Recently, Pakatan entertained and bemused us; while BN is more than delighted to highlight the recent spats of disagreement between PR components. From the piggy thingy up north to the intoxicating booze in Shah Alam, disagreement between a few people in Pakatan have been declared as solid evidence of imminent break up in Pakatan Rakyat.
I suppose Malaysians have been long exposed or limited to the "BN formula" - perpetual harmony and agreements between component parties. Sure, easy to achieve if you have a big brother and obedient followers.
Today, in the Sun, these 2 articles make interesting reading....Badawi once coined the term "little Napoleons"...and here is a prime example:
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=36692
DG defends principal's move not to allow PTA meeting
PETALING JAYA (Aug 9, 2009) : Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom today defended the decision by SMK Sri Hartamas not to allow its PTA to hold the EGM.
"A PTA cannot hold an EGM without the permission of the school head," he told theSun when contacted.
"In the case of SMK Sri Hartamas, the principal as the PTA advisor did not encourage the EGM because the agenda of the meeting had nothing to do with educational development.
"The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) to the new policy named Upholding Bahasa Malaysia and Strengthening English (MBMMBI) is final. is a policy matter which has been decided by the government. It is a non-issue."
"There is no point to discuss it further. It is just a waste of time. The principal’s decision was right and according to procedure," he said
A Tan Sri in charge of educational matters deem that tax payers should not be allowed to talk about policies decided by people paid by them and require their votes in a few years' time. For goodness sake our children are going through all this and we as parents, can't even have a meeting to talk over it?
Yeah right, it is just like a Bursa officer telling off shareholders not to talk about Board of Directors' performance in an Annual General Meeting. Someone I know in the educational line is of the opinion that our children's future is politicalised away.....
So what does the Education Minister Cum Deputy Prime Minister Cum possibel future Prime Minister have to say about this and show his leadership?
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=36673
Meanwhile, commenting on reports that the education department had withdrawn permission for the SMK Sri Hartamas Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to voice their opposition to the reversal of the policy to use English as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics, Muhyiddin said the department officers should not have done as such.
"We are quite open. They (the department) should not overreact. I am sorry. I apologize. I think it is not fair (to withdraw the permission)," said Muhyiddin, who expressed the hope that department officials would not do such things in future.
Sorry it won't happen again?
Why not tell the errant officer to apologise to the parents and offer his cozy office to let the parents hold the meeting there?
It seems that the stand is, "yes, even if civil servants are in the wrong, they cannot be held accountable and I hope the same thing won't happen again". As the Education Minister, surely Mister Muhyiddin has more say over the conduct of officers under his department, right?
And compared to pigs and beer, surely educational matters concerning our children and the future of the country is worth deliberating over, right?
And to improve education standard, surely civilsed exchange of ideas would contribute to it, right?
If a civil servant is found guilty of error of judgement and action but no action is taken against him or her, would this not encourage him or her to repeat this behaviour, rather than "hope it won't happen again"?
I rest my case.
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