Bersih 2.0 - The Beautiful Faces

Let's forget about the police for the time being, and focus on the people; 50,000 of them at Bersih 2.0. Only some samples, tak larat nk sieve through the hundreds of pictures. This may be updated from time to time, so far from the archives taken by the Hariri Photographers - ARH/MFH/MGH.

These two ladies were standing on the pavement with
the Malaysian flag, and many had a field day taking their picture
including yours truly. Good on you ladies. Somewhere near petaling Street

Chatting during a lull moment at Dayabumi

Err you know who at Dayabumi before the first face off
at Leboh Pasar Besar.

Doing brisk business. Sapa kata business rugi that day?
Rugi kalau tutup!

And the matsallehs and minah sallehs also walk with their Malaysian
counterparts. Malaysians at Bersih are violent? You ask them.

And another matsalleh with his daughter
Pix by MFH

These chinese ladies are part of Bersih 2.0 This is
1Malaysia. Pix by MFH

Tabik to this family. Enjoying the day in KL and supporting
a noble cause. Good job. Come come belaka ;))
Pix by MFH

Solat lah kamu walau di mana berada. They
closed Masjid Jamek and would not allow us to go
and pray there. So they did their prayer on the side of this
building. Macam kenal je tempat ni. Pic by MFH

The grandlady of Bersih 2.0 at Puduraya, defying
the police and saluting those who were captured by the police.

Errr..you know who at Dayabumi. Acknowledging
his bro on the other side of the Klang River

Even in wheelchair
Pix by MGH

Happy days. Young Malaysians
Pix by MGH

BERSIHkan jalan, BERSIHkan pilihanraya
Pix MGH

Even Metro TV was there. Hmm...
Pix by MGH

NO kutuking the police this time around. Well done Malaysians.

Bersih 2.0 - The Hooligan side of Bersih?

I have no choice but to write this entry.

As an independent blogger, I would like to fiercely protect my independence. I can't be writing only good things about the oppositions and bad things about the government.

My last 3 entries had put the police in bad light, so with due apology to them, I would like to show the hooligans in the rally last Saturday.

Unfortunately it was not taken by the four lenses of Hariri. We can only cover so much, but this was taken by the AFP, so I hope it is independent enough for you.

Sorry if you were to conclude that this picture was foreign infiltrated.

I stand corrected, I guess.

I didn't realized that the public had turned hooligans and attack the police during the rally. Even if I didn't see it with my own two eyes, I would trust AFP enough to publish it here.

Shame on him for attacking the police with bottled water. For all you know, it could contain kero and that made that a molotov cocktail.

Phuyo, ganasnya mamat ni. TRying to bantai the police truck with
the bottle. The Al-Jazeera caption says " A Bersih supporter throws a
water bottle at a police water-cannon truck." [Mohd Rasfan/AFP]

But what a minute.

Look at the bottle closer. Zoom in a bit if you must. We must scrutinize it a bit more.

It looks like an empty bottle. Errr....It is an empty bottle.

Oh no, I was hoping that it has kerosene in it and then we would have caught him red handed!

Aiyah, sorry guys. Nanti I search the net lagi..huhuhu.

Apa la bro ni..badan je besar, (nak) baling botol kosong!

Bersih 2.0 - The Story Behind the Picture (Part 2)

A photographer's job is never an easy one.

One would look in awe beautifully crafted pictures, but we seldom have second thought about the conditions they were taken in in the first place. I can't recall on the number of times we were tear gassed, but I am sure the professionals have dodged live bullets in the course of discharging their duties at war zones.

My brother Fadhil, who was in the thick of the actions, was somehow pictured while on duty.

This was taken by the al-Jazeera website, take by Damir Sagolj of Reuters.

He is the guy in white, though the hero that day would be
the thousands of Malaysians braving the tyranny of police like the
guy in the picture, and those in the background.

It shows him in action. Obviously he was at the battle front, and with so many cameras covering the event, he was bound to be 'captured' by another photographer's lense. 

So glamour la kejap.

But let's look at Damir Salgojl in action, as captured by Fadhil himself.

Damir in action. Simple attire, and perhaps with only
one lense on his right side. But the face can't be seen from this shot.
Taken by Hariri Photographers - MFH.

It is taken at precisely the same moment as Damir clicked his camera. So we can see the police act in capturing the protester from two different angles.

Still Damir is obscured in the picture

Now we can see him a bit better. That's a masked Damir, no wonder
he took wonderful pictures; he is fully protected. I definitely will be
buying my mask soon as I expect more rallies to be coming our way!
Hahaha, i wish it was that easy. I have to respect the pro from Reuters/AFP!

Seriously even though this entry is about the photographers - Damir and Fadhil, I pity the guy in the picture. The police was really having a go at him, and from the four pictures, it didn't look like he was retaliating.

This brother of mine, while he is no match for Damir in term of his photography skills, matched Damir in term of enthusiasm and passion, even though at times his passionate may cross the boundary; the fine line between a photographer recording the event, and as a participant in the rally.

Anyway, his passion is so much that it pains him to see the police beating their own fellow citizens, the very public they are supposed to protect (as eloquently verbalised by the lady in the entry below).

If he has his ways, I am sure he would have saved the participants from the brutality of the police.

Here is another example.

Again this is the Hariri Photographer (MFH) in action as the policemen
were trying to apprehend the public. I think he was
trying to prevent the police from beating up this guy.

Taken by another Hariri Photographers - MGH. (Zali)

I know I would not dare to cross path with the police like he did. He is right in the middle of the actions. I still wonder how he managed not to be in black maria or the police truck, but I am sure he has his way.

He said in a response to his picture being captured by Reuters, "Hati Fadhil hancur. Kalau ikut hati memang tak sanggup dah tengok peristiwa ni berlaku depan mata. UMNO menggunakan POLIS untuk memukul budak2 melayu yang setaraf anak sedara Fadhil. Budak2 ni tak melawan langsung. Kalau hati tak kuat, memang Fadhil menangis dah...tengok muka fadhil betul2...hati tengah sebak masa nih...tak mampu buat apa2."

That's him, very passionate for the cause.

I was nowhere near that during the rally. By 2 pm I lost my steam; my legs refused to take me to where the actions were, so I sat hear Kotaraya watching the actions, which will be in another entry, which to my mind was like watching a chess game by a grand master.

That's him again, but in a more relaxing post.
Taken by another Hariri Photographers (MGH) - Zali

Police brutality did not take place, according to the government. It is the figment of imagination  of people bent of on causing trouble to the nation. I was there and I saw many incidents on unoprovoked attacked by the police. My bro Fadhil was there in the front line, and he came back with too many pictures and stories of police brutality.

Pictures don't lie.

Whatever I wrote on Bersih in this blog, it would be backed by the four lenses of Hariri Photographers. It is first hand information and not hearsay as propagated by the government machinery or the opposition sympathisers.

As far as we are concerned, we took pictures of the rally. We see with our very own eyes the behaviours of the participants and the response of the police.

We leave it to you to make your own judgment, after we have presented the case. If the participants were to create scene, we would say so. If we think the police has been excessive, we'll show it with the pictures.

I dislike Utusan with their seditious propaganda, and project only everything that is good about the government and everything that is bad about the opposition, but I also dislike people, from the other side of the fence, spreading rumours or half-truth stories about Bersih 2.0 without any backing and without being there themselves, with many of them just being armschair's writers and commentators.

There are always three sides to a story!

Bersih 2.0 - An Eyewitness' Account (Part 1)

Prologue

"From which news media are you?" the policeman shouted at my bro Fadhil.

"I am a blogger," he replied, matter-of-factly.

"So you must be the ones, spreading lies about the police," the policeman screamed. "Get out of the way and give me that camera," he shouted as he surged forward to snatch the Canon DSLR my brother was carrying.

But my bro would not let go his camera that easily. He practically fought back, ensuring that he would  hold onto his dear camera.

If the police thought my brother was an easy meat, he was sadly mistaken!

A Long Walk in the Sun

And empty hiway - no one is going,
I thought

Not unlike Bersih (1.0), this time around it was raining cats and dogs.

Unlike Bersih (1.0), it starts raining in the middle of the rally, and not at the onset of the rally.

Empty stations at 10 am

We arrived very early - around 10.30 am (Bersih 1.0 was more like 1 pm). As the train bypassed Hang Tuah station, I sensed something was not right and told my bro that we were disembarking at Puduraya (rather than our planned destination of Masjid Jame). I was pretty sure they would have closed down Masjid Jamek by then.

But there was nothing much to see at Puduraya, except that there are policemen/women everywhere, and that most roads had been cordoned off. There were perhaps more policemen than there were spectators at this stage.

This is Pudu near Petaling Street. This is at 1028 hours

There was no traffic at all. Occasionally you would see motorbike or police car. Forget about the traffic jam everybody was touting. It is heaven if you want to head to downtown.

We can sit and pose on the street. This is Leboh Pasar Besar and this is
the first battle ground an hour after this pic was taken.

So we moved from Pudu to Pasar Seni to Dataran Merdeka and to Masjid Negara, and take picture of an eerily calmed Kuala Lumpur. Many decided to take pictures sitting down in the middle of the streets of Kuala Lumpur; many tourists were walking freely and without any fear for their lives.

Dataran Merdeka -Pix by Hariri Photographers (MFH)

We were worried actually that we would not  be allowed into the city. We definitely know we should not be driving. We knew all roads leading to downtown have been sealed off. I could be the pillion rider on my bro's bike as an alternative. But then we decided to take our chances and take the LRT at Bandar Tun Razak.

To be honest, if the government were to shutdown the LRT, I was prepared to walk from Bandar Tun Razak to downtown KL! It will be a good 8 km walk, but only if we have no choice.

Nothing much here except police trucks.

But with downtown KL more like 'padang jarak padang tekukur' than a bustling cosmopolitan, we were beginning to wonder if it is going to take place at all. It didn't look that way at all. From Puduraya, to Pasar Seni to Dataran Merdeka and onto Masjid Negara to Station KTM, the crowd was sporadic at best. You see people loitering around, especially with the skull caps, but too few to be called a rally.

Did anyone mention about traffic jam? No rally
and yet no traffic jam.

The police blockade, the incessant warning and threat of ISA and Emergency Ordinance must have been effective in preventing people from attending. Actually I was not too sure about it myself. If not for my bro, may be I would have stayed at home.  I would not have much to take this time around - unlike Bersih 1.0 and Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA.

Our presence and preparation would be a waste.

But despite being told by the police at Masjid Negara to turn around and go to Central Market, we decided to cross the street and still head to Station Keretapi KTM.

Here they had taken truckloads of the train passengers. I would not term them as protesters yet as the protest has yet to take place. It was also here that the pakciks and makciks and adiks and kakaks loitering in the KTM compound chatting amongst themselves were apprehended by the police.

For nothing many groups of men and women, many in skullcaps
and long tudung were taken away in the truck. I did not see or
hear any protest or rally and yet...

For what? I have no idea. Honestly it surely looks like a police state to me. The passengers were taken in just because they were there and/or the police thought they have the right to take in anyone, just to prevent a rally from happening.

KTM Station under siege by the police

There was no chanting and no procession and they were all apprehended.

What a premature end, we thought. But that's part and parcel of life, and there is nothing much one can do about it.

There was not much actions here, so we walked back to Dayabumi.

On the bridge above the railway track, we heard chanting. "Ah, well, just now when we were there (at the train station, there was nothing," I lamented, "should we head back to KTM?"

And it got louder and louder.

We looked at each other; excitement filled up the air, and then I exclaimed, "This can't be coming from the station. It must be the central market! "

If you were to zoom in, you would see the procession that has just started from
Tun Sambathan next to Main post office. We were so excited to hear them,
and to see them. That is the pedestrian bridge from Dayabumi carpark
to the KTM Station and Dayabumi.

To me, it reminds me of the scene from Ali Baba Bujang Lapok, you hear the drum beating and people singing - you are not sure where it was coming from, and it was getting louder and louder. I was practically like Ali Baba - short of climbing tree to get better view.

It was an amazing feeling. Exactly what we have been looking for.

But then, I was practically cursing myself. I thought we could be everywhere, and yet we are no where near where the action was. While we were only 5 mins from CM - close enough in some respect, but not close enough in another sense. I really didn't want to miss a thing. And Dayabumi entrance had been cordoned off. So we decided to cross over to the Post Office. Practically running.

At last!

Out of nowhere, came a big crowd from behind the main post office onto the Dayabumi compound. They were chanting "Reformasi, reformasi" and "Hidup Hidup, Hidup Rakyat", and one could also hear the Takbir. We looked at each other and wonder how the group got to this big without attracting the attention of the police.

The crowd in the compound of Dayabumi. Did they riot and destroy anything at Dayabumi?
Pix by Hariri Photographers (MFH)

We went everywhere on foot and there was no crowd at all. KL looks like a dead city and now this!

For a good five minutes we took pictures of the crowd, people of all level of societies. We saw Malays, Chinese and Indian - a good mix definitely. The crowd keep on pouring for what seems like eternity.

I was conscious at that time on the enemy. Now where was the FRU? Were they going to be charging right from behind me? If they did, this crowd was going to be in trouble as the compound is narrow. I hope not, and they were nowhere in sight.

After the front leaders paused at the Dayabumi compound to ensure the crowd would be able to catch up with them (with Central Market on the opposite side of the Kelang River), the procession decided to continue walking. They were basically on a parallel road leading to Dataran Merdeka.

My bro told me he was joining the crowd; I declined and decided to cross the river and be on the other side of the crowd. I knew the FRU is waiting at the other end - we had been there earlier in the morning, I knew there would be stand off with the protesters, and one certainly need not be rocket scientist to know the outcome of such face off!

This lane between Dayabumi and the river is too narrow for my liking. It could lead to disaster once the crowd started running for their dear lives.

We could have stampede in our hands if we were not careful.

Waiting for the crowd from Dayabumi are these riot police with their
tear gas guns. Pix by Hariri Photographers (MGH) - Zali

As a veteran of four rallies in the last 10 years, I know that there is no two way about it.

On this end, are the rakyats facing off at Lebuh Pasar  junction near Dataran Merdeka. 
It is inevitable, but the crowd was prepared
for this eventuality. Pix by Hariri Photographers (MFH)

The face off at Leboh Pasar Besar right on the bridge was on. At one end was the rakyats, and this end the police.

Getting ready to fire. Pix by the Hariri Photographers - MGH (Zali)

And these people with the Malaysian flag are their targets.
Do you think these people have mob mentality and are bent on creating trouble
and destroying properties?
pix by Hariri Photographer (MGH) Zali

The battle right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur aptly within the vicinity of the court house and Masjid Jamek. I tried standing on the bridge's side, but I can't get good enough a height to take good picture. While I was contemplating on how to shoot my video, I heard a loud bang.

The police has fired into the crowd!

Look at the crowd composition. A big portion of them
are ladies with tudung labuh. Do they look like enemies of the nation?
Pix by Hariri Photographer (MFH)

I can see the pellets/canisters flying through the air. (Time was at 1238 hours)

My main worries then was the impact of such an object flying at certain speed if it were to hit me. It is more dangerous than the tear gas itself.

People started running for their dear lives.

Serve you right for being in an illegal rally.
Pix by Hariri Photographer (MFH)

So a part of the crowd and I ran towards Central Market to escape the gas cloud, while letting my camera running. My part of the area are quite spacious, so we have no problem escaping. I was shooting video mode this time around. I stopped at various points to properly shoot the camera.

I thought I was not in danger. I can see the tear gas cloud, and it was reasonably far from me. So many times I stop to take pictures.

I could see some people jumping onto the pavement of the river to escape. It was getting a bit too dangerous for my liking, hence I did not try to squeeze myself with the crowd at the narrow lane of Dayabumi.

But even as a chemical engineer with some knowledge on diffusion and convection, I underestimated the speed of dispersion of the cloud.

In no time, I was overwhelmed by the gas myself.

But fortunately I came fully prepared - a big bottle of mineral water and salt. In fact this time around, I distributed around my packet of salt to those affacted, and an Indian guy came over to satisfy his thirst with my mineral water.

It feels good to be able to do this very small thing.

The canister - Pix taken by Hariri Photographers (MFH)

The crowds regrouped on the other side of Dayabumi near Main post office and Jalan Tun Sambathan - where they had originally came from. It was here another bro called me and told me he was on the Dayabumi side of the river (while I was on the CM side. So now we have the four brothers with four lenses covering the protest.

With our pictures combined, I was able to write this entry with relevant pictures as we saw them. This is not hearsay, this entry is not about speculation.

More chanting, this time smaller as the group and this time the police is ready.

Pix by MFH

They had been ready at Jalan Tun Cheng Lok right in front of Central Market.

By this time, I was just an observer. I was behind the firing line at Central Market. I decided that I had enough of running and walking. More canisters were fired, one into the JKalang River and another was thrown by someone into the river!

So two canisters were wasted.

I guess by this time the crowd had been well dispersed. The second face off was practically muted. I think most of the crowd was just spectators at this point.

It was near 1 pm and the actions were limited. This was not fun at all.

We basically loitered around near the Pasar Seni station, and were getting restless.

We need to see the rally.

o to be continued
o All pix by ARH unless otherwise stated - MFH (Mohd Fadhil Hariri), and MGH - Zali
o All pix are original pictures shot by the Hariri Photographers and not downloaded from internet

Bersih 2.0 - The Story Behind the Picture - Part I

I am still yet to complete my writing on Bersih 2.0.

It is a long and tedious process and it will take a few more days for me to gather my thoughts and sieves through the tons of pictures, not all of which are good enough to be published.

May be I should break it into smaller pieces, and tell the human stories of Bersih 2.0 beyond the tear gas and chemical-laced cannon water.

I saw this picture at the al-Jazeera website. You can see them here.

What could be the fault of this lady that she ought to be apprehended
by these two police officers? Did she a) kill someone and C4-ed them, b) try to get
commission from Bank Negara for the polymer notes c) steal two jet engines
from the army d) sell two submarines that cannot dive? Haha..

 I like the expression - I thought she was in anguish, and I thought the composition is good.

Apparently, according to my brother Zali, there is a reason why she was caught and apprehended by the police. He was standing just next to her when it happened.

At the height of the face off, the police started to beat some of the public at the rally. She was a witness to the beating, and she was perturbed on what she saw.

"Tuan, tuan tak boleh pukul orang awam. Itu orang awam. Tuan kena jaga orang awam," she shouted, pleading for them to stop.

Initially they took no notice of her, but she was a persistent lady. My bro standing next to her was getting worried, and wanted to tell her to keep quiet.

Suddenly the policeman shouted back at her, "APA DIA?"

He then surged forward towards her with his baton in his right hand.

And these pictures below were their faced-off, and obviously the police went on to screamed and started threatening her right at her face.

You can try and put words into their conversation, and I am sure the picture by Reuters was the outcome of such face off between the public and the police. I am sure it was mainly a one-way conversation.

These pix were taken by the Hariri Photographer (MGH). Thank you very much for the hardwork. Good job.

He even had his name written upside down. Why?

In all six pictures, he was finger-pointing to her face,
trying to intimidate her.

Silap2 the one finger can become five.

Now they are ganging up on her.

Look at her facial expression in all the six pictures. Tak
payah la tunjuk terrer kat fellow citizen esp pompuan.
Dia bukan criminal pun.

And no, this was not a polite conversation. He was
practically shouting to her at close range, and I am
sure she should check her ear drum with an ENT
specialist this week.

I think there is only one way how this will end up. You can't plead and reason out with the police. We are living in an insane country at this moment. There was no way you would be able to win any argument with them.

But kudos to this lady - whoever you are, for standing up to your fellow citizen's right.

A superior American School System?

Why the American Education System is superior to the smartest of our Smart School System



(FIrst posted in April 2007)

Lately there have been a lot of talks about smart school or making our school smarter (pembestarian sekolah), and not the kids I guess! I guess this is due to the so-called smart school conference that is going in KL right now. In the news last week (Thu nite 19/4) was one of the directors of the smart school program (most likely of the Education Ministry) blowing her own trumpet; on how when she was in Philadelphia on a similar conference, the authority there in the US was amazed about our smart school program and all the facilities that we have here in Malaysia. “Things they don’t even have in the US,” she said, condescendingly. 


Wow, I am so proud, our schools are better than schools in the US. Tabik Puan. Yeah right! Typical Malaysia Boleh attitude. I have heard on too many occasions how we keep on telling ourselves that people from another planet think so highly of us! We love making statements like that, especially when it is good for our ego. You go to a conference in the US for 3 days and that gives you an authority to speak on behalf of the American government and people.

I smiled wryly. Assuming that she is correct, I think this another thing that is bad about us. We only think of the physical facilities and never of the human aspect of it - of the planning, the training and the commitment and to be honest, on how we, in general, view the education process of our children (i.e education is not a burden to the government but an investment, education is not about making money from school and unversity fees etc etc). Oh, and don’t forget our (exam-oriented) syllabi. Call it by any other name, but bunga tahi ayam will always have a stinking smell! (Sorry...but on the other hand, the Kemboja is still as sweet especially if planted in the graveyards!)

In 1998 Arif, my eldest went to primary school for the first time for his standard 1. For a couple of days I was there in the school in Kuala Ampang. On the very first day, the teacher was already shouting at her students (basically to keep them quiet), and within a week, the kids were starting to memorize the multiplication tables.

Three months later we left for the US, and my two sons had the opportunity to go to the US school (Arif at Lloyd R Ferguson Elementary in League City, TX (near NASA) and Akmal at League City Elementary for pre-schoolers).

Caption: The location of LR Ferguson Elementary school in Clear Creek and League City (near Houston). It is only a few miles from NASA HQ and is located near the scenic Kemah. The picture was taken during a visit I made during the school hour in 1999. Note the classroom arrangements compared to ours. Ferguson elementary has a student-to-teacher ratio of 17:1 while Akmal's League City Elementary has a ratio of 14:1. Compare that with Hussein Onn secondary school of ~35-45:1. Our schools are better? You be the judge. (MRSM KB during my time has a student ratio of 24:1 while MRSM Merbok has a ratio of 23:1. Not bad eh MARA?)

Let me relate this story. One day, Arif came back with a note from his teacher requesting that he brings a hose and a wire hanger. I was puzzled with the instruction, went to K-Mart looking for the garden hose. Well, at US$25, I was not willing to spend on it. So I took the note to the department secretary, Jane, and asked her about the hose. She was puzzled herself, but told me she will find out.

An hour later, she came to my room looking very pleased that she had solved the mystery. “Panty hose, Rahman,” she told me, “Your son should be bringing a panty hose to school!” Ah well, I should have known better. Panty hose is only 99 cents a set.

The next day, my son brought back – guess what! – fish made up from the panty hose, and the wire hanger. What will the school and teacher think of next? To me this is the creative side that education system in America is trying to impart to their students, while we in Malaysia are too regimented with memorizing multiplication tables. 


On the very first week, mind you! 


Every week Arif and Akmal would be bringing back some work of art that I would never have thought of doing with my kids. No wonder American engineers are more creative than their Malaysian counterparts! They were taught lateral and creative thinking from elementary level. If you ask me, the wire hanger is for hanging the panty hose!

Because of that, I think very highly of the American education system – it is worthy to be emulated in Malaysia. You know when I think about this, I think this was what En Wahab Alwi had envisaged for MRSM when he chose to emulate the American system as a model for MRSM (amongst others The Bronx School for the Gifted in Science in New York City). We were nearly there, my friends, we were nearly there, I must admit, but for the curriculum and the SRP and SPM exams that we still have to sit for! (The American system was dismantled after a few years; we are not known for having the willpower to stick with anything!)

Caption: Arif and Mrs Lancaster in their classroom. I was very impressed with her patience and the facilities in the class, unlike the bare minimum we have in our classrooms in primary schools. Trust me when I say what they have there is so much better than the best of our best primary schools. Oh, and the red t-shirt he was wearing in this picture, that was part of the class projects. The pic on the right is the birth cert of a 'scarecrow' they did as a class project. Unfortunately we lost the 'fish' project a few years ago, so can't post them here.

I once had an opportunity to talk to his class teacher, Mrs Lancaster. While we were chatting in her class, one student of Vietnamese descent went to her. Now, if we were in Malaysia, I am sure the teacher would shout at him or at the very least told him to sit down and do his work while the teacher is talking to a parent. Instead, she went down on her knees (to be at the same level with the child), and said, “Yes, dear, what do you need?” I was astonished by her very friendly response to her student. And for a full minute, she gave him her full attention. If only teachers in Malaysia can be more attentive and supportive to each student in the manner Mrs Lancaster had for her students. Don’t get me wrong, I am not blaming entirely to the teachers – they had too many students in the first place (read the captions above). I think we simply need to change our outlook at how we educate our children. 


This whole system need to be revamped. Parents included!

Caption: Akmal and his new found friend on the very first day at school and with his teacher Mrs Wolff. This class is for pre-K and it is part of the League City Elementary School (i.e. not a private kindergarten. Yes, they have pre-school session of 4 hours a day for a child 4-5 years old. Here in Malaysia, the government takes no responsibility for children in that age group and we had to rely on private kindergarten to do the job for us). Everything was free and so was the bus (you know the yellow American school bus). We didn't have to fork out anything - no school fees, no uniform to buy, no coop fee and other miscellaneous fees to be paid. Education is free - the way it should be. Food is given to those entitled for it (and that includes Arif and Akmal). Here the government just went back on their words on a free text books from next year!

As for Akmal, then a four-year old, I was at school on the first day towards the end of his pre-school (pre-K) session in League City just to ensure he would take the right bus home So I waited at the side of the school, watching Akmal from afar, i.e. basically out of his sight. Soon a teacher would come over to me, inquiring about my presence there in the school compound (which was not fenced). She was very polite though. But that basically tells you on how alert the teachers and staff were on the schoolchildren safety.

Two teachers for a preschool class of less than 20 students. Mind you they were not rookie teachers.

When we arrived at KLIA (we left using Subang Airport) for the first time, while I was admiring the marble interior of KLIA, what my son said will forever etch in my mind. “Abah, why KL has such a nice airport but has lousy school, while Houston has such a lousy airport but has very nice school?”he asked me.

Ah well, what can I say? I didn’t teach him to be to be so critical, but how right he was. It is all about priority my son, and obviously currently education is not a priority. We are putting on the emphasis on the wrong things - biggest this, longest that. (I must admit tho in the 70s and early 80s, the government of the day had their priority right.) But that my sons, is for another blog!

(Arif was so observant. Houston’s Bush International Airport (IAH) was in a perennial state of construction when we were there. I think even in 2005 it still was still in the same state.)

Epilogue

I don’t claim everything is perfect in the States and I don’t claim I know everything either. I am not a product of the American education system, nor do I work for an American company, so I know I am not biased towards their education system. I do know that one swallow doesn't make a summer either. As with any system, you do have faults here and there. But seeing what Arif and Akmal went through in elementary schools there and here in KL and from my own experience (and I don't believe smart school will lead to the dismantling of of our exam-oriented syllabi) led me to my conclusion as articulated in this piece. But this piece is not meant to be a PhD thesis!

I have read the paper titled The Malaysian Smart School - An MSC Flagship Application. I think even the title is too much about technology, and it is too idealistic. As with any Malaysian project, I worry about how long it will last and its maintenance.