The football-ing is not over yet!

Dr Bakri Musa wrote in his Malaysiakini article ‘Ketuanan Melayu: False Promises & Premises’:

Through Ketuanan Melayu, Malays are led to believe that the world would be at our beck and call. We use the constitution to confidently decree that our culture, language, and norms be supreme. When the world ignores our command, we become even shriller in impressing upon them our status as Tuan.

Increasingly, it is not just the greater world beyond that is ignoring us; our own little world is contemptuous of our status. Malay may be the national language, but Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein is inundated with applications from Malaysians wishing to enroll their children in international schools where the language is other than Malay. Hishamuddin, of course, sends his daughter abroad. Rest assured, they do not teach Malay there.

Well, Hisamuddin is not the first, nor will he be the last. The Education football has been so well kicked around locally that most ministers would of course send their own children abroad.

It's not so much the Malay language per se that's the problem. It's the dodgy quality control and the constant political kicking around that have lost the people's faith. Those who can afford to would send their kids abroad to receive superior quality education, while those who can't are forced to see their children become victims of irresponsible management of an important system.

Education is one of the central pillars of our society, the guarantor of our civilisation and our nation’s future. But our politicians believe it's something that belongs down where our feet are, and where the mud and grime of the field should cover it.

We can afford half a billion ringgit to build a sports centre in UK, but can’t have more classes in Malaysia so that we needn’t cramp 45 young bodies into a classroom under the supervision of one overworked teacher.