Woi Cina! Woi Melayu!

"Woi Cina!", shouts a Malay man in the 40s, in a loud tone to a Chinese walking towards him.

"Woi Melayu!", the Chinese shouted back.

(let's call them Ah Lee and Sham)

When they came face to face, they had a good laugh, exchange handshake and hugs. After all they were school mates for 11 years in Malaysia national-level schools and had not met for 27 years till today. That was exactly how they referred to one another even during school days but yet the friendship remained cordial without any feelings of a racist.

Back then, calling one another as such is perfectly alright. Today, it might or will invite unnecessary stares or re-action.

"Hey, you remember? I used to come to your house during Chinese New Year with the gang and spend the whole day there? We really had fun and your mum's cookies was simply too good to resist lah bro" adds Sham.

"Yah, Yah ... you fellas will start burning the fire crackers to signal arrival and it's great isn't it at the sight of so many bicycles lined up in front of the house?.Sekarang bakar mercun kena tangkap bro!" Ah Lee replied.

Between the two friends, nothing changed despite the different career paths the respect for each other had to this day continues from the year they parted schooling. This is typical Malaysia in 80s and before. They had studied and spoke in English medium much more then as compared to today when we were able to use the knowledge from the education system then to a greater advantage during busines travels.

What has actually gone wrong during the 20+ odd years then?

The competitive, mature and tolerant mentality is gone while school children now seemed to be more dependant on parents instead of working their way towards being independant. Those outgoing kids of today are a little extreme i.e. joining peers hanging out in entertainment outlets, riding motorbikes aimlessly, lepak along the roadsides, mamak etc.

"Those days, we use to fly kites, evening football kick around, cycling and aimless lepaking is something unheard off. Even dating during school days are mostly limited to after school in coffee shops or weekends on short hours." says Ah Lee.

We fully understood that there are rapid development through the years but isn't it right the education system be revised to reflect a more developed, matured and tolerant thinking school going children of modern times?

Instead, what the national school syllabus is moving back towards teaching them about domestic affairs and driving more towards "re-engineered" history of Malaysia. We did not study re-written history back then but yet we fully respected each other's right of existence in this land we loved called Malaysia.

I believe there are many other concerned parents out there whom would be thinking the same on these matters and push for a change in education system approach before it systematically remove the future Malaysia of their iner capabilities to actually get out there and start competing. (one wonders how the Ministers keep harping about the quality of national schools here and yet they sent their children to boarding schools abroad)

And what the 2 friends had to say, our children missed the GOOD education, discipline and teachers we had back then while reminiscing the subject topics of interest when it was so much fun in learning. While examinations and university admission was much tougher, can't help understanding why the many new local colleges and universities today had failed to produce many quality work force.

Instead, the new generation of domestic work force are more interested in asking about the pay structure, overtime, holidays and working hours much more during interviews which can really "kill" the opportunity for employment. These are attitude which have been cultivated from school and needs immediate attention.

"So bro, what we have now are a new generation of children whom are highly dependant on teachers and parents to be around and without them, they would lose their direction and motivation. Betul tak?" says Sham.

Lee, "Bro, why not we get everyone together like the good old days for this coming CNY? Together ...gether and talk more then huh!"

"That's an excellent idea bro! We'll get into Facebook and summon all our kakis together." says Sham

"Orite la bro! Looking forward."

"Anyway, Kong Hee Fatt Choy to you, moga mudah-mudah rezeki and panjang umur." Sham, as the brief meeting ends as the 2 buddies went separate ways and head back to their respective states where they work.