Wednesday December 5, 2007

Malaysia's higher education at critical stage, says World Bank

MALAYSIA’S higher education system is at a critical state and lagging behind that of neighbouring countries, according to a World Bank report carried by Utusan Malaysia.

The front-page report, entitled “Malaysia and the Knowledge Economy: Building a World-Class Higher Education System,” said the country would need to focus and build clear strategies if it wants to compete on an international platform.

As such, the World Bank urged Malaysia to concentrate on choosing a more effective administration and financial model, improving overall quality of the universities, equipping graduates to function in a knowledge-based economy and creating a solid network between the private sector and universities.

The 258-page report was distributed at the Regional Higher Education Conference held at the KL Convention Centre on Monday.

Tourism Malaysia and Ministry to work together on dances hit by controversy

Tourism Malaysia and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage will be working together to handle the issue of Indonesia accusing Malaysia of passing off an Indonesian dance as its own, Berita Harian reported.

The traditional dance, known in Malaysia as the Barongan, depicts a man in a tiger’s head and a peacock-feathered mask being followed by acrobats. It was featured in the ministry’s advertisements.

Research has shown that the dance, which is known as the Reog Ponorogo in Java, has long been practised by the Malay community in Johor.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said this issue should not have cropped up because historically, the community in Nusantara, encompassing both Indonesia and Malaysia, had a lot in common in terms of language, culture and arts.

“Previously, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand had no borders and their people, including our ancestors, walked in and out freely,” he said.

“As such, we are able to see many similarities between Indonesians and Malaysians and the communities of other countries. This means that any country can claim a dance as its own,” Tengku Adnan said at a press conference after launching a mass circumcision programme in Putrajaya on Monday.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a sub-heading, it denotes a separate news item

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