Thursday, December 17, 2009

After hours, English in HK Chinese schools, Mirza


Don't focus on the main headlines (see my earlier posting here for that); I want to highlight three articles on the cover of today's The Malay Mail:

1. MACC pun Boleh

In my posting 27/11 posting Scotland Yard, Interpol Boleh ... Kenapa MACC tak boleh?, The Malay Mail reported that renowned enforcement agencies in advanced countries allow witnesses to be questioned after office hours and, therefore, there was no reason why the MACC should not be allowed the same privileges.

The Courts of Appeal this morning ruled that the MACC can interrogate witnesses beyond office hours. It's not going to be a popular decision but if we want the MACC to do a great job (and we all say that's what we want), we should empower it.

In the meantime, Teoh Beng Hock's inquest mention is on Jan 7 to allow parties to brief court on status of second post-mortem and to fix new trial date.

2. Hong Kong Chinese schools prefer English

And here in Malaysia we shot down the PPSMI ...

3. MACC allowed to appeal Mirza's acquittal

I think the MACC is wasting its time. Yes, it wants to exhaust all avenues in the name of justice, but it's really quite clear to those who know the facts of the matter that the Tourism D-G did not commit any wrong doing.

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:36 pm

    Yes Rocky, Malaysia should learn from HK. For a start let us close all the National school and convert it to English medium school. Cheers!

    Why? Because the National schools are the worst performing school.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:49 pm

    HK schools prefer English as medium of language???

    Oh no! What's gonna happen to the Dong Zong idiots when previously they said, they must speak and think mandarin in schools or else their culture will extinct?????????????????????

    Wakakakakaka!

    Chong Cheng Chong

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:36 pm

    Government building a palace for Mr Sleepy? Already gave his family 3 tunships still tak cukup?

    - Not Sleepy

    ReplyDelete
  4. anon 11.5510:32 pm

    if you want a good grasp of English, do something to the English class. DO NOT mess up the Science and Math.

    The doctors and engineers and whatever who went to school learning Science & Math in BM are now doing just fine.

    Did you know English language single-handedly wiped out other languages in the world? that's what happened to for eg. latin & indigenous languages. Just brace yourself for the disappearance of BM, Mandarin, Tamil etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11:32 pm

    Come on Rocky, who are you trying to kid with? HK prefers English because there is no fear whatsoever of Cantonese or Mandarin or their homogenous culture being wipe out.

    Einsteinium

    ReplyDelete
  6. weird...

    when people compare about the democracy in Malaysia VS in the West, there will be ppl barking: 'DON'T Compare, this is malaysia, we have our way and we have our values'

    when people question the freedom of speech in Malaysia and compare what they practise in the west,,, again.. the same group of people bark louder - don't compare

    when people question the race equality in malaysia ... wah lao... the same group of people will threaten to go AMOK ... balik india balik tongsan etc ... may 13 la....

    and all of a sudden ...
    UK boleh buat macam itu, kita juga boleh ....
    Make up your mind....

    ReplyDelete
  7. nice posting....i like it...

    Bathmate

    ReplyDelete
  8. Disgusted7:26 am

    Rocky,

    A bit off topic

    you should read this
    http://jebatmustdie.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/2626/

    i think its worth a feature

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Shocking to see that you protest so loudly when the Opposition sues newspapers, but when the Government imposes censorship guidelines on the printed media - you don't have a word to say?

    Freedom of speech and accountability are two different things. On no level whatsoever does 'free speech' mean complete unaccountability.

    Holding journalists (who, in my opinion, don't really deserve to bear that name) accountable for what they write and going through the courts is not going against freedom of speech.

    Then again, the governments version of 'holding journalists accountable' is to simply arrest them under the ISA - which goes against the very idea of freedom, let alone freedom of speech.

    What does go against freedom of speech is the Printing Press and Publications Act. Let's face it, the manner in which the government uses that act is simply fascist.

    -Vish.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous12:31 pm

    Pak Lah is the best leader, hidup Pak Lah!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous1:04 pm

    Rocky,

    1. Good that you spoke for MACC and that they now can interrogate outside office hours. No other way to get the crooks to book.

    Doesn't matter whether it's not a popular decision. Judges should of course not go for popularity. Neither should MACC. Enough problems already with blokes going for popularity.

    I hope and pray your Court case would, when the time comes, also turn out well for you. We need to continue to speak up against a lot of nonsense going on in the country these days.

    2. The shooting down of PPSMI is one of the nonsense. When will they ever realise that decisions based on votes and popularity are not always right. Merugikan.

    3. MACC appealing against Mirza's acquittal - if they have the time and manpower attending to it, let them. Drive home the point that hey will pursue crooks, even alleged ones, to the end. Wish they'd do to the ex-Minister herself.

    But if they are over-stretched, they should let go. Those crooks at the Selangor State Government should be pursued to the end. The DAP corruption and the use of Government office premises for meeting secret society members, thugs and gangsters (Underworld) as alleged by the PKR ADUN and the PKR MP.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous3:55 pm

    Rocky...!

    Kalau PM itu betul betul 1Malaysia, kenapa dia tidak kata belajar Tamil itu bagus.. anak dia patut belajar cakap Tamil juga..
    Tapi semasa di Chong Hwa school itu hari, dia cakap anak dia belajar mandarin saja..

    Tidak bagus kah Tamil? Kalau tidak bagus, mengapa mesti ada Sek jenis kebangsaan Tamil?

    from-

    Chong Chang Cheng Cheng Chong (yes folks... i am the first chinese with 5 syllable to his name)

    ReplyDelete
  13. America is a republic and let us follow it also.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous5:08 pm

    Though HK majority is Chinese, they never insist to have only one type of school, they are allowed to choose whether to go for English or Chinese school. Some schools make a decision to revert back to English school after they realise there is request and demand for it. So what is the problem?

    Malaysia government is doing the same by having different type of school, indicate that we are more open than some stupid countries that have only one type of school. If we open up English school as well, then I think government is doing a good job.

    Hax4

    ReplyDelete
  15. skilgannon10665:27 pm

    It's a pity that you neglected to mention that Hong Kong is ranked #2 in the IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2009.

    Seems to me that an increasing emphasis on English in it's education system doesn't seem to have impaired it's international competitiveness, in spite of the heavy bias towards Cantonese and Mandarin as the SAR's lingua franca.

    Or why Singapore, which is ranked #3 in the same Scoreboard, has it's national education system based on English (together with a policy of bilingualism).

    Or why Malaysia is ranked #18 in the same survey.

    Surely the IMD couldn't have got it wrong, could they?

    Or is a country's education system one of the critical factors in it's international competitiveness?

    I am surprised that the Malay Mail did not carry out an in-depth analysis of the subject.

    Or is that par for the course?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Don't depend 100% on our children's future in goverment hand or whoever hand. We should be in control of our children future. The variety of school in malaysia is a bless. Let's face the fact at that english is the past and current lingua franca. While mandarin is the language of future lingua franca. We have the best chance for the both worlds here. So grab the opportunity.

    http://www.dance-mat.com.my

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kalau mau makan sambal belacan mesti guna chili dan belacan bukan cheese dan tomato. Kalau sakit batuk jangan beri panadol sampai bila pun tak kan baik....lain bengkak lain bernanah..kah...kah... kah...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous4:17 pm

    ok who the duck is rocky bru to dictate how our courts should decide?

    how do you know the tourism minister fella is not guilty? Are you an accomplice?

    -muak-

    ReplyDelete
  19. Do you agree with what the MM says or are you dictating what MM's slant is?

    On MACC, no wonder they did not catch any big fish. Must be the lact of OTs after official after hours.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Aah, I remembered the good old days when there were The English Stream and the Malay streams schools. Everybody was happy then The Malay children mixed with the Chinese and the Tamils and the Punjabi(Singhs) there was no colour everybody is known by their nick names. I think this generation were the ones who got the best of both worlds they are as patriotic as any rakyat can be and are competent in both Bahasa Malaysia and English and have friends even now where they can have have teh tarik together and laughing about the things happening around their world. Pity the political powers that be saw a need to do away with the English stream in the late seventies and early eighties.

    With the demise of the English stream, the vernacular schools started to gain popularity. It seemed that our racial polarisation problem really started in the mid eighties onwards...could there be a factor here which contributed to this problem Bro?

    By the way it was a good call by the Court of Appeals and put us back among the league of civilised nation.

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  21. Rasputin Beliong11:17 pm

    I tend to agree that the MACC should not pursue further Mirza's case, though not for the same reason as Rocky's. If he's really innocent, well and fine. Otherwise his conscience would keep pricking him each time he brushed his teeth in front of the mirror. And that would be real torture.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous5:09 pm

    RACISM..the all time favourite debated subject as usual.

    Let us learn the chingkies' version of racism the Dong Zong way..ala "Defination of Racism in the Mind of an Ultra Chingkie".

    I found these Alien_typical mentality ; Alien_confronted with facts ; Alien_pissed off with reality & Alien in true form accusing others as racist from DemiNegara very2 funny hitting these racist alien bastards right between their eyes..it really does tell it all..

    Pls give us 10 reasons why we should not deport these kind of aliens to their motherland or throw them in the sea or called them aliens (pendatang)?

    Well, that is so them..everybody else around them are deemed racist when talking about races right except for them....that is so typical of pigbrain mentality..need less to say.

    :D muhahahaha
    -anti hindraf & ultra chingkies-

    ReplyDelete