In response to my friend (on FB)

In response to my friend suggesting Selangor Government should run better private schools to show what they can do for education

To me, it is not the state government but the (federal) opposition coalition should come up with a detailed policy paper on education, and that should be served as Pakatan Rakyat’s alternative education blueprint. Should they come to power, this is what they propose to do, with detailed problem-solution analysis approach. Although PR politicians often brag about the Buku Jingga (PR’s common policy framework), many PR representatives never really read through them thoroughly and never seem to cite them often for mentioning the relevant alternative policy.

To me also, that Buku Jingga is simply not enough, and at times I don’t feel it is professional and thoughtful enough for certain policies. One of the bigger problems for the Buku Jingga is that, they distributed the drafting jobs among politicians and think-tanks affiliated with political parties. It would have been so much better if they can allocate more time to rope in relevant experts in thei field and form a consultation panel for each big distinctive policy area. Each panel should come out with a detailed policy paper to show that they have done sufficient analyses and studies, therefore they have better ideas how to tackle the most pressing issues more professionally. Each policy should be set for medium and long term sustainable goal, so this can deter some ill-thought populist measures put out just to fish for votes.

Back to education reform policy, I do not agree with you Kok Boon to set up a competitive private system just to show the state can run better private schools than the federal government runs public schools. You just missed the point. Government is the authority body taking control/care of public matters. Public schools and the central education system are the focus points for reform, not private schools. Private schools are not to replace the public schools.

What Kim Boon said is not wrong in that Education falls under the jurisdiction power of the federal government, but I would argue that that does not mean Selangor state government should just sit there and do nothing without proposing any alternative education policy. For long some number of PR politicians talking about decentralisation of power from the federal government, so what if the next day federal government agrees to do so, then how would the state government run the public schools differently to BN?

Pakatan Rakyat, if they seriously aspire to become the next federal government and now position themselves as the responsible government-in-waiting, should have already a good alternative education plan to convince us that they can run public education system better than BN if they were elected in the next round. I don’t want to see people like Tony Pua, Rafizi and etc. to give their individual opinions,  I want to know what PR exactly is offering us.

To me, important issues to be addressed are i) the deliberate unequal/imbalance of development resources allocated for different streams of public schools,  ii) sliding standard of Maths and Science, English language command, creative and independent thinking skills, iii) Education that fosters learning capability, but not exam-orientated system, iv) academic freedom and professionalism in the tertiary education.

Sometimes I wonder why an opposition party in Singapore like SDP (yourSDP.org), even though they are without a seat in the parliament, yet they can yet come out with a number of detailed policy papers on the most gripping national issues. I noticed also that SDP politicians have such habit: after criticising PAP on various questionable policies, they will propose their party alternative based on their papers to woo support already. Of course no party can win the election just because they have good series of policy papers publication, but this has showed how professional and committed is the political party to offer alternatives to people. People can understand and indeed are given the real political choices, not just different logos.

The Buku Jingga is the common policy framework only, the ‘compromised’ consensus among three parties. It is so common sometimes it sounds just vague and a bit populist. After 505, I have even vague idea about what Pakatan Rakyat is offering to the rakyat, after the infighting among these parties throughout the last year. Are they still serious as the government-in-waiting?