The Burden of Responsibility

As the nation enters a New Age, in an epic turn of events that was the 14th General Election, many are quick to congratulate the 92-year old Tun Dr. Mahathir on his victory, and subsequently, on his appointment as the 7th Prime Minister.

Congratulations are of course due for the winning political parties and their supporters. But Tun Dr. Mahathir deserves much more. I believe when he rejoined the political arena a few years ago, after a brief retirement period, he never intended to become the Prime Minister again.

In fact - as evident by the tears of Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah on hearing the appointment of her husband as the PM candidate of the opposition parties before the recent election - leading the nation again in the ninth decade of life is no cause for celebration. It is a burden of responsibility - a gargantuan weight to carry on one's shoulders.

But at this period, shameful as it is to admit, there seems to be no one else equally capable to carry out the duties of Malaysia's 7th PM. This time is different, because the 7th PM carries the hopes of many who (were dissatisfied and mostly distrustful of the government, but with the fall of the party who ruled for over 60 years) dream of a better nation - of high income, championing freedom, peace, and rid of corruption. 

So let us not just congratulate Tun on his success in leading the opposition parties to win the election in unison. We must show Tun our heartfelt gratitude, by proving ourselves worthy of better living conditions - honouring our own duties and responsibilities, as enlightened citizens of this blessed country we call home.

Our Culture Is Not For Sale

1.

As I drove on the highway today, I began to realize something. I realized that billboards are lining the highway almost all the way through. Most of these billboards are ugly, although they advertise beauty products. Some are offensive (with terrible innuendos). But what all of them did is to obstruct the scenic view of the countryside, distant trees, clouds and mountains. How awful! Aren't we disgusted with such gross commercialization of our public space? 

This is not a new problem for this country - regardless if anyone ever saw it as one. The intrusion of our public space by the private (sectors, companies, invested persons such as celebrities or politicians) by propping up advertisements almost everywhere now is only going further everyday. 

It wasn't enough that the train stations are full of posters, the train themselves are completely covered with advertisement - inside and out - and (sadly for some time already) we also hear passenger announcement for the arrival at almost every station accompanied by a jingle of an advertisement. 

Our radio stations too are choked with commercials for almost every song played. 

Some may say that those ads are there for a reason. They occupy space where there's potential that the public can see them and hear them. And their private sponsors often pay a hefty amount to occupy those spaces, or rather to keep other private entities from occupying those spaces. 

And of course, a lot of these public spaces - highway, passenger trains, radio - are privately owned anyway. So of course there isn't anything illegal about putting commercials at these places - or even putting so much of them. 

2.

But I believe as a society, we have the power to change this for the better. The intrusion of the private into our public space is only a small part of a larger crisis in our society - that of our lost national identity. The problem is that our society has never come to a satisfactory consensus of what makes us a nation in the year 2016.

And please spare us the group pose of multi-ethnic Malaysians in traditional clothing as a guise for our national identity in this day and age. Yes, our traditional clothing, dances, music and architecture are our cultural heritage, and we must preserve them by all means. But to portray the Malaysian society today as a group of dancers in traditional clothing is not enough. 

Then who are we? An image comes to mind. That of the Teh Tarik sipping, Roti Canai chewing, football and badminton junkie hanging out under the night sky at a local food stall. But is this the ideal image we would like to portray ourselves?

How about portraying our society with the most exemplary morals, best working and living environment, most ideal cities, roads, and countryside that best suit us in this day and age? 

3.

This is the definition of culture - of having a shared meaning in a symbol. Our 21st century cultural crisis is that we don't have any meaningful shared symbols. And it's a shame. Our multiculturalism should not prevent us from having a shared meaningful experience together. In fact we have more things in common experience that should become the anchors of our unity.

For example, our geography exposes us to plenty of sun, and drenches us with sweat from the heat and humidity of our tropical weather. We must acknowledge this, and encourage our people to find a cost effective and most environmental friendly way of keeping bodies cool. This of course may include a simple solution such as preserving the trees in our cities to act as shades.

Food is another favourite thing of ours - and commonly cited as an example of what all of us can be proud of. But let's go further, and find ways to improve the national diet. Are we aware that our current dietary habit is not healthy? Perhaps enough has been said about the "epidemics" of diabetes and obesity in our society. 

Instead of being satisfied with the tastiest dishes we can make, let us also find out what could be the healthiest of all. A healthier national diet is in fact a desperately needed innovation that would be a leap forward in the right direction for our well being.

4.

To conclude let us go back to our highways - a common experience we all share is to drive through these roads that cut through hills, cross rivers, and bring us from one city to another. Isn't it a great shame that all those scenic view of the countryside, tropical forest, and hills are obstructed by large billboards that sell beauty products? 

Is this what we've become? For the sake of selling the appearance of natural beauty, we've sacrificed the true beauty of our nature.

If we can shape our identity, let's shape it for the better.

Happy Merdeka 2016.

Living In the Dark Ages

Enlightenment. A wonderful term to mean the use of our own understanding "without another's guidance", as Immanuel Kant put it two and a half centuries ago. But are we today enlightened? Or are we ourselves guilty of still depending on another's guidance in this day and age? I argue that we Easterners, especially my fellow countrymen, until today, are sadly, still not enlightened.

I think we simply lack the philosophy that would allow us to become enlightened. We are still drowned deep in the ocean of our dogmatic beliefs. We still believe for example, in supernatural powers, and it is no rare sight to see our people invoking supernatural causes to solve real world problems. No matter how highly sophisticated the technology that surrounds us (e.g smartphones, wifi, gps) we still believe that our troubles and ailments are caused by witchcraft or supernatural beings, and we cannot accept the possibility that we may be at fault for causing them. We somehow refuse to accept responsibility.

Now that's it! We just don't want to take any responsibility. And that's why we are still living in the dark ages. In fact, the characteristic feature of the Dark Ages, if we remember from history, was the witch-hunt. Back then, innocent women, charged with the accusation of using witchcraft to cause harm to their community, were burned at the stake. And all that happened because the people in the dark age society refused to accept any responsibility. They blamed witchcraft and the supernatural for what happened to them. More importantly, they did not use their own understanding, and instead drew hasty conclusions, guided by their dogmatic leaders. And so do we today.

Enlightenment is not the arrogant use of Reason to replace Beliefs. It takes a lot of effort and courage to use Reason. So we cannot say that the use of it is arrogant. Perhaps we say that, because we ourselves lack the effort or the courage to use our Reason. We prefer other people telling us what to do, when to do it and how to do it. That way, we cannot be blamed if something bad happens. We cannot bear the "dizziness of freedom", as Kierkegaard put it.

And so here we are today, trapped in the darkness of our false beliefs. We entrust certain people to guide us along the shortsighted exploration of our lives. We see history only through the lens of our guides and let them tell us the laws that are already set in stone. Of course, we still benefit from the outside world that lends us their scientific knowledge and technology. And we fool ourselves into thinking that our society have progressed because we possessed these technology. In fact we make it our aim, as a country, that one day one of us will win the Nobel Prize.

But we will never win the Nobel Prize if our aim is to win it for its own sake. It will never happen that way. But we cannot see this, because we let others tell us that winning the Nobel Prize should be our aim, when in fact, winning the Nobel Prize is only a by-product of becoming an enlightened society.

National Ideals and the War on Corruption

What we lack today in Malaysia are our national ideals. What are we working towards? Whom do we want to become? What do we want to achieve as a nation? 

Whilst only a decade ago we had some belief in our ideals such as Vision 2020, now that we are approaching the deadline we seem to have lost that vision. Could it be something so bright that it blinds us when it's nearer? Or perhaps like a visual illusion, could it have disappeared as we approached it?   

... 

The only national ideal Malaysians may think of nowadays is for us to become a country free from corruption. Most, if not all of our complaints today we would blame on corruption as the root cause. But let me discuss here, why 'War on Corruption' is futile - not unlike 'War on Terror' or 'War on Drugs'.  

The main reason why it is impossible to win these 'wars' is because in these battles, we are our own worst enemies!  

For example, what is really the 'War on Terror', if not Terror itself? And how can we really eliminate heroin addiction, if we only substitute it with just another drug, methadone? 

Those points may be easier for us to accept, when a harder case to make is to say that corruption is fought with, well, more corruption!  

... 

How can this be? If government officials do not accept bribery or abuse their power surely there'll be no corruption. So there is no need for more corruption to fight corruption.  

But this is like saying if people stop doing drugs there will be no drug addiction, or, if all terrorists..  

It is the waged 'war' against corruption that is actually the problem - the war that most of us would think is most needed today. It is a problem because the way this war is fought is by using the enemies' weapon against them - only that (in this war) we are our own enemies! 

As a result of fighting in these wars - against terror, drugs, and corruption - the weapons (bombs, drugs, bribes) are used twice as much: once by the enemy, and again by the heroes. Regardless of who wins the war, it is the people - who may not be the enemy or hero - who would suffer the most: twice bombed, doubly drugged, and robbed again for the second time. 

… 

While stricter laws and stronger law enforcement may help catch corrupt officials, it is not difficult to observe how these measures may actually worsen corruption by causing higher bribes, as it becomes harder for the corrupt to cover up their tracks and so they would pay more.   

Also, in plain view, aren't fines and prison sentences served by convicted corrupt officials only a form of 'bribery to the public'? That is, they may be forgiven for their corruption as long as they can also pay to the public a certain amount of money and time in prison. 

So long as we, members of the public, accept 'bribery from the corrupt', we also have to accept that there will always be corruption.  

... 

All of this is not to deny the reality of corruption, any more than we can deny terrorism and drug addiction. The point is that we cannot eradicate these problems by their own elements - it would be as lighting fire to fight fire, or pouring water to reduce the flood.  

To fight fire we need the fire extinguisher, and to reduce the flood, proper drainage.  

The root cause of corruption is greed, so changing the people in power is irrelevant - because greed comes with power. But if we all strive for some national ideals, then anyone in power would stay away from corruption - not because then they are afraid that they can get caught (they can pay to escape that), but because, striving for the national ideals, the people in power would choose to be honest.  

  

This is why today, as ever, we need our national ideals! 

Here are some suggestions:

1. Environmental - Keep Malaysia Clean & Green
2. Cultural - 'Berbudi bahasa amalan kita', Our Arts Our Heritage, 'Malaysia Boleh'
3. Scientific/Technological -  Malaysia Space Program, Malaysia Medical Project
4. Social/ Health - Make Our Streets Safe, Healthy Is Easy
5. Education - Future Leaders Project,  Read Malaysia 
6. Economy/Business - Local Products with Global Quality

*** 1Malaysia fails as an ideal because it is not one - we are already one Malaysia - and so it is merely a statement of a fact, not an ideal. A vocalist's ideal is not just to be a singer (that is already who she is), but to be famous, win awards, etc.  

Some may claim that we are still racially divided in this country, so he wants unity, and that is his ideal. The irony is that he'd be the same person who claims that the slogan 1Malaysia is redundant. 

Perhaps he is like someone who wants to be a vocalist but refuses the title of a singer. Maybe he doesn't really want to sing, or what is more possible, deep down he knows that in fact he cannot sing. Then perhaps he may rightly refuse to be called a singer, if after all, his singing is poor.

Of News and History

Should we keep ourselves updated with the latest news? Why not, this would make us informed citizens, right? Well, I doubt it now.

How much information can daily news give us? Plenty, of course. But most of the information they feed us is trivial, on further reflection. As we can be fooled by first impressions, the shallow depth of information that we gather from news may also fool us. Let me explain.

If today we read about an important news - the result of a general election for example. How can this information help us, if we still cannot be sure how this new government would perform? Are they going to be responsible, generous, or corrupt? So we read the news again tomorrow, and many days to come - until eventually we get a certain impression of the elected government.

So far, news seem to be useful - to judge governments, for example - until we realize that we only need a summary of events between the previous and future elections, in order to decide wisely on whom to support. All that time wasted on reading daily news could have been used to read our history.

But what is the purpose of learning history? "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it". Obviously. 

There is actually nothing new in the news (if you pardon the pun). News events are nothing but repetition of the same mistakes - done by different people, at different times, in different places. I think we'd be better of reading history.

Tortor & Si Tanggang

It's rather intriguing to read from the news that many Indonesians are angered by Malaysia's claim that Tortor dance is a Malaysian cultural heritage. As Indonesians and Malaysians are increasingly becoming westernised, we would think that there would not be any more issues between us about our Eastern cultures.  So let's look at what these people are angry about as this may lead us to interesting conclusions.

This brings me to the legend of Si Tanggang, popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. As a short summary of this legend: 

Si Tanggang, who was brought up by a fisherman and his wife, became a successful sea captain. Later he disowned his true parents and consequently got cursed by his mother, which turned him into stone. 

Tanggang is usually portrayed as an ungrateful son - which is undeniable - and deserved to be cursed for his ingratitude. That's all very fine, but why on earth would a mother curse her (only) son? 

In fact, a similar question is asked by a lot of people regarding the tortor dispute: why are many Indonesians protesting against Malaysians - their blood relatives -  for claiming the cultural heritage to their traditional dance? Shouldn't they feel proud that their culture extends to a wider geographical area?

Of course the reply to these doubts would be to highlight the fact that Tanggang is guilty of ungratefulness - and similarly, that Malaysia is not the country origin of Tortor dance. However, we should not forget the other facts as well: that the curse came from his own mother, but not from an independent judge - and that the protest came from closely-related Easterners, but not from indifferent Westerners.

I don't deny the right of a mother to feel angry with her ungrateful son - but I think we can also question the sincerity of the mother's love to her son if she really did curse him into stone out of anger. Indeed, Tanggang would be retrospectively justified to disown his mother, if the only way she reacts to his behaviour is to disown him in return. 

Where is the love? *Sigh*

I am not a new man, 

not very different 

from you; 

the people and cities 

of coastal ports 

thought me not to brood 

over a foreign world, 

suffer difficulties 

or fear possibilities. 

I am you, 

freed from the village, 

its soils and ways, 

independent, because 

I have found myself.

from Si Tenggang's Homecoming 

by Muhammad Haji Salleh 

Malaysia Boleh!

Conflicts of Interest

Why are dictators always in denial of the crimes against their own people? Why do bad singers go for auditions? Why is the world getting freakier everyday - with earthquakes, tsunami, protests, wars, financial crises, sex scandals etc? 

Bad advice. Of course dictators would believe that their countrymen are always supporting them, because the ones who'd want them to stay (their beneficiaries/cronies) keep asking them to do so. Otherwise, the cronies will lose their business/influence/respect.  

Of course some people who cannot sing, honestly believe that they can because their doting parents and loving girlfriend/boyfriend tell them they sound good. Otherwise, they get really upset. And of course we find this quite common in reality TV talent shows, because the producers deliberately feature bad singers in their program, and edit out those with moderate talent. Otherwise, their ratings would be much lower - TV viewers want to be entertained. And why are there so many sensational stories in the news today? Because they are sensational, and news broadcasters sell news.

Everyone gets misleading advices everyday. It's not that other people are inherently unreliable when we ask them for an advice - for most of the time, they are honest. However,  some people have a certain conflict of interest when they give us advice, so we end up having dictators in denial, disappointed auditionees, and anxious newsreaders.  

So what can we do to find the right advice, filter out the bad ones - and ultimately make better decisions?

(1) Rule out any conflict of interest: when a salesman reviews his own product for you ("You really need this multi-touch, multi-task, dual-camera with dual-flash, ultra-light & ultra-thin Epad"), you know you ought to take his advice with a pinch of salt. Scientific journal articles are known to have authors declare any conflict of interest - if they've worked with a drug company, etc.

(2) Deliberately limit the effects of certain decisions: US Presidents cannot get re-elected more than twice, but dictators rule 'till death do them apart'. So if one day you get chosen to lead an organization, step down before you get kicked out. Do it like Dr M, do it unexpectedly - even with all the pleas to ask him to stay, our country now has moved on, hopefully. And instead of deciding to put all your hopes into becoming a professional artist/athlete just because your mum said you're good at something; get proper training, and compete with others first. Finally, just because you hate somebody, don't hate him/her too much. But what if we love somebody? 

(3) Consider the silent evidence: some lunatics have burned the Quran in the US, and another group of lunatics have attacked UN staff in Afghanistan in response. What was not reported were the millions of Americans who didn't go out burning the Quran, and billions of Muslims who didn't go attacking UN members. So don't get too anxious about those incidents - although, in the latter, human lives were lost.


...
Conflict of interest: The author declares that he does not own an Ipad; that he was not affected by the natural disasters; and, that he is not a professional artist/athlete. haha

Election Economics

With Malaysia's economy doing so well right now, even Pak Lah could have won the recent by-elections - as BN have done so under Najib's leadership. 

If the numbers I got from the Economist are right, our inflation rate (CPI =+2.4%), and unemployment rate are both low (3.2%) - as compared to, say, Egypt's high inflation rate (CPI =10.8%) and high unemployment rate (8.9%). In fact, our economy grew 7.4% last year.

Forget about all the other issues in the media like HINDRAF, Anwar's sodomy trial, etc. The only thing that preoccupies people's mind at the voting booth is their own wellbeing. 

Am I happy? Yes, of course. I got a job, a car, a house and my family is all well. Why bother changing the government if everything is doing well.

Am I being too cynical? Maybe. But if you think about it, what I'm getting at here makes sense. The country's economy is a good indicator of our government's overall competence - taking into account all other factors like the global economy - although it's a gross oversimplification. Even when it's down to pure luck, the bottom line is all that matters.

In good times, the incumbent government would get almost all the credits for a healthy economy - whether they deserve it or not - and get elected again easily. On the flip side, in bad times, as in the 2008 'political tsunami' in Malaysia (with petrol price increase), people would always punish the government in power (BN lost the 2/3rd majority).

In reality when people vote, they care less about the real causes of a financial crisis (when there is one), or a poor local economy. When a lot of people cannot find job; when petrol and food prices are intolerably high; they would protest with their votes - although a poor economy is not always the result of poor governance. Look at the list below: 

Year     %vote (BN)  Leadership

1995       65.2            Mahathir

1998       56.5            Mahathir

2004      63.9            Pak Lah

2008      52.2            Pak Lah

(source: Wikipedia)

It's not so obvious now that Pak Lah's weak leadership could alone help explain why BN lost the 2/3rd majority in 2008, as Mahathir also suffered badly in 1998 from the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. The better explanation - perhaps a more cynical one - would be that it's all about the money.

..
Of course, this is not a new insight. This paper written in 2004 has found that the economy does indeed influence the outcome of elections (although it may be as likely that there is just an association, instead of causation). More interestingly, the author also found that voters in richer and better educated countries are better able to distinguish 'competence' of the incumbent government (World GDP growth - National GDP growth), from luck (World GDP growth alone).

Hang Tuah - The Hero With A Thousand Faces

In my last post, A Very Familiar Plot, I've quoted at length the book by Joseph Campbell entitled 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces' its main thesis: that (familiar) plot encompassing all myths, legends, fairy tales and great stories of all time. Now I am curious, whether or not Hang Tuah is just another (our local) version of that Hero as uncovered by Joseph Campbell.


And so our journey begins...

PART 1: DEPARTURE (The hero leaves his everyday life, defeats a shadowy power & receives a charm)

 Hang Tuah became the Sultan's constant aide, accompanying the King... On one visit to Majapahit, Taming Sari, a famous Majapahit warrior, challenged Hang Tuah to a duel. After a brutal fight, Hang Tuah emerged as winner and the ruler of Majapahit bestowed upon him Taming Sari’s kris or weapon...purported to be magical, empowering its owner with invincibility... source of Hang Tuah’s alleged supernatural abilities.

PART 2: INITIATION (The hero faces challenges throughout his journey, with some magical aid, becomes triumphant, gains recognition/atonement)

 Rumours being circulated that Hang Tuah was having an illicit affair with one of the Sultan's stewardess dayang. The Sultan sentenced Hang Tuah to death without trial for the alleged offense. Believing that Hang Tuah was dead...Hang Jebat avenged his friend's death...wreaked havoc onto the royal court... The Bendahara then informed the Sultan that the only man able to stop Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah, was still alive.

PART 3: RETURN (The hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread and restores the world with the boon that he brings)

 The Bendahara recalled Hang Tuah from his hiding place and the warrior was given full amnesty by the Sultan and instructed to kill Hang Jebat. After seven gruelling days of fighting, Hang Tuah was able to kill Hang Jebat.

(source: Wikipedia) 

Too Many Medical Graduates - Signs & Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

There will be too many doctors (too soon) in Malaysia, some people believe. As a medical student, I think I should be worried about the prospect of my medical career since it will get much more competitive in the near future. But I'm not. Maybe I'm still in denial of the 'issue', but I'm not concerned about it and I have good reasons for this (will talk about this in another post).

Now, if the surge of medical graduates is a 'symptom', I believe that most people have made the wrong diagnosis. Unfortunately, this may have lead us to 'write' the wrong prescriptions, which (may in turn) bore a poor prognosis for the country. 

Gaga concert analogy

Enough with the medical metaphors. It's time for a thought experiment: Let's assume 'medical degrees' to be concert tickets for a very popular act, say, Lady Gaga; and that there are 2 ways of getting the tickets: 

(1) [free] sponsored tickets in January

(2) [charged] purchasable tickets later in February

The Lady Gaga concert is in March. So, you could either get the (free) sponsored tickets in January, or buy one in February. 

If half of all tickets have already been distributed (for free) in January, what will be left for the others (fans of Gaga) are the tickets in February. However, because only half of the tickets is left, there will be a very high demand for the remaining seats. The organizer knows this, and as expected, they jack up (increase) the price of the February tickets.

And what do you think the organizer would do next? Hold more concerts, of course - until Gaga gets too tired to perform, or her fans get tired of her! 

My speculation

What follows is my speculation to use this Gaga concert metaphor in order to describe our 'too many doctors' issue in Malaysia. Usually, most bright students (not all) opt to study medicine when they apply for scholarship, and they get it. Fortunately for them, the competition for a medical degree sponsorship is greatly eased, because many equally bright students did not apply for scholarship as they are not eligible for it. 

When many seats in the medical course have been taken up by the sponsored students, there will be little left for non-sponsored ones. This ultimately results in an artificially higher 'demand' for the non-sponsored seats. Consequently, private medical schools are able to charge exorbitant fees - and new ones spring into existence with this alluring financial prospect. In other words, they 'hold more concerts'.

My proposal

So should we abolish government sponsorship for medical degree altogether? No!! What I propose is this: give out scholarship to those who cannot afford the fees (below a certain household income bracket) only AFTER they have been accepted by the medical schools. To get back to the Gaga concert analogy above, instead of distributing free/sponsored tickets in January, the sponsor should only pay for those who have competed for the tickets in February (along with everybody else) but could not afford to buy the tickets themselves.

...Of course, my analogies and proposals are far from perfect or foolproof. In the bigger picture, they might apply to other degree courses as well. Those looking for my 'diagnosis' of the issue might be disappointed - come again another time. As much as I'd like to discuss more about this, I think I should rest for now. To be continued...

Where Did We (Malay People) Come From?

Who are these people? Malaysians? Indonesians? Nope. They're all Taiwanese. The guy in the middle is obviously Chinese, whereas the two girls beside him are 'Aborigines' - according to the uploader. Don't you think that the girls look very much like us Malays?

If you're not convinced that the girls above are Taiwanese (aborigines), then take a look at the next photo. 

The caption for this photo in its original website reads: Aboriginal school boys in Taiwan proudly show their gift of sponsored storybooks. 

So have our Malay ancestors migrated to Taiwan, or have they (and consequently we) once migrated from Taiwan? The answers to that question, and the question - why Taiwan instead of another place? - are not what I'd like to share right now. Neither do I want to answer the question posted in my title: where did the Malay people come from?

That's because I'm no anthropologist or historian - maybe an armchair speculator at best. My point is that it's more important to ask the right questions, than to have all the right answers.

Before I end let me leave you with a map showing the migration of the Austronesians around 5000 years ago.

The Height of Erudition

This chap - Niall Ferguson - is writing a new history syllabus for British schools. I wonder, who writes them for Malaysian schools? (Especially with much emphasis on "sejarah" lately, that it is now a must past subject for SPM!)

Unit Khas Utusan buta statistik!

We should not be surprised when a newspaper article makes a judgemental error, especially when it overstates a statistical finding. The headline was this: Orang muda buta sejarah! (Young people are ignorant of history!). And yet when I actually read what it was about, I find this distressing remark not to be taken too seriously. Yes, they have found that few people are ignorant of our first Prime Minister, or the exact date of Merdeka. So why shouldn't we take their conclusions too seriously?

  First, out of 28 million people who call themselves Malaysians, only 200 were chosen to be sampled, or at least presented in this frontpage news report - that's 0.00071429% of the represented population. Well of course it's impossible to involve everyone - and that's what sampling is for - but at least have the humility to acknowledge the limits to their findings.

  Instead, the Utusan 'researchers' have concluded that 'Young people today are ignorant of history; are not interested to remember the past; have no interest in general knowledge; are too forward looking!'

  It is always very tempting to conclude that everyone in the room is a baby, when only as far as we have observed, everytime someone comes out of the room, it's a baby. Of course, Utusan has found that some Malaysians are ignorant of their own history - that's not surprising at all. However, what they have not found - hence, should not have concluded from their findings - is that such result from a non-randomized tiny sample population can be generalized to all Malaysians.

  I know, our Minister of Education has recently announced that History is a must-pass subject in SPM. It doesn't follow that we must denigrate Malaysian youth today - which include, yours truly - just because a few jokers have forgotten, or are naturally ignorant of their own history.