A Satirical Take on Malaysia’s Dasar Pelajaran Negara If there is one thing Malaysians are truly skilled at, it is having opinions on education.  It doesn’t matter that most of us have left school decades ago, or that the latest child-development research might as well be written in Sanskrit for all the average parent can digest.  If we’ve survived three years of primary school, sat through PMR (or PT3), and managed to spell “recess” without hyphenating it as “re-ce-ss,” we are suddenly experts on national education policy.  Enter: the recently announced Dasar Pelajaran Negara (DPN) 2026–2035, and the ensuing debate that has proven once again that in Malaysia, everyone is a pedagogical genius.

The recent turmoil in Indonesia’s stock market—triggered by Morgan Stanley’s decision to downgrade and effectively exit the country on grounds of poor corporate governance—should be a wake-up call for Malaysia.  Markets do not collapse overnight; they corrode gradually when institutions tasked with oversight lose credibility. Indonesia’s experience is not merely an external shock. It is a cautionary mirror. In Malaysia, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has rightly warned law-enforcement agencies to step aside if they are not serious about combating corruption. His rebuke, aimed primarily at agencies under the Home Ministry, resonated with public frustration.  Yet conspicuously absent from this call to accountability was the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)—the statutory body entrusted with safeguarding the integrity of Malaysia’s capital markets. This omission matters.

The Malaysian public was surprised and even shocked by the circulation of photographs and videos showing Tan Sri Dr Daud Bakar wearing the orange MACC T-shirt, escorted by officers to court for a remand hearing.  For many, the images were jarring. Daud Bakar is widely known not as a politician or corporate raider, but as a globally recognised Islamic finance scholar, a figure associated with Shariah governance, advisory boards, and moral authority.  The immediate emotional reaction was therefore sympathy, followed by disbelief. It is within this emotional space that a narrative of victimisation has begun to take root.  Supporters of Daud Bakar have framed the investigation by Tan Sri Azam Baki and the MACC as persecution rather than process.  The argument is familiar: his personal character, international standing, and scholarly contributions to Islamic finance supposedly place him beyond suspicion. From this perspective, any investigation is portrayed not as due pro...

Why the Dasar Pelajaran Negara matters — and why we should not mistake political ownership for true reform Education is foundational to a nation’s progress. It shapes not only what students learn in classrooms but how they think, engage, and contribute to society.  In Malaysia, education has long been cast as an instrument of nation-building and socio-economic development — a continuous process, not a one-off event.  Yet, as we grapple with the recently announced Dasar Pelajaran Negara (National Education Development Plan 2026–2035), it’s worth reflecting on both the substance of the plan and the way we frame public debates about it. Understanding the Dasar Pelajaran Negara Launched on 20 January 2026 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the Ministry of Education, the Dasar Pelajaran Negara is Malaysia’s latest decade-long education roadmap, succeeding the 2013–2025 blueprint.  It aims to steer the nation’s education system toward quality, inclusivity, and glob...

The IJM–Sunway Puzzle and a Corporate Intrigue Unfolding Every so often, Corporate Malaysia produces a story that refuses to sit neatly within the usual boundaries of market logic. The proposed Sunway–IJM transaction appears to be one such case.  On the surface, it is framed as a conventional consolidation move in construction and infrastructure. Beneath it, however, lies a convergence of political anxiety, market anomalies, whispered investigations, and institutional silence that raises an uncomfortable question:  Is there more here than meets the eye? The issue was reignited after UMNO’s recent General Assembly when UMNO Youth Chief Dr Akmal Saleh publicly voiced concerns over IJM. While his remarks were quickly interpreted through a racial or political lens—particularly anxieties over Sunway’s Chinese ownership and IJM’s strategic highway concessions—the substance of the concern deserves a more sober examination.  Strip away the rhetoric, and what remains is not about ...

Dari Penyatuan Melayu kepada Kerjasama dan Melayu Berdikari Slogan “Penyatuan Melayu” pernah menjadi teras kekuatan politik UMNO. Ia lahir daripada detik sejarah yang genting—penentangan terhadap Malayan Union, pembelaan kedaulatan Raja-Raja Melayu, Islam dan kedudukan orang Melayu dalam sebuah masyarakat majmuk pascakolonial.  Pada ketika itu, penyatuan Melayu bukan sekadar slogan, tetapi satu keperluan eksistensial untuk survival politik dan tamadun. Namun sejarah juga mengajar bahawa slogan yang tidak berkembang akan menjadi beban. Dalam realiti politik, ekonomi dan geopolitik hari ini, penyatuan Melayu dalam bentuk lama—berasaskan mobilisasi emosi, ketakutan dan kesetiaan feudal —tidak lagi mampan, malah semakin terpisah daripada aspirasi generasi Melayu baharu. UMNO perlu menerima hakikat ini bukan sebagai kegagalan, tetapi sebagai titik perubahan strategik.

When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land? I should have stayed on the farm I should have listened to my old man You know you can't hold me forever I didn't sign up with you I'm not a present for your friends to open This boy's too young to be singing The blues, ah, ah So goodbye yellow brick road Where the dogs of society howl You can't plant me in your penthouse I'm going back to my plough