Brain should not come home

Where ideas go to die?
MORE than a year ago, our Science Ministry launched a website called MyIdeas. The thinking behind this is to get as many brilliant ideas, from all kinds of people, that can be implemented.

There are now some 6,037 ideas on the portal based on my last check yesterday. The very first idea posted on the website was "recognise and reward creativity and innovation at all levels through national and state innovation and creativity awards" by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

But if you click on the icon that says "ideas in action", which basically means what it says, it will tell you this: No ideas are in action yet.

That's a shame because don't tell me not one of the 6,037 ideas is worth carrying out.

Some ideas are quite interesting, like the one from Muhamad Zahin Shaharuddin who suggests having lockers at schools to deal with the problem of heavy bags. Nurul Syaza Sarkawi says the government should subsidise the price of bicycles so that Malaysians could cycle instead of drive to nearby places. Kogilavani Muniappan thinks young people should be taught or exposed to basic Internet laws or Copyright Acts, which would presumably improve society's awareness of piracy.

Good ideas are hard to come by, but even harder is to implement those ideas. But implementation is what gives ideas their value. A teacher, who carries out a good idea, would get students interested in knowledge.

Author Frank McCourt in his book "Teacher Man" tells of how he had an epiphany of how to teach teenagers English during his days as a teacher in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. His students were resisting writing assignments but they were writing a lot of excuse notes, supposedly written by parents to explain why their kids had to miss class. Teachers knew these notes were mostly fiction. And that was when an idea struck him. He assigned them to write excuse notes for Lee Harvey Oswald (the guy who shot and killed a US president) and gangster Al Capone, among others.

McCourt's students loved it, the principal loved it and even the school supervisor loved it.

Is the MyIdeas portal a bad idea? No, of course not. But it needs to show results of ideas that have been or being implemented. Otherwise it will perpetuate the perception that we are a nation of planners and not doers.

One way to improve MyIdeas is to have a group of people that goes through all ideas and filter them down to the best 10. All of this must be communicated to users who obviously would want to know the progress and milestones of what they have proposed.

But we should not be thinking that just because MyIdeas is a government initiative, its implementation should be left to the government. Instead, some ideas could be carried out by the private sector, non-government organisations or even large charity organisations.

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Speaker’s removal valid

PUTRAJAYA: The removal of V. Sivakumar as Perak Assembly Speaker and R. Ganesan’s election to that office were done validly and cannot be questioned in court, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
The court’s three-man Bench also ruled that what transpired in the assembly on May 7 last year was “perfectly legitimate”.
“The conclusions are clear. First, the plaintiff (Sivakumar) was removed as the Speaker. Secondly, the defendant (Ganesan) was duly elected as Speaker.
“Nothing is complex about this case as to merit a trial. There was no necessity to order an injunction.
“The defendant is now the Speaker,” said Court of Appeal judge Justice Abdul Malik Ishak in his 49-page judgment dated Aug 20, which was made available to the press yesterday.
Justice Abdul Malik said it could not be disputed that the assembly had the power and jurisdiction to elect or dismiss the Speaker.
“The assembly has validly elected the defendant as Speaker to replace the plaintiff and the court has no jurisdiction to interfere,” he said.
He added that the court also had no power to interfere or question the Speaker’s decision in maintaining order and peace in the assembly on May 7.
“What transpired within the four walls of the assembly on May 7 cannot be examined by the court. Immunity has set in,” he said.
On May 15 last year, Sivakumar had filed a suit against Ganesan following the state assembly sitting on May 7 during which he alleged that he was forcefully held, dragged and removed from the hall on the latter’s orders.
He sought damages and an injunction to restrain Ganesan or his agents from prohibiting him from exercising his duties as Speaker.
Justice Abdul Malik also called Sivakumar’s meeting under a tree on March 3 last year, which he claimed was an assembly meeting, as a “desperate attempt to salvage a sinking ship”.
“It is our judgment that such a contention is wholly unfounded and totally vexatious.
“This is not a case where the court is so besotted with rules that it cannot see the tree from the forest.
“The rules are made to be obeyed. Pure and simple,” he ruled.
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Talents deserve full recognition
WE laud the call made by our Prime Minister to bring back talented professionals from overseas.
However, this is nothing new as several calls had been made before and as a result, a few of them did come back and after some years, quite a number of them had left to join the private sector or moved to neighbouring countries.
The problems should be studied by the Government whether is it the incentives or the facilities that do not match their talents. Or is it the bureaucracy.
I feel that one of the problems in retaining the best brains in the professional sector lies in the various professional bodies.
It is a pity that foreign graduates as well as those who graduated from the twinning or franchised local campuses are not recognised by these bodies although the courses are recognised by the government accreditation bodies.
The professional bodies like those in the legal, accountancy, engineering and medical professions block these graduates from joining them directly.
They need to sit for a local examination to satisfy local requirements whereas local graduates, even those from universities with lower MQA Rating than the local private universities, are exempted.
The irony is that although these professionals may have obtained membership from foreign professional bodies, they still need to clear the local hurdle to obtain membership from the local bodies.
Just bear in mind that a majority of our local professors are graduates from foreign universities and the syllabus are mostly from foreign universities.
Furthermore, those foreign universities are listed among the best universities in the world whereas our local universities are not even in the list and yet our professional bodies discriminate against our foreign professionals.
So one can see why quite a number of our talented professionals want to remain overseas or work in the private sector (as they are not qualified to join government services), or work in neighbouring countries.
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The above were published in the NST and Star. They gave a better understanding on why our BRAIN DO NOT WANT TO COME HOME.

I am one of many Malaysians who cannot accept that people with money, connection and titles can do what they like in this country without law and order. The curse of the elites behaviours are the very things that are killing our economy, giving us a bad reputation in the world and turn us to become paupers in the near future.

Malaysian are known for being drug mules, funding house and weapons distribution for terrorists, human trafficking harem, corruption, AP Kings and Queens, racists and killing with C4 and cow dung. That we are good. But to have a strong will to enforce laws and better manage our wealth and development is nil.

Our leaders are spineless when it comes to doing the right things. Instead they depend and act on what they can benefit from it. They compete with each other on who get the most projects, how much of wealth they can siphon out to foreign countries and how much of land and properties they can steal without care.

There is a famous quote "The Americans give help and intrude even though they are not needed." Our Najib is now offering and giving advice on Islam and racism when this country is creating wave of extreme Islamism and racial discomfort in the form of Perkasa, Keris waving and spitting on the walls of Chinese Assembly Hall.

To top it all Rosmah heads honours list in conjunction with 72nd birthday of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob (who enrich himself through bribes and corruption and given this post in return for sealing the truth behind UMNO's money stolen by Mahathir and Daim through third parties)for killing Altantuya.

So given and living this kind of suicidal environment Malaysia is not a safe haven to live and have a future to begin with for our BRAINS to come home to.