INTRODUCING THE "NO OBJECTION LICENSE" TO KILL

Licensing Students

13TH MARCH 2005, NST PRIME NEWS

NON-OBJECTION certificate - a must for Malaysian students studying overseas.

INTRODUCING THE "NO OBJECTION LICENSE" TO EMPOWER KLEPTOCRATISM

Students will have to be "licensed" before they can leave Malaysia under a plan by the Higher Education Ministry. The proposal for "non-objection certificates" to be issued by the ministry's Students Welfare Department will help the Government track their whereabouts, Higher Education parliamentary-secretary Dr Adham Baba said. The certificates will also allow the Government to help students get into the "right" universities, which are those recognised by the Government, he said.

Students who insist on studying at non-scheduled universities will not be issued the certificate.

If implemented, the plan will make it compulsory for Malaysian students, both private or government-sponsored, to hold these certificates before they can leave for their studies.

"We will advise them from going abroad if their academic records are not so good and we won't issue the certificate," Dr. Adham said.

Students will have to provide their academic qualifications and letter of offer to ministry officials before the certificate is issued. "There is a need for us to know the whereabouts of all Malaysian students abroad. If anything happens to them, at least we have records and data and know what to do."

Adham added that through the move, the Government would be able to determine the number of "quality" students who went overseas, based on their cumulative grade point average. "We do not want our private students, especially, to be taken for a ride by agents or private institutions offering courses that are not recognised by our Government." The plan came up following numerous complaints from students and parents.

What is the ministry trying to do???? This is an attempt that would infringed the rights and freedom of individual citizens and parents to provide their children an opportunity to pursue higher education which are to be fully funded by their parents. Dr. Adham was quoted as saying that the ministry will NOT issue the license to permit the students to study abroad if their academic records are not so good. What does he mean by NOT SO GOOD? Does he mean that the ministry has a right to stop someone who did not do well in their SPM and STPM from pursuing their "A" levels or maybe diplomas or certificate courses from oversea institutions? If foreign universities can accept and admit those students, giving them a chance to obtain some form of education and qualification, what rights had the ministry to play GOD and abuse the power mandated by the rakyat, by erecting a concrete barrier and preventing them from being educated?

WHERE IS THE RULE OF LAW IN MALAYSIA?

DOESN'T THE LEGISLATURE UNDERSTAND THE RULE OF LAW?

In the doctrines of the rule of law, Philosophers F.V. Hayek and AV Dicey emphasise the most essential component as the absence of arbitrary power in the hands of the State. According to F.V. Hayek, government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand. Hayek expressed that the rule of law implies limit on the scope of legislation, it restrict it to the kind of general rules known as formal law, and exclude legislation directly aimed at particular person. In other words, the government has no place in usurping the authority of individuals by deciding their course of action for them. Individuals should be left to act as they choose. The job of law is to set the boundaries of personal action, not to dictate the course of such action. Law should not be particular in content or application but should be general in nature, applying to all and benefiting no one in particular.

Is this the democratic government that had decided to use the autocratic and high-handed tactics to dictate each rakyats' individual action and to dictate the boundaries of personal action by high-handedness, determining who should get what and who should be educated and who shouldn't? Is it that those individuals who did not do well in SPM and STPM should be pronounced as beggers and pariahs of the society?

With these kind of new policies being forwarded, the rakyat should get paranoid and start pondering what the future will be if the Prime Minister would allow his modern dictators in the name of democracy to self-appoint themselves as god of destruction of the people. If such destructive nacissicistic leadership and antogonistic managers are allowed to use delegated legislatures to usurp the rights of individuals, it will spell the beginning of the "Clash of Civilization". GOD forbid such imperialistic powers that would be to remain.

Pak Lah, where are you? Would you lay your hands to prevent the abuse of human rights by your appointees? Where is the constitutional rights of individual citizen to receive education???