I hope and I pray that we do not embarass ourselves but our government just does not ever fail to do so. I just read an article in TheStar on how the lawyer representing our MACC traded barbs with Dr Pornthip, a world famous pathologist. I can understand the legal tactic of trying to discredit the witness by questioning her credentials but this is just sad.
According to the article:
Abdul Razak also told Dr Pornthip that Mahidol University, from where she graduated, was not recognised in Malaysia.
“But it’s the top five in Asia,” retorted Dr Pornthip, who also told Abdul Razak not to look down on Asians.
At one juncture, Dr Pornthip asked Abdul Razak if he was really a lawyer.
Seeing such a statement made, I really had to go look up the facts. Turns out that Dr Pornthip was not quite accurate. According to the 2010 THE-QS rankings, Mahidol University is ranked #28 in Asia. So, she was wrong in saying that it is the top five in Asia.
However, what is truly sad about this is that according to the government lawyer, our country doesn’t recognise the university while we recognise universities that are ranked further down the ranking such as Universiti Malaya (#42), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (#58), Universiti Sains Malaysia (#69), Universiti Putra Malaysia (#77) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (#82).
The lawyer should not have brought up the issue of university credibility when our own universities are all ranked way below the one Dr Pornthip graduated from. At one time, our government did not even recognise Peking University (#12) and Tsinghua University (#16), the top universities in China. I think that we do recognise some Chinese universities now.
Before we go about attacking the quality and credentials of foreign universities, maybe we should first examine our own quality and credentials. I think that it is fair for Dr Pornthip to have asked Abdul Razak if he was a real lawyer.
Sybreon Ones Nought 