At our most recent TehTarik gathering, I have been asked to anchor our next discussion on Malaysian issues. The last session was a success and we all managed to learn things about Malaysia that we did not know of before. So, I would like to try to build on that and make the next session a good one too.
My areas of interest are fairly limited and in order to be a good anchor, I will need to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject area, so that I can inject stuff to keep the conversations going.
A friend suggested that I might want to talk about the MSC. It may be a good idea, if only to discuss ideas on how to reinvigorate the whole project. I’m fairly certain that not many people know what the MSC is actually about and what has happened to it. So, for some of the passport Malaysians here, it would be an opportunity for them to learn something about our past.
Another possible topic to talk about would be local universities. I doubt that many people here actually know of what’s happening in the local universities and there are many misconceptions. Therefore, it might be educational to actually talk about local universities and what we should do about them. And for this topic, I can actually invite some other postgrads here who were from local public universities, to help with the discussions.
Yes, that would be a good idea. Even if it isn’t educational or useful, at the very least, we would be able to get some foreign and local grads to exchange views and dispel myths. Personally, I’d like to leave race out of the picture and talk about academic aspects of the system. It might even be possible to broaden the topic to tertiery education, in order to include topics on scholarship fundings and foreign universities.
So, all that is left now is to find an angle to approach the subject and come up with a short, concise, reading list for everyone to read, in time for our next gathering in a fortnight.
With Metta.
Sybreon Ones Nought 