SEPTEMBER 29 — I have lived long enough to have seen the results and proposals of more than one Malaysian Plan and really, I do wish we would try to stop achieving the impossible.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in this country’s potential. My confidence in the frequent proposals and grand plans, however, is non-existent.
You know what’s missing in Malaysia besides laptops promised in some Budget not long ago? Imagination.
Perhaps I say it a little too often but really, we can’t keep doing things a certain way and expect different results.
Some time ago, some official said we needed more skilled workers.
Newsflash: it’s not like we’re not producing them. It’s just the better ones or the ones with resources leave.
There is no innovation, nor is there foresight in the “new” Malaysian Plan.
It’s just a repackaging of old ideas with the main purpose being to keep the status quo.
If we want the country to advance, we cannot keep fighting to keep things the way they are, keeping the poor underfoot and giving the rich way too much say in our politics and government.
How many times has some politician declared we should fix our universities to better meet industry requirements?
Last I checked, universities are centres to propagate learning, not assembly lines for obedient worker drones.
The thing is, universities should be where ideas form. They should be places for minds to meet and where research is encouraged.
Instead our best minds go overseas where they won’t have to feel slighted for being passed over for grants while the guy proposing a djinn-detecting kit gets funding instead.
We whine about some Malaysian overseas getting this award and that award and keep handily forgetting how in this country it is often not your skills that get you places but the circumstances of your birth.
Our censorship board is still overzealous as usual and yet we wonder why it is so hard for Malaysian IP to do well overseas.
The South Korean government knew that for its grand culture export plans to succeed, it would need to get out of creative people’s way... and also to give them lots of money.
Contrast that, however, with China’s approach which is even more heavy handed than ours, with the Beijing film academy loudly proclaiming its stance that those enrolled there should work for the party and disseminate the correct values.
China’s domestic market is large enough, and the Chinese diaspora is spread out wide enough that government meddling and censorship won’t get in the way of turning a profit.
Meanwhile in Malaysia we get the usual suspects screaming for the culture and language of just one race to be put above others while treating people like my various ancestors as though they don’t exist.
I am not sold on the Keluarga Malaysia concept because for all my life, I have felt, at most, like a very distant cousin.
The kind of cousin you often forget exists, that you do not bother to consult for family decisions and only invite to weddings to fill seats left vacant by last-minute cancellations.
What I’d really like right now is a plan to let our kids believe there can be a plan — a better one, one that will give them reason to believe they could be or do anything they want, no matter their race or faith.
I want them to not be scolded for not being fluent in one language but to be encouraged to know several.
Someday I hope our kids will be able to be brave without fear of someone kicking down their door for a Spotify playlist.
I want them to know they deserve a whole lot better than what they’re getting now and I truly hope that there still will be a world worth fighting for once they grow up.
They deserve better than people not having a real plan for them.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
