The major MCA forum on the Education  Development Blueprint 2001-2010 on August 10 is  the most outrageous and laughable  example of  the inimitable  “Unknowing,  Unfeeling” or “Last to Know, Last to Feel” MCA style of  leadership

(Port Dickison, Sunday): The MCA is organizing  a major  forum on August 10 on the 10-year Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010, inviting a cross-section of representatives from various organizations including Dong Jiao Zong to participate and give their views including counter-proposals to  each chapter of the Blueprint. 

The MCA would have completely   forgotten that there is such an Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010 to build an education system comparable to those of developed countries  if the DAP had not organized an education seminar on May 23 and pointedly asked what had  happened to Education Development Blueprint, and since then kept up a constant and unrelenting pressure to demand a full accounting from the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad as to why the Blueprint was never tabled in Parliament in the past ten months and there had been virtually no public debate on it, except for the first few days after it was publicly unveiled by Musa in October last year. 

The forthcoming MCA major forum  on the Education Development Blueprint on August 10 is the most outrageous  example of  the inimitable  “Unknowing,  Unfeeling” or “Last to Know, Last to Feel” MCA style of  leadership, despite their top leaders being  represented at the apex of the  federal government  - as Ministers in  the Cabinet. 

The MCA should be organizing such forums more than a year ago  to gather public feedbacks and to transmit them to the highest government authorities , before the Blueprint was officially adopted as government policy – and the latest by 20^th June 2001 when  the Cabinet  gave its approval to the Blueprint  – and not now after more than a year of “nasi jadi bubuh”! 

Reading the Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010, there are no indications whatsoever that it is a Draft Report as everything point to it being approved by the  Cabinet as a 10-year policy document– with only  room for public feedback on its implementation as the policy aspects have been cast in concrete. 

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, for instance, in his foreword to the Blueprint, said it  was to complement the Third Outline Perspective Plan (2001-2010) and the Eighth Malaysia Plan to realize  Vision 2020. 

He said: 

“The Education Development plan details realistic and futuristic strategies geared towards increasing access, equity, quality of education and effective educational management. The restructuring of the education system is in line with the Government’s efforts at producing a national education system that is comparable to other developed nations. 

“I pray that the envisaged changes are successful so as to produce individuals  who are highly  knowledgeable, skilled and capable of becoming ‘global players’ grounded in Science and  Technology, especially in the fields of  Information and Communications Technology.”

No  reference or mention whatsoever   that this document  was a mere draft and that the final draft would depend on  public feedbacks and inputs! 

Similarly, Musa in his foreword to the Blueprint, made no mention that the document was a mere draft  or that public  feedbacks and reactions were  welcome to give the Blueprint its final shape. 

He said: 

“Pembangunan Pendidikan ini akan memberi tumpuan kepada pendidikan prasekolah dan rendah, pendidikan menengah, pendidikan tertiary, program sokongan, pembiayaan pendidikan, pengurusan, dan ICT dalam pendidikan.  Kementerian Pendidikan memberi focus utama kepada aspek-aspek di atas kerana sebahagian besar isu dan cabaran yang sedang dan akan dihadapi dalam jangka masa 10 tahun perancangan adalah berkaitan dengan matlamat negara untuk melahirkan rakyat yang berketrampilan dalam pelbagai bidang terutama dalam bidang sains dan teknologi. 

“Strategi pelaksanaan dan pelan tindakan yang dikemukan adalah hasil analisis yang komprehensif berdasarkan kepada status semasa serta isu dan cabaran.  Pendekatan ini diharap dapat diterjemah dan direalisasikan menerusi pemantauan secara berterusan oleh semua agensi yang terlibat bagi memastikan akses, ekuiti, dan kualiti pendidikan dapat dipenuhi. 

“Kejayaan dan keberkesanan pelaksanaan Pembanguan Pendidikan 2001-2010, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (PPKPM) ini bergantung kepada  kerjasama dan komitmen semua pihak yang berkepentingan.  Kementerian Pendidikan sebagai peneraju utama akan memastikan pembangunan pendidikan ini dapat dilaksanakan dengan cekap dan berkesan.”

This is not a foreword of an Education Minister seeking public feebacks to finalise the Education Development Blueprint, but the language of an Education Minister expressing his commitment to implement the Blueprint as it has received Cabinet approval. 

If the Education Development Blueprint has already been approved by the Cabinet  as an official government policy  document,  with room only for public feedback on implementation but not the policy aspects which are cast in concrete, what is the use of the MCA holding a grand forum  on August 10 to invite public comments and counterproposals to each chapter of the Blueprint?  And why hold the forum more than a year after the Blueprint had been approved by the Cabinet? 

If held, the MCA Forum on the Education Development Blueprint 2001-2010 on August 10 would be the most outrageous and laughable  example of the “unknowning, unfeeling” or “last to know, last to feel” mentality of the MCA leadership, including the MCA Ministers.

(21/7/2002)