Morality training key to success

Last Updated on 01 March 2013

By Stuart Alan Becker

 

When Tauch Ngam Youra arrived in Vientiane, Laos as part of the ACLEDA team, he noticed a cultural difference between Khmer and Lao people right away.
The date was December 31, 2007. He already knew the Thai language which made the Lao language easier to learn.

Luckily, a Lao lady from the Women’s Union Training Center helped the ACLEDA team locate itself in temporary offices. Another lucky break was that 35 students had come from Cambodia to study at a Lao university. Those students helped promote ACLEDA Bank in Laos.
“We set up temporary offices by renting a room in the training center,” Tauch said. “They came to meet us and then we tried to explain how we came to Laos and our purpose to expand our brand and network in Laos.”

Tauch said that, at the time, the big challenge was to find qualified people who could speak English, understand the differences in the culture and build trust.
“We had interviews with newspapers,” he said.

Tauch studied the Lao language in a 15 hour course and soon became able to read and speak Lao.

A big challenge in those early days was to build trust with the Central Bank of Laos in order for them to issue ACLEDA Bank a licence.
Following six months of work, they were granted their commercial banking licence in August of 2008.

The challenge that followed was to transfer the ACLEDA team’s skills to the new Lao recruits.
One difference was that the Lao workers were not accustomed to getting to work as early as the Cambodians.

“There was a change of the culture and a change of the working time. It was hard for us to push people to get up early in the morning.”

With a risk portfolio that differed from that of Cambodia, including default rates of up to 10 per cent on loans, they set out to bring Lao people into the Cambodian ACLEDA Bank culture.
Tauch said they also changed the culture regarding under-the-table money to zero tolerance.
“We provide loans without personal benefit and we get trust by providing good service to them. This is one-stop service. People feel happy because they never saw service like this.”
ACLEDA Bank started out in Laos providing small loans to green grocers, small businesses, farmers, fishermen and tuk-tuk drivers.

ACLEDA then expanded their banking business across the three largest cities: Vientiane, Savannakhet and Pakse.

The original 2008 ACLEDA Lao team consisted of 12 experts including Tauch - then a brand manager. Leading the team was Vann Saroeun, who served as President and Managing Director of ACLEDA Bank Laos. Today, the CEO is Phon Narin.

“We provided training, coaching and mentoring of credit officers. That’s the way we train, working closely with people who are on the job,” Tauch said.
Another key to success in Laos, as well as Myanmar, was supporting the training of the entire industry, even if they were competitors.

“We provided training to Laos two times, cooperating with the German government cooperation organization GIZ, as well as international organizations to support microfinance activity in Laos in general,” Tauch said.
In terms of a team, we were working very closely together, with a strong team and strong relationships with involved ministries especially with the Central Bank of Laos.

Born in 1959, Tauch’s father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse. He lost both of them during the Pol Pot regime and grew up as an orphan. He spent time in Pursat Province during the Khmer Rouge period, learning to survive in the jungle.

Tauch first joined ACLEDA Bank in January 1998, having earlier worked for a branch of the National Bank of Cambodia. From his initial job as an accountant, Tauch steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a credit official in 1982 - a position he held until 1998 when he started at ACLEDA’s micro loan office. He worked his way up to medium loan officer, then internal auditor and district team leader before becoming brand manager for the Laos office in Vientiane.

Tauch said his priorities were to build trust between the manager and the subordinates and, essentially, provide staff with training.

 “Staff commitment building is a big thing. Inside we respect the competency of the leader, but outside we are also friends. This is our working culture, which is very important, and the main point of ACLEDA working culture is that we recruit people without involving any money spent for the recruitment process.”

Tauch says the strong recruitment policy also included empowering women.
“We come to share our experience, to transfer our success to them and let them lead the bank by themselves,” he said.

Today ACLEDA Bank employs more than 500 people in Laos with 28 bank branches across the country.

Tauch has now been in Laos for two years and serves as head of training for the ACLEDA Training Center Ltd.

“I love to transfer skills to people according to my long experience,” he said. Tauch uses the “real case in a real place” as a motto of the training system.

Last November, ACLEDA Training Center put on a “Microfinance Winter Academy” in Siem Reap with 29 participants from 12 countries.

Chhan Ponloeu, president and managing director of ACLEDA Training Center Ltd. said it was through ACLEDA training that Lao people realised that sharing experience provided good information whether someone was a competitor or not.

When recruited staff joins ACLEDA, they undergo a five-day training program. Trainees are also evaluated on attitude. More skilled positions take 15 days, and credit officer and teller program positions take three weeks.

“If they pass, they can get a contract. We charge the bank, and they pay us. We hire resources from the bank, and have some resources to provide training, and we pay the bank for resources.
Laotians were invited to Cambodia where they took classes at ACLEDA Training Center in Tuol Kork. The same process is going on for people from Myanmar right now. Recently, a training session was completed in Naypyidaw.

Another important component in ACLEDA’s success is morality training in which staffs members are required to show gratitude for their parents because the parents guarantee that they are good people, according to Tauch.

“We get it right from the parents during the home visit of the recruitment process and show people how to pay gratitude to their parents.”

“This is the way we build our gratitude. We have to stand up and show respect and gratitude to our parents.”

Nineteen per cent of ACLEDA Bank shares are owned by ACLEDA staff, an important psychological point for staff motivation, Tauch said. “We are the owners and we have a sense of ownership – not only of the bank, but the policy as well. We develop our policy from the bottom to the top,” he said.

ACLEDA Bank CEO In Channy said there were very few commercial banks in Laos and that competing with the state-owned bank presented a challenge.

“We needed to build our presence and capacity and financial product tailor-made to low income people in Laos. Most Lao customers had never used bank products and financial services before,” In Channy said, adding that the goal was for an ACLEDA Bank branch to reach the Lao border with China in 2017.

“At ACLEDA bank we promote transparency in banking and finance, and we want our partners [to be] transparent to us and we want to build a strong bond with them.”
 

No CPP, no development: Hun Sen

Last Updated on 06 March 2013

By Vong Sokheng

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen warned voters participating in the upcoming national elections in July that if they fail to keep his Cambodian People’s Party in power, he will cancel planned development projects.

Speaking to approximately 4,000 students, villagers and Buddhist monks at the groundbreaking ceremony for a road-widening project on National Road 6A in Kampong Cham province, he also said that a loss could put at risk even the tools and supplies that the CPP contributes to the populace.

In particular, he placed several ongoing bridge projects in Stung Treng and Koh Kong provinces as well as the capital’s Chroy Changva II bridge on the post-election chopping block.

“I am sure that if people no longer need me … I have no reason to help you [people] in the future, but I believe that people will not give up existing achievement within their hands as the opposition party has never done anything for people,” he said.

Son Chhay, an opposition lawmaker speaking on behalf of the newly formed Cambodia National Rescue Party, called the comments in the speech a scare tactic intended to garner more votes.

He added that he had never heard of a single government that froze development projects in response to a shift in power.

“In general, there is no country in the world that cancels its existing government projects if it loses in an election, and the message made by premiere just intimidates voters,” Chhay said.

If the Cambodia National Rescue Party were to take control, he said officials would take a look at existing projects to ensure all of them are being carried out transparently.  

Lao Mong Hay, an independence political analyst, agreed with Chhay, and said that a change in leadership would probably not result in a mass cancellation of construction work.

“This is a threat and intimidation. It looks too stupid to cancel the existing national development project [when you lose in an election],” Mong Hay said.

Koul Panha, executive director of local election monitor the Committee for Fair and Free Elections in Cambodia, said it was not unexpected in the run-up to an election for parties to start pushing their political platforms and advertising their achievements.

Tourism surges in Cambodia

Last Updated on 26 February 2013

By Daniel de Carteret

The number of international tourists in Cambodia increased by 24.4 per cent from 2.88 million in 2011 to 3.58 million in 2012, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.

The most significant increases came from the Kingdom’s closest neighbours.

Laos nearly doubled in visitor numbers to over 250,000 and Thailand, which had declined year on year in 2011 by 21.7 per cent, increased in 2012 by 72.5 per cent to over 200,000 visitors.
Visitors from Vietnam account for the largest group coming to Cambodia, making up 21 per cent of total visitors in 2012.

Tith Chantha, director general of the Ministry of Tourism, said improved transport and rising incomes across ASEAN are increasing travel options for Cambodia and its neighbours.

“Vietnam is number one, but Laos and Thailand are also now increasing because of ease of travel and low visa [restrictions], so neighbouring countries can come any time,” he said.

“Cambodians also go to those countries. Many tourists go to Thailand and to Laos. This intra-regional travel is [happening] more and more.”

This represents a trend across ASEAN, with an increase of 37.5 per cent from 2011 to 2012 of over 1.51 million tourists.

Sinan Thourn, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said improved political relations and lighter travel restrictions inter-regionally have had a large impact.

“In the past before 2008, arrivals from Thailand were quite good, but then we had the problems along the borders and it decreased. But after the Pheu Thai win in the general election in Thailand, you have seen the numbers increasing,” he said.

“Due to the policies opening up ASEAN countries, all the ASEAN countries [enable] moving in and out more easily. This will be a key in increasing tourism from ASEAN countries,” he added.

Cambodia continues to be very popular with Chinese tourists, with nearly 334,000 visitors arriving in 2012, an increase of 35.1 per cent from the previous year.

While Europe made just up just17.1 per cent of total visitors in 2012, the rate of increase was up slightly from 10.9 per cent in 2011 to 12.6 per cent in 2012.

Chantha said, “Numbers of Europeans have increased, if you take Russia, for example, it increased around 50 per cent. France, Germany and UK have [also] increased, but the share [of European visitors] is down because the share of the Asia-Pacific is up.”

Letter to editor: Melissa Cockroft

Last Updated on 19 February 2013

By Melissa Cockroft

Dear editor,

Valentine’s Day 2013 again saw debate rage in the media about the negative influence of “Western culture”, the importance of Cambodian women maintaining their virginity and the subsequent actions by local authorities.

In regard to the issue of culture, when asked what their plans were to celebrate the day, young people seemed quick to comment: “It’s not our tradition”; “It’s not related to Cambodian culture at all” (Lift, February 13).

But whether Cambodians like it or not, Valentine’s Day is becoming a part of Cambodian culture, and the way it is currently interpreted – as the day to lose your virginity - is a uniquely Cambodian cultural creation.

A simple internet search will show that the origins of Valentine’s Day, although European, were not specifically related to sex or losing one’s virginity.

In “Western” culture, which is typically blamed for Valentine’s Day’s “scourge” on Cambodian society, the day has largely been taken over by marketing and advertising agencies as a day for sharing “romance” with your loved one(s) through hallmark cards, chocolates, flowers and candle-lit dinners for two that, in turn, may lead to sex, but is not the essence of the day as it seems to be re-interpreted in Cambodia.

While the almost universal disregard for the possibility that Valentine’s Day, as currently celebrated in Cambodia, could be anything but “Cambodian” is frustrating, what is more worrying is the response by local authorities.

Reports of municipal police and local authorities staking out guesthouses and patrolling the streets for “young lovers” is an infringement of individual rights to mobility and sexual autonomy.

​As experience with groups such as sex workers in Cambodia has shown, policing and “crackdowns” on perceived anti-social behaviour merely pushes the behaviour underground, creating an environment in which risky sexual behaviour, exposure to sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and exposure to violence are more likely to occur.

As a result of these lessons learned, the Cambodian Ministry of Health and local authorities have adopted a harm-reduction approach through education and health-care provision, which has been more effective in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS than arrests and harassment.

A similar harm-reduction approach whereby providing young people with access to information, contraception and youth-friendly healthcare services would be far more effective at minimising potentially risky behaviour than stationing commune officials outside guesthouses.

Finally, as Keo Kounila’s excellent article “How the Kingdom could show more love” (Phnom Penh Post 7Days, February 15) accurately pointed out, young people are engaging in sex, not only on Valentine’s Day but on every other day of the year too.

Although the Ministry of Education and others encouraged  women to “not give away their virginity”, young men’s involvement was almost completely ignored.

The few times men did appear, it was usually as a warning for young women through simplistic examples such as  “Dara”, whose voice alone causes women to give in to his sexual advances (“Dara and his many girlfriends”, Lift, February13) .

While not denying that cases such as these exist, focusing on the worst characters of society denies the existence of more positive role models and examples of loving, healthy sexual relationships.

Although the role of young men in Cambodian society needs to be further highlighted, the role of young women’s agency, rather than vulnerability, also needs to be emphasized.

It needs to be acknowledged that the decision to have sex doesn’t just occur because it’s Valentine’s Day, but is a part of often-complex human relationships.

It’s important that we empower young women and men with the tools and knowledge to protect themselves from both potentially harmful sexually transmitted diseases and the effects of unintended pregnancy, but also with the emotional maturity to know when they’re ready to have sex and be able to refuse sex when they feel they’re not.

It’s also time to acknowledge that young Cambodian men and women are having sex, and that this is a normal, healthy expression of female and male sexuality, not an imposed Western construct.

Instead of encouraging young women to remain chaste, the Ministry of Education would be better off focusing their efforts on developing a curriculum that provides comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and to establish the foundation for building caring sexual relationships.

As for the Phnom Penh municipal police and local authorities, they would be better placed focusing their efforts on patrolling the streets for real acts of crime, not the act of sex.

Melissa Cockroft
mkcockroft@gmail.com

Free IELTS Masterclass for IELTS Candidates in Cambodia

Last Updated on 19 February 2013 

By Sreng Mao

English has more and more become a language that provides an avenue for overseas scholarships, work, business and other opportunities internationally.

The vast majority of scholarships available to Cambodians have English language proficiency as an eligibility requirement - quite often demonstrated through the IELTS test.

Universities in Australia, Canada, the UK, the USA or New Zealand usually require their students to have an IELTS score of 6.5 or above.

Therefore scholarships to these countries available to Cambodians every year require the same band score for direct entry into universities or an IELTS score of at least 5.0 with further English language training provided.

IELTS is the world’s leading English language test for higher education and migration. More than 7,000 universities, government bodies and professional organisations in over 135 countries accept IELTS scores. IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

IELTS tests all four language skills – listening, reading, writing and speaking. IELTS is available in two test formats: Academic and General Training. The Academic format is, broadly speaking, for those who want to study or train in an English-speaking university or institutions of higher and further education. Admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses is based on the results of the Academic test.

The General Training format focuses on basic survival skills in broad social and workplace contexts. It is typically for those who are going to English-speaking countries to do secondary education, work experience or training programs. People migrating to Australia, Canada and New Zealand must sit the General Training test.

The IELTS has a nine band score system and the test score is valid for two years.

For those who want to understand more about IELTS in order to apply for scholarships or to study overseas, they are welcome to come to the IELTS Masterclass which will be conducted by the Cambodia IELTS test centre.

These classes are open to the public at no cost to participants.

For more information on IELTS or about the IELTS Masterclass visit the Cambodia IDP website.

GERMANY: New education and research minister sworn in after Schavan resigns

Michael Gardner15 February 2013 Issue No:259

 

Christian Democrat Johanna Wanka was sworn in as Germany’s new education and research minister on 14 February. Wanka succeeds Annette Schavan, who announced last weekend that she would resign, after being tripped up by a plagiarism affair.

Higher education in Germany has taken a bashing following a string of plagiarism scandals, culminating in the previous education minister being stripped of her doctoral title by the University of Düsseldorf earlier this month.

Schavan announced her resignation after a panel investigating her PhD thesis found she was guilty of “deliberate deception” in using text that was not properly attributed. She said she would take legal action against the university’s decision and that the allegations “have hurt me deeply”.

New minister Wanka (61) seeks to boost the reputation of higher education by granting institutions maximum autonomy and promoting their ability to control their own affairs.

Wanka can boast considerable experience in higher education politics, having served as minister of higher education and research under a Social Democrat-Christian Democrat coalition government in Brandenburg for nearly 10 years and having been appointed for the same office in Lower Saxony under a Christian Democrat-Free Democrat coalition in 2010.

With talks in progress on a new Social Democrat-Green Party coalition government in Lower Saxony following recent elections, Wanka will almost certainly lose her current post there anyway.

Wanka comes from Rosenfeld, Saxony, in East Germany. She studied mathematics and obtained her doctorate in 1980. She was a member of the civil rights movement in the then German Democratic Republic, and joined the Christian Democratic Union in 2001.

She has been a staunch supporter of tuition fees, although Lower Saxony is one of the few federal states that have retained fees so far.

State governments are calling for a €4 billion (US$5.3 billion) support package to compensate for a drastic surge in student numbers brought about by the end of conscription and double cohorts of school-leavers due to the introduction of shorter higher secondary education.

With Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble, a fellow Christian Democrat, pursuing a strict austerity policy in federal spending, and facing a Social Democrat-Green majority in state governments, Wanka could have little leeway for new measures.

And she may have little time as well, with federal elections set for September.

Schavan’s departure came as a setback for German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of elections. She is the second member of Merkel’s cabinet to have resigned over plagiarism – former defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg left his post in 2011.
 

UNITED STATES: A decade of publishing: PLOS is stronger than ever

Geoff Maslen16 February 2013 Issue No:259

 

One of the earliest open access science journals, PLOS, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a year-long series of events to “recognise and advance the innovations brought about through the adoption of open access publishing”. The activities will be aimed at members of the scientific community and the public at large.

The PLOS story began in 2000 when its founders set out to tackle the lack of access to the majority of scientific research, which was then published behind pay walls. They startled the American academic science establishment with a petition calling for open access to research findings.

Two years later, the team established a new entity called the non-profit Public Library of Science, now known as PLOS, an open access model, and launched its first journal, PLOS Biology. This was followed over the next decade by six other science periodicals that are among the most widely read around the globe.

The organisers say PLOS will partner with media organisations to demonstrate “the many ways in which biomedical research published on an open access platform can affect peoples’ lives for the better”.

Using monthly online dialogues, leading advocates will be invited to take part in conversations to look ahead at the possible future of open access scientific discovery and publishing.

“Additional offerings during our 10th anniversary year will include programmes to increase adoption of open access, deliver more innovations in publishing and expand peer-review, including pre-and post-publication,” the journal editors say.

“Our vision is to help the research community build a truly open, distributed, and reusable public repository of ideas and data.”

Among the events listed on the Official PLOS Blog, Twitter and Facebook are:

• Reinventing Science: Stories of open discovery: A multimedia series consisting of feature articles, research summaries and podcasts that profile researchers tapping into the knowledge of open access journals and collections to help accelerate their own research and enhance collaboration with peers around the globe.
  
• PLOS Conversations on Open Access: Hosted by Cameron Neylon, this regular podcast will round up the latest happenings and discussions about open access, open research, and open data.
  
• More About “How Open Is It?”: The conversation has moved from “is it open?” to “how open is it?” and to continue this discussion, PLOS will unveil new resources and tools that help authors, readers and funders understand the benefits of open access and how to apply components of the HowOpenIsIt? Open Access Spectrum at the article and journal level.
  
• Article-level Metrics: Through ongoing forums, live and virtual events, and other activities, PLOS will continue to make advances in article-level metrics and other mechanisms for broadening peer review to include post-publication impact indicators, along with better tools for assessing, organising and reusing research ideas and data.
  
• The PLOS Journals: In 2013, PLOS Medicine turns its attention to non-communicable diseases and the burden of disease they cause, while PLOS ONE continues its growth as the world’s largest peer reviewed journal.

 

UNITED STATES: Why graduates are underemployed and overeducated

Deseret News16 February 2013 Issue No:259

 

When Barack Obama first became president, he set the goal of increasing America’s college graduation rate to 60% by 2020. But the idea of working towards becoming a nation of college graduates has a major problem, according to a report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, writes Michael De Groote for Deseret News. There are not enough jobs that require a college degree.

Analysing 2010 data from the US Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9%) are working in jobs that require a bachelor degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high school diploma or less. The rest (11.1%) are in jobs that require some post-secondary training such as an associate's degree.

In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor degree or more.

Full report on the Deseret News site

 

 

When Barack Obama first became President four years ago, he set a goal to increase the nation's college graduation rate to 60 percent by 2020. The idea of working towards becoming a nation of college graduates, however, has a major problem according to a new report by the Center for College Affordability & Productivity.

There are not enough jobs that require a college degree.
Analyzing 2010 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the report finds that of the 41.7 million working college graduates, barely half (51.9 percent) are working in jobs that require a bachelor's degree or higher. Thirty-seven percent are in jobs that require a high-school diploma or less. The rest (11.1 percent) are in jobs that require some postsecondary training such as an associate's degree.
In other words, there are 13 million college graduates working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree or more.

The problem was driven home for the report's lead author, economist Richard Vedder, when he needed some yard work done. "One day I had some guy cut down a tree," he says. "He had a master's degree in history."

So Vedder, the senior author of the report and director of CCAP, says he started to research the phenomenon of underemployed graduates — eventually leading to the report.
Number of graduates soars

It wasn't always this way. In 2010 the proportion of adults with degrees was 30 percent. This is five times higher than six decades ago. In the 50s or 60s the percentage of college graduates was in the single digits.

"When I started teaching in the (1960s) going to college was still a somewhat unusual, slightly elitist thing to do," says Vedder, who is a Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus at Ohio University. "Almost all graduates got a pretty good job. Even graduates in middle-quality state schools always got jobs."

While the number of college graduates has soared, the jobs that require that expertise hasn't — forcing an increasing number of graduates to take jobs that historically didn't require a lot of education.

It turns out, for example, that 15.4 percent of taxi drivers have college degrees, 12.9 percent of parking lot attendants have at least a bachelor's degree and 24.6 percent of retail sales people have at least a bachelor's degree.

Earnings premium

Other studies (such as one at Georgetown University) have shown the earnings premium of college degrees. College graduates simply earn more than those who have just a high school diploma. This increase in potential income is seen to justify the expense of spending money on getting a degree.
The CCAP's report, however, says that although many benefit economically from going to college, there are still many that do not achieve those gains. Employers simply do not need as many college graduates as the colleges are cranking out.

The study says this "over-credentialing" of the population may also mean that society may be "over-investing" in higher education instead of looking at alternatives such as vocational training.
"Can you predict ahead of time if going to college is a good idea for someone?" Vedder says. "Yes, for a good number of people."

For example, if young people are average or below average in their grades, Vedder recommends trying perhaps a community college first. If they flourish, they may wish then to transfer to a four-year institution.

"We need to be more nuanced and be careful when we say whether it is a good thing for a kid to go to college," he says.

MYANMAR: Students find hope in university revival

Voice of America16 February 2013 Issue No:259

 

RANGOON — Burma's universities were once considered by many to be among the best in East Asia. But years of mismanagement and a disastrous nationalization process left the education system in such shambles that many students seek educational opportunities abroad.

Since entering parliament, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made restoration of Burmese schools a priority, and a new attitude towards learning has emerged among policymakers.

These Burmese students are visiting a United States college fair in Rangoon, in the hopes to attend college there. Recent political reforms that have resulted in the lifting of sanctions against Burma have made this type of event possible for the very first time.

U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell says he hopes Burmese students can go to the United States to get a good education, but at the same time there is a need to improve local education systems.

"Most important is for it to be indigenous, and in fact we talk about universities but there's a lot that happens before you get to university," Mitchell says. "Primary school education, secondary school education, that has to happen here."

When Burma's universities were nationalized in 1964, the government controlled curricula; subjects such as history and political science were taboo. Since reform, however, there has been an attempt to introduce classes that discuss sensitive issues such as the history of ethnic conflict in Burma.

May Nyein Chan is taking this history class that is being taught through the embassy-run American Center.

"Before I don't think I can have that, it would be something illegal," she says. "I have never gone to a field trip like this before."

Universities were at the center of student uprisings that occurred periodically over the past five decades. The government closed them down to keep students away from where they could cause harm.

Thein Lwin, a graduate of Rangoon University, has now formed a committee that will make recommendations to parliament on new education policy. He says the government needs a fundamental change in its attitude towards schools and education. But, he adds, it will take time to undo the damage of past governments.

"Students should be allowed to form freely student union, the student representative should participate in the university governing body," he says. "University should be a place for criticizing the country."

In the meantime, students who hope to be able to continue their education, still want to leave the country. 

Malaysia: Najib treading on thin ice

By Roger Mitton

Although it should be a cinch to guess the name of the politician who did the following things, several perceptive observers were flummoxed when tested over the weekend.

The politician in question visited the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave of Gaza last month, and then went to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum.

There, he told investors the threat of Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia had been nullified; yet upon returning home, he promptly had three alleged terrorists detained for subversive activities.
Soon afterwards, he was mortified to hear that Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party had lost a by-election in a formerly safe seat after an anti-government swing of 13.5 per cent.

Today, he plans to attend a vote-getting Chinese New Year bash at whiche South Korean superstar Psy will perform his famous Gangnam Style dance.

No, it’s not Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose party does face elections soon and who did visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia last week and who attended Davos in 2011, but not this year.

No, it is Malaysia’s rather vulnerable Prime Minister Najib Razak, who must hold a general election by June 27, and who, as the above actions indicate, is now in full campaign mode.
His trip to Gaza, the first by a non-Arab Muslim leader since 2007, was provocative, dangerous, crudely geared to impress his Malay-Muslim constituents — and highly laudable.

After all, the Hamas-led government in Gaza has been in power since it was democratically elected in 2006 and has more legitimacy than some of Cambodia’s neighbours.

Predictably, the rival Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank condemned Najib’s visit, as did Western nations that noticed it; less predictably, Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim did the same.

Anwar is a rather mercurial fellow. In his younger days, he was a fervent Islamist with revolutionary tendences; today his attitudes, especially his foreign policy, align more with those of the United States.

It is understandable. During his long years of detention and subsequent harassment by former PM Mahathir Mohamad’s authoritarian government, no one supported Anwar as much as the US.
But his echo of Washington’s censure of Najib’s visit to Gaza could be a major misstep.
Najib has cannily defended it as a humanitarian mission and took the opportunity to chastise Israeli belligerence and to offer scholarships to needy Palestinian students.

For a notoriously indecisive politician, it was a bold move that might, on its own, help Najib’s National Front government retain Malay heartland states like Kedah, Perak and Terengganu.
What it will not do is win over non-Malay votes.

Recent soundings are ominous for Najib for they indicate the Chinese and Indian communities will support the Anwar-led opposition.
The PM’s National Front can live with this in peninsular Malaysia where a large majority of the population is Muslim, but if it occurs in the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, then Najib will be toast.

And it could happen, for his overtures to East Malaysians have been hurt by last month’s revelations of a “citizenship-for-votes” scheme whereby hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants were given identity cards.

Last month, a commission of inquiry was told by one former official that he accepted more than $25,000 to grant citizenship to illegal Filipino, Indonesian and Pakistani Muslims who promised to vote for the National Front.

The numbers certainly support the allegation. In 1960, less than 40 per cent of Sabah’s population was Muslim; today, it is nearly 70 per cent.

How native-born Malaysians react to this vast fraud in the coming election is hard to gauge, but it is possible that the shock results in Singapore will pale beside what happens soon in Malaysia.