Support for Guan Eng’s “Middle Malaysia” Concept from Zaid Ibrahim
January 21, 2010
Zaid Ibrahim lends his support to Guan Eng’s “Middle Malaysia” Concept
by Terence Netto
Pakatan Rakyat coordinator Zaid Ibrahim said the surest way to get the concept of ‘Middle Malaysia’ airborne was to give it the launch pad of a core curriculum in the national education system.
“Essentially, our education system lacks a core curriculum,” said Zaid, in remarks to Malaysiakini on the concept articulated by DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng at the party’s convention in Ipoh last weekend.
Since floating this idea, Guan Eng (left) has come in for criticism from friends and foes alike, the mildest of them claiming that the idea is a facile imitation of former US President Richard Nixon’s ‘Middle America’.
In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Nixon claimed ‘Middle America’ was the repository of all that was salt and sane about the American Dream, and therefore was at odds with the elitist liberal hubs on the west and east coasts of the country.
In the growing debate on Guan Eng’s concept, Zaid Ibrahim has weighed in support of the Penang Chief Minister.
Back to the drawing board
Zaid said he agreed with Guan Eng that nation-building in Malaysia has to be done all over again. He said this was because the divide and rule policies of the UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional had fragmented the Malaysian people into mental cantons and ghettoes.
“Citizenship is all about shared values but UMNO’s policies are all about ethnic segregation and racial ghettoes,” said Zaid.
He said the existence of a core curriculum would entail a corpus of knowledge, with embedded values, drawn from the great civilisations.
“In lacking this core curriculum, the education system cannot be expected to instill a common concept of citizenship, with corresponding rights and obligations,” he asserted.
“I know there will be disputes about the composition of this corpus, with supremacists espousing the superior worth of their pet civilisations, but if the corpus is broad, its breadth would be insurance against exclusivist and supremacist thinking,” argued Zaid (right).
Zaid credited Guan Eng with sprouting an idea whose tendrils are likely to penetrate all sectors of national life
A critical sector would be education. Zaid emphasised that in urging the notion of a core curriculum he was not promoting a perception of the educated as unified and consensual.
“No, the main idea behind the core curriculum is to promote the possibility that we could disagree agreeably. That’s the basis of civil and rational debate,” said Zaid.
“Middle Malaysia”? What the heck is that?? and “Middle America”?
Are you referring to Malaysians who live in the foothills of the Central Range. Malaysia has hardly any middle. Today it is less to do with Middle America but more with Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Movement. They are nothing like Frank’s caffe latte supporters of PR and PKR. They see themselves as patriots who seek to protect the values espoused by the country’s Founding Fathers some two hundred years earlier, and embedded in the country’s present day constitution. On the other hand Frank’s caffe latte lovers are sugar high with values they feel should be in our constitution.
Between America’s tea party patriots and Frank’s caffe latte supporters of PR and PKR, my bet is the former will continue to drink their tea and the latter will over time revert to teh tarek.
Mr Bean - January 21, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Hahaha.. Bean, early rise today? Have an Irish coffee from ocho and a Ipoh white coffee on me. The cafe latte was a veiled ‘insult’ to me in particular and no one else. Poor guy got that wrong. Yep, i prefer teh tarik without all that sugar, but unable to get the ‘bueh’ without the condensed milk.
Forget the constituition for the time being – more nefarious things are happening in the name of unconstituition.
Menyalak-er - January 21, 2010 at 8:07 pm
bean ,
middle malaysia is where you will find malaysians – malays , chinese , sarawakians and sabahans , and indians and all the aliens with malaysian identity cards or citizenships . middle malaysia is where they will or have already melted as malaysians.
umno and its goons will find themselves on the extreme right or left .
i would think people like din merican , raja petra kamaruddin , art harun , azmi shahrom, menyalaker , cerdik pandai , sermonfortheday, salimah hassan , salimah mahmud , frank , jeffery gascon , catherine calolot , jim whimpey , salah jangka and many many more are middle malaysians.
dr mahathir would of course be in the extreme right . i don’t have an example for the extreme left . maybe you have .
__________
cerdik pandai, we are all at the center of the political spectrum. No right and left, just center.–Din Merican
cerdik pandai - January 21, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Cerdik,
How could you label Din Merican as ‘middle’?? There is nothing ‘middle’ about our blog host. He reminds me of the cigarette advertisement of the 70s “Du Maurier, the one that stands above all others”.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L8BTRutV0uk/ST5gtm_1LEI/AAAAAAAAJew/p5WsIejP5Kc/s1600-h/du+Maurier+Cigarette+Ad+1987.jpg
Mr Bean - January 22, 2010 at 1:40 am
At least the gals think so. Don’t get jealous, drkam. It is bad for your teeth.
Mr Bean - January 22, 2010 at 1:43 am
” Hee Haw” ! Does it sound better coming from the horse’s mouth ?
You tell em, Dato ZI. You the man !
Also, give LGE some credit for suggesting a national reconciliation initiative.
ocho-onda - January 22, 2010 at 6:03 am
bean – ” Du Maurier, the one that stands above all others “.
bean you must be really old . my late mom used to like that advert .
cerdik pandai - January 22, 2010 at 7:55 am