theSun | WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 4 2009
speak up!
We await answers
to Dipang tragedy
THE NATION awaits the results of the
investigation into last week’s Kuala Dipang
tragedy in which three primary school pu-
pils drowned and many others were put
at risk. The incident which took place late
at night on Oct 26 must have sent a chill
down the spine of most parents of primary
school-going children and may even cause
them to be uncooperative when they are
requested to allow their children to take
part in extracurricular activities outside
the school ground.
Schools and even the district education
offices organise a number of activities for
pupils outside the school premises from
time to time for recreational, educational
and team building purposes. For these
activities – like the 1Malaysia camp, for
instance – to be successful and serve the
purpose for which they are organised as
many pupils as possible are encouraged
to attend.
It will be most unfortunate for the
success of these activities if the Kuala
Dipang incident automatically comes to
the mind of most parents whenever their
children tell them that they are required
to take part in an outdoor event organised
by the school or the district or even state
education offices. Thus, what happened
was most unfortunate.
Many questions have been asked by
the public and even by some of the more
concerned MPs and the special commit-
tee investigating the incident will have to
letters
letters@thesundaily.com
The ‘deception’ of
jobless graduates
THE SUN is to be commended for publishing
“Who is prospering from jobless grads?” (Com-
ment, Nov 2) in full. This is especially because,
it is in the national interest to expose the
so-called attempts at “enhancing graduate
employability”, that in reality amount to noth-
ing more than bureaucratic superficial ad hoc
attempts to provide “more of the same”, in
the hope that this would in itself overcome
the problem.
With the estimated 60,000 unemployed
at any one time (some unemployable five
years after graduation) and against the well
researched analysis as above, it is perhaps
understandable why some hapless graduates
would be among those Malays who desper-
ately cling to the “siege mentality” to fight the
system and try to secure jobs.
But unfortunately the jobless graduates
themselves are not entirely to blame. As
endorsed by many concerned Malaysians
(including a recent comment by Tengku Ra-
zaleigh), the political elite sent their children
abroad for higher education and thereby (it
Asri must play by the rules
I DO not understand the fuss over the arrest
of former Perlis mufti, Dr Mohd Asri Zainul
Abidin, by Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor for
giving religious talks without the department’s
permission (“Najib denies govt hand in Asri’s
arrest”, Nov 3).
The law on this is clear: in order to give
talks or sermons on Islam in Selangor, one has
to have the permission of the state Religious
Affairs Department. That is the law and many
have been arrested, prosecuted and punished
under this law.
Asri’s arrest seems to have aroused the
ire of many, particularly politicians, on both
sides of our political divide. Why? Is it because
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thesun says
answer them. Hopefully, the committee
will not be like other similar committees
in the past where nothing much happened
after a few causes had been identified.
Whatever the causes this committee is
going to identify the parents of the three
pupils and the parents of the other nearly
300 pupils involved in the 1Malaysia camp
that fateful Monday night are unlikely to
be satisfied.
Many will be blamed no doubt but
most important of all some must be
punished, even if it is merely to show that
the Education Ministry does not tolerate
shoddiness especially where the safety of
schoolchildren is concerned.
Much has been said about the suspen-
sion bridge that the pupils were on when
it collapsed throwing them into the fast
flowing river below – about its location,
about its structure and even about who
built it. But so far little attention has been
focused on the organisers of the event and
the teachers, who at all events involving
pupils, are responsible for their safety.
It will be most interesting for the com-
mittee to find out where all the teachers
were when the pupils were crossing the
bridge. There are established procedures
and guidelines schools and teachers must
strictly abide by whenever children are
taken out of school on organised trips
or outdoor activities. Were they strictly
adhered to by the teachers involved in the
Kuala Dipang incident?
can be argued) “structural reforms of the
higher educational system” were neglected.
Indeed, Teck Ghee, myself as well as other
founding pioneering lecturers of Universiti
Sains Malaysia can testify that not only were
the standards of formal quality education
gradually lowered, but also the entire educa-
tional culture of scholarship, research, critical
thinking and intellectual debate was seriously
compromised. It needs to be mentioned that
the almost total inability of students to benefit
from access to published material in English
was a particularly serious limitation.
It would be tedious to go into a “blow-by
blow” prescription of what needs to be done.
Instead, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak
needs to be advised that nothing short of a full-
scale royal commission should be appointed
to undertake a “get-go through” structural re-
form of the entire Higher Educational System
before this becomes irreversible.
Dr Collin Abraham
Kuala Lumpur
of Asri’s stature and reputation? We like to
talk about the rule of law and that all men
are equal before the law. Why should Asri be
treated differently? Let him prove before the
court that he has done nothing wrong like
anyone else charged formerly with the same
offence.
If the law is bad, then we should take
steps to repeal it. Otherwise we will continue
to have this periodic exercise in knee-jerking
and finger-pointing which reflects negatively
on our societal and political maturity.
Datuk Dr Shamsuddin Kassim
Petaling Jaya