The Kuala Lumpur Traveler

I read the news statement by our Prime Minister with much interest today, when he was launching the new National Education Blueprint 2006-2010. The new education policy, among other objectives, is supposed to produce students that can think out of the box. Pak Lah reckons not many students, despite their academic excellence, who can think out of the box. What Pak Lah doesn’t realize or choose to ignore is the fact that the majority government policy makers are also not able to think out of the box.

Why did I say so? I had just been to the post office today to pay my road tax and was told I still have to pay my road tax in full despite the recent reduction in the road tax structure. The reason is the computer system is not yet ready to handle the new transaction.And to claim the difference in the amount I have to submit my application for refund to JPJ office who wil send to Auditor General’s office for processing. I have to submit an original car registration card including a photocopy of it and my car’s insurance policy together with my application.

Considering the fact that those information already available in JPJ’s computer systems, why do millions of citizens have to be subjected to these unefficient procedures? Even to pay for road tax, I dont have to produce my car insurance policy because it is already made online with the insurance company and now I have to re-submit those again to JPJ? Like many other Malaysian citizens, my car is still under financing so the card registration card is retained by the finance company so how could I submit those document to JPJ? And JPJ wants extra copy of the same document, which is produced by its own department, for what? Can you imagine how much money and time would be spent (or rather wasted) on processing those refunds this way? Get real JPJ. Go and see Pak lah and learn from him how to think out of box.

Going back to Pak Lah’s statement:

Schools need to produce students who are not only literate but who can also think creatively and critically, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said at the launch of the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre yesterday

I beg to differ here. While I agree not all students can think of the box and able to think creatively and critically, majority of them can but at the tertiary level, Malaysian government policies don’t allow them. If Pak Lah wants a proof, I suggest that he removes Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (AUKU) and he will see the results almost immediately. There is no need really for new educational policy. Period.

[tags]Malaysia, education, thinking out of box, Pak Lah, National Education Blueprint[/tags]