Foul!

Haresh Says, as published in Malay Mail today. MY friend Rosman turned up at my house on Saturday in a not so pleasant mood. Instead of exchanging pleasantries, he started shouting about open burning. After allowing him to rant for a good five minutes, Rosman proceeded to explain what ticked him off. “I’ve been noticing this group of people, whom I believe are residents of this particular Taman (a neighbourhood in Ampang, Selangor) setting trees on fire for the past week,” said Rosman. “I’m sure they don’t own the land as it is located by the side of the main road. They are also destroying trees for other vegetation. But more importantly, such open burning activity is not helping the current hot and dry spell, contributing to hazy conditions.” I told Rosman he was free to complain to the Department of Environment (DOE). After all, it’s director-general Datuk Halimah Hassan, had last month, said a strict ban was imposed on open burning in Selangor, Malacca and Joh...

Wishful thinking? Maybe not. Or perhaps this should have been implemented right from the start. There has been plenty of talk about the need to have a single stream education system instead of the very many vernacular schools in the country. The author, has numerous times in the past, maintained the nation needs a single education system but, with the workings of certain vernacular schools, allowing students to master four different languages - Bahasa Melayu, English, Mandarin and Tamil. This will also allow students to mix fluidly with one another. But not many would agree to such an idea - including those political parties who claim of being Malaysian but yet would fight for the rights of vernacular schools which will only contradict their 'Malaysian' stand. Tamil schools and Sekolah Agama are often in the losing end, for they are always deemed to be the poorest. Chinese schools, meanwhile, are placed in the opposite end where an enrollment fee - in the form of...