Friends Of STAR

"I salute Cikgu Lau Hut Yee - a teacher who is Chinese and who carried out his duties and responsibilities as a teacher with full dedication, commitment, and he never knew what 'being tired' was teaching and guiding Malay students at STAR. He was the master of Yellow House, of which I was a member. Do you think we will ever meet someone like him again?" Abdul Hadi Mohd Deros, STAR, Class of '67.

The comment I found on Facebook above by Abdul Hadi Mohd Deros, a retired senior engineer at TNB and a former student of Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR) from the class of '67, attracted me and his question, "Do you think we will ever meet someone like him again?" is a common question we now hear almost everyday. Maybe, to people these days, the situation those days was like "magic" and something that could only happen then but not now.

In the '60s, we had all the various races living in this country, just like today, and the situation then was very different from now. Then, nobody bothered what "colour" one was and what race one belongs to. Everyone carried out their daily duties and responsibilities without regard to race at all. We did things as one, as Malaysians. We just wanted to be the best and we shared everything equally. There was no favouritism seen or practised and we definitely didn't want anyone to fail. Teachers parted their knowledge willingly, like Cikgu Lau Hut Yee, and the same things went for people who served as engineers, doctors, civil servants, etc.

We all wanted our country to be a good and peaceful country, to develop and to progress. But, something, somewhere, things went very wrong and fast forward to now, we see polarisation between races quite distinctly, among others, and it looks like many people, especially many of our leaders, have become very selfish. They only "fight" for their respective community which had made the formation of race-based political parties necessary.

Most recently, we read about and heard a big "hue and cry" from leaders of various communities arguing about the awarding of scholarships for all A students which they alleged had been carried out unfairly and favouring only a certain race. The people don't like things like these, either seen or heard.

Though Barisan Nasional, the coalition party consisting of Umno, the MCA and MIC and others, represents all the communities in this country but, between them, we can clearly see the individual component party's leaders' interest in representing only the people in their community and disputes between leaders of different communities are now aired publicly which should never have happened if they had carried out their duties and responsibilities with the right spirit of 1 Malaysia. They all, rightfully, should be ashamed of themselves and things like these should be avoided at all cost.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has spelled out his vision clearly and the schemes in the ETP and the GTP for us to achieve developed nation and high-income nation status in 2020. Roadmaps, programmes and plans towards achieving Vision 2020 have been laid out very clearly for all to see and regular monitoring of their progress by experienced and qualified people under the able leadership of Datuk Seri Idris Jala, the CEO of Pemandu, is carried out diligently.

Now, what it takes to ensure that Vision 2020 can be achieved in its right form for all Malaysians, especially our leaders, is for all, especially community leaders, to "bury the hatchet", and to start thinking of the country and its people more and throw out all personal agendas, if any, away - Hussaini Abdul Karim via The Malaysian Insider.