10MP: Rhetoric without concrete solutions

Lee Hwok Aun
Jun 23, 10
11:21am

COMMENT I started out writing a response to the Tenth Malaysia Plan, but I've ended up with a comment on the business of national development planning as we know it. It's time to retire this ritual.

This Tenth Malaysia Plan is technically our twelfth; the First Five-Year Plan (for Malaya) commenced in 1955. By the end of the current one, we will have lived 60 years under this planning regime.

If not outright retirement, at least let the plan take its due holiday - a decade-long sabbatical seems fitting. Let's see if we miss it. Chances are, we won't. But chances are, Umno-BN will keep this relic alive, probably with greater desperation as 2020 stares us down.

I believe in development and I believe in making plans. Just not in this way.

I should add that I don't have a problem with the Tenth Malaysia Plan retaining the 30 percent target and revising programs for bumiputera entrepreneurial development.

I welcome Ibrahim Ali's glee. This reflects the powerful interests within our party in power, and shows voters what we get when we vote Umno-BN.

What is more troubling is the fact that this Tenth Plan offers rhetoric to gratify everyone with no substantial consideration of how we've failed and scarcely any concrete solutions that get to the root of problems. In a way, it is mostly following in the tradition of recent plans.

However, this Tenth Plan has precipitously shrunk in detail while stratospherically growing in ambition.

We might welcome the bullet-pointed format, brevity, and visual adornments that sharply contrast with text-laden, drab, monochromatic Malaysia Plans of the past. Perhaps this plan is more accessible - but that does not make it more informed, substantial or useful.

In fact, the opposite. Any 'debate' over this Tenth Plan is an illusion - it does not give us enough substance to engage in.

Signal to placate

To return to the 30 percent equity flashpoint, as I said, whether it's inked or not doesn't really matter, except as a signal to the placated. What is more troubling for the nation is how this plan is as opaque as ever on issues that demand ever greater clarity and transparency.

A 'new wave' of privatisation is promised, without any discussion of the old wave, what went wrong (or plain disastrous) and exactly what checks against abuse are in place this time.

Other plans in the broad objective of bumiputera ownership and participation include channeling resources into Ekuinas and expanding unit trusts. Maybe Ekuinas will not turn into a crony wealth dispenser, but what will prevent that? We aren't told in any detail.

The Plan claims that "unit trust schemes have been very successful in helping bumiputera to participate in and benefit from national wealth creation." Well, yes and no. There are many participants, but most of them own a morsel.

At the end of 2008, 16 percent of Amanah Saham bumiputera 6.5 million unit holders held 91 percent of the total number of units. None of these realities - nor the possibility that individual holdings are predominantly so tiny because of low earnings - is acknowledged in the plan.

I also cannot help notice that this Malaysia Plan does not accurately report equity ownership statistics. The bumiputera share in 2008 stood at 21.9 percent.

However, an explanatory note in all prior plans is now missing: an acknowledgment that government ownership is omitted from these statistics.

I'm sure this is not an insidious attempt to hide information, but it reinforces anxieties that development planning is not grounded in an honest attempt to get to grips with the state we're in.

Going for quick results

The plan does recognise the dire need to reinvigorate the education system, and aims to do things like make teaching more attractive and reward school administrators based on student performance.

Alas, we succumb again to groping for quick results without grasping the implications.

The idea is to market the profession as prestigious and financially rewarding, but not really do anything about the prestige and salary. The plan hypes up the relatively high entry-level pay of teachers, but I suppose it won't be promoting the slow crawl of increments and low exit-level pay.

I'm not sure if any occupation that requires attendance at Biro Tata Negara camps, as teachers have to, can be considered prestigious.

The reward scheme for head teachers and principals seems like a novelty with potential. But this scheme wants to cultivate innovative and critical-minded youth while at the same time rewarding school administrators predominantly for their school's national exam scores.

If we can overlook this contradiction, we are in trouble. Malaysia needs to be extra careful in adopting results-based remuneration, given the depth of our addiction to national exams. There is no trace of such concern in the Tenth Malaysia Plan.

And I don't expect there to be, because it's a plan that touches all sectors and subjects but ends up not grasping any.

Which is why we should stop writing them.

It's also unwise and unproductive to force all sectors to run on the same five year planning and review schedule. Instead of five-year pseudo-plans, we need concrete, long-term programs grounded in honest and in-depth analysis.

Instead of leaving researchers to scrounge for dwindling crumbs of data dropped in the plans, we should make the abundance of data collected through taxpayer funds publicly accessible.

Instead of a mid-term review of the Tenth Malaysia Plan in two years, we will do much better with a retirement speech for five-year Planning.

LEE HWOK AUN is lecturer in development studies at Universiti Malaya.

December 2009

December 2009

Every time we have reflected on this past year, our reaction has been one of surprise, and then dismay. Where did it go? What were our milestones (not that it is always necessary to have tangible ones to speak of)? 2008 had plenty of milestones. While 2009 was one big blur of life as it is, it was definitely a full and fulfilling one.

Some highlights of this past year were...
- Kieran turned one on May 1st, which also meant surviving, and thoroughly enjoying, our first year of parenthood. He is now an almost 20-month toddler who loves hearing the sound of his own voice and uses every opportunity to showcase that. He loves books, music and 'boy' toys (trucks, trains, cars, etc). He fixates on words until he perfects them; at the moment, one of his favourites is "umbella", which is his code for Mandela. It's nice to see him already taking on role models. He can be easily described as assertive and independent. Perhaps the 'terrible twos' are already upon us; if it only gets worse, don't tell us!

- We made a couple of vacation trips this past year. Together with Hwok-Aun's mom, we went to Toronto and Montreal (with a brief stop in Ottawa) in April. Travelling with a little toddler (not yet one then) meant we had to reserve the nightlife for another time/decade. In late summer, we sampled the various coasts in the northeast of America. We beat our personal record of camping 8 nights, this time with a toddler, in Acadia National Park (Maine), Prince Edward Island National Park (PEI), and Fundy National Park (New Brunswick). It was lots of fun in spite of the ferocious mosquitoes that buzzed and bit us unmercifully in a few places. We were awed by the beautiful landscapes and marvelled at the exquisite work of the Creator God. If you're wondering, we won't recommend camping with an active 1.5 year old toddler unless you're up for A LOT of adventure.

- We reconnected with some dear friends from Australia, Canada and Malaysia. In Toronto and Ottawa, we reunited with some of Hwok-Aun's friends from college/university. In New York City, we met up with Jacqui's former housemates in Malaysia and an old friend from Australia. Back in Amherst, we had the pleasure of hosting two friends from Australia.

- Jacqui continues work as a speech language pathologist with a small private agency. Since the summer, she has been working 4 days a week and enjoys spending longer weekends at home with Kieran.

- Hwok-Aun continues to burn the midnight oil to complete his dissertation. The light is appearing a little brighter at the end of a long, long tunnel. He is now fueled to deliver this long awaited baby (the final draft) by May 2010 in time for...

- Another baby, that will have been gestating for for less time than Hwok-Aun's dissertation (~40 weeks as opposed to almost 6 years). We will welcome Kieran's new sibling in May next year. We foresee a really busy summer tending to an infant and toddler while preparing to defend Hwok-Aun's dissertation and take care of transitional matters (packing, shipping, giving, sharing, selling, etc). We are gritting our teeth and bracing ourselves for the challenges ahead!

We're planning to return to Malaysia in August 2010, which will mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. We covet your thoughts and prayers for all the challenges that lie ahead.

We wish you a joyous Christmas and stellar New Year.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light...In [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

~ Isaiah 9:2; John 1:3-5

Immanuel (God with us)!

Much love and fondness,

Hwok-Aun, Jacqui, Kieran and "Bibi"

Syed Hamid Albar vs. Hindraf on Indian marginalization

Indian marginalisation clear-and-present

H Lee | Oct 29, 08 12:06pm

So Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar – in a decision, as he puts it, of self-sacrifice for the sake of protecting society – has banned Hindraf.

Similar home ministerial valour must have been present when he chose to detain Raja Petra, Teresa Kok, Tan Hoon Cheng and hundreds of others under the ISA.

Many Malaysians have expressed their outrage at the latest cruel and callous act of repression against a civil group which has highlighted the continuing plight of marginalised Malaysian Indians.

I would like to examine an aspect: the assertion that Malaysian Indians are not marginalised and are actually doing better than Bumiputera Malaysians, and thus, they have no grounds to feel aggrieved, let alone angry. This is a cynical and specious claim.

We should first take note of the often ignored fact that the Malaysian Indian community is diverse, stratified and complex. Like any other.

Some are rich, some are part of the middle class, some are poor; some are posited in the mainstream, some are at the margins – and some are beyond the margins, trapped in urban squalor. The imperative question is whether the concerns of the Indian poor are being addressed by our government's attitudes and policies.

But the ruling regime would rather treat groups as monolithic blobs, then go about brandishing statistics to preempt debate - and stamp the lowly back into their place.

And so, in dismissing Hindraf's cause, Syed Hamid invoked the reality of high proportions of Indians among registered legal professionals (21.4 percent) and among doctors (18.4 percent), and the ratio of Indian to Bumiputera household incomes, of… 1.20. That's right, according to 2007 household income survey data, Indian households on average have 20 percent more income than Bumiputera households.

Is there something wrong with these figures? Why has the message of Hindraf resonated when official data paint opposing images of social mobility and nice averages?

There is no need to question the numbers, but every need to handle them responsibly, within context and in recognition of their limited scope. These bits of information provide no basis to conclude that all of the community is doing well and should therefore shut up and get on with their happy lives.

In fact, we do have evidence that Malaysians Indians are struggling as much as others to earn a decent living.

Averaging numbers

Of course there are many Indian lawyers and doctors – who’s not cognisant of that? But there are far more Indian labourers, factory workers, and others at the low reaches of the labour market.

It is highly probable that the household income of the Indian community is propped up by the high earnings of professionals and managers.

Meagre family incomes of displaced agricultural workers and urban elementary workers get shrouded in the process of averaging the incomes of all Indian families.

Consider some changes that have taken place in the past decade or so.

In 1995, 17.7 percent of employed Indians worked as agricultural labor, while 8.7 percent were in professional and technical occupations.

By 2005, only 4.9 percent of employed Indians were agricultural workers, but 20.1 percent worked as professionals and technicians.

Albeit rather cursorily, we gain some impression here of developments at two ends of the socio-economic hierarchy: the continuous urbanisation of a low-skilled former plantation workforce; a steadily growing presence in highly qualified jobs providing middle class living standards.

In what sort of jobs are most Indians working? Within communities, Indians registered the highest proportion of persons classified as production workers.

In 2005, 45.8 percent of employed Indians fell in this category, compared to 33.8 percent Chinese and 34.1 percent Bumiputera.

Due to the unfree state of information in this land, the most we can do with officially disclosed statistics is make deductions and inferences such as these.

We are still left with a knowledge gap.

However, a study by Branko Milanovic, a World Bank researcher and renowned scholar of global inequality, helps fill the void¹.

He analysed Malaysia's household income data of 1997. This is from the national survey that the Statistics Department conducts twice in five years, from which all the inequality measurements we know are calculated.

One difference with the official accounts is that Milanovic focussed on individual earnings (wages, salaries and bonuses) instead of household income (the sum of household members' earnings, property income and remittances). His findings are therefore more reflective of the earnings capacity of Malaysians in the labour market.

The housewife factor

The study analyses inequality more generally, but in the process finds something very striking: in 1997, the ratio of Indian to Bumiputera individual earnings was 0.98.

The official figure for Indian: Bumiputera household income was 1.41. In other words, the average earnings of individual Indians was basically the same as the average earnings of individual Bumiputera, even though average household incomes were quite unequal.

How might this be possible?

In terms of the gap between individual earnings inequality and household income inequality, we could postulate that combined earnings of Indians, especially in households with both spouses in professional jobs, raised their income to levels significantly higher than Bumiputera households.

This is a guess, and that's as far as we can go with available data.

What's not a guess is this objective report that average individual earnings of Indians and Bumiputeras were equal in 1997.

In 2007, with an Indian-to-Bumiputera household income ratio of 1.20, what might the inter-group earnings ratio look like? We don't know, but it is more than likely that the ratio is less than 1.20.

It is possible that earnings are on average close to equal, or that Indian earnings are less than Bumiputera earnings.

Consider recent data on the distribution of employed persons by occupation.

In 2005, with 45.8 percent of the total employed Indians engaged as production workers and 4.9 percent as agricultural workers, it is plausible that average individual earnings are on par with the average among employed Bumiputera, of whom 34.1 percent are production workers and 15.2 percent are agricultural workers.

These two low-paying occupational groups account for about 50 percent of employed persons of both race groups.

Again, we won't have a clear picture unless we have access to data and can engage in constructive discussion.

Hindraf has grounds

We have a clear enough picture, however, to affirm the plight of marginalised Indian households, whose tough circumstances in labour markets and poor living conditions are a shameful reality that cannot be garbed in middle-class statistics.

Hindraf has grounds for grievance – yes, even in the official data, if only we would take a more balanced and critical look.

And we could better understand this whole inequality thing, and devise fairer and more effective policies, if the ruling regime would release more information to our - um - knowledge society.

Resistance towards extending the same policies to members of the Indian community as currently provided to Bumiputera is partly predicated on official household income statistics.

But they give us an oversimplified and selective glimpse to a complex of problems.

It is high time to reevaluate the way we assess income and earnings and to aim assistance at the people who need or merit it most.

¹ Branko Milanovic (2006) "Inequality and Determinants of Earnings in Malaysia, 1984-97", in the Asian Economic Journal, 20(2).

Thoughts on the apex university thing

I initially wrote these to online newspapers, but Sept 16 obliterated all interest on this issue. ah well, for whatever it's worth...

Apex university, non-apex universities: going up, or down?

Universiti Sains Malaysia has won apex university status, gifting itself the privilege of participating in this "accelerated program for excellence". This result proves that USM's prowess in presenting an impressive transformation plan. But whether USM will succeed in attaining international distinction on par with the world's leading universities will hinge on its ability to overcome discrepancies between the objective and the means to get there. There are at least five areas in which the goal of "transformation" is unsuited, even at odds, with the programme being implemented.

First, the process of building universities of excellence takes a long time and requires massive effort, but the selection of our apex university was brief and highly dependent on this document called a transformation plan.

Our Minister of Higher Education, Khaled Nordin, himself admitted as much. He explained that USM was selected because it is ready to follow a long journey towards world class status. However, he remains captivated by the BN attitude of supreme impatience and belief that "excellence" can be dictated from Putrajaya.

If universities must take the long road, why follow the short road in determining which one is most capable of excellence? The selection process took just one year. At the early stage, universities were assessed on "quantitative" grounds regarding their readiness to engage in transformation. Obviously, though, that the real competition took place at the next stage, when the transformation plans were evaluated. Malaysia of late has become very clever at producing plans of dazzling colour and sound, but less vigorous to face up to deep-seated problems. The apex university process fits this pattern.

Second, the BN government bestows privilege first, presses for performance next. Following up on the issue above, the transformation that is emphasized involves thorough and inconvenient change. In view of this, it is curious that the selection process did not at all require contestants to prove their ability and potential in the areas that need to be pursued.

The key features of an apex university include having the best leaders, best faculty and best students. Such an academic community, according to plan, produces the best management, best research and best workers.

If that is the case, it would have been much better to give universities 3-5 years to compete according to these criteria. The institutes could be appraised on their performance in augmenting research and publication, as well as innovative capacity in nurturing mature graduates and designing excellent research and study programmes.

Nope. The Abdullah Badawi administration wanted an apex university fixed within a year and this university leaping to be among the top 100 universities in the world by 2010 (according to the 2007-10 Higher Education Plan). In other words, the plan demands the trophy minus the toil, even though in the real world we must toil before the getting the trophy. This method also conforms to the pattern of BN projects.

Third, this new approach prioritized in the apex university has elements that can truly spur excellence, but strangely these are denied to non-apex universities. The plan to establish apex universities stresses autonomy of management from government interference, student selection on the principle of meritocracy balanced against considerations that the student body be representative of plural society, and selection of vice-chancellor by an independent body following transparent and trustworthy procedures. If these measures are conducive for excellence, why not introduce them to all universities? Why must non-apex universities be caged in the old ways that have stunted their development?

A reform agenda that is all too important for excellence is restricted to the apex university, as though the government does not want other universities to be excellent. If the intention is for the apex university to be an example – well, how are the rest supposed to follow USM when it will have so much privileged access and will operate according to vastly different rules?

As usual, the BN government craves a learning culture and creative energies without upholding freedom of thought and encouraging habits of critical enquiry in the higher education institutions. BN remains too addicted to power to make a principled effort to expand pillars of excellence to all Malaysian society. Can USM on its own succeed without reforms at every stage of our education system and in all other higher education institutions?

I am not confident. It should be remembered here that one reason USM was accorded apex status is the commitment in its transformation plan to involve other universities in its programmes. If others will be left behind, as scheduled, will they be in a position to collaborate with USM as it accelerates toward transformation?

Fourth, the Ministry of Higher Education has not elucidated the obvious discrepancy between the development path of world renowned universities and our plan for transforming local universities. I, surely along with many Malaysians, want our higher education institutions to attain real and firm success. But we also observe that the rise of most top universities occurred less from government command, more out of the effort and initiative of the institutes themselves. Government can provide impetus and incentives, but recognition is gained through the academic community's pursuit of the highest excellence, not because status was bestowed from on high.

Fifth, this apex university programme has been set up, as far as made known to us, with privileges and mandates installed, but without an effective regulatory mechanism. Status has clearly been rewarded (the easiest part), but no one has clarified how it will be maintained, and most importantly, whether it can be revoked (the hardest but necessary part). The perks of selection are huge – different organizational structure, special access to funds, etc. But unless the cost of failure is high, we could end up with another project that never lives up to its potential, or worse, a quagmire of abused public money.

This a fatal missing link in many BN development programmes: glistening at the start, faltering or absent at the finish. There may be no better mechanism to ensure USM will stay on track than the prospect of revoked privilege. But this runs against the grain of the way things are done in this country.

So USM wins, and may move up. The rest lose, and without comprehensive reforms, will continue moving down.

Universiti Apeks, universiti bukan apeks: Naik taraf, turun taraf?

Universiti Sains Malaysia telah memenangi status universiti apeks, menghadiahkannya keistimewaan menyertai "program pemacuan untuk kecemerlangan". Keputusan ini membuktikan kehebatan USM membentangkan pelan transformasi yang mempesonakan. Sama ada USM akan berjaya mencapai taraf antarabangsa setanding dengan IPT yang unggul di dunia bergantung kepada kebolehannya mengatasi percanggahan-percanggahan antara matlamat ini dan kaedah yang sedang diceburi oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi. Terdapat sekurang-kurangnya empat aspek di mana objektif "transformasi" IPT tidak sesuai, malah bertentangan, dengan program yang sedang dilaksanakan.

Pertama, proses mendirikan universiti cemerlang mengambil masa yang lama dan memerlukan usaha yang meluas, manakala universiti apeks dipilih dalam masa yang singkat dan sangat bergantung kepada suatu dokumen bergelar pelan transformasi.

Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi, Khaled Nordin, sendiri mengakui demikian. Beliau menjelaskan bahawa USM telah dipilih kerana ia bersedia mengharungi jalan yang panjang ke arah status dunia [Mkini tv interview]. Namun, beliau masih tertakluk oleh sikap kerajaan Barisan Nasional yang serba kurang sabar dan yang percaya "kecemerlangan" boleh diperintah dari Putrajaya.

Kalau IPT perlu berjalan panjang, mengapa ikut jalan pendek dalam mengenalpasti yang mana paling mampu mencapai kecemerlangan? Pemilihan universiti apeks mengambil masa hanya setahun. Pada peringkat awal IPT-IPT telah dinilai secara "kuantitatif" tentang kesediaan menjalankan "transformasi". Nyata sekali bahawa persaingan yang sebenar berlaku di peringkat seterusnya, di mana pelan-pelan transformasi ditaksirkan. Kebelakangan ini Malaysia sangat pandai mengeluarkan pelan yang berwarna dan berbunyi menarik, tapi kurang berdaya berhadapan dengan masalah-masalah yang mendalam. Proses universiti apeks sepadan dengan corak ini.

Kedua, kerajaan BN hadiahkan keistimewaan dahulu, tekankan prestasi kemudian. Berkaitan dengan perkara di atas, transformasi yang dititikberatkan melibatkan perubahan yang menyeluruh dan yang akan menyusahkan. Memandangkan ini, pelik sekali bahawa proses pemilihan universiti apeks langsung tidak memerlukan peserta-peserta membuktikan kebolehan dan kemampuan mereka dalam perkara-perkara yang perlu diceburi.

Ciri-ciri utama universiti apeks termasuk mengandungi pemimpin terbaik, fakulti terbaik, dan penuntut terbaik. Komuniti akademik sebegini dirancangkan akan menghasilkan pengurusan yang terbaik, penyelidikan yang terbaik, dan pekerja yang terbaik.

Kalau begitu, jauh lebih baik memberi IPT-IPT 3-5 tahun untuk bersaing mengikut kriteria tersebut. IPT boleh dinilai atas prestasi meningkatkan penyelidikan dan penerbitan, serta daya inovasi dalam membuahkan graduan yang matang dan merangkakan program penyelidikan dan pengajian yang cemerlang.

Tidak. Pentadbiran Abdullah Badawi mahukan universiti apeks ditetapkan dalam setahun dan universiti ini melonjak menjadi antara 100 universiti terbaik di dunia menjelang 2010. Dalam kata lain, pelan ini mahukan pingat tanpa peluh, walaupun di dunia sebenar kita mesti berpeluh sebelum berpingat. Kaedah ini juga sepadan dengan corak projek-projek Barisan Nasional.

Ketiga, pendekatan baru yang diutamakan di universiti apeks memang menggalakkan kecemerlangan, tetapi peliknya dinafikan kepada universiti-universiti bukan apeks. Pelan mendirikan universiti apeks menekankan autonomi pengurusan daripada campurtangan kerajaan, pemilihan penuntut atas prinsip meritokrasi dengan pertimbangan ia mencerminkan masyarakat majmuk negara kita, serta pemilihan naib canselor oleh badan profesional mengikut prosedur yang telus dan amanah. Sekiranya langkah-langkah ini adalah baik untuk kecemerlangan di mana-mana universiti, mengapakah ini tidak dikemukakan kepada semua universiti? Mengapakah universiti-universiti tidak bukan apeks masih dikurungkan oleh kaedah-kaedah lama yang menjejaskan pembangunan?

Agenda reformasi yang serba penting bagi kecemerlangan dihadkan kepada universiti apeks, seolah-olah kerajaan tidak menginginkan universiti bukan apeks menjadi cemerlang.

Seperti biasa, kerajaan BN inginkan budaya belajar dan daya kreatif tanpa menegakkan kebebasan berfikir dan menggalakkan tabiat soal-menyoal di kalangan komuniti IPT. BN tetap ketagih kuasa dan tidak berprinsip menyebarkan tunjang-tunjang kecemerlangan ini kepada seluruh masyarakat Malaysia. Mampukah USM bersendirian berjaya tanpa reformasi di segala peringkat system pendidikan dan di semua IPT?

Saya kurang yakin. Perlu diingatkan bahawa salah satu sebab USM diberi status apeks adalah komitmen di dalam pelan transformasinya supaya melibatkan IPT-IPT yang lain di dalam program-programnya. Kalau IPT lain ketinggalan universiti apeks, seperti yang dijadualkan, mampukah mereka berganding bahu dengan USM yang memacu ke arah "transformasi"?

Keempat, Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi masih belum menerangkan percanggahan yang jelas antara jalan pembangunan universiti-universiti terkemuka di dunia dan pelan transformasi yang diterajui. Saya, pasti bersama ramai rakyat Malaysia, memang inginkan IPT kita berjaya secara benar dan teguh. Tetapi kita juga memerhatikan bahawa pembangunan kebanyakan universiti puncak bukan hasil perintah kerajaan, tetapi hasil usaha dan inisiatif IPT sendiri. Kerajaan boleh memberi dorongan dan insentif, tetapi kemasyhuran dicapai kerana komuniti akademik memburu kecemerlangan tinggi, bukan kerana taraf tinggi dihadiahkan dari kuasa atas.

USM menang, bermungkinan menaik. Yang lain kalah, dan tanpa reformasi menyeluruh, akan semakin menurun.

Dear friends,

The measure of one year seems to be stretching with every newsletter! Well, we roughly made the annual mark, but not quite the Christmas/year-end deadline. Good thing Chinese New Year celebrations last fifteen days; this does get out in time to wish you a happy year of the rat! Here are some eventful excuses.

The day after arriving in the US after our South Africa trip, we were informed that we had to move into a two-bedroom apartment within the same university housing area…and this moving out of the old and moving into the new had to happen within 3 days! Having barely recovered from travel fatigue, the shock of the bitter New England winter weather, and the start of a new academic semester, this came as a big surprise to us. It’s just 300m from our previous digs, but we were reminded again of the amount of stuff one can accumulate in a small place in a short time. Our trappings are lean again. We thank God for this blessing.

Three days before moving, we returned from astounding Cape Town, South Africa, where we started writing this letter. Probably an apt place to start, looking back on 2007. It’s been an amazing experience for both of us. Hwok-Aun made his way to South Africa in October 2007, starting in Johannesburg for a dissertation field work visit. Jacqui joined him (with purely hedonistic intent) just before Christmas 2007. Hwok-Aun’s mum joined us shortly after and we spent 4 weeks traveling 5,600km through parts of Namibia, and the Western and Northern Capes of South Africa. Our experiences will be difficult to capture in just a few paragraphs, so here is a sampling (more on facebook).

Christmas lunch with the Elstons

Kolmanskop (aka Ghost Town), former diamond mining town

Cape of Good Hope, the most south-WESTERN point of Africa

Dead Vlei, site of spectacular sand dunes

Quiver tree (aka kokerboem), Augrabies National Park

The beauty and charm of the region are unlike any other and we look forward to returning again some day.

Noteworthies

• Hwok-Aun defended his prospectus in May and plunged into full time dissertation work
• Spring break with Hwok-Aun’s youngest brother in Toronto, Canada; Niagara Falls in the winter
  
• Said goodbye to many dear friends who have graduated and/or moved overseas or to another state. We’ve been graduate students long enough to have to face this sad inevitability, but it’s heartening to know that great people are touching lives in various corners of the world.
• Camping trip in the White Mountains in May
• Hwok-Aun spent most of his summer months (end May to October) in Malaysia unknotting red tape, but mostly doing research and frequenting kopitiams
• Appreciating how difficult it must be for many couples/families who have to live apart after living in different continents for 4 months while Hwok-Aun conducted his field research
• Opportunities to reconnect with friends in Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, South Africa and other parts of the world, including our 4^th ever visitor from Malaysia since coming here

Looking Ahead

2008 promises many exciting challenges and major life changes. Jacqui completes her final semester at UMass towards her graduation with MA in Speech Language Pathology at the end of May; Hwok-Aun is back in the solitary groove of dissertation writing, trying, in between asking why am I doing this?, to process a mound of data, notes and interview transcripts from the past eight months.

And, best for last, Jacqui will be carrying more than a scroll as a graduation present. Exotic travels to South America will have to be shelved for the moment as we prepare for the arrival of our first child at the beginning of May. Hence the two bedrooms, and that’s a wrap.

Constitution Hill, Wits end

First and foremost, Joyous Christmas and Happy New Year.
I'm - we're - celebrating in Cape Town. Betty's Bay, to be precise, at a friend's family's cottage by the coast. Jacqui arrives in the Cape today.

Very briefly, here are some snapshots from an inspiring visit to Constitution Hill, two days before I left Jo'burg. Constitution Hill is the former site of a prison notorious for brutal treatment of political prisoners. It has been transformed into a memorial site and seat of the highest court in South Africa, the Constitutional Court. Various symbolisms are magnificent: the bricks from some of the prison buildings were carefully removed and reused on the walls of the court. As my guide said, with beaming pride, a place where justice was denied has become a place where justice is safeguarded. The walls of the court's lobby are glass, representing transparency.



Constitutional Court in SA's 11 official languages, in rainbow colours.




















The fundamental liberties enshrined in the Constitution, carved onto the towering doors to the Court building.


















The Court lobby. Just outside is a sidewalk that connects directly to a road. Constitution Hill is close to downtown, but is intentionally an open space with open gates, or no gates from some directions, and no high walls.












Court Chambers. The doors are open; anyone can enter without an appointment. And there are glass panels with a view of the streets outside. This is the apex court!












The black prisoner section... How tragic and ironic that sky, the embodiment of freedom, is caged in with barbed cables. Here's a row of solitary confinement cells.
























Sentry guardhouse for black wardens, in the black section. Discrimination pervaded everything, absolultely. They would climb up via a ladder, which white superintendents would then remove. Whoever was on nightwatch would have to stay up there the whole night, even through freezing winters.














Images from that visit are seared in memory. While Malaysia has its 'Palace of Justice' with grandiose design and closed doors, South Africa's Constitutional Court is humble, steeped in meaning, not megalomania.


Bidding farewell to the University of the Witwatersrand, a great place to be for two months. Finally, I took some pictures:



The Great Hall




















Mall in front of the Great Hall. The nucleus of campus.

Soweto and other happenings

Of course I could not miss the South Western Townships (Soweto). It's where over a million people live, where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu used to live, where teenage students were massacred or interned in 1976. One of the seats of the anti-apartheid liberation movement. I made two trips to Soweto. First, finding out from a leaflet that there's a jazz listening tradition. On the last Sunday of the month, jazz enthusiasts gather at a community hall or someone back yard with their music - formerly LPs, now CDs, I presume - and play it. How cool is that! Not a live band, but surely friendly people and an 'open house for all' atmosphere. I asked around for accompaniment - Soweto is a labyrinth of narrow lanes - til finally Molefe, a research assistant at the centre I've been based, agreed.

We were held up a few hours due to his car overheating, but we went ahead after changing our rendezvous point. Interestingly, I got a sense of the layering of the greater Johannesburg area. We started out in a leafy suburb, invariably with tall and high-security walls, mostly white but increasingly mixed, then passed by houses with low fences. Mostly coloured (blend of black and white) area, I was told. A ha. Nearing Soweto, of course the built up terrain changed, in a predominantly African area - though it must be said that class lines are distinct: middle class and rich Sowetans there are.

We arrived at Mapedi Hall about 6pm, close to dusk. To my dismay, no one was playing jazz. A choir was singing, and it was donation upon entry to sit down and enjoy. I was not in the groove for that, great as African gospel music is. So we hung around in the yard.

Now the sighting of a oriental face is a rarity in these parts, so greeting and conversation is easy to come by. As has happened many times, I was asked if I know Bruce Lee and those captivating moves. It's either Bruce or Jet. As usual, I said he's my uncle. I doubt that confers any protection, but if it doesn't strike fear, at least it breaks ice. Well on this night I was blessed to speak with two affable guys from a choir for half an hour. They shared their choral commitment - rehearsal twice a week, performing three 1-hour gigs on Sundays. They can net 4000 Rand, which is spread around. Most hold full-time jobs, but some depend on their meagre earnings for income. So it's tough, but they want to break into bigger audiences, city stages. Too bad they were out of CDs, but look out for The Chosen, maybe in concert near you some day.

Mapedi Hall, Meadowlands, Soweto.

Director and member of The Chosen

My second trip to Soweto was more touristy. I went on a day tour that covers the standard package. Driving towards the first stop point, we passed the landmark, central Orlando Power Station, surely the most decorated cooling tower in the world.


We stop for a 15 minute walking tour in a fairly new informal settlement (started around 1994), guided by a young, eloquent chap. Here is a glimpse of the destitution that affects millions of South Africans: no electricity, no piped water into homes (only communal taps), mostly shack dwellings, though of course many make the best by doing gardening, artwork, running micro businesses.

Sowetans do have a creative flair; murals and confetti around every corner. Here's a montage of Steve Biko.

The Hector Pieterson Museum is a must see, must pause. Hector is believed to be the first schoolkid gunned down to death at the 1976 massacre. They were protesting the imposition of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. They had been taught in their mother tongue. The tour also stopped at the Regina Mundi church, which was a refuge for many youth against police aggression. And Nelson Mandela's house, where he lived for 14 years before his treason trial and incarceration on Robben Island.

Hector Pieterson Museum

Snapshot from the car showing the difference across the road between poor and middle-class houses. My guide pointed out, just look at the roofs.

A week ago, I had the privilege of attending a Christmas party hosted by the Chief Justice, Pius Langa, organized by an NGO caring for disabled children and adults. It was a rain-soaked, fun-filled day. The CJ is a humble, fatherly, upright man. Hm, could the same be said of Malaysia's CJs? No, I won't go into that now. A particularly memorable moment happened as the guests were leaving and I was helping an elderly lady negotiate the stairs outside the house. It was raining generously, and I offered to get an umbrella. No, she insisted, these are God's blessings. Why, indeed, block it?