Why do we let others measure us?

All those international evaluations of the state of education, press freedom or our workforce, etc, don’t take into account local circumstances that weigh heavily in such matters.

MALAYSIANS often react strongly to news about how the country is doing according to international performance indices in all sorts of areas, from education and press freedom levels to how happy we are.

I always wonder why we become agitated, happy or downright boastful according to these results. And when reporters ask me how my university performed in the Times Higher Education ranking or what I think about the latest World Bank report on Malaysian children, I think to myself, “Why on earth are we letting someone else’s measuring tools determine whether we are doing OK or not?”

Are we not able to do this ourselves? Do we not have enough educated and enlightened people to devise our own way of determining where we are in education, for instance, and where we should be going? What the devil are we doing listening to World Bank reports, The Economist reports or press freedom index results?

Reading about our country’s politics and commentaries by our own citizens, and also engaging with many academics in my lifetime, I think we have many excellent thinking personalities in education and in the media who can actually comment usefully on whether we are OK or not.

And if these people are given enough resources and incentives, they could also suggest policy directions in education, the media, or in sustainability requirements that we should be heading towards.

I have absolute confidence in our people. I may not have full confidence in a governmental choice as most times it is laced with “who will give the government a high mark” syndrome. But I am sure this administration is the most sincere we are going to see for a while.

Two issues, education and freedom of the press, prove my point.

When we talk about education, whether involving schools or universities, we should just take a look at how our school leavers and university graduates take to social media and deal with the problems of the world.

We have seen the destructive boycotts against McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC and other international chains over the Hamas-Israel war. We see how one-sided the narratives are that have been propagated about jeopardising the livelihoods of thousands and thousands of hardworking Malaysians dependent on these boycotted businesses.

We can also measure our education from the mistrust and hatred riled up by opportunistic politicians in the socks issue to the point of actual bombings – something that has never been natural to this country before – and making samurai sword threats.

Do these things not say anything about our education? Heck, I could write a whole PhD thesis criticising the entire education system, from school to tertiary levels, just based on these two issues alone. Why do we need to be ranked by some outside party that makes billions from their evaluations?

To me, it’s simple. We have chosen an industry-led education system to produce well-trained office workers, factory workers, as well as professionals like architects, lawyers and medical doctors. We get an A+ for that.

What we get an F- for is our (in)ability to produce a citizenry that accepts diversity in faith, culture and ideas. We have also failed to produce a generation of thinking people that can question the boxes made by religion, history, politics and social media misinformation. Fail, fail, fail!

Do we need a World Bank Report to show us the way?

The World Bank is interested in who gets to go to the office or who gets to play the professional. I don’t think it looks into the details about the socks issue or the boycott of McDonalds.

I see the details. But then, I am the only one, I guess.

A university graduate did a Hitler salute at his convocation and clearly wrote about his support of the Holocaust by Adolf Hitler that killed millions of Jewish children, women and the elderly during World War II – and then we got upset when a visiting professor accused us of being Holocaust supporters.

A minister ordered the event cancelled and the university’s professors are wondering about future promotions. I guess it was too much to expect a stand for independence in intellectual discourse from a university that closed its gates and turned off the electricity so that a certain Opposition politician called Anwar could not deliver a talk.

For me, the appalling performance of our universities can be clearly measured by their deafening silence on all matters affecting the welfare of this country and her people.

Then we have the hue and cry over Malaysia’s drop in position in the latest press freedom index.

Now, I do not know, nor do I ever want to know, what criteria are used to measure press freedom. To me, if a country’s press does not have the wisdom to put the safety, stability and welfare of the people first, above their concern for reader and viewer numbers, then I do not think we should ever have a free press.

Having an A+ grade for a free press in a country like Malaysia that has had hatred and mistrust among her diverse communities stoked and manipulated by politicians for more than half a century is not something we want.

Think about this: In this country we have problems such as paid cybertroopers and instigators that are trying to destabilise a legitimately-elected government by playing the race and religion cards, as well as fanning the rumour mill. In an unchecked social media culture, this is like building a house three metres from a river. When a rainstorm sweeps in and lasts for five hours, our house would be swept away while we sleep in our beds with the certificate of freedom of the press proudly nailed to the wall.

It is time to wake up to our own nightmares and realities. It is time that we get our act together.

If this unity government does not appoint sound and capable people to provide the necessary measurements of success or failure, as well as a viable and competent direction, then we should just appoint ourselves – ordinary people with palpable common sense – who can guide the country from cyberspace.

It’s not difficult. It’s just a matter of looking around at what needs to be done.

Yes, we can still refer to those World Bank reports, Pisa university scores, press freedom index and whatnot – but treat them just as a rough evaluation and not a decree from God.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.