Education in Malaysia "a national disaster"?

Dear jammers,

While we're still on the topic of education, it is definitely apt that an "internationally renowned writer and columnist" (as stated in his personal website), is also writing on this pet topic:

And how children are educated in Malaysia is a national disaster.

Learning is largely by rote. In an email to me last week, one Malaysian recalled her schooling as being in a system all about spoon-feeding, memory work and regurgitation.

Students are not encouraged to think for themselves and they become adults who swallow everything they're told. [emphasis added]

[...]

But does the Malaysian Government want creative, critical thinkers? Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said to the ruling party's recent general assembly Malaysia needed to make students creative. But that means they must be questioning and thus critical; what hope is there of that when one of Abdullah's own ministers tells Malaysians that they cannot say the things that I [Backman] can and hundreds of them write to me to complain because they don't feel that they can complain to their own Government? [all emphasis added]

The above is extracted from Malaysia bites back and industriously trades the insults (Michael Backman/The Age: November 29, 2006).

Backman's previous article which propelled him to fame -- and no doubt polarized the nation's opinion of him -- was While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry (Michael Backman/The Age: November 15, 2006):

Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's just five years away.

So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics. [emphasis added]

That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).

Do you see how this "internationally renowned writer and columnist" mocks the very name of our beloved country? Doesn't it infuriate you that these few words hold so much truth?
__________
Related Post: Most Influential Lecturers / Passive Culture in Universities?