Kedai Kopi Pak Nab in Rutgers: The Report

Program Kedai Kopi Rutgers University.

Waktu program: Sabtu 17 Oktober 2009 (9:00 malam – 11:30 malam)

Senarai yang hadir:

Fahzan

Aishah Nayan

Kwang Huei

Taufik

Farah Najeeha

Kai Li

Najmi

Zahid

Atilia

Manford Goh

Zaim

Hamidah

Foo Tzehkeong

Hanis Haziqah

Jumlah Perbelanjaan: $43.76 untuk minuman, makanan ringan dan lain-lain.

Tuan rumah untuk program, Taufik dan Najmi juga ada menyediakan bihun goreng dan nasi. Ini tidak termasuk dalam $43.76 di atas.

Bahagian 1) Democracy: a Flawed System?

Antara soalan-soalan yang ditimbulkan:

· What is democracy?

· How is it different from other systems?

· Why is democracy more prevalent in today’s world?

· Why is the west more “successful” in holding democracy? Is democracy superior to other political systems?

· Differences of democracy practiced in Malaysia and the rest of the world

Antara respons-respons dari hadirin:

· Democracy is a system that emphasizes on the power of majority of the people to decide the direction the government would take.

· Comparison with other systems such as monarchy, theocracy etc. Theoretically, democracy seems to be the system that favors the mass as a whole. However, it could still be abused and taken advantage of if the people do not really understand how the system works.

· Democracy seems to work successfully in the western countries. A lot of countries in the third world countries theoretically practice democracy (by having election etc), but corruption is still rampant and power abuse is still a norm. This could be attributed to the mentality of people and their knowledge of the working system of democracy.

· Democracy is not the ultimate superior political system. In the history of the development of human civilization, successful empires and civilizations come and go with different political systems. Even the founder democracy, the ancient Greek empire crumbled and fell out of favor. Democracy is probably more relevant today but not saying, 300 years ago. This explains that political system works in cycle of time. Democracy may become less dominant in the future.

· In addition, in democratic countries, decision making sometimes take a long time due to the process that takes place in the parliament or senate. Therefore, in some way, the decision making process in developing countries may better be made by only a small of people to speed up the process of development.

· Democracy in Malaysia: how the political system changed from the sultanate of different states to parliamentary democracy.

Bahagian 2: Problems with current education system

Antara soalan-soalan yang ditimbulkan:

· Does our current education system promote integration between races?

· The dilemma of the language of instruction

· Scholarship program and its impact and effectiveness on Malaysian development

Dan jawapan-jawapan dari hadirin:

· Some audiences disagree with the vernacular schools. Kids do not interact with kids from different racial background from young age. This creates massive misunderstanding and suspicion between races.

· A lot of Chinese feel that national schools only cater Malay students’ interests. They feel these schools are inadequate to cater Chinese students. Some feel that Chinese schools promote more hardworking culture with daily homework and strict regulation (I’m not familiar with Chinese school, so we just take this point anyway)

· Scholarship program has helped Malaysia produce young bright minds. However, the bigger problem is the continuation after graduation and returning to Malaysia from universities abroad. The lack of job and research opportunities that correspond to the qualification hurt the country as students are more interested in finding the opportunities in foreign countries.

Program tamat sekitar jam 11:30 malam.

Prepared by,

Fahzan Ramli

Rutgers University