must take pride in our work and in ourselves. It is not too late for those of us who are adults to start living with integrity.
40. Do we gain anything by teaching the young that they have the right of entitlement over all others simply because of their race? Is it right to be instilling in students the thinking that all other religions are inferior to yours?
41. Is it moral to drill into students that other students are not entitled to certain privileges simply because they are not of a certain race, even if they are economically disadvantaged? Is it right to think that if you are of a certain race that is economically successful, then you look down on others from a race that isn’t?
42. Is it right that you are taught to feel superior because the language you are taught in is also the language of an economically powerful nation?
43. There needs to be understanding and empathy across the racial divide.

https://www.malaysia-today.net/2013/07/24/once-we-were-beautiful/
Once we were beautiful Art Harun, TMI: On Jul 24, 2013
I am blessed.
So are many of my friends who are of or around my age.
So are many who are older than me.
As a child of the 60s, I went through my formative years in an English-stream school. It was a big school in town.
And there were hundreds of us Malays, Chinese and Indian boys (it wasn’t co-ed).
Our first headmaster was a Chinese gentleman who was as fierce as they came those days.
When he left, he was replaced by an Indian gentleman, who also was as fierce.
My first class teacher was Ms Leong, all long haired and short skirted.
And yes, armed with a wooden ruler, she would knock my knuckles for failing to properly write the number 8.
My first English sentence, learnt on the first day at school was to be uttered after raising my right hand, “Please teacher may I go out?”
That was to be said if any of us had to go to the toilet to do the normal stuffs we all do in the toilet (and not to eat).
Then there were Mr Linggam, Cikgu Aziz and wife, Sharom, Mr Lee the karate guy, Mr Khor, Cikgu Mutalib and various others.
We were a happy bunch. We played together, ate together, learned together and of course, at times, punished together.
And we were equal. In standard 5, I began fasting.
The school canteen stayed open for the whole month.
No renovation. No closure. Muslim and non-Muslim kids, who did not fast, ate as usual.
If they bought a proper meal, such like nasi lemak or mee goreng, they would eat at the canteen.
If it was some kind of snack, they would just eat while walking around, in the class or where ever.
No fuss. No issue. No problem.
My impressionable years were spent in a boarding school. It was the same scenario.
All of us, regardless of race or religion studied together, ate together, played together and at times, getting one or two rotan together.
Visiting a non-Malay house was not a problem.
Eating there was not a problem too. Sharing food with non-Muslims was not an issue.
Things have however, sadly, changed.
And change for the worse. Nowadays, non-Muslims don’t send their kids to national school anymore.
They prefer to send the kids to the vernacular schools.
The ones who could afford would send their kids to private schools.
National schools are almost invariably filled with Muslim/Malay students.
National schools would recite prayers before class begin in the morning.
Quranic verses and hadith would adorn walls in the canteen, school office and even classes.
Ustaz and ustazah would even ask school kids to raise their hands if their parents do not pray 5 times a day.
In secondary schools, the tudung is not compulsory for girls – according to the Ministry of Education’s circular, if I am not mistaken – but girls without tudung would be viewed askance by schoolmates and teachers alike.
Due to the small number of non-Muslim/Malay kids in national schools, the Malay kids do not have the opportunity to mix around and integrate with non-Malays in their formative and impressionable years.
The small number of non-Malay kids also gives a sense of false superiority complex to the Malay kids as well as teachers.
Thus, my race and my religion are more important than you, your religion and everything else.
Hence the closure of the school canteen during Ramadhan.
This is prevailing in many national schools. Apparently, this is done to “respect” the Muslim students who are fasting.
Forget the fact that non-Muslims do not fast and they, like any other human beings or animals, have to eat and drink.
Forget the fact that there are Muslim kids who do not fast.
Anybody who just about mentions the word “food” would have been taken as insulting Islam.
On Facebook last week, there were two guys admonishing a hotel which advertised its breakfast package on its page.
They viewed it as disrespectful.
But to be fair, the two were widely condemned by other Muslim facebookers.
The eating-in-the-changing-room debacle yesterday is just the surface of a far unhealthier trend in Malaysia.
Beneath that surface is a society which is fractious, intolerant, selfish and uncompromising.
The obvious question is how did we, as a nation, become like this? As a nation we started so well.
The Federal Constitution was agreed upon by consensus between three major races anchored to give-and-take and win-win camaraderie.
There was a blemish in 1969 but that was quickly nipped in the bud and we soldiered on.
In football, we were in the Olympic final in 1972 and 1980.
By the law of progression, we should be in the World Cup by now. By contrast, Japan and Korea, whom we used to beat, were already in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
We now struggle to beat the likes of Vietnam and even Singapore.
Like our football team, the state of our racial integration and inter-faith relationship has moved in reverse gear.
Years of political posturing utilizing religion and race have now begun to show its ugly consequences.
The so-called Islamisation that we embark upon, which is shorn of any meaningful spiritual understanding of the religion, but rather born out of political necessities, convenience and mired in political one-upmanship has now produced a nation which is unsure of itself and a people who are fractious, angry, suspicious and at odd with each other.
We need to take a real good look at ourselves and examine our ways. And we need to reboot our operating system if we want to avoid a total crash. And we need to reboot fast

Now you should know what cause our nation to be unsure of itself and a people who are fractious, angry, suspicious and at odd with each other. And why vernacular schools view teaching of khat with suspicious, fear and at odd?

As of what happen to my home state Kedah:
http://chedet.cc/?p=2419#comment-137298 Jan 31,2017
As children we looked forward for each festival as during Hari Raya my father would bring back packets of Malay delicacies from his customers. We children will scour the packets in search of the most wanted “Ketupat”. During Deepavali our Indian neighbours would give us the best Indian delicacies and during Chinese New Year my mother would reciprocate with the kueh bakul, kueh kapit, bahulu and others. I don’ see that anymore these days. Sharing of self prepared festivities foods had been turned into a sensitive issue on the basic of food preparation. Thus the only melting pot nowadays is at politician’s open house, which make me wonders is it by design.
What have happened Tun?
In Tun’s own words, Quran advocates an Islamic community and not an Islamic country. In the Quran it is not the punishment that is stressed. Indeed Muslims are enjoined to forgive and be merciful. Unfortunately many “learned” Muslims are not quite happy with tolerance as taught by the Quran. They would prefer Islam to be stricter, more severe punishments (believing that the only thing that would qualify a country as Muslim is if we decapitate and chop off the hand of criminals. But that is an arbitrary criterion) and violently opposed to other religions. In fact a very learned mufti once told me that other than Islam, there is no other religion. I found this very disturbing.
Yes, Indeed very disturbing, with RUU355 up for debate in Parliament in the coming parliament session. What will be the outcome? Where will it lead Malaysia to?

Thank you

Yours truly,
SS LEE