EXCELLENCE IN KNOWLEDGE THE ESSENCE IN BOLSTERING MERDEKA

By Melati Mohd Ariff


In conjunction with Malaysia's independence day celebration on Aug 31

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 (Bernama) -- Knowledge is the buttress of a race's
dominance hence accomplishment in its excellence is seen as the pre-requisite
for a country to achieve the developed status.

For Malaysia to be able to be among the world's group of developed
countries, it needs a society that makes the quest for knowledge a culture be it
in academics, communication and religion.

The society that focuses on knowledge is expected to be able to come out
with innovations and technologies that not only benefit the country's growth and
development but also reinforce its standing in the global economy.

Apart from being able to signify Malaysia's status as a nation that had
achieved independence, a society equipped with knowledge is a matured society
and that itself catalyses the national unity.

COMPONENT OF THE SOCIETY

Students, who are the nation's hope as its future leaders, are the component
of society expected to shoulder the task of accomplishing excellence in
knowledge.

Motivation expert Dr Tengku Asmadi Tengku Mohamad sees this excellence as
the fulfillment of the country's independence as what had been sought after by
Malaysia's Merdeka (independence) patriots.

"Making knowledge the culture, developing innovations and technologies as
well as strengthening the economy. This is what we should be doing as
fulfillment for the country's independence.

"All of these can be accomplished if we have students who are willing to
work hard to achieve excellence in making knowledge a culture," he told Bernama
in an interview here recently.

Therefore students should not be thinking that this task is on the shoulders
of the nation's leaders alone.

"They should understand that one day they will be the leaders (of this
nation). From now on, we should prepare the intellectual group to be better
leaders of tomorrow," he said.

'A' STUDENTS

When the results of a public school examination were announced, the
attention usually fell on achievers of multiple As where accolades and
publicity were heaped on them.

The pressure on these students to bag as many As as posible was immense and
in some cases, had caused some of them to leave home due to embarassment for
failure. Worse still a few had even resorted to committing suicide.

A piece of certificate with a long line of 'As' is no passport to
excellence at the tertiary education level.

An excellent student does not only rely on his academic certificates but
also whether he is able to master his field to the maximum possible, said Dr
Tengku Asmadi who is also the managing director of MAP Training & Consultancy.

"Which means if we want to create something, then we should go all out until
we come out with the innovations. Not only merely passing the UPSR (primary
school examination), PMR (lower secondary school examination)and SPM (Malaysian
Certificate of Education).

"Maybe we cannot master all branches of knowledge but if we pick one, then
we should explore it to the fullest until we are experts in the field. That will
create great generations", he said.

He said those who excelled in school examinations should be able to repeat
this performance at the university level as a successful school student is not
necessarily going to be an exemplary undergraduate.

"This is the aspect that sometimes we fail to notice. That is why some of
the graduates we produced are barely qualified and only good enough for
employment. This is no fulfillment for the country's independence," he said.

GRADUATES' QUALITY

The issue on quality of local graduates is nothing new.

Among the negative comments linked to graduates of local universities was
that they were said to be weak in the communication field particularly in
the English language.

According to Dr Tengku Asmadi, this pool of graduates is very big as in his
opinion some 90 per cent of the local graduates lacked creativity and innovation
as well as vision.

He said this group of graduates were waiting for salaried jobs and were
willing to be jobless if there were no vacancies for such posts.

The motivation expert said as graduates they should be creative and showed
steely determination. If there were no jobs, they should be creating
jobs instead of becoming graduates who queued up for employment.

"This is happening in developed nations. Graduates are not worried whether
there are jobs available or not as they know what they want to do.

"They already mapped out their plans upon setting their feet in the
university campus and they are willing to be entrepreneurs after completing
their studies. They are innovative and are capable of coming out with new
creations", he said.

CULTURE OF 'SPOON FEEDING'

One of the factors that led to this dilemma is that the undergraduates had
carried the school culture into the university life, observed Dr Tengku Asmadi.

During their school days, the students were over-dependent on their teachers
and this 'spoon feeding' culture was carried into the campus environment, he
said.

In the ivory tower, these undergraduates were hoping for the same
spoon-feeding culture and treatment that they were used to and this lasted right
to the day when they graduated.

"The transformation in their thinking should be done in the first year of
university life. In fact during the matriculation stage, the students should be
aware that the universities are the place to obtain excellence, not in schools.

"For many of our students, going to the university is an anti-climax
particularly those who stayed in boarding schools. They are so good in their
schools but when they arrived in the universities, they performed
miserably,"said Dr Tengku Asmadi who have 15 years experience in the motivation
sector.

He said their academic performance dropped and those who managed to retain
their excellent form is about only 15 per cent, he said.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

He said another factor that affected the performance of students
particularly at the school level is moral deterioration like booze, drugs,
juvenile crimes and committing promiscuity.

Dr Tengku Asmadi said the social deterioration among students has become
increasingly critical and many of the cases had gone unreported.

He had came across cases like committing promiscuity and the schoolgirls
involved even boasted about it and this was no surprise as they had become
increasingly daring.

Dr Tengku Asmadi said students who were easily influenced by the social
issues were actually weak spiritually.

"These social issues should be nipped at the bud as if they are allowed to
exist until a later stage, then it would be quite tough to resolve as if left
unchecked our society would melt into decadence", he said.

BALANCE OF EQ/SQ

According to Dr Tengku Asmadi, this 'social defect' among some students
was related to the absence or lack of the Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Spiritual
Quotient (SQ).

In the effort to equip the mind with academic knowledge sometimes a person
forgot about the development of these two quotients. However the intelligence,
emotional and spiritual quotients (IESQ) should be inculcated and nurtured.

For Dr Tengku Asmadi, the moral decadence among youths of today can be
easily dealt with and curbed for good if the younger generation is equipped with
the high level of IESQ.

Hence, parents and teachers should take the initiative to boost the IESQ in
their children.

However development of IESQ begins at home and parents shoulder the crucial
task of moulding their children with the balanced of EQ and SQ.

When asked to give an example of this, he said:

"When a child wanted to hit his friend. He would think that the other boy
might be in pain as a result of this action and and if the latter retaliated,
then the former would also be in pain.

"This is the EQ that points towards attitude, behaviour and personality of
an individual enabling the person to deal with the conflict.

"At the same time the first boy would also think that if he assaulted the
second boy, then God would repay what had happened with something equally bad.
Maybe in the future the same thing would be happening to the first boy. That is
SQ".

WELL CULTURED

Dr Tengku Asmadi also stressed on the importance of children to be
well-cultured apart from being well-mannered. Without this element, the children
would be crude in their character and rough in their behaviour.

Instances where children shouted back at their parents and students were
non-hesitant when it came to assaulting their teachers showed that this moral
crisis should be dealt with promptly.

According to this motivation expert, children should be taught manners at
the early age.

"Sometimes when we talk about children's education, we forget about
education on manners. If there is education on manners and upbringing, then the
children when they grow up would be well-cultured.
"They would be more sensitive and concerned about the surroundings and
feelings of others," he added.
-- BERNAMA