10 July, 2009

Najib announces KPIs for his administration

The piece of news is from www.thestar.com.

I think this is something we can smile about but the cheer will come only after successful implementation.

Sir, improving access to quality education in similar manner means going to top universities such as Cambridge, Harvard, Virginia Tech, UMIST and Stanley. How are you going to do that. in a way which I can afford. I am very interested. Not for me but for my dependents.



KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has announced six key areas that his administration will focus on.

The areas are crime prevention, combating corruption and improving access to quality education, people's quality of life, rural infrastructure and upgrading public transportation.

Najib also announced that road users who pay 80 times of toll a month would get a discount of 20% starting Sept 1.

He said the Government would also launched a RM10bil Amanah Saham 1Malaysia trust fund. Those above 18 years of age are entitled to apply.

Other announcements were that those renting public housing would get the option to buy the houses,w ith a total of 44,000 units on offer.

Petty traders in the Federal Territories will also get a 50% discount on the renewal of their licences.

Najib made the announcement during a "100 days with the people" gathering at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here today.

Ranking Malaysia di dalam Bidang Sains dan Teknologi










Country Publications


Citations per Publication H index
1United States
4,219,708



15,37
959
2United Kingdom
1.211.857



13,16
578
3Japan
1.194.978



8,98
453
4China
1.153.243



4,00
215
5Germany
1.108.416



11,94
506
6France
803.442



11,43
465
7Canada
611.394



13,19
450
8Italy
592.897



10,91
405
9Spain
435.562



9,77
312
10Russian Federation
396.307



3,88
222
11Australia
388.814



11,91
341
12India
379.492



5,01
187
13Netherlands
338.859



14,98
392
14Korea, Republic Of
306.376



7,16
204
15Sweden
245.087



14,39
350
16Switzerland
241.820



16,56
392
17Brazil
227.420



6,98
196
18Taiwan, Province of China
226.074



6,89
173
19Poland
203.283



5,86
193
20Belgium
183.154



12,78
298
21Turkey
166.179



5,26
126
22Israel
150.555



12,50
293
23Austria
127.230



12,02
259
24Denmark
126.970



15,27
280
25Finland
121.198



13,49
254
26Greece
106.117



8,17
167
27Hong Kong
100.560



8,97
180
28Mexico
93.040



7,01
147
29Norway
92.089



12,26
225
30Czech Republic
90.635



6,45
151
31Singapore
79.002



8,14
152
32New Zealand
77.694



10,92
191
33Ukraine
72.193



2,88
94
34Argentina
71.656



7,61
143
35Hungary
70.284



8,25
171
36Portugal
70.096



8,77
147
37South Africa
68.950



7,48
144
38Iran, Islamic Republic Of
63.123



5,49
73
39Ireland
56.414



11,74
179
40Egypt
46.166



4,61
85
41Thailand
39.613



7,26
107
42Romania
39.472



4,44
85
43Chile
35.651



9,54
128
44Slovakia
33.890



5,40
105
45Croatia
30.500



4,31
83
46Bulgaria
28.960



5,18
90
47Slovenia
28.451



6,15
94
48Malaysia
26.100



5,15
76
49Saudi Arabia
25.925



4,44
81

09 July, 2009

Maths A-Level Plan Should be "Axed" ?

When I learnt about the government initiative to reform the curriculum in Bahasa Malaysia, I have some liking about this idea.

I have mentioned about the A-Level in the previous post and this piece of news just came to my mailbox. A new reform plan of A-Level Mathematics is criticized by the educationist.

The rest of the news is as below.


Maths A-level plan 'should be axed'

A proposed new maths A-level is "weak" and will "cannibalise" the subject, educationalists have claimed. Skip related content

Related photos / videos

Maths A-level plan 'should be axed'

Education for Reform said that the use of mathematics A-level would provide inadequate preparation for university and should be scrapped.

England's exams agency, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has been consulting on the proposed A-level, which would be taught from September 2011.

There is already an AS-level in use of mathematics, and it has been claimed that a full A-level would increase take-up of the subject at that standard. But Education for Reform, a group of about 60 teachers, academics and business leaders said the qualification would mislead the most disadvantaged pupils.

In its submission to the QCA's consultation the group says: "The qualification may cannibalise A-level maths as schools and students seek the 'easier' option. Poorly-informed students - in particular those at the weaker schools - will either be frustrated as they find that universities continue to insist on A-level mathematics, or may be accepted for courses with mathematical content, only to discover that use of mathematics is inadequate as preparation for university."

The submission argues that the content of the qualification is not of A-level standard. In addition, maths teachers are already in short supply and this would stretch resources further, it said.

Professor Nick Shepherd-Barron at Cambridge University said: "As far as A-level is concerned creativity has been not just hidden, but lost. Instead mathematics is presented as a mindless exercise in the execution of routines."

It is expected that the use of mathematics A-level would place a focus on the application of maths, and solving realistic problems.

A QCA spokesman said: "It is too early for us to comment on the final specifications of the new mathematics A-level and AS-level qualifications."

The proposals will be reviewed after the consultation has finished and the responses analysed, he said.

Mathematics in English

Contrary to the statistics shown in www.thestar.com.my that the performance of students is affected by the taught of the subject in English, I believe otherwise. This is due to the fact that always in in statistics, to prove a hyptohesis, it needs to be measured significantly at 95% confidence level. By showing that sort of statistics alone is not enough to support the fact that the student performance is affected by the teaching of Mathematic in English.

If I am an analyst or the government, I wont show that sort of stats. It make people in the corporate and consultancy world laugh because of the lack of significance in the stats. But, I do believe the reversal is mainly due to the pressure and the political constraint which the government of the day is facing. Of course, the reversal reduce the pressure in such a way that the opposition has one issue less to speak about. But the thing is that, it seems we lack the fighting power, like what the Japanese always says "Gambatte Kudasai !". "Please try your best".

I dont know how much pressure and "usaha kuat" our teachers can take nowadays but it seems despite the salary adjustment upwards, the motivation is still lacking. Are we going to resort to "rule by demonstration" is something that I dont know in the future. But the lack of spirit to move things above the current level is quite alarming. There is a need to think very much far ahead. And Hey , usaha kuat untuk memperbaiki diri sendiri dari segala segi adalah satu-satunya "dengki" dan "iri hati" yang dibenarkan di dalam Islam. Iri hati sekiranya orang lain dapat elaun atau orang lain dapat lap-top dan kita benci pada orang tersebut tidak dibenarkan di dalam Islam. Of course, if I talk this to my sub-ordinate many years ago, the sub-ordinate said that dengki dah wujud berzaman dulu. And my answer in my heart, "Patutlah dari zaman dulu Melayu lambat maju sehingga orang puteh datang baru boleh maju... agaknya kalau Melayu dengar orang kata bodoh dia marah... tapi bila orang puteh kata "stupid" dia senyum.

Dengki pada orang lain dapat elaun kerana orang itu lebih berkerja kuat atau lebih berilmu pengetahuan seawajar diatasi dengan diri sendiri berusaha lebih kuat. Tapi bila dengki dengan menghalang orang lain untuk maju ke hadapan atau menutup peluang orang lain yang mempunyai kebolehan dan ilmu pengetahuan untuk maju ke hadapan adalah sesuatu yang tidak wajar.

I think there is a need to protect my children. Frankly, I taught my daughter to count and add in Malay and English since she was 2 and half years old. At 5 years old, she can do it fluently. She talks in mat saleh slang of English, mind you. And she talks in Malay, it is "bahasa baku". In her kindergarten class, she was the top student for Mathematics but she lost to two other students in English. The difference in marks was just 1 and 2 points.

The fact that she scored top mark in Mathematics does not mean that she learnt it in English. Similarly. I would say that the reason why students does not score in Mathematics when being taught in English as being reported does not mean that the students fail due to the subject being taught in English.

There are only two factors that affect the performance of students - (a) The motivation of the student himself and (b) the teacher's way of teaching. I have experienced this, I know.

Let me share a bit about my experience. When I started my form four, I learnt additional mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia, the first there months were horrible, I failed every monthly test, simply to say. I love to learn but the way the teacher taught was disastrously demotivating. Consequently, my friend and I enrolled ourself to a tution, conducted by Mr. Balbir Singh, a very good sikh and teacher. Well, enrolled ourself here means that we find the tuition by our own and explain to our parents later to seek for some fund. So, here there is what I call the student's motivation.

Mr. Balbir Singh was an excellent teacher. He always has a migrain because his classes are always full with students who wanted to learn and he always accept new students. One of the student explained to him that he has difficulties to pay the tuition fees because his parent is not well-off. He accepted the student, free of charge.

He taught in Malay and English, but the writing on the board contain only mathematics symbols and logics.

Within a few weeks, my additional mathematics marks improved from fail to A. Does that mean because I learnt Mathematics in BM previously made me fail while when I learnt from Mr. Balbir Singh, made me a scorer ? :)

Things move, I was accepted in SMS Muar. Frankly, I missed Mr. Balbir Singh but I carried his methodology with me until even today but a fact is that I never score an A again in additional mathematics after I moved there. The things is that, it is how the teacher taught and how the student can pick up the logics is the most important aspect.

During A-Level, I learnt Further Mathematics, General Mathematics and Physics in English. I got all "As". Does that mean I got all "A" because I learnt them in English ? :)

Similar case happened to my sister. She once told me of her problem in additional mathematics. I asked her to show me her problem and how she try to solve the mathematical question. She showed it step by step. Finally, I ask her, does your teacher taught you a different way for the solution of the problem ? She said no. Immediately, I taught my sister the methodology of Mr. Balbir Singh. She said, it cant be this easy. I told her, this is the easiet way to solve that mathematical problem. Ahh...after that she became the second teacher to the students in her boarding school. I am glad that she was very motivated in a way that she scored A1 for her additional Mathematics.

So, again it is back to the students and the methods that the teacher taught.

The importance in English increases once a student reach the matricultion level. If the foundation is low, then an extensive English class is needed. But if the students have high proficiency in English and he take up courses which are related to sciences, then the chances is high that he can be very proficient in his subjects.

The burden of the university is not only to produce excellent students but to increase it's ranking. But excellent students can contribute to the ranking of the university by publishing papers in international journals. This cant be done with Bahasa Malaysia. It has to be done in English. More so, the literature of the state of the art technologies and discoveries are all written in English. Since publishing a paper in a journal requires the presentation of knowlegde above the state of the art of the technology, English is not an alternative. Rather, it is a must.

This can be achieved by two method a) by having early proficiency in English or b) by having lots of literatures translated to Bahasa Malaysia as soon as possible.

Of course I am concerned about the poor marks of the rural students showed by the statistics in the report. I dont know what is their actual problem. If I can help, I will, but it is too distant a help to be given. Furthermore, I am still gambatte imasu in my study and the reversal means that I will have to spent more time and effort with my children since the opportunity is some how reduced.

26 June, 2009

Swine Flu, Perak Crisis and Johor Causeway Revisited

A number of issues resurfaced, I am glad that they went the way I envisaged.

Swine Flu

First, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim gave an order to the nation's broadcasting agency to use the term "swine flu" whenever the agency gives any comment about the issue. His instruction is precise as it will paint the most accurate picture about the disease to any citizen without having the needs to refer to any dictionary. More so, the usage of the term swine flu is consistent, for example with usage of avian flu.

Actually, I laughed to my wife comment who said that swine flu should be coded as B4B1 as it projected the nearest possible mental image to the actual cause of the disease. When I read about the Minister comment, I also has the tendency to laugh because he insist not to misinterpret "selsema babi" with "selsema gajah". Laughter releases hormone that activates memory brain neuron to receive ions , I am sure this information will be kept in my brain for long term memory. All in all, thumbs up for being accurate and precise.

Perak Crisis

On 15th of February 209, I have written a Malay language article regarding the Constitutional Monarchy System in Malaysia.

I wrote the article in support of Sultan Azlan Shah decision to give the mandate of the Perak government to Barisan Nasional due to the defection by Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen. The event has gone through a roller-coaster where many writers in the internet have tried to paint the picture that the Sultan's decision was wrong. This matter was brought to court by Pakatan Rakyat legal advisers.

Finally, the court has decided that the Sultan decision was right, in total, and Pakatan's legal advisers opinion was wrong. Let me write the key-points of the judgement.

  • Nizar had applied the wrong provision when requesting for the dissolution of the assembly.
  • Nizar should have instead requested for dissolution of the assembly under Article 16(6) which states that if the mentri besar loses the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly, then, unless at his request of the sultan, dissolves the assembly, he shall tender the resignation of the Executive Council.
  • If the mentri besar refuses or does not tender his resignation and the resignation of the Executive Council, as had happened in this case, the fact remains that the Executive Council is dissolved (which include the mentri besar) on account of the mentri besar losing the confidence of the majority of the members of the legislative assembly.
  • The Sultan of Perak in exercise of his royal prerogative under Article 16(2) of the Perak State Constitution is at liberty to appoint another mentri besar to replace Nizar
The judgement went side by side with the article that I wrote previously. Actually, I have great interest in the subject of "Law". Perhaps, I will ask my children to take up law, for something which I have missed. I can't blame myself though, I am interested in engineering more than law. Maybe my children will say the same too. Sigh.


Johor CauseWay and The Third Bridge

I have many years ago opined that the causeway traffic is irritating for the motorist inbound, outbound and local. This fact is sufficient enough for popularity votes turnaround to and for the government if the government is seen to be keen in improving the quality of life of her citizen.

A roller-coaster on this issues were engulfed during the previous administration. This lead to Dr. Mahathir's disclosure on the ownership of the causeway which is 66% by the Johor government. The fact is that, when the majority ownership of the causeway is owned by the Malaysian, by right we can do anything about the causeway, if any votes is taken into account, 66% is a clear majority.

Negotiation with our southern nation is nothing but an act of diplomacy. Submitting to their values is an act of a non-independent nation, opined Dr. Mahathir. The fact is that we have only decided to act on the side which is in our international boundary means that if anything happens, we do not violate international law and regulation. Being an independent nation, a nation can do what ever she thinks as adequate in a space within her boundary. Aye, aye sir , you are absolutely accurate.

After the disclosure of Dr. Mahathir, an internet newsgroup called the MalaysianInsider tried to turn Dr. M. opinion by saying that it was only as a chip for bargaining.The fact, Dr. Mahathir did not opined that way.

He said that it is Malaysia's right to build the bridge on her own territory and it is also the right of Malaysian government to :-

(a) Request CPF contribution from Malaysian working in Singapore to be returned to the Malaysian (instead of kept by the Singapore Government which they had made hugh losses after investment into the US securities, and the contributors will always be in bewilderment as when he will be paid considering Singapore's losses),

(b) Protect the ownership of the KTM land in Singapore; and,

(c) Renegotiate the price of water sold to Singapore ( Hey ! Malacca pays 1000% more than Singapore paid to Johor, why should we submit our self to Singapore's dictation if we are independent).

Malaysian needs independent politicians who thinks independently and act cordially but the action must be rational based on the needs of Malaysian citizen, only then people will love to live in Malaysia, instead of choosing a life in Singapore, say for example.

We are obviously a partner with China, but certainly in the case of Malaysian politics, submission to Singapore chinese values without having any thoughts about the values will only dislocate our Malaysian chinese partner. Malaysian chinese and Singapore chinese are indeed rivals. Ask, the old man, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, he will agree with me. The only disagreement that one will get is with the other old man, Mr. Lim Kit Siang who thinks whatever Singapore does is better than Malaysia, which is not a surprise because he is an opposition member, even he kept silence about CPF and the losses made by Temasek and GIC. Huh, ! Singapore is just too good for him ?

The government of the day needs to increase quality of life of her citizen as a chip bargaining power for turonaround of votes. By doing so, the cusp of new era should not be started with Singapore, but indeed, should be started domestically.

Perhaps, Datuk Seri Najib needs to have a team specialised with the usage of fMRI to screen the brain neurons (thoughts) of his advisers. Only then he could filter ideas which are independent, without any interest and ideas which will backstab him later on. Yeah, screen the brain nerves, vein and neurons.. a much better advise can be filtered.

24 June, 2009

US and It's Regional Relationship

When Democrats took over the Presidentship of United States, with certain precision I anticipate a less agressive tone when it comes to deal with other countries directly. Comparatively, when the Republican was in power, a war is usually started by them, with the war drums beaten in expectation of votes turnover, apart from personal glory. Aggressive stance is Republican strategy, while Democrats strategy usually rooted in the domestic affair of their people.

Regardless, what I see, the way Democrats handle external affair, mostly through subversive operations and operative. While they are less aggressive directly, Pakistan and Afghanistan were requested to participate in a war against Taliban when the Americans know they cant win with their sophisticated weaponry. Unlike Republican who carried the mess of Iraq with big chunk of budget deficit attributed by it, the financial mess is less accounted by the Democrats. But, the world still remember when Mr. Bill Clinton pushes the button of Tomahawk which hit Sudan's suspected location without any warning and without any casualties.

Iraq is a war which America cant win exclusively, and so is Afghanistan. What about Iran ?

I followed Obama's comments about Iran. Initialy, the stance that was taken by Obama was pale in comparison with Mr. Sarkovy and Mr. G. Brown. Obama comments were calculated and refined, he started by saying he does not know what is happening in Iran because US does not have any operatives in Iran. And ended his comments with international norm , of which peace should be regulated, until even the TV commentator looks disgust in disbelief of the gentle stance which Obama has taken. Of course, the media were provocative and this provoked Obama to give a harsher remarks, but still less agressive than his predecessors.

The fact is that Iran is not a direct threat to United States. Mr. Harry A. Kissinger, tried to potray a picture of Iran nuclear ambition but still, Iran nuclear ambition is not a threat to United States and even today issue is merely a domestic affair of Iranian politics.

Should Obama has a microscope on Iran while the threats is some where else in the world and US is having a weakness it's domestic economic and health care backyard.

The emerging threat comes from North Korea. With North Korea aiming his intercontinental balistic missiles towards Hawaii, the President attention should be somewhere in the East. Obviously, North East Asia these days has somewhat become unstable. With the agressive words of North Korean leader to wipe America off the world map, no one knows what is his exact intention. Words can be deceiveful as he may meant for a negotiation and discussion, but if war is indeed declared, focusing at Iran is a wrong prioritization.

If there is a need for a show case to Republican, with the same concern from South Korea, Japan and China, a strong stance over North Korea is safer compared to Iran.

On top of that, America is pushing a rock uphill alone in its economic battle domestically.

Putting things into equation, with mathematical preciseness, Obama should know what independent variables that significantly influence the result of his effectiveness as a leader that would be remembered by his people.

21 June, 2009

Time Off

The past one month was the busiest month in my life.

I have been presenting my journal paper to my supervisors five times. Explaining, describing for a period more than 20 hours, revising and correcting with much longer periods altogether.

In addition, I was involved in the Cybernics Tutorial Study 2 which will hopefully gives me 4 credits. Actually, the credits which I have obtained last year are enough for the coursework of the PhD. I have got 6 credits with all A. But still, it is my stubborn self to gain more knowledge on Cybernics made me go for the class, but I felt a bit guilt for not being able to give my best shot because of the works that are laid on my table.

And then, there came the acceptance email for ANQ Congress which I will have to present on the 18th of September, God Willing. The full paper need to be submitted by July the 15th. I duly completed this paper and that made me lost focus on the journal paper which I was revising and correcting previously. That was not all, I have the seminars and the group work which we go through the journals with the bachelor students and the master students. The group work took long time, as the students try to grasp the "story" of the authors. Since the journals are in English, the reading was relatively easy, and I took up to answer the questions from the Japanese students, because of their less-verse in English, and I am glad that I have contributed in imparting the knowledge to them, in the best descriptive way that I could do and I was learning through the discussions as well.

The busiest period ended last Friday with final Cybernics presentations. Saturday, I got back my full attention on correcting my journal.

Nevertheless, in that period, I have bought two books, one is written by Barrack Obama, entitled the "Dreams from My Father" and another is an advanced strategy management book.

I spent my rest time by reading Obama's book, interchanging between "Dreams from My Father" and "Audacity of Hope" frequently as I tried to maintain my interest in reading these books. "Audicity of Hope" is something more serious, more decriptive about the philosphical values that Obama holds, thus is quite demanding in term of concentration, especially as I am writing papers which are technical and difficult. More so, I am not totally agree with everything that he wrote. While Dreams from My Father is something that can be read in a very relaxed manner.

Regardless the fact that "Audicity ..." is serious and I have some disagreement with Obama's values, it did not stop me from seeing the positive values that Obama is trying to imply, even if the sentence is too short and to minute compared with the whole chapter.

One of the story is about his own admission on his experience of travelling in a private jet, which has advantages in certain aspects but reduced his ability to interact with the passengers whom he usually meet in normal flight. Perhaps, for Obama, that is what the elitist type of politician is losing. Having less interaction with ordinary people made them look less appealing to the society.

In the case of Obama, he mentioned that, once, he sat besides a passenger who has acquired Parkinson's Disease, and the passenger expressed his displeasure about the ban on research of stem cells for the purpose of finding a cure for Parkinson disease. For the passenger, he thought that even if a cure for Parkinson's disease is found, he may not live long enough to reap the benefit of the solution but it is for the next generation, the benefit will be given to.

This sort of conversation happens by luck. Not everyone meet resourceful people every day.

But the fact is that, Obama seems to remember the conversation and one of his first act when he came into power is to reverse the ban on the research on stem cell.

I think his act may has won him only one extra vote, but those who read his book and see his action will have some admiration.