University of Umno ranks low in Malaysia
If Umno is a university, as the Kedah MB says, it’s worth asking what kind of education the party is giving its members.
Amalina Anuar, Free Malaysia Today
Just when we thought the Kedah crisis was over with the installation of Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah as Menteri Besar, the drama took a new twist with questions about his education. In response, he proudly declared that Umno was his university.
One can only hazard a guess as to what lessons the University of Umno might offer.
Here’s a probable reading list:
- International fundraising and secret donations: A how-to guide
- Best places in the world to store illicit funds
- Loyalty vs intelligence: Key traits to consider when hiring henchmen
- Fear and racism: A dictator’s guide to governing
- Controlling the media and squashing dissent (with a bonus chapter on raising a cyber army)
- 1001 ways to waste taxpayers’ money
Jokes aside, there is a key problem with Bashah’s qualifications but whether or not he has a university education isn’t it. There are many types of intelligence and going to university is just one way of obtaining knowledge and wisdom. Besides, learning is a lifelong journey and experience can take a person far. Even theory must have practical applications, after all, and someone stuck in an ivory tower can be just as incompetent as someone without any education at all.
The problem is that Umno teaches questionable lessons at best and terrible lessons at worst. This is a party that has not only deviated from its original course, but is simultaneously destroying the very social fabric Malaysia was founded on.
