Month: April 2019

Iqra’ – Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand

Had this sudden impulse to write again. Just like exercising, it’s so hard to start but once you got it going, it felt so good and you would want to do it again. Also, reading and writing is actually exercise, for the mind. Our very own Dr. Mahathir said it. It’s the very reason I started this blog.

Earlier today I read an article on PPSMI, our good Doctor is on it again.

Screenshot 2019-04-08 at 21.13.01.png

Huzzah! PPSMI is back. I was disappointed when it was withdrawn and now that it’s back perhaps my kids can savour Math and Science in English.

In the article the good Doctor made another interesting comment.

Mahathir was asked in the interview what he would have done if he were the education minister, a post he stepped back from due to Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto pledge barring the prime minister from holding other portfolios.

“We need to teach science and mathematics in English. The idea that the Malays cannot learn in English is stupid. It’s not true at all.

“I am a Malay, I can speak reasonable English. Why can’t other people?” he said.

Here’s a guy from a kampung and yet he is able to speak English so well. Add to that, my English isn’t that good but I can tell you that being able to read and speak reasonable English, have enabled me to learn from so many sources and earned me interview spots and great jobs. And I am from Kedah, among the poorest state in Malaysia. So I believe in PPSMI and really am glad it’s back.

Our good Doctor made another a MORE interesting comment.

Mahathir, who served as education minister from 1974 to 1977, also told NST that while schools should provide religious and moral education, it should not be at the expense of other subjects.

“With regard to religious education, we believe schools should provide religious education, but it should not encroach on the teaching of other subjects.

“We find that in the curriculum, so much (time) is given to religious education at the expense of other subjects – science and mathematics,” he said.

Now, let me give a little bit of a preamble, I’m a product of our national school. I believe I did okay up till now, so in that sense, I trusted our school system and decided that it’s okay to send our kids to national school. We were planning to send our kids to a private school but in the end, decided against it (my wallet was so relieved, I was told). So yeah, I trusted our school system. That is till I read the above comment by Dr. Mahathir.

I quickly called my daughter Alia, Primary 6 now, and asked her to read to me her weekly class schedule and total up the hours per week spent on each subject. Here’s the breakdown in hours:

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Pendidikan Islam, Tasmik and Bahasa Arab altogether take 5.5 hours a week. Let’s break it down. Pendidikan Islam 3 hours, Bahasa Arab 1.5 hours and Tasmik 1 hour. I did a bit of google and found out that Tasmik is basically reciting Al-Quran. And yeah, I was clueless what Tasmik was before this.  Here’s the objective of Tasmik as taken from the link I found above.

  • 3.1 Murid dapat membaca al Quran dengan bertajwid.
  • 3.2 Murid dapat mengkhatamkan bacaan al-Quran 30 juzuk.

It’s just that, able to recite (not read) the Quran. Recite the Quran and that’s it. 1 hour a week. Half the time allocated to learn Science.

Then, we have another 1.5 hours for Bahasa Arab, officially it’s allocated for Bahasa Tambahan but somehow my daughter’s school only have Bahasa Arab to choose from. What did she get from Bahasa Arab? You guys can probably guessed it, almost nothing. If any of you guys have a kid in primary school, talk to them, find out what have they learned and how that will help in shaping their future. Combine Bahasa Arab and Tasmik and it’s 2.5 hours. More than Science, more than Sejarah and just half an hour short to equal Math. Personally, it’s way too much time allocated for those two things.

We also send our kids for Quran recital class outside of school and that’s another 1-2 hours weekly. I know many parents send their kids to Kelas Agama outside of school for several hours a week. It’s our responsibility as parents. If we can’t or are not capable to do it, get someone to help us teach them that outside of school. It’s not the school’s responsibility. It’s ours.

It should not take the time in school, that is much better spent to learn Math, Science, Accounting, Commerce and many other subjects, a typical parent can’t teach. A typical parent can’t for the life of them teach their son complex math or science stuff. That’s why there are schools, trained teachers and a fully developed curriculum. So let’s not let these subject time taken by things that we can teach them ourselves and should not even be in school official hours.

Finally, since we are on the subject of reciting the Quran, I implore all muslim parents out there, go a step further. Don’t stop at teaching our kids to recite the Quran, go on a step further and teach them to READ the Quran. READ and UNDERSTAND it. Read it in a language that you and the kids can understand. Be it in Malay or in English. It’s so much more meaningful to READ and UNDERSTAND it.

And for us, read it like you would read a book. Read it to understand it. Learn it, study it and make sense of it.  Not just recite and sing it along and not understanding a word of it.

Quran has been forgotten by many muslims. It has been relegated to a book we singalong with. Open it up weekly, singalong the notes and later close it. That’s all it has become nowadays. It’s so true. Think about it. When was the last time we read a surah and understand it? How often we open it up and search for something to guide us? When was the last time we open it up and learn about a topic that is of interest to us? What does the Quran say about that topic?

We read the hadith in a language we understand but not the Quran? Why is that? Which one is firman Allah? Hadith or the Quran? And yet we relegate it to just a singalong book.

I leave you guys at that and end this article with the title of this article, Albert Einstein said it, “Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand”. Let’s change it up, “Any Fool Can Recite. The Point is to Understand”

Peace be unto all of you.

TH – Great Minds Think Alike…No?

It has been while since I scribbled stuff on this blog. Been busy, I put off writing stuff in favour of doing something else. It’s bad though, very bad, considering I have a long list of things to write about.

So what happened since then? PH government doing a very bad job, some of the ministers are downright ‘tin losing’ (empty cans, made a loud noise but otherwise empty on the inside) and the state of our politics have been made worse with many of the folks on my Facebook Newsfeeds talking about nothing but ‘Melayu tu, Cina ni’ and Islam tu, kapiaq ni’. It’s super depressing, we can’t seemed to get past this divisive nature of race  and religion politics. Remember people, we can do race politics without the divisive nature of it. But alas, people are not logical, we are psychological.

Alright, back to the topic at hand, Tabung Haji. The just announced ‘hibah’ (gift of money to depositors) to be exact. Historically, 2018 was the lowest, by a mile, at 1.25%. A lot has been said about why 2018 hibah was pretty poor, go and read them up. What it all boils down to, TH’s asset and liability position only allowed them to give that much.

HIBAH-TH-2018_0

For those who are a little behind on TH asset and liability situation and the related transfer of its asset (about RM20 billion) to an SPV can read up on it HERE. Pretty well written and can be easily understood by most I believe.

What I wanted to touch on is THIS Facebook posting by Ely. I do not know her personally, however seeing a few of my friends quoting the article and commenting on TH, I was then inspired to write again. A big thank you to Ely Raziah.

So to start with, Ely, right of the bat, attacked all accountants, finance and banking folks. among the words written includes ‘jumud’, too much adhering to guidelines, can’t see the big picture and close minded. She then also knocked on these accountants for being too black and white, and not seeing the greys. And the thing that really made me want to write this reply is, these accountants are too much into ‘technicalities’.

Okay let’s stop there, I don’t want to regurgitate too much or else I’ll literally start to vomit. She keeps on talking about technicalities stopping us to see the big picture. She wants us to ignore the technicalities because the big picture or end goal is much more important. End goal of enriching the economy of the muslims is what she’s alluding to.

Let us be clear, technicalities that she’s referring to is what we call standard or guidelines or rules. Imagining not playing a game according to the rules. Yes, the goal of a football match is to score a goal, imagine when we have a team who suddenly use their hands to carry the ball into the goal area and claim a win. When asked, oh don’t talk about the technicalities, it’s important we know the big picture objective. It’s to win right? So we won lah.

A more real and grounded example, imagine someone selling you a car but not wanting to tell you the year it was made. When asked, “Ahhh those are technicalities, the big picture is you want to buy a car right? The mileage you don’t need to care lah, it’s technicalities. just buy this good car!”. So what do you think? It’s fun if we are on the side of the car seller lah.

This situation of ignoring the technicalities or closing one eye on the technicalities is what destroying us. It’s the least Islamic thing to do. Especially when we do it to achieve our goals. The end never justifies the means (Matlamat tidak menghalalkan cara). It’s the most unIslamic things to do. Talk about man-made, this is exactly it. Ikut suka mak bapak nak buat apa is the most Malay and Malaysian thing and it’s not Islamic at all. We can’t change the rules just because we wanted to do something.

Just because we want to put a few billion ringgit into the muslim economy this Ramadhan we change the rules? Just because we want to build a few masjid we change the rules? just because we want to increase the amount that goes to zakat we change the rules?

Rules are there for a reason, changing it and not following it as and when we like, kinda defeat the purpose for it to be there in the first place. No one wants to play a game where the rules change as and when the players like, especially when only one side can change the rules as they like, especially when that side changes the rules silently. It’s almost the same as cheating! and it’s a slippery slope to be on.

Lastly, another issue with Melayu, when something is wrong, just swept it under the carpet or under the table. This is public’s money, not your children’s money and certainly not your children exam result. It’s not similar to the analogy that Ely made about the parent and child.

So it’s not something that can be done under table. Get our head screwed right, all government bodies out there are to be scrutinised by the people. If something is wrong, it’s better if it’s out there, and if something is so good and right, it’s also better if it’s outside there.

So yeah, it is not a case of ‘how one approaches the issue’. It’s about declaring hibah the right way according to the rules. If the government wants to give the Muslim’s community economy a few billions ringgit, do it the right way. There are many ways it can be done but obviously not by cheating on the rules of TH. Remember, the end does not justify the means, no matter how noble the end goal is.

And please don’t equate TH and KLSE as the kids of the government. Now it kinda made sense why she hates the finance people so much. She probably doesn’t understand it much. Let’s hope she will one day understand how it works.

Sorry Ely, in this case our minds don’t think alike and it’s probably because I use my brain while you use your heart.

Peace be unto you and all.