Education builds a nation
YET again, the Bowerbird writes so eloquently on matters, the subject of which touches the hearts of billions the world over.
He begins his commentary on the needless mass killings at a high school in Florida. His call for us to “Learn advocacy from US high schoolers” ( The Star, March 19) is apt, succinct and timely. But while I entirely agree with his sentiments, he too, I think, would agree with me that at the end of the day, the “advocacy” he writes of would come to naught as far as the United States is concerned.
The US is a nation of great ideals. Since its birth on July 4, 1776, it has produced thousands of generals, jurists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, philosophers, poets, writers, scientists, inventors, explorers and every conceivable professional entity par excellence. It initiated the establishment of august bodies and international treaties such as the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but more often than not, when it comes to fulfilling its obligations thereunder, it moves at either snail’s speed or not at all.
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution which provides that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” has been relied upon by US gun lobbyists as their sacred right to possess guns.
But guns for mass and wanton killings have been the modus operandi of the early Europeans settlers when they arrived on American shores.
The westward frontier became a shared space of vast, clashing differences that led the US government to authorise over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Native Americans, the most of any country in the world against its indigenous people.
By the close of the Indian wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated five million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492.
And as it remains a country that thrives on the manufacture and sale of weapons, from hunting guns to intercontinental ballistic nuclear warheads, the gallant voices of those at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, will sadly come to naught.
Australia saw its worst mass shooting incident when 35 people died during the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in April 1996. After Prime Minister John Howard introduced gun laws, mass killings have now become nonexistent in Australia.
Bowerbird also touches on mankind’s perennial centuriesold problem, corruption, a subject which coincidently appears as a Reuters news item at page 24 under the heading “Beijing faces historic graft battle – Agency: Win war against corruption as failure would lead to downfall”.
We would dupe ourselves if we deny that corruption has not existed for aeons the world over.
In 1987, Singapore’s Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan committed suicide by overdosing on amptal barbiturate when he realised he was being investigated for accepting bribes. In 2007, Japanese Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, hanged himself hours before he was to be questioned over an alleged expenses scandal.
In 2009, former South Korean President Roh committed suicide by leaping to his death from a hill amid bribery investigation by the police. In 2013, former Guatemalan Finance Minister Pavel Centeno killed himself with a shot to his lower jaw as he was about to be arrested for money laundering. In March last year, a Chinese senior general hanged himself whilst under corruption investigation.
But even in our own backyard, during the administration of my uncle Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra in 1965, a Cabinet minister resigned his post after the court, in a defamation action, found him implicated in a graft scandal. There were other high ranking officials from almost every state in Malaysia who were implicated and punished for some form of bribery or other.
That corrupt government, anywhere, is an anathema to every lawabiding member of society cannot be denied and I fully support Bowerbird’s suggestion that we “Learn from the Indonesians. People power has changed how corruption is now being fought in the eyes of the populace.” His reminder that “our Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission must not be allowed to fight alone (the scourge of ) corruption” is also significant.
Education, to my mind, is the way forward to achieving a broad reduction of not only masskilling but corruption as well.
From my own family’s experience, Thailand has one of the best, if not the best, educational system in this part of the globe. In 1885, His Majesty King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V) established the Debsirin School whose most famous foreign alumnus was no other than my beloved uncle, the Tunku.
Following Chulalongkorn’s demise, His Majesty King Vajiravudh (King Rama VI), established the Vajiravudh College and, according to archival sources, the Educational Policy of Thailand owes its origin to the Royal Policy of His Majesty, paraphrased below:
“What I want from the students is not to create all the students to have the same standard as a model student. What I want is to create young men who have pure heart and pure body who is willing to work hard for the upcoming future no matter what. I don’t want young men who passed all exams with high scores and become honour students. I don’t want them to be walking textbooks. What I want is them to be young men whose personalities are honest, loyal, have pure pattern and pure mind ...”