Anthropological note on Malaysia.
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I may have located a flaw in our implementation of constitutional law and our education system's syllabus for language.
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The country of Malaysia is defined by a Constitution, co-written by colonial powers, in the English language. All laws of the country, follow from this English language constitution.
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By contrast, the convention has been to treat Malay as the official language of the nation. The disconnect is thus: every time a member of this officially Malay speaking country has to do a fundamental study of law, he or she ends up referring to an English language document.
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Hypothesis*: we should decisively pick ONE official language, it should probably be Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu, we should translate all documents to that language WITH COPIOUS HISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC FOOTNOTES, and the YDPA should sign off on the Malay versions as authoritative, and we should just bin the English versions of all laws (to the bin of lower authority).
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* I'm quite aware that this accelerates a can of worms being potential constitutional crises in the future.
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** For reference, some screencaps from the National Language Act of Malaysia.
2018-06-02 at 9:58 am
Libraries and Hegemony
"There's no need for better libraries, Malaysian don't read."
"There isn't a private library in the world that's demand-driven. Libraries are perpetuators of hegemony. They're top-down infrastructure, investments driven by values ("policy targets")."
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The definition of objective value, or 'what is good,' is based on subjective value: if you value the ability of individuals to act according to their whims, then you are said to be on the left, and if you value the ability of one party to enforce discipline over other parties, then you are said to be on the right. These are arbitrary preferences. Each society determines a practical consensus, which may be more right- or left-leaning, then proceeds to brainwash the next generation of its population accordingly. This is just biology.
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I grew up in a conservative ("right-leaning") society, and therefore had rather liberal ("left-leaning") tendencies as a child. Since the age of twenty, by which time I had completed many of the fundamentals of studies which interested me as a child, I find myself more of a centrist. This is in light of my background as a technician. I strive to be the person who knows the price of everything, and to associate myself with the value of nothing. I wonder if this where technocrats come from.
"There isn't a private library in the world that's demand-driven. Libraries are perpetuators of hegemony. They're top-down infrastructure, investments driven by values ("policy targets")."
.
The definition of objective value, or 'what is good,' is based on subjective value: if you value the ability of individuals to act according to their whims, then you are said to be on the left, and if you value the ability of one party to enforce discipline over other parties, then you are said to be on the right. These are arbitrary preferences. Each society determines a practical consensus, which may be more right- or left-leaning, then proceeds to brainwash the next generation of its population accordingly. This is just biology.
.
I grew up in a conservative ("right-leaning") society, and therefore had rather liberal ("left-leaning") tendencies as a child. Since the age of twenty, by which time I had completed many of the fundamentals of studies which interested me as a child, I find myself more of a centrist. This is in light of my background as a technician. I strive to be the person who knows the price of everything, and to associate myself with the value of nothing. I wonder if this where technocrats come from.
My (late) submission to the Committee for Institutional Reforms
COMMENTS:
Citizenships should be able to access the law easily, in order to determine how to comply with it. The Committee for Institutional Reforms must review how citizens have been hindered, or passively not-enabled, from accessing and interacting with the laws of the nation. Two comments follow, below. Recommendations are in the next form field.
# ONE
Initially written on 20 May. [redacted text from: https://www.facebook.com/jerngatwork/posts/950916425089065 / link ]
# TWO
This next comment is anecdotal, and supplementary to the comments above.
As a small business owner, I have at time been to my local city council to determine the current state of by-laws, only to be told that the city council may enforce, but not disseminate the letter of the law. In order to obtain the letter of the law, I have been redirected to third-parties officially granted the agency of publishing hard-copies of the latest version of Malaysian laws. This is frankly, absurd.
In running a business as simple as a cafe, I have to interact with legislation of over a dozen agencies, including the Energy Commission on gas piping, and the Inland Revenue Board on withholding taxes on fees for Internet Advertising. There is no simple way to access all of these laws at once, and in a short amount of time. This is not a necessary state of affairs. Based on my conversations with other small business owners, in many cases they do not even bother to look up these laws.
###
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS:
###
A core problem is that many citizens have a weak ability to interact with their local laws, particularly those laws which enable them to affect public policy via the Dewan Rakyat (parliament).
RECOMMENDATIONS:
(8.) Reintroduce via the Dewan Negara (senate) a formal review of what "effective citizenship" looks like - the fundamental requirements for individual citizens.
(9.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Education. Then review the 2013-2025 education blueprint in light of the findings from this discussion.
(10.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia. Then review the ability of any citizen to access within five (5) minutes, and update their knowledge to the current state of any item in Malaysia's official law, from the Constitution, all the way down to local council by-laws.
(11.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs. Then review the portfolios of the (ministry of home affairs) which are concerned with information dissemination and public education - and discuss the practicality of moving these portfolios to the (ministry of communications and multimedia). Thereafter, extend the discussion to determine a clear and transparent framework for effective interaction between the two ministries, in order to address the core issue raised above. Furtheronto the (ministry of home affairs) should review programs and funding for adult citizens (older than 21 years of age) to continuously review the state of the law, in their daily activities. References to the law must be encoded into the algorithm of public life - it must not be allowed to remain optional.
Citizenships should be able to access the law easily, in order to determine how to comply with it. The Committee for Institutional Reforms must review how citizens have been hindered, or passively not-enabled, from accessing and interacting with the laws of the nation. Two comments follow, below. Recommendations are in the next form field.
# ONE
Initially written on 20 May. [redacted text from: https://www.facebook.com/jerngatwork/posts/950916425089065 / link ]
# TWO
This next comment is anecdotal, and supplementary to the comments above.
As a small business owner, I have at time been to my local city council to determine the current state of by-laws, only to be told that the city council may enforce, but not disseminate the letter of the law. In order to obtain the letter of the law, I have been redirected to third-parties officially granted the agency of publishing hard-copies of the latest version of Malaysian laws. This is frankly, absurd.
In running a business as simple as a cafe, I have to interact with legislation of over a dozen agencies, including the Energy Commission on gas piping, and the Inland Revenue Board on withholding taxes on fees for Internet Advertising. There is no simple way to access all of these laws at once, and in a short amount of time. This is not a necessary state of affairs. Based on my conversations with other small business owners, in many cases they do not even bother to look up these laws.
###
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS:
###
A core problem is that many citizens have a weak ability to interact with their local laws, particularly those laws which enable them to affect public policy via the Dewan Rakyat (parliament).
RECOMMENDATIONS:
(8.) Reintroduce via the Dewan Negara (senate) a formal review of what "effective citizenship" looks like - the fundamental requirements for individual citizens.
(9.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Education. Then review the 2013-2025 education blueprint in light of the findings from this discussion.
(10.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia. Then review the ability of any citizen to access within five (5) minutes, and update their knowledge to the current state of any item in Malaysia's official law, from the Constitution, all the way down to local council by-laws.
(11.) Extend this discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs. Then review the portfolios of the (ministry of home affairs) which are concerned with information dissemination and public education - and discuss the practicality of moving these portfolios to the (ministry of communications and multimedia). Thereafter, extend the discussion to determine a clear and transparent framework for effective interaction between the two ministries, in order to address the core issue raised above. Furtheronto the (ministry of home affairs) should review programs and funding for adult citizens (older than 21 years of age) to continuously review the state of the law, in their daily activities. References to the law must be encoded into the algorithm of public life - it must not be allowed to remain optional.
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