Wacana Siri 12 : Rasuah Politik, Persepsi atau Realiti Tegang?

29-3-2012, 2.00-5.00 petang di Auditorium Karangkraf, Seksyen 15, Shah Alam berlangsung wacana siri 12 bertajuk Rasuah Politik, Persepsi atau Realiti yang dipengerusikan oleh pensyarah Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia, Dr Maszlee Malik manakala panelistnya ialah Timbalan Ketua Pesuruhjaya SPRM, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdul; Ahli Parlimen Kota Belud, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, yang juga anggota Jawatankuasa Khas Parlimen Mengenai Rasuah; Pengarah Strategi PKR, Rafizi Ramli dan penganalisis politik dan Presiden Just, Dr Chandra Muzaffar.

Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdul semasa sesi pengulungan menegaskan bahawa "Jangan politikkan rasuah, rasuah tidak boleh dipolitikkan". Orang politik selalu menggunakan isu rasuah untuk menimbulkan persepsi negatif kepada pihak lawannya walaupun tanpa bukti yang kukuh. Justeru, Beliau mencadangkan usah politikan isu rasuah.

Timbalan Ketua Pesuruhjaya SPRM itu menzahirkan rasa gembira kerana umumnya masih ramai rakyat Malaysia perihatin terhadap isu rasuah dan menganggapnya sebagai musuh utama negara. Tidak seperti dinegara ke-3 yang lain dimana rasuah telah menjadi satu budaya dan amalan sehingga ia telah mendarahdaging dalam negara dan dibuat secara terbuka. Malaysia tidak sampai ke tahap itu.

Dr Chandra Muzafar pula menegaskan semasa sesi pengulungan bahawa usaha kerajaan untuk memerangi rasuah perlu dipertingkatkan lagi dan tindakan itu perlu dilaksanakan dengan lebih bersungguh-sungguh dan konsistant kerana persepsi amalan rasuah berlaku dalam kerajaan masih menebal dikalangan masyarakat.

Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan dalam pengulungannya menyelar Pakatan Rakyat kerana bersikap double standard terhadap isu rasuah kerana memejamkan sebelah mata jika pelaku rasuah itu dari Pakatan Rakyat tetapi membuka dua-dua mata jika yang melakukan rasuah itu Barisan Nasional. Beliau menegaskan Pakatan Rakyat sering mempolitikan isu rasuah dan membuat tuduhan-tuduhan yang tidak berasas kepada kerajaan semata-mata untuk mewujudkan persepsi negatif terhadap kerajaan. Fitnah dan pembohongan menjadi peluru untuk menembak.

Pengarah Strategi PKR, Rafizi Ramli, semasa sesi pengulungan menyatakan bahawa rasuah politik memang wujud dan ia diamalkan oleh Barisan Nasional, iaitu kerajaan yang memerintah. Umpamanya, Perdana Menteri pernah berkata " rakyat tolong saya, saya tolong rakyat" dan beliau mengumumkan pelbagai projek pembangunan yang menelan jumlah jutaan ringgit disetiap tempat yang beliau lawati disaat-saat pilihanraya semakin hampir. Itu adalah contoh rasuah politik untuk meraih undi.

Resolusi yang dipersetujui bersama oleh panelist pada penghujung forum tersebut ialah tanggungjawab memerangi rasuah adalah tanggungjawab semua pihak, masing-masing perlu berperanan mengikut kapasiti masing-masing, kerajaan, pembangkang, NGO, ketua masyarakat dan rakyat. Semua panelist bersetuju rasuah perlu diperangi disemua peringkat.

Bangunan Suria KLCC Terbakar

Ramai orang berpusu-pusu keluar daripada KLCC kerana ada kebakaran berlaku di dalam Suria KLCC petang tadi. Kebakaran dipercayai berlaku di dapur Restoran Chinoz On The Park. Buat masa ini pihak bomba sedang berusaha memadamkan kebakaran. Berikut adalah beberapa keping gambar yang dapat diambil.

Tidak dapat dipastikan samada ada mangsa terlibat dalam kebakaran tersebut. Berita selanjutnya akan menyusul kemudian.

Foto kredit Malikridhwan

Universities leading the way with education technology

by Steven Schwartz

Georgia Institute for Technology's Center for 21st Century Universities(C21U) is a self-described living laboratory for fundamental change inhigher education. Its mission: to foster and accelerate the innovation, validation, adoption and deployment of disruptive ideas-particularly those involving technology in the service of teaching and learning, industry wide.

Accelerate is just the right word. When it comes to change, we are reaching warp speed.

Sebastian Thrun's Udacity courses in building a search engine and programming a robotic car have attracted thousands (including me). Apart from teaching, Thrun has set himself the goal of democratising education; education should be free. Accessible for all, everywhere, and any time.

While I have your attention, drop in to the Khan Academy which, with a library of more than 3,000 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 315 practice exercises, you will find that it too is on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.

For another glimpse of the future pop in to MITx where 90,000 people are studying 6.002x (circuits and electronics), and which has set itself the modest goal of organising and presenting course material to enable students to learn worldwide.

Writing for The Guardian's Higher Education Network, Matthew Draycottdeclared himself surprised that the impact of "disruptive technological methodologies" was not top of mind in UK higher education circles.

He is right to be surprised. I am surprised that he is not thoroughly gobsmacked. The future is all around yet many of us in universities have our eyes wide shut.

There is no need to go all apocalyptic over the technological 'disruption'. Bricks and mortar universities (particularly those made of very old bricks and ancient mortar) are not about to disappear.

But if they don't 'do something' then their hallowed halls (and their mischievous postmodern equivalents) will in some distant time reverberate to the sound of a melancholy, long, withdrawing roar (to borrow Matthew Arnold's peerless phrase) as many students leave to seek alternative forms of higher education.

And what will be the hallmark of these alternatives (or perhaps replacements)?

They will put students front and centre of all they do. Agrarian-legacy lengthy holidays will end and teaching will take place year round to cater to the increasingly busy lives of students. They will be able to study any time, night or day.

Students will study what they want to study, not what academics wish to teach.

Technology will be tailored to students' needs. Online offerings will be as familiar as YouTube, but they won't merely be images from a camera plonked in front of a traditional class with a traditional lecturer fumbling with a traditional Power Point presentation. They will be bespoke, well made, smartly edited videos or other visual presentations designed with the student in mind.

Universities will increasingly share resources with other universities – perhaps students at University A will study electronics by video from University B, which specialises in the field; while students at University A will study, say, ancient history presented by the specialists at University B.

These are just some ideas. What else do we need to do to adapt to the future that's already arrived?

Steven Schwartz is vice-chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia