I was feeling a little perplexed as I watched TV3’s breakfast program through blurry-just-woke-up eyes on Friday morning. Was Colonel Sanders giving his take on UMNO politics?
See for yourself:-
It turned out that my fear of the “Selangor Is a Developed State” chicken/duck/monstrosity fetish spreading like a cancer to the federal government was unfounded. The colonel-looking commentator was none other than our Royal Professor Ungku Aziz.
Behind this jovial, Santa Claus-like demeanour, he said something quite interesting. If you missed the interview, he voiced his OPPOSITION of meritocracy and labeled it as “GILA”. His take on meritocracy is that Malaysia shouldn’t use a system that was in place thousands of years ago when the Chinese government chose ministers based on the results of the annual nationwide ministerial examination. He said that this policy would deprive less-priviledged students. I’m all for helping the less priviledged but not the less intelligent or less academically inclined. If one doesn’t cut it, one should remain where one is.
Is this the reason why this century is shaping to be the Chinese century and not the Malaysian century?