May 2001 Archives

As societies all over the world struggle to contain and control the spread of drug use among its people, government after government are beginning to rationalize the reduction of penalty on drug users. For many years, Holland has been a bastion of liberal drug policy with its decriminalization of marijuana and hashish. 9 states in the US already have bills in their legislative houses calling for similar decriminalization. Left-wing politicians in Britain, France and Germany, having long championed the possible gains from “soft-drug” decriminalization, they are beginning to gain considerable grass root support. Certainly, this is a worrying trend and it won’t make the problem of drugs just disappear.

In the past week, the most pressing issue in Malaysia deals with education and who should have access to it. As in any country, only the very best students coming out from their secondary education will be accepted into the tertiary system. For the last three decades, this arrangement has been tempered with a quota system that guarantees places to the indigenous Malay population; 55% of all available university places would go the Malays and 45% will be divided among the other races. As an affirmative action policy, it has served a limited purpose with a fair amount of success, namely bridging the socio-economic divide between the races. In today’s society, with the changing needs and geopolitics of the nation, maybe it’s time for a serious policy rethink.