‘Old school’ administration must change

Saturday, 8 August 2009 | Sent by S. Abdullah S. Hamid, Kuala Lumpur

Tan Sri Lim, let me offer you my congratulations for starting your blog to share your ideas on education. I don’t know of anyone else in the country better suited than you to comment on this subject.

You are known as an ‘ideas man’ and our education system is in dire need of fresh, even radical ideas. The heart of our education system is so weakened by years of badly conceived interventions that an ‘ideas shock’ may be necessary to resuscitate it and getting it to pump vigorously. I hope, therefore, you will speak out boldly on what’s wrong with Malaysian education and how we can rectify the weaknesses.

Few people have had the opportunity to listen to you speak at seminars and conferences on education as well as several other subjects such as creativity and innovation and branding, for which you have a well deserved leadership status.

The average Malaysian has only a tiny voice which is simply drowned out in the noisy debate on the way forward for our education system. I am confident your voice will resonate strongly where it matters and where it can make a difference.

I wholeheartedly agree with the views you expressed in your maiden posting (A new vision of education) and the urgency you feel to do something about the irrelevant education system that is holding back the development of the full potential of students and nations.

Although you have chosen to take a broader view by referring to the Commonwealth nations, I am certain many readers will be able very easily to relate what you have written to what is happening in Malaysia.

Here, the system is so old school, so irrelevant. And I am not writing about only the education system.

The downward spiral of our education standard is a symptom of a much more serious malaise gripping our country.

And I have no hesitation in placing fault at the door of the government administration.

The entire government administration is so old school. These people are so far behind.

This administration was already out of date at least 10 years ago. Today, it is so out of date that I don’t even know how we should describe it.

I won’t apologise for coming across as angry or if people were to accuse me of exaggeration. I am confident I write for the great majority of Malaysians who care about the future of our children and our country.

We have fallen far behind even our Asian neighbours like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore with which we were once their equal in economic development. Never mind comparing ourselves with the advanced Western world.

Now China, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are threatening to overtake us in the economic race.

Are we going to deceive ourselves next by pretending satisfaction at being ahead of Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka?

This country won’t be at its best because the administration isn’t at its best. If the administration isn’t at its best, the people won’t be at their best.

Right now, we have an ecosystem that will produce only mediocre people. These people will produce mediocre work. The result will be mediocre services and products. And a mediocre country.

The way this administration is going, I don’t see how it can improve itself within the next 5 or even 10 years.

You go to Putrajaya and you will see new, modern buildings. The place is supposed to be the most hi-tech part of the country. But if you look at the way they do things there, the whole administration is incongruent, incompatible with the latest technology that is in place in the offices.

Bringing in computers will not automatically solve problems because these machines are mere tools. The mindset must change first before we can produce the best work with the machines.

The former prime minister spoke in frustration about Malaysia having First World infrastructure but a Third World mentality. That observation sums up quite well the distressing situation we are in today.

So, what are we doing about it?

The way forward clearly is for the public and private sector to walk together, not just work together.

Working together often means the two sides sitting across a table for discussions. Both sides are not going see the same picture.

If you walk alongside, you will see the same view, feel the same difficulty and move in the same direction. There is no other way.

We need a fundamental change here. We need a bureaucracy that plays a facilitating role.

We don’t need a bureaucracy that finds vicarious pleasure in tying the hands and shackling the legs of Malaysians who want to move forward or who are able to run faster than others.

We need to be a nation that is full of vibrant talents; full of innovative ideas; not just full of people who have been educated to the highest level but who still perceive the world through the blinkered vision of traditional ways.