The Professor Who Only Professes

By admin-s On Apr 25, 2017

Raghavan Nair

Not long ago, a Washington based daily newspaper called The Chronicle of Higher Education that caters to academicians globally, published an interesting article titled “When Professors Profess Too Much”. In a very charitable manner the author summed that professors love professing and assumes everyone else loves what they have to profess. They tend to be vociferous about the views, building fervor about their topic, and are less willing to accept a difference in opinion.

Professor P. Ramasamy of DAP seems to be exactly the professor who professes too much. He concocted amazing assumptions in a recent article downplaying the Indian Blueprint. It is appalling to see Ramasamy mocking researchers who are genesis of the blueprint. Calling bluff on the document simply because the researchers have no standing in the Indian community is akin to saying that dissertations and thesis of foreign scholars who come to Malaysia to do their PhD in our local culture should be out rightly rejected. These foreign scholars have neither a standing in our local community nor have any understanding in our cultures. Hence, their years of research and hard work should not be given any weightage, according to Prof Ramasamy’s hypothesis.

It is deplorable to see a man who has no locus standi even in a state where he is the deputy minister ridiculing effort by others. Ramasamy should always remember that one who lives in a glass house should forbid from throwing stones outside. Although we can only judge the blueprint upon its execution, the vision of developing a 10-year master plan ensuring mainstreaming of initiatives within relevant governmental ministries and agencies deserves an applaud. We cannot deny that this blueprint is an effort by BN to lure back Indian voters. At the same time, at least somebody is trying to do something for the Malaysian Indian community.

Maybe Ramasamy should shed some light on governance of his state with regards to the Indian community. It would be wonderful if Ramasamy could give a breakdown on how much money the Penang state government has allocated for Indians? Of the amount, how much actually reached the deserving and who received them? Why is there nothing for Malaysian Indians in the Pakatan Rakyat/Harapan Manifesto? Is there a blueprint to safeguard the Bottom 40 of the community in states governed by Pakatan? Why is there only 1 Indian Pengarah from the many departments in the Penang City Council (MBBP)? Why did DAP voice dissatisfaction about PKR’s campaigning among the Indians during the recent Permatang-Pauh by-elections? Is it because Indians contribute a meager 6% of votes only and bore no significance to the final outcome of the election? What has the Penang state government done so far to address chronic problems facing the Indian community as highlighted by COPINGO (an acronym for Coalition of NGOs and Concerned Citizens on Indian Affairs in Penang)?

Being a learned person, I am surprised Ramasamy is yet to realize the importance of questioning efforts by BN and backing it up with substantial proper research based data on actions taken in his own state for the Indian community. There are enough keyboard warriors in this country who pen opinions in an air-conditioned room. We need more doers than talkers. As the say, an empty vessel makes the most noise. I certainly hope Ramasamy is not the male version of Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is nothing but a shadow-puppet in the Lim Guan Eng theatre.