It’s not often where I’m left with nothing much to say, but this is perhaps one of those rare occasions where I find it hard to criticize anything. Well, I could start with the weather, which has been wrecking havoc on my plans for some night-time football. It’s been raining incessantly these past few days, especially during the evening. If it’s during the day at least I can go to sleep peacefully.

But who cares about the weather right? It’s a wonder how columnists managed to fill up a whole page every week. I guess it’s true what they say, “Nothing in life is ever easy”. They must have gone through a lot of research etc2 to come up with 2 cents worth of opinion which will later undoubtedly be used to wrap “ikan bakar” or “otak-otak”.

What is it with Malaysians and their fascination with Australia? What I mean is how come our youths, especially KLites, are so eager to study in Australia? Melbourne might as well be re-named Melbourne Jaya, because apparently you can spit in the middle of the street and it’ll land on top of some Malaysian’s head. It’s brimming with Malaysians pursuing what would ideally be a better education opportunity. But is that really the case? I can understand the United Kingdom and their professional courses like Law and Medicine or Japan with their Engineering courses. What I don’t get is people taking a 3 year business studies course in Australia when it’s quite clear that our local unis and colleges are offering the same course with the same syllabus. Or even IT for that matter. Programming is a universal language which is standardized throughout the whole world. Yes, the universities there are better managed than ours, definitely, and perhaps you’ll learn something more there because the lecturers have more initiative. MAYBE.

But more likely than not, whatever advantage you gain from studying in OZ would not commensurate with the money you spent. Imagine paying RM30 k per semester (ballpark, average figure) to study Javascript or whatever programming thing while for that amount of money you can get through the entire course in MMU. 30k per semester with two semesters per year times 3 years equals RM180 000. With that amount of cash you could start your own enterprise. See, that’s the problem with some people. They lack proper guidance. They don’t differentiate between professional courses and non-professional courses. It’s a cut-throat world out there, and whatever advantage you can get financially would help you stay ahead. All they can see is that they’ll be going to Oz without looking through other alternatives. Is it any coincidence that our Government’s JPA scholarship program does not rank Aussie as a top education destination?

It isn’t my intention to disrespect anyone, but I see this lack of prudence by my fellow future leaders of Malaysia disheartening. They’re eager to leave, I understand. And our government must be made partially responsible for such predicament. Our universities are way way behind when it comes to technical courses. Failed machineries and tools, lack of proper working environment, general lack of motivation by lecturers are some of the qualms heard from fellow students. Furthermore the government doesn’t seem interested in promoting OUR universities. Perhaps the places are limited. Then they should have thought about it thoroughly and expand or build new ones. It’s just sad that Malaysian money is being channeled to a foreign country whose excellence in education is not as internationally recognized as one might have thought. Their government and private marketing arms are certainly very persuasive in showcasing their supposed education prowess. But how good could their universities be when they can take someone who barely scraped through SPM? Is that any better than UiTM? Money is the key word here ladies and gentleman.

All apologies for any broken hearts or rising blood pressure. Any long-winded critique of this piece may be directed to the comments box above this article, and I’ll not cut anything off, unless of course some of you go overboard.

The big game’s this weekend. I’m a nervous wreck frankly. Glory glory Man United, insyaallah.