Senator S.Ramakrishnan, 13/9/2012
Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled the country's new education blueprint aimed at revamping the education system into one that is supposed to produce global players. While the attempt to revamp is a welcomed one but the movers who are supposed to shift the current system and implement the new dynamic education system seem to be the same people whose actions and inactions deteriorated the current system. Will the hardliners both at the political and bureaucracy level allow the smooth liberalization and transformation of the new system? Will Perkasa and the like allow the decentralization of school authorities, depolarization in schools and liberalization in religious education in the current system?
All the previous attempts like the implementation of smart schools and the teaching of maths and science in English have been waste of billions of ringgit. Malaysia never lacked good laws, policies and plans but the implementation is where the flip flop, changing of goal post and the half hearted execution leading to the current quagmire in the education system.
In 2006, a national education blueprint 2006-2010 was released by the then prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi to bring about revolution in education. The Blueprint goals was to establishing a National Pre-School Curriculum, setting up 100 new classes for students with special needs, increasing the percentage of single-session schools to 90% for primary schools and 70% for secondary schools, and decreasing class sizes in primary schools and in secondary schools by the year 2010. Are they achieved? Did the 2006 blueprint address the problem of racial polarization in schools as envisaged? Taking into consideration the religious fervor in the education system, can the system be ever reformed by the same staff who allowed the religiosity to take root?
Now the 2012 national education blueprint was released by Datuk Najib Tun Razak to make 11 strategic and operational shifts to transform the country's education system. Will it face the same predicament as the earlier ones? Unless the ministry of education makes a structural overhaul, recruiting multi racial talents with wide experience from different backgrounds, transformation may not be possible.
One generation of good and effective headmasters were replaced with mediocre performers. The same mediocre headmasters and ministry officials are given the responsibility to bring about transformation in schools. The comments from teachers indicate that they don’t have confidence in their heads to give fair assessment. For transformation to take place all selection and decision making bodies in education ministry be made multi racial and multi lingual in view of the fact that we have Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Tamil and agama schools. The imbibing of critical thinking and analytical discourse must start from teachers themselves.
Minister of education should set up a team to study the underlying reason as to why the non Malay students shun national schools and prefer vernacular schools? Despite the highest spending on education, Malaysia doesn’t have much to show in terms of achievements and results. Achievers must be rewarded and recruited into civil service regardless of race and religion to bring about genuine transformation.
IS MALAYSIA BECOMING A NATION OF FAKES
By Senator S.Ramakrishnan
National leadership is all about sacrifices in the interests of the nation and it should not be driven by selfish motives to enrich the Barisan leaders and cronies.
It’s unfortunate that the current leadership is being tainted with corruption scandals to stay in power at all costs. Using Government funds to deceive the public is unforgiveable.
The Barisan Government has spent hundreds of millions using overseas PR agents and local firms to spin stories to make it look good. UMNO has engaged bloggers and cyber troopers to deceive the public.
It is evidently clear the pseudo spinning by Barisan is visible in the social media. There is plethora of fake stories, fake tweets, fake statistics, fake electoral rolls, fake ICs, fake citizenship and fake photos.
The Najib administration has spent about RM100 million in improving its image through APCO and other overseas public relations agencies.
To use Bernama or the local mainstream media in the PR campaign to boost the waning popularity of Barisan Government is a desperate attempt to gain voters in the next General Election.
A leader’s weakest point is his vanity. It is for this reason the Najib administration (PM's Office) has spent hundreds of millions on public relations and image consultants to paint a rosy picture of the Government.
The international media has exposed some of these foreign PR consultants faking as commentators, journalists and columnists. Unfortunately, some are under investigation and some fired in their own countries.
The Barisan has to learn something that is basic. When voters suspect the usage of fake, false and flimsy spin in the media, the voters are not going to believe them. As result Barisan will suffer a credibility crisis as it is experiencing now.
Recently, Bernama faked the attendance of the crowd in PM's house. The more one looks at the photo it is clear that it is doctored. For example, the depth perception of the people in the foreground (lighter shade) and the people in the background (darker shade) simply don't match. The spin doctors seem to have overlooked the fact that this doctored picture was for PMO use only as the digital print shows.
The giveaway easy to recognise the feature is the people in the background look "flatish" or two dimensional whereas the people in the foreground shows a bit of the 3rd dimension. The size correlation of the people under the flag -the two men vs the two mak chik is completely out although they stood practically side by side.
And despite hasty denials by the national news agency Bernama that the photo had been altered, critics believe the incident will boomerang and make the already upset colleagues in UMNO even more "hopping mad" at the latest attempt to pull wool over their eyes.
What Malaysians cannot understand is why Najib and his spin doctors are turning to doctored photos to mislead deceive and creatively doctor pictures to show support of Malaysians.
So, what's the truth? Is Najib a crowd puller? If so why are people being paid from taxpayer’s money for creating bigger attendance at all Najib events? In addition, they are also being ferried, given nasi bungkus, souvenirs, T-shirts, hampers, rice bags, pocket money etc.
Senator S.Ramakrishnan
8/9/2012
BERNAMA’s rebuttal hints picture doctored
By Senator S.Ramakrishnan
Bernama’s denial is shocking because The Star staff themselves were embarrassed for the exaggeration in number of people present in the Prime Minister’s house.
I challenge Bernama to show a video of post it on Youtube showing the number of people and that particular scene because Bernama also had its TV station covering the event.
If the event had such a mammoth crowd I am certain Bernama’s TV cameraman would have captured the typical scene and broadcast it on TV. But, it was not done. Can Bernama prove it by showing the TV footage to support its denial?
The Bernama editor-in-chief admitted the photographer had used his “creativity” in capturing the picture of a crowd surging forward with cameras held ready to snap a shot of the first couple.
With all the modern state of art cameras and equipments at Bernama’s disposal doctoring the picture to depict a large crowd of well wishers with different sizes of faces from front to the background of the picture is small matter.
Now, I will state the reasons why the picture was doctored according to photographer and printing expert.
· Sri Perdana cannot hold such a large crowd (tens of thousands as indicated in The Star’s caption line) as the picture portrays a crowd of tens of thousands.
· Hari Raya open house is usually attended by the young, old and disabled on wheel chairs and this is not evident.
· In the front page picture is a sea of faces and this is not possible to be gathered in one spot on the Hari Raya day.
· Most of the youths are with cameras, there must be something more exciting than Najib.
· The pictures are doctored, primarily because some of the people in the background appear larger.
· Different pictures have been juxtaposed and superimposed in the doctoring process to create an impression of a large crowd.
· This picture does not show Najib and it is a total let down in the public relations campaign to gain supporters for the Barisan.
· A Hari Raya event would usually show Najib shaking hands and meeting the people and this is lost in this picture which The Star decided to use on the front page.
· The picture has been doctored by an amateur graphic artist who could not hide the doctoring.
· Experienced photographers too confirm that the picture is doctored. Bernama must do more than just a denial to convince Malaysians.
Senator S.Ramakrishnan
6/9/2012
BY SENATOR S.RAMAKRISHNAN
Open house concept provides many opportunities for fraud and corruption
Last week in a Press Statement, I had asked Prime Minister investigate as to whom, why and how such doctored pictures were planned to fool the masses, especially those who bought The Star and other newspapers which carried the same picture.
Until today, neither the PM nor his officials have disputed my statement on the concocted and doctored picture. Inflating the number of people coming by The Star is a serious white collar crime and the Editors must be pulled up to answer as to why they resorted to damaging the image of the PM. They have to answer to their readers who have put trust on them to deliver the news without any biased or slanted reporting.
A reader of The Star has sent me questions as the level of fraud involved in doctoring pictures. If the above is true then the objective of showing a large crowd with inflated figures could be to substantiate the inflated catering costs of the open houses. This is another form of fraud and looting of public funds which amount cannot be substantiated by any records, figures of facts that can be verified.
The open house concept has been practiced at federal, State, Ministerial, Constituency, Department, Corporate etc level. In all most all cases the costs are borne by taxpayers or shareholders/others.
Thus the present open house concept provides many opportunities for fraud and corruption and looting of public funds by those making decisions on who gets the contracts for supply of food and other infrastructure including the many entertainers.
Another undesirable effect of the open house could be the lack of interaction of rakyat on one to one basis. People have stopped going to houses of friends due to reason that the food may not be halal or beef is served.
The photos show that attendees at open houses are mainly from one race with the other races can be counted on finger tips. Thus to say that open houses show the 1M concept may be another mirage. Even at these open houses the different races do not appear to mix but stick to their own kind. Thus it may be another farce of living together and mixing but it is more like living side by side as the railway tracks.
Political leaders should stop fooling the public and themselves that the open house concept is creating 1Malaysia.
By the way another observation: It is observed that the main speeches by political leaders at the many functions appear to emphasize own political party and race related matters with little mention about the country's future. The attendees of these functions also are dressed in the dresses of their respective parties. Thus if these functions are being financed from public funds then is it not a case of using public funds for own political party campaign for the coming GE13.
It is also noticed that in independence celebration functions government leaders always stress that the independence of Malaysia was fought by a single party leaders whereas the sacrifice of communist and leftist activists will be conveniently forgotten. Truth cannot be hidden and untruth cannot survive long. Let’s build a nation that is truthful, inclusive and fair to all its citizens.
Senator S. Ramakrishnan
4/9/2012
Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled the country's new education blueprint aimed at revamping the education system into one that is supposed to produce global players. While the attempt to revamp is a welcomed one but the movers who are supposed to shift the current system and implement the new dynamic education system seem to be the same people whose actions and inactions deteriorated the current system. Will the hardliners both at the political and bureaucracy level allow the smooth liberalization and transformation of the new system? Will Perkasa and the like allow the decentralization of school authorities, depolarization in schools and liberalization in religious education in the current system?
All the previous attempts like the implementation of smart schools and the teaching of maths and science in English have been waste of billions of ringgit. Malaysia never lacked good laws, policies and plans but the implementation is where the flip flop, changing of goal post and the half hearted execution leading to the current quagmire in the education system.
In 2006, a national education blueprint 2006-2010 was released by the then prime minister Tun Abdullah Badawi to bring about revolution in education. The Blueprint goals was to establishing a National Pre-School Curriculum, setting up 100 new classes for students with special needs, increasing the percentage of single-session schools to 90% for primary schools and 70% for secondary schools, and decreasing class sizes in primary schools and in secondary schools by the year 2010. Are they achieved? Did the 2006 blueprint address the problem of racial polarization in schools as envisaged? Taking into consideration the religious fervor in the education system, can the system be ever reformed by the same staff who allowed the religiosity to take root?
Now the 2012 national education blueprint was released by Datuk Najib Tun Razak to make 11 strategic and operational shifts to transform the country's education system. Will it face the same predicament as the earlier ones? Unless the ministry of education makes a structural overhaul, recruiting multi racial talents with wide experience from different backgrounds, transformation may not be possible.
One generation of good and effective headmasters were replaced with mediocre performers. The same mediocre headmasters and ministry officials are given the responsibility to bring about transformation in schools. The comments from teachers indicate that they don’t have confidence in their heads to give fair assessment. For transformation to take place all selection and decision making bodies in education ministry be made multi racial and multi lingual in view of the fact that we have Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Tamil and agama schools. The imbibing of critical thinking and analytical discourse must start from teachers themselves.
Minister of education should set up a team to study the underlying reason as to why the non Malay students shun national schools and prefer vernacular schools? Despite the highest spending on education, Malaysia doesn’t have much to show in terms of achievements and results. Achievers must be rewarded and recruited into civil service regardless of race and religion to bring about genuine transformation.
IS MALAYSIA BECOMING A NATION OF FAKES
By Senator S.Ramakrishnan
National leadership is all about sacrifices in the interests of the nation and it should not be driven by selfish motives to enrich the Barisan leaders and cronies.
It’s unfortunate that the current leadership is being tainted with corruption scandals to stay in power at all costs. Using Government funds to deceive the public is unforgiveable.
The Barisan Government has spent hundreds of millions using overseas PR agents and local firms to spin stories to make it look good. UMNO has engaged bloggers and cyber troopers to deceive the public.
It is evidently clear the pseudo spinning by Barisan is visible in the social media. There is plethora of fake stories, fake tweets, fake statistics, fake electoral rolls, fake ICs, fake citizenship and fake photos.
The Najib administration has spent about RM100 million in improving its image through APCO and other overseas public relations agencies.
To use Bernama or the local mainstream media in the PR campaign to boost the waning popularity of Barisan Government is a desperate attempt to gain voters in the next General Election.
A leader’s weakest point is his vanity. It is for this reason the Najib administration (PM's Office) has spent hundreds of millions on public relations and image consultants to paint a rosy picture of the Government.
The international media has exposed some of these foreign PR consultants faking as commentators, journalists and columnists. Unfortunately, some are under investigation and some fired in their own countries.
The Barisan has to learn something that is basic. When voters suspect the usage of fake, false and flimsy spin in the media, the voters are not going to believe them. As result Barisan will suffer a credibility crisis as it is experiencing now.
Recently, Bernama faked the attendance of the crowd in PM's house. The more one looks at the photo it is clear that it is doctored. For example, the depth perception of the people in the foreground (lighter shade) and the people in the background (darker shade) simply don't match. The spin doctors seem to have overlooked the fact that this doctored picture was for PMO use only as the digital print shows.
The giveaway easy to recognise the feature is the people in the background look "flatish" or two dimensional whereas the people in the foreground shows a bit of the 3rd dimension. The size correlation of the people under the flag -the two men vs the two mak chik is completely out although they stood practically side by side.
And despite hasty denials by the national news agency Bernama that the photo had been altered, critics believe the incident will boomerang and make the already upset colleagues in UMNO even more "hopping mad" at the latest attempt to pull wool over their eyes.
What Malaysians cannot understand is why Najib and his spin doctors are turning to doctored photos to mislead deceive and creatively doctor pictures to show support of Malaysians.
So, what's the truth? Is Najib a crowd puller? If so why are people being paid from taxpayer’s money for creating bigger attendance at all Najib events? In addition, they are also being ferried, given nasi bungkus, souvenirs, T-shirts, hampers, rice bags, pocket money etc.
Senator S.Ramakrishnan
8/9/2012
BERNAMA’s rebuttal hints picture doctored
By Senator S.Ramakrishnan
Bernama’s denial is shocking because The Star staff themselves were embarrassed for the exaggeration in number of people present in the Prime Minister’s house.
I challenge Bernama to show a video of post it on Youtube showing the number of people and that particular scene because Bernama also had its TV station covering the event.
If the event had such a mammoth crowd I am certain Bernama’s TV cameraman would have captured the typical scene and broadcast it on TV. But, it was not done. Can Bernama prove it by showing the TV footage to support its denial?
The Bernama editor-in-chief admitted the photographer had used his “creativity” in capturing the picture of a crowd surging forward with cameras held ready to snap a shot of the first couple.
With all the modern state of art cameras and equipments at Bernama’s disposal doctoring the picture to depict a large crowd of well wishers with different sizes of faces from front to the background of the picture is small matter.
Now, I will state the reasons why the picture was doctored according to photographer and printing expert.
· Sri Perdana cannot hold such a large crowd (tens of thousands as indicated in The Star’s caption line) as the picture portrays a crowd of tens of thousands.
· Hari Raya open house is usually attended by the young, old and disabled on wheel chairs and this is not evident.
· In the front page picture is a sea of faces and this is not possible to be gathered in one spot on the Hari Raya day.
· Most of the youths are with cameras, there must be something more exciting than Najib.
· The pictures are doctored, primarily because some of the people in the background appear larger.
· Different pictures have been juxtaposed and superimposed in the doctoring process to create an impression of a large crowd.
· This picture does not show Najib and it is a total let down in the public relations campaign to gain supporters for the Barisan.
· A Hari Raya event would usually show Najib shaking hands and meeting the people and this is lost in this picture which The Star decided to use on the front page.
· The picture has been doctored by an amateur graphic artist who could not hide the doctoring.
· Experienced photographers too confirm that the picture is doctored. Bernama must do more than just a denial to convince Malaysians.
Senator S.Ramakrishnan
6/9/2012
BY SENATOR S.RAMAKRISHNAN
Open house concept provides many opportunities for fraud and corruption
Last week in a Press Statement, I had asked Prime Minister investigate as to whom, why and how such doctored pictures were planned to fool the masses, especially those who bought The Star and other newspapers which carried the same picture.
Until today, neither the PM nor his officials have disputed my statement on the concocted and doctored picture. Inflating the number of people coming by The Star is a serious white collar crime and the Editors must be pulled up to answer as to why they resorted to damaging the image of the PM. They have to answer to their readers who have put trust on them to deliver the news without any biased or slanted reporting.
A reader of The Star has sent me questions as the level of fraud involved in doctoring pictures. If the above is true then the objective of showing a large crowd with inflated figures could be to substantiate the inflated catering costs of the open houses. This is another form of fraud and looting of public funds which amount cannot be substantiated by any records, figures of facts that can be verified.
The open house concept has been practiced at federal, State, Ministerial, Constituency, Department, Corporate etc level. In all most all cases the costs are borne by taxpayers or shareholders/others.
Thus the present open house concept provides many opportunities for fraud and corruption and looting of public funds by those making decisions on who gets the contracts for supply of food and other infrastructure including the many entertainers.
Another undesirable effect of the open house could be the lack of interaction of rakyat on one to one basis. People have stopped going to houses of friends due to reason that the food may not be halal or beef is served.
The photos show that attendees at open houses are mainly from one race with the other races can be counted on finger tips. Thus to say that open houses show the 1M concept may be another mirage. Even at these open houses the different races do not appear to mix but stick to their own kind. Thus it may be another farce of living together and mixing but it is more like living side by side as the railway tracks.
Political leaders should stop fooling the public and themselves that the open house concept is creating 1Malaysia.
By the way another observation: It is observed that the main speeches by political leaders at the many functions appear to emphasize own political party and race related matters with little mention about the country's future. The attendees of these functions also are dressed in the dresses of their respective parties. Thus if these functions are being financed from public funds then is it not a case of using public funds for own political party campaign for the coming GE13.
It is also noticed that in independence celebration functions government leaders always stress that the independence of Malaysia was fought by a single party leaders whereas the sacrifice of communist and leftist activists will be conveniently forgotten. Truth cannot be hidden and untruth cannot survive long. Let’s build a nation that is truthful, inclusive and fair to all its citizens.
Senator S. Ramakrishnan
4/9/2012
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