Scholarly Thinking!

Yesterday, our honourable Prime Minister said, "Malaysia should create an Ulul Al-Bab community of between 5,000 and 10,000 scholars and thinkers in science and technology by 2020 to ensure the nation’s success." When I first read the headlines I thought to myself, now our leader is moving in the right direction for us Malaysians to keep up with the rest of the developed world. On further perusal of the said article, I realised that he was talking exclusively to the Muslim population of Malaysia but it sounded like he was addressing everybody, Muslims and non-Muslims. Otherwise, how could he bank on only the 52% Muslim community to come up with 10,000 scholars to ensure the nation's success? Malaysia's success in science and technology depends on every Malaysian, regardless of race or religion.

This is the problem with this country today. Everything seems to revolve around race and religion. Even the schools are doing it openly. It seems the intoduction of the Arab language will be an advantage for our students and learning an additional language will good for the children. It is stated that the learning of the Arab language has nothing to do with Islam but what goes on in the schools is very different. Why? Because the implementors of this policy have their own agenda. They start the lesson with a prayer. What do the non-Muslim children do during that time? Are they advised what to do? Why in the first place should they have prayers during the learning of a language be it Arabic?

The Prime Minister looked surprised when he was told that though he had good policies, the situation on the ground was very different. He looks like Alice in Wonderland, in a world of his own. His son and son-in-law have been accused of amassing wealth using his influence. He has denied all that but it has never cleared the air. Now he thinks only Muslim scholars can ensure the nation's success! The rest of us are useless.

In contrast, I read in the paper that a Pakistani murdered his sister because she had entered the university while he was working as a fruit vendor in Lahore. It seems she disobeyed him when she enrolled at the university! How can a girl be more educated than a boy! That's too much!

Pakistan is a Muslim country. A number of our so called Muslim 'thinkers' go there for their 'higher' education. I sincerely hope they do not bring back that kind of mentality to our country. Not only will it dash our Prime Minister's vision but it would be bad news for our Muslim women folk, many of whom are already in the various universities in the hope of improving their future when they get their degrees.

If we keep sending our Muslim brothers to Pakistan they might end up with the standard of English as shown below, although it surely is not representative of all Pakistanis.