Monday, July 13, 2009

the system

the comments from the post below has drawn attention to a chicken-and-egg situation.

the government spends up to 1 million ringgit per person to send students overseas for tertiary education in the hopes that they'll return and improve "the system". those aforementioned students then gain valuable experience and knowledge but refuse to come home because "the system" is in far too disarray to accommodate their expertise. they want "the system" fixed first before they return to serve. and so "the system" remains unfixed because the people that were sent out to learn the necessary skills to repair it don't want to do precisely just that because it's still in disrepair.

or, should i say, despair?

i thought i had listed the factors that need to be changed in order for government scholars to come home and serve their bonds. they were mostly directed towards "the system" and i was wrong. we don't even need to be sent to camps organised by the prime minister's department in order to instill guilt or patriotism, whatever their objective really is in the first place. tun was also wrong in saying that loyalty should be the driving factor for scholars to return.

scholars should not return because they couldn't find a job/husband overseas. scholars should not come home because of a ruling by a union that makes it hard for foreigners to secure employment beyond a certain period of extension of their visas.

scholars should be motivated by responsibility - a responsibility towards the people who paid for their education, towards the contract they signed when they accepted the offer, towards "the system" that remains a thousand paces behind many places.

it's not really about loving malaysia and its faults...that's a feeling best reserved for saving a marriage. it's just plain 'ol responsibility. there ain't no love in that equation.

why we're lacking responsibility is anybody's guess. perhaps it's the paradigm shift that places importance on money and success, the mentality that being selfish is right. survival of the fittest, yes? (and no, charles darwin did not coin that phrase) i will go towards greener pastures and that's alright because my family deserves the best. it's not wrong, is it?

sorry, honey, it is wrong...especially if the taxes my parents and sister have been paying faithfully each year went into financing your holidays in europe and the americas.

that said, "the system" should play its part in this little situation as well...but you don't need me to reiterate those views.

lishun at 12:46 PM

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