Producing first class human capital

BRAVE NEW WORLD

By AZMI SHAROM

The Action Plan of the National Higher Education Strategy will bring about some
major changes in university governance, leadership and academic staff
management, teaching and learning methods, and research and development.

A HUNDRED years of Merdeka will see this society, this nation, achieve the
unimaginable. We will have Nobel Laureates...our students and professors will dominate
Ivy League universities and our own universities will be citadels of excellence for
international scholars.”

This is not a prediction from the Amazing Criswell, or any other stage psychic; this is a
quote from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Sure, I know that the Prime Minister is just getting us all fired up and inspired. But
unfortunately, having been intimately involved in higher education in Malaysia all my
adult life, I am a tad cynical and this kind of “rah, rah, rah, lets go get them” motivational
talk just makes me depressed. Achieve all that in 50 years? I’ll be happy to just have
respectable, decent Malaysian universities in 50 years, let alone “citadels of excellence”.

Fortunately, the good people at the Higher Education Ministry aren’t so cynical. Using
this Prime Ministerial Vision as a guide, they produced a National Higher Education
Strategy along with an Action Plan to see it properly implemented.

I have read the Action Plan. It basically focuses Malaysian higher education objectives
for the production of “Human Capital with First Class Mentality”.

These “human capital” are people who are really smart and their qualities include (but are
not limited to) being trilingual, business-savvy, masters of their core subject, great
communicators, team players and in their spare time helpers of orphans. With a critical
mass of such folk, Malaysia can then achieve all that the Prime Minister had said we
would.

To produce these super humans, our higher education institutions must improve, which is
where the Action Plan comes in. According to the Plan, improvements will happen
through some serious changes in university governance, leadership and academic staff
management, teaching and learning methods, and research and development.

In line with these institutional changes, there will also be some other additional
developments; the most interesting of these, at least to me, is the establishment of “Apex
Universities”.
Looking at the Action Plan, it is clear that the Higher Education Ministry is not clueless.
The basic strategies are sound and they have obviously taken into account some of the
ideas that academics have been putting forward for years.

For example, university boards will be given greater autonomy from the ministry in
decision-making; the appointment of the vice-chancellor will be through an open
advertisement and the deciding body is to be an independent committee; there may be
changes in the pay scheme for lecturers to attract better people; university courses will be
more holistic (i.e. students will have to do subjects outside the comfort zone of their
majors) and reality-based.

As these changes are occurring in all universities, one or two will be anointed apex
university. “Apex Universities” are the top universities in the country, determined by a
ministry criterion (yet to be finished) and they will be given more freedom with regard to
matters like student intake and staff remuneration. In return, these elite universities must
get themselves high up international rankings.

On paper these are fine strategies. My concern, however, is not so much with what is in
the Action Plan but with what is not in it. First and foremost, the Action Plan needs a
statement that universities will be solely merit-driven and no longer chained to racial
concerns. This is especially true of the “Apex Universities”.

If we don’t do this, there is no way we are going to attract all the top brains in the
country. Admittedly, the Plan says that only the best will be recruited, from the V-C to
staff to students, and this implies a colour-blind policy. But this is Malaysia and race-
based decision-making is part of our flesh and bone. To start to break away from it we
need a clear and emphatic statement from the ministry.

Autonomy for the university boards is well and good but it must be remembered that
autonomy also means political autonomy. And although the idea of an autonomous board
and an independently chosen vice-chancellor are without doubt part of the ministry’s
plans, does this mean that these people are truly free from any sort of political
interference?

If it does not and if Umno wishes to have its fingers in higher education, then no matter
what the noble intentions of this Plan is we will be stuck with decisions being made on
political grounds and not academic grounds. This will only spell disaster.

If the Government is serious about universities improving, then they have to take off their
party hats and let the universities be truly free of political meddling.

Then there are the students; there is much said in the Plan about better courses and
graduate training schemes, yet as usual, absolutely nothing about freeing our young
people from the utterly stifling University and University Colleges Act and the nonsense
that Student Affairs regulations and rules imposed on them. Until our campuses become a
hot bed for free thought and discussion, free association and conscience, our graduates
aren’t going to be much improved.

A final point: as academic staff members in a public university my colleagues and I have
been subjected to many, many grand schemes, all supposedly meant to improve us. In the
end, such schemes, like the ISO certification, have made life a bureaucratic nightmare
with no academic improvements to be seen.

Still, these are early days. We shall have to give the ministry a chance to prove that their
plan works.
The breaking fast phenomenon

WHY NOT?
By RASLAN SHARIF

One of the lessons to be learnt from fasting during Ramadan is to feel the hunger
and the thirst that many people around the world go through on a daily basis and
learn from the experience. Muslims are encouraged to break their fast with the sort
of meal they normally have, preferably less.

WE are a week into the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims around world fast during
the daytime.

Yes, that’s right – Ramadan is a month in the Islamic calendar during which Muslims are
required by their religion to among other things, refrain from eating and drinking from
the time the sun rises to the time it sets.

And yes, you know that already. I know.

But before you start thinking, “Whoa, the hunger and thirst must really be getting to this
guy,” let me explain further.

If you had never heard of Muslims before, and you flipped through the local newspapers
and television channels in the past week or so to find out more about this mysterious
group of people, you could be forgiven if you came to the conclusion that Ramadan is the
Islamic month of feasting, rather than fasting.

I can already see protests starting to form (and foam) at the mouths of regular Ramadan
buffet kakis out there, but recall what we were told and taught all those years ago during
our childhood by our fathers, grandfathers and ustaz as they tried to persuade us to fast.

Invariably, the arguments would come round to the things to be learned from refraining
daily from food and drink for a good 13 hours or so.

And a key lesson would be that we would feel what the poor and less fortunate among us
go through not just for a good 30 days, but the whole year round.

Think of the scene you’ve seen in so many movies, where one of the characters tells
another what’s eating him (no pun intended), and the other person, although feeling
awkward and at a loss for words, nevertheless goes on to (stupidly) say, “I’m sorry to
hear that. I know how you feel.”

Of course, both the reality and the reply is, “no, you don’t.”

Which is the point of this particular lesson to be learnt from fasting – to feel the hunger
and the thirst that many people around the world go through on a daily basis.
Now, as sure as you will feel it, there is no way you will gain full knowledge and
understanding of that hunger and thirst, unless of course you happen to fall upon really
hard times later on.

So, to ensure that the act of fasting, as far as learning about hardship is concerned, does
not amount to an exercise in futility, Muslims are enjoined to break their fast with, at
most, the sort of meals they usually have outside of Ramadan, preferably less.

Certainly, the banquet-like spreads you see in some homes are far from the ideal buka
puasa, to say the least. The same could be said of Ramadan buffets at hotels.

It is an issue that crops up every year during the fasting month and doubtless, it will
continue to be so for many years to come.

We already have the de rigueur admonishments from the scholars, but this time, the
range of advice has extended a bit further than the usual slap on the wrist.

Perak Mufti Datuk Seri Dr Harussani Zakaria, while saying that location mattered less
than making sure the food eaten was halal, argued that “wastage is a vice, and it can
occur whether one is breaking fast at home or in a hotel.”

The man whose views are seen by many as being at the opposite end of the conservative
Harussani, Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, concurred, saying that Muslims can
break fast at a hotel, as long as they do not go overboard and over-eat.

But for renowned religious scholar Datuk Abu Hassan Din, breaking fast at a hotel or
expensive restaurant was strongly discouraged, “even for those who can afford it, as it is
against Islamic precepts, for one of the objectives of fasting is to experience hardship and
inculcate an awareness of it.”

To the uninitiated, it might seem that the three differ greatly in their opinions, but it all
actually boils down to this: Break fast wherever you want, but don’t be a glutton and
don’t waste.

Huge sigh of relief! Not exactly!

In this day of RM100-plus Ramadan buffets, it is actually next to impossible to not waste
and over-eat.

Think about it. If you spend a hundred bucks for the buffet (more if you bring the family
along), don’t tell me you’re only going to have a piece or two of murtabak and a helping
of bubur lambuk, all washed down with a small glass of teh tarik.

That would be such a waste of money, especially as Muslims are strongly encouraged to
give generously to charity during Ramadan.
In fact, it would not just be sinful; it would be stupid as well.

So, to justify the RM100 spent, many of us would in all likelihood pile up the food on our
plates and eat more than we usually do. A lot more. Tut-tut. Either way, you lose.

And that’s even before you realise that a portion of the buffet spread will go uneaten and
therefore will be thrown away.

Do we therefore heap all blame upon the hotels and restaurants for the gastronomical
excesses of Ramadan in Malaysia?

That would be wrong.

These establishments are businesses, and they are subject to the economic forces of
supply and demand.

Ramadan buffet prices are shooting through the roof, and tables and chairs are being set
up in every available space, except perhaps the reception area and toilets, largely because
customer demand is sky high.

You will read of complaints of prices spiralling out of control and the crush at the tables
in some places, but then, you don’t see the crowd thinning because of these things.

Case closed. Guilty as charged.

So instead of spending money on buffets, why not spend it on food for the poor?

Islamic Relief Malaysia, which is part of the United Nations-accredited Islamic Relief
Worldwide, is organising a food drive for the needy.

It is distributing food packages to identified impoverished families, orphans and single

mothers in four states. Each package contains rice, wheat flour, sugar, condensed milk,
cooking oil, tea, dates, and canned food.

How much? Just RM50 for a package that is enough to feed a family of five for up to
three weeks.

That’s much less than what we could spend at a single buffet sitting.