Out Goes The Lecturer

The Star newspapers has reported an article by a Malay language tabloid about a lecturer of a local university who failed 97% of her students for sub-standard work and was subsequently forced to resign when she refused to reverse her decision despite immense pressure from the University. The full article is reproduced below:

"A UNIVERSITI Sains Islam Malaysia lecturer who passed only four out of 157 of her law students claims she was forced to resign so that the university could protect its reputation, Kosmo! reported.

Nor (not her real name) said the reason she left was because she could not stand the pressure from the university management on her to give “sympathy marks.”

“How am I to give extra marks if the marks they got is what they should be getting?” she said, adding that her downfall started when she received a show-cause letter on why so many students had failed.

She was then criticised by her superiors, who also wanted her to add marks based on attendance so as to reduce the number of failures.

“I stood my ground. How could I give them marks for that when it is their responsibility to show up for classes?” she added.

The university declined to comment."

Haha, I am both heartened and disheartened by this report.

I am heartened because it shows that there are still people out there who live by their conscience and principles and just do what is right, regardless. If there are enough of such ethical people around, there is hope for the country.

I am disheartened because it again shows what a scam our local higher education system is. Passing students for sub-standard work is not the way to go. The sub-standard local graduates that we see are evidence that the story is probably true. The Higher Education Ministry is just concerned about the number of graduates the country churns out a year - heck care about academic excellence.

There is a certain mentality among young people here that being a graduate is an achievement by itself. There is no need to ask about the quality of the degree or the marketability of the graduates. A fair number of these graduates end up unemployed or depend on the civil service to absorb them.

We have a long way to go if we want to talk about competing globally. In developed countries, it is not just the degree that matters, but which university the degree is from that is so important in opening doors. Today, Malaysia does not even have a university that is within the world's Top 200, going by the Times (UK) survey. If we do not start looking at this issue seriously, we will always be in the backwater. Is that what we want? Will the Najib administration look into this?

The Other Side Of Lee Kuan Yew

(Above, left): Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo, 1946
(Above, right): Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo, 2006

It is no secret that I greatly admire Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore.

His achievements are many, but there are two personal aspects of him that I admire the most. The first is his integrity. He managed to wipe out corruption in this city-state and that is no mean feat. He himself is squeaky clean. You have to believe that whatever he did, rightly or wrongly as history would judge him, was only for the good of the country.

The second aspect that I admire about him is his devotion to his family, especially his wife. I have read his memoir and have had the privilege of sharing the table with the couple once for lunch when they visited my place of work.

Mr Lee himself has paid tribute to his wife publicly many times.

Recently, their daughter, a neurosurgeon in Singapore, who is 50+ and still single, wrote an article in the Straits Times, entitled "Why I choose to remain single". Her piece was touching. In it, she describes her parents' loving relationship and what it means to be partners in life.

For those who are unable to read the link, an excerpt of the article is reproduced below.

Dr Lee Wei Ling wrote:

"My father said of my mother two weeks ago: 'My wife was...not a traditional wife. She was educated, a professional woman... We had Ah Mahs, reliable, professional, dependable. (My wife) came back every lunchtime to have lunch with the children.'

Actually, my mother was a traditional wife and mother. She was not traditional only in one respect: She was also a professional woman and, for many years, the family's main breadwinner.
One of my mother's proudest possessions is a gold pendant that my father commissioned for her. He had a calligrapher engrave on the pendant the following characters: 'xian qi liang mu' and 'nei xian wai de'.

The first four characters mean virtuous wife and caring mother. The second four mean wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world.

My mother lived her life around my father and, while we were young, around her children. I remember my mother protesting gently once about something my father had asked her to do.

'It is a partnership, dear,' my father urged.

'But it is not an equal partnership,' my mother replied.

The partnership may not have been exactly equal at particular points in time. But over the years, especially after my mother's health deteriorated after she suffered a stroke, my father was the one who took care of her. She clearly indicated she preferred my father's care to that of the doctors', in itself a revelation of the quality of his care.

He remembers her complicated regime of medications. Because she cannot see on the left side of her visual field, he sits on her left during meals. He prompts her to eat the food on the left side of her plate and picks up whatever food her left hand drops on the table.

I have always admired my father for his dedication to Singapore, his determination to do what is right, his courage in standing up to foreigners who try to tell us how to run our country.

But my father was also the eldest son in a typical Peranakan family. He cannot even crack a soft-boiled egg - such things not being expected of men, especially eldest sons, in Peranakan families.

But when my mother's health deteriorated, he readily adjusted his lifestyle to accommodate her, took care of her medications and lived his life around her. I knew how much effort it took him to do all this, and I was surprised that he was able to make the effort."

What a heartwarming story.