Portrait of a Fortnight: Rialto, San Marco and The Grand Canal

1. MORE OF MILAN

2. VENICE HIGHLIGHTS

3. HOME SWEET HOME

Portrait of a Fortnight: Milan Encounter with Beckhams, Hemingway and Ole-Kristian (who?)

To the fashionistas, Milan is in the same league as Paris and New York. To the arty-farty and culture vulture crowd, Milan is the home of music and Leonardo’s The Last Supper. To the literati set, war-torn Milan is the city that inspired an anti-war novel, famous for its deeply moving opening paragraph. The vivid depiction of the WW1 landscape and the climate, where the ravages of war left everything “layu sebelum waktunya”, is quintessentially Hemingway:

In the late autumn of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

I was here on a different mission, not in search of glitter or to ogle at Caravaggio or Mantegna, or to soak in the emotional outpourings of Verdi or Puccini. Not even to trace the footsteps of Hemingway. Rather to learn and seek knowledge from management gurus who are at the cutting edge of business research. They came from top schools in New York, Toronto, London, etc, for a meeting of minds at SDA Bocconi.

We landed at the Malpensa airport just before 3 pm on September 8th. As the KLM plane began its smooth descent, we got a bird’s eye view of the Alps. Not quite sure whether we flew above Mont Blanc, as the mountains look more brown than white.

From the airport, we made a mistake (with the benefit of hindsight) of taking the Malpensa Express, instead of the Malpensa Shuttle, to get to Mussolini’s Milan Central Station (Stazione Centrale). We decided to use Stazione Centrale as our base, as we were informed a few days earlier by MATRADE Milan through email that the halal restaurants are located in the vicinity of Stazione Centrale. The shuttle bus goes direct to Stazione Centrale, whereas by taking the express train, as we did, we had to change at Cadorna Stazione, and from there catch the metro to get to our intended destination. A real hassle it turned out to be. All the left luggage lockers at Cadorna Stazione were out of order, so lugging our bags from platform to platform until we found the elusive DEPOSITO/BAGAGLI was something we had to endure. A minor inconvenience to test our patience during Ramadhan.

Once we got off the metro at Stazione Centrale, we trained our eyes to look for signpost pointing the exact location of left luggage locker/office. We found none. Unlike Amsterdam, the poor signpost gives the impression that visitors are not courted here and left to their own devices. Instead, swamped before our eyes are the billboards of the insanely hot couple, Becks and Posh, stripped to almost practically nothing. They pout, they sizzle and they pose intimately to seduce scores of the innocent bystanders and onlookers to “tiru macam saya”. Everyone can be insanely hot when clad in dreamy Armani undie or lingerie, they make us believe. And not a few were misled.

After the heavy suitcases were safely tucked away in the portabagagli, we were footloose and fancy free to roam Via Vitruvio and Via Napo Torriani in search of an agreeable hotel. As we stepped out of the main railway station, the striking Pirelli Building beckons from a distance. After a few false starts, we eventually settled for Hotel Flora, which coincidentally is one of the hotels recommended by MATRADE Milan. Due to its convenient location, we stayed put here until we blew kisses Ciao Milan, four days later.

On our first day in Milan, we went to bed early, shortly after dinner at Caffe Panzera, to conserve our energy for tomorrow’s big walk, pregnant with anticipated visual delights. Caffé Panzera is almost as old as the station, with black and white photos taken during the Fascist era crowding its wall.

The next morning we ventured into the heart of the city. The early morning light poured through the stained glass of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and illuminated its ravishing mosaic floor. Michael Palin, writer, actor, comedian and train aficionado, described it as the mother of all shopping malls. I couldn’t agree more. Prada, LV and other chicest boutiques are all here, and next to the Galleria are the intricately carved Duomo Cathederal and La Scala, the revered opera house.

Before starting the Milan stroll, we visited the Tourist Information Centre. It has copies of the monthly free guide hello milano, which is an extremely rare English publication about the local happenings. Haughty Milan, sans a TimeOut monthly, is strangely behind subzero Kuala Lumpur, in the art of pleasing the visitors. As Lonely Planet succintly puts it “Milanese don’t have time to play nice for visitors”.

To be continued

Portrait of a Fortnight: The Art of Living in Milan

No, that’s not the latest creation by our Jimmy Choo, incorporating art mosaic into his shoe design. It is a bathtub on display in a SICIS showroom located along Via Fatebenefratelli. Benvenuta/o to the art of living in Milan. But it is not all hunky dory here in this city where design is a way of life. Cheap tacky impersonation of our lovely heritage is on display too. Like this one.

More text later. Meanwhile, let the pictures tell a thousand words.

Portrait of a Fortnight: I amsterdam

At the KLIA, before boarding the intercontinental flight, my parents purchased some essential items like the Euros, worldwide travel adaptor, rewriteable Sony DVD and soon-to-be elusive Malaysian food such as coconut juice and curry mee. Regrettably, they discovered much too late that the Euros and Sony DVDRW are much cheaper @ KL Sentral than @ KLIA.

Papa also made a quick call to Opah who just got back from her nightly tarawikh to seek her restu, as always. He got a taste of his own medicine, so to speak, when Opah sounded him “Din jangan tinggal sembahyang tau, dan jangan bawa balik H1N1. Kirim salam Wan kat Zura. Itu saja pesanan. Selamat jalan”. The rest of the I amsterdam story is narrated by Papa, for obvious reasons.

The 12-hour flight was pleasant, with no discernible turbulence. There was a host of in-flight entertainment to while away the time. The movies on offer were diverse, and I opted for never-seen-before romantic comedies; Tim Bevan’s Wimbledon and The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and an unfamiliar lead actor. Wimbledon is a huge disappointment unlike Tim Bevan’s previous work such as Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Atonement. Without exception, it is littered with obscenities fashionably spewed by the Sloane set; wankers, bollocks et al. The Proposal is so-so. For the final movie, I went for the tried and tested formula and clicked Atonement – an Ian McEwan’s adaptation, a movie I enjoyed with relish when viewed for the first time in Hong Kong, nearly two years ago. The central character, a man fitnahed by a fanciful 13 year old budding author on the cusp of the "complications of love", was played so delicately by James McAvoy, in sharp contrast to his peripheral role in Wimbledon.

We landed at Schiphol airport in the wee hour of the morning. After freshening up, surfing the internet and loitering around, we joined the 2 1/2 hours Amsterdam tour organized by Holland Tours Schiphol B.V. to get a glimpse of the Golden Age of Holland. There were six other transfer passengers from Russia, Canada and other countries in our group, plus Paul, the local driver-cum-tour guide. I had difficulty in understanding the baffling English spoken by Paul, as he sounded "knotted and guttural" at times.

Paul reminded us that in the 17th century, Holland was one of the world’s richest countries, and the tour took us to serene suburbs dotted with tantalizing summer houses with roofs made of straw, overlooking a picturesque tree-lined river. These mansions were once occupied by the wealthy merchants during the heydays of the East Indian Company. Paul made a few brief stops at the Rotterman wooden shoes and cheese factory which is a perfect one stop place to buy Dutch souvenirs and gifts at attractive prices, a private windmill, the Skinny Bridge and last but not least the Museumplein. Museumplein has a vast square dotted with brightly tattoed miniature elephants in various cheeky acrobatic positions. A clutch of Amsterdam’s grand museums can be found here: Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum and of course the Rijksmuseum with its enviable collections including the 17th century paintings by the Dutch Masters such as Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (1658), Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642) and Frans Hals’ The Wedding Portrait (1622). Alas, we didn’t have all the time in the world to ogle at these masterpieces.

At one point during the tour, Paul made a terse announcement “no photographs or video recording here please”. Immediately after he finished his sentence, the mini van veered into a magnificent district with attractive step/neck/bell/spout gabled shop houses along the canal displaying shapely ladies in luminous bikinis strutting their considerable stuff behind the large window. So savvy are the marketing gimmicks they unleashed to woo the predominantly non-Dutch customers, at barely 10 in the morning!. This is understandable as they have to cover the steep cost of renting the show rooms. From the window of the mini van, CREA CAFE in the vicinity of Amsterdam University looks inviting too as an extraordinarily perfect place to hang out and unwind.

To sum up, I amsterdam is an eccentrically beautiful city inhabited by generally tolerant and enlightened Amsterdammers with unorthodox mindsets who are always mindful to preserve their glorious past. Respect!

To be continued ...

Portrait of a Fortnight: Pre-Departure

Where do I begin? To tell the story of a fortnight, of many firsts. Mama’s first unforgettable sight of Venice, Papa’s first nerve wracking plenary presentation to a select audience comprising eminent management gurus from the leading business schools in the US and Europe, and me and my siblings being deprived of their intimate attention for a week. One whole week.

On Friday, a fortnight ago, i.e. two days before their departure to Italy, they invited a few friends to Suasana Permai for iftar. They ordered the masakan kampung from their favourite stall in Hutan Kampung. Understandably the weight freak guests did not eat like crazy and so there were lots of left-over food for them to tapau. To help with the cleaning up, Mama engaged the service of a super efficient Myanmar lady.

On Sunday the 6th of September, after work and school, they drove all of us first to Alor Setar to meet Mama’s friend who has generously offered to look after my brother during their sojourn. Her son also happens to be a classmate of my brother at SAHC. During the process of transferring my brother’s personal belongings at the emotional handover, my brother realized that he forgot to pack his white Bata shoes. Papa gave him an additional pocket money to buy a new pair of shoes and reminded him profusely “Jangan tinggal sembahyang OK” as we said our goodbyes.

From there, we drove to Mak Su’s place in Butterworth for iftar. After iftar my parents had their shower, and just before they made their way to the Butterworth railway station, they decidedly left behind their smelly office wear in the care of Mak Su. As I so enjoyed my sister’s company, they made a prior decision that it’s best that my sister stayed with me throughout our stay with Mak Su. Which means that she had to be absent from school for a few days, excluding the UPSR leave.

And so we had our farewell on the railway platform , right at the door step of the KTM train, which was a wise decision as I could see right before my very own eyes how my parents were whisked away slowly and tenderly by the romantic Senandung Malam train amidst the chugging lullaby sound of sweet “tuut, tuuut, tuuuut”. Just before they disappeared into the still night, they cuddled and smothered all over me with their kisses and kept telling me in quick succession

“Mama dan Papa pergi kerja OK."

"Nanti Papa bawa balik Percy dan Harold OK."

" Nak tak?”.

And I just nodded and nodded.

They arrived at the KL Sentral the next day, just before imsak. Mama called Mak Su Suria and Mak Teh, and arranged for an impromptu meeting at the Mid Valley. Later she called Makcik Chah who spontaneously invited them to an iftar function near KL Sentral. Much to his protest, Papa was asked to join the main table, and sans baju melayu and songkok, he was the odd man out. If they had told him it was an official function, he could have borrowed the Hang Tuah baju melayu designed by Mak Su Suria and perhaps added more lustre to an already commendable event.

After performing the maghrib prayer in jamaah, the driver kindly sent them to KL Sentral and they boarded the KLIA express to catch the KLM flight to Amsterdam en route to Milan.

(To be continued)

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Selamat Hari Raya with families and friends and Maaf Zahir Batin.

Papa's Labour of Love (2)

Today, on Mama’s birthday, Papa received another piece of scintillating news via email:

Dear XXXX and YY

Re: MS No. 1475

Title: SYMPOSIUM Remuneration Committee, Ownership Structure and Pay-for-Performance: Evidence from Malaysia

After careful review of your article "SYMPOSIUM Remuneration Committee, Ownership Structure and Pay-for-Performance: Evidence from Malaysia", we believe that your article shows considerable promise.

So we are pleased to inform you that your paper titled has been accepted for presentation at the ZZZZ Special Issue Symposium on "An International Perspective on Performance Evaluation and Executive Compensation" (on Executive Compensation and Performance Evaluation?), to be held at SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milano, Italy, September aa-bb, 2009.

....

....
Please note that publication in ZZZZ depends on further work as suggested by the referee and as (will be) indicated by the discussion that will follow the presentation at the Symposium

Alhamdulillah, the referee of that top-tier journal found it "to be an interesting and extremely clearly written paper. The literature survey is useful and the hypotheses fall out nicely from the development.”

Here is the introduction section of the paper, which is based on a nearly completed PhD thesis supervised by Papa.

Executive remuneration has become one of the prominent topics in contemporary corporate governance. The mainstream view, derived from the principal-agent framework, is that a well designed compensation contract helps to incentivize executives to enhance shareholder value (e.g., Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Murphy, 1999). Strong pay-for-performance sensitivity is seen as the key metric in aligning the divergent incentives of executives and shareholders. However, a more skeptical view sees compensation contract as a perverse instrument of greed rather than a shareholder-friendly incentive mechanism (Bebchuk and Fried, 2006). One form of managerial opportunism, or private benefits of control, is when CEOs and top management awarded themselves stupendous pay-without-performance to the detriment of shareholders. In other words, the board of directors sets compensation that deviates from arm’s length contracting. Negative coverage on grossly overpaid top management is regularly featured in the international financial press (Core, Guay, & Larcker, 2008). Malaysia is not spared. In 2007, angry shareholders of Transmile Group voted against the payment of directors’ fees for the financial year ended 2006 after financial irregularities were made public.1

The ample empirical evidence suggests that executive compensation is largely insensitive to firm performance (e.g., Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Garen, 1994; Barkema and Gomez-Mejia, 1998; Zhou, 2000; Firth, Fung, & Riu, 2007; Merhebi, Pattenden, Swan, & Zhou, 2006; Duffhues and Kabir, 2007). This low pay-for-performance sensitivity raises concern that executives pay arrangements do not provide sufficient incentives to deliver performance or they create agency costs in the form of excess pay (Bebchuk and Fried, 2003).

Given the observed decoupling of pay and performance, a number of studies have attempted to unravel how the pay-for-performance link can be strengthened in order to fulfill the promise of executive compensation as a mechanism to align the interests of executives and shareholders by investigating the role of remuneration committee and ownership structure. Conyon (1997) examines the influence of remuneration committee adoption in UK companies, and finds that, in some circumstances, the adoption lower the growth rates in top director compensation. Conyon and Peck (1998) investigate the affect of outside directors in remuneration committee decisions, and report that they enhance the pay-for-performance sensitivity. However, studies in the US by Anderson and Bizjak (2003) and Vafeas (2003) report insignificant results on the influence of remuneration committee independence towards level of CEO pay. A more recent study by Sun and Cahan (2009) attempts to provide explanation for the mixed findings. Using a broader and richer measure of remuneration committee quality instead of just focusing on independence, they show that the sensitivity of CEO compensation to accounting performance is related to the governance quality of the remuneration committee, for US companies with fully independent remuneration committees.

With respect to ownership structure, Gomez-Mejia, Tosi and Hinken (1987) and Tosi and Gomez-Mejia (1989) document that the responsiveness of CEO pay to performance is greater in owner-controlled firm than management-controlled firm in the US manufacturing sector.2 A meta analysis of CEO pay studies by Tosi, Werner, Katz and Gomez-Mejia (2000) concludes that firm size rather than performance is the strongest predictor of CEO pay in management-controlled firms, while performance-related pay is more prevalent in owner-controlled firms. Further evidence on the importance of ownership structure in the pay-for-performance linkage for countries in Asia is provided by Firth et al. (2007) and Kato and Long (2005). Their studies show that in China, the pay-for-performance link is weaker or insignificant in listed firms owned by the state bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Kato, Kim and Lee (2007) document that pay-for-performance link is significant for Korean non-Chaebol firms but negligible for Chaebol firms.

Denis and McConnell (2003) suggest that the interrelationship between executive compensation and corporate governance mechanisms remains a fruitful area for research worldwide. Bruce, Buck and Main (2005) suggest that country-level institution should be factored into in analyzing executive pay. Furthermore, Kabir (2008) observes that not much is known about how firms across the world reward their executives outside the US, primarily due to the lack of publicly available information on executive pay and very intensive data collection requirements. We continue this line of research and investigate whether internal governance mechanisms, particularly the remuneration committee structure and ownership structure, influence the pay-for-performance link using a unique data set on remuneration practices and directors’ remuneration in Malaysia.

In addition, this study is also motivated by Conyon (2006) who challenged researchers to distinguish between the two competing theories of executive compensation namely the principal-agent and managerial power. Thus, our study also attempts to disentangle the managerial power and principal-agent views of executive pay. As mentioned earlier, the principal-agent (or optimal contracting) view of executive compensation holds that a well designed incentive contract whereby managers are suitably rewarded for generating shareholder value helps to closely align the interests of managers and shareholders (e.g., Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Core, Holthausen, & Larcker (1999). However, Bebchuk and Fried (2003) argue that the promise that managerial incentive contract is a partial solution to the agency problem remains largely unfulfilled. Bebchuk and Fried (2003) are of the view that executive compensation exacerbates the agency problem by promoting rent-extracting on the part of the executives. In their alternative managerial power story on executive compensation, powerful CEOs have great sway over their own pay by capturing the board, resulting in rent extraction in the form of greater CEO pay, or pay-without-performance, to the detriment of shareholders.

Malaysia provides a unique setting to examine the applicability of managerial power and principal-agent views in the determination of executive pay. Following the introduction of the voluntary Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) in 2000, companies listed on Bursa Malaysia are required to make public the Statement of Corporate Governance incorporating disclosure on directors’ remuneration. The MCCG emphasizes the following principles on directors’ remuneration. Firstly, in the case of executive directors, remuneration should be structured so as to link rewards to corporate and individual performance. Secondly, companies should establish a formal and transparent procedure for developing policy on executive remuneration and for fixing the remuneration packages of individual directors. And thirdly, company’s annual report should contain details of the remuneration of each director. Under best practices in corporate governance, the MCCG recommends companies to establish a remuneration committee consisting of wholly or mainly non-executive directors. The committee is allowed to get an advice from consultant relating to executive directors’ remuneration and recommend to the board an appropriate remuneration for the executive directors.

By exploiting the enhanced disclosures on the activities of remuneration committees and directors’ pay, and whether the companies observe the corporate governance principle by linking executive pay to performance, we expect that companies are subject to the dark side of managerial power when they do not subscribe to performance-related pay scheme, and for such companies, at high level of managerial ownership, level of pay is an increasing function of managerial ownership. Specifically, the objectives of this study are (1) to examine whether companies that publicly disclosed that they subscribe to the MCCG’s principles in structuring the executive remuneration so as to link rewards to corporate and individual performance actually practice what they preach, (2) to examine whether strong remuneration committee structure enhances the pay-for-performance link, (3) to examine whether ownership structures influence the pay-for-performance link.

Using data from 2003-2005, our results show that companies that claim that their reward system is related to performance, generally ‘do what they say’, and companies with strong remuneration committees appear to design their executive pay packages so as to reward their executives for creating shareholder value. It appears that institutional investors are associated with higher pay-for-performance relationship. The pay-for-performance relationship seems to weaken when managerial ownership exceeds 35 percent, possibly due to the dark side of managerial power.

Our study contributes to executive pay-for-performance literature in a few ways. Firstly, we extend the measurement of the governance quality of remuneration committee by including the activities of the remuneration committees. And secondly, we show that in situation where managerial power is at its most destructive, i.e. when companies have very high managerial ownership and at the same time they do not subscribe to performance-related pay scheme, rent extraction by executives in the form of excessive pay is likely.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section summarizes the prior literature on pay-for-performance link and develops the hypotheses to achieve our research objectives. This is followed by a description of the pay-for-performance model. Next, we explain the sample selection and data sources. The penultimate section presents the results and the final section concludes the paper and discusses the implications of our study for the governance of publicly traded companies.

[1] Transmile Group, the air cargo carrier, attracted attention in the early part of 2007 when its external auditor Deloitte & Touche blew the whistle after discovering irregularities in prior years’ audited financial statements, involving unsubstantiated sales of more than RM600 million from 2004 to 2006. Subsequently, Transmile Group restated its financial statements from a profit of RM158 million to a loss of RM126 million for the year ended December 2006. In July and November 2007, its former CEO, CFO and two non-executive directors were charged in court with abetting the company in providing misleading financial statements. At the AGM held in September 2007, more than two third of the shareholders voted against the payment of director fees for 2006 totalling RM145,000. The non-executive Chairman of Transmile Group, who is an ex-Transport Minister, resigned shortly before the said AGM. He joined the board of Transmile Group in 2004 when the Kuok Group emerged as a new controlling shareholder.
[2] Firm is referred as owner-controlled when there is single equity holder who controls as little as 5 percent of the voting stock. Meanwhile, firm is referred as management-controlled when there is no equity holder with at least 5 percent of the stock (Tosi and Gomez-Mejia, 1989).

Obviously, Papa looks forward to showcase his supervisee's PhD work in Milan with pride, and Mama can also look forward to receive a helluva birthday present anytime soon. And we shall miss Papa for a week or so during Ramadhan.

Papa last visited Italy in 2004, where he spent a few days in Venice, and was aghast to discover that she's no longer the La Serenissima. The photo above taken during that trip prompted one of his schoolmates, an Oxford graduate, to remark that "you look like an Indonesian movie star attending the Venice film festival". Hmm, a film maker may be.

A Town School of Yesteryear

Almost fourty years ago, Papa started his primary schooling in Sultan Abdullah School (SAS), Kuantan. He remembers the school’s centrepiece, a multi-storeyed timber building. The busy Wong Ah Jang Road along which the school is situated. The names of a few classmates that flicker intermittently; Khuzaimah, Kushairi, Michael and Razif. And not to forget one of the enduring distractions of his time there was the ocassional opportunity to turn his head away from the blackboard during lessons to steal a glance across the window at the deafening and dramatic Chinese funeral procession along Wong Ah Jang Road. Always replete with raw emotions.

This week, while rummaging through the photo albums kept at Opah’s place, Papa stumbled upon an old black and white photo taken in 1970. It shows the school’s Green House team (Papa’s elder brother was seated at the extreme right) that emerged as the overall champion during the Annual Sports Day. The ethnically diverse teachers, including the Sikh headmaster, all looked glamorous and respectable. Sports were the de rigueur and part and parcel of the school activities then, and the primary school boys were exposed to a slew of fancy games, including the hurdle race. That, and the whole experience at SAS, were oh-so-fun. As Papa reflected many moons ago in the decorous 3540 Jalan Sudin’s blog:

"The annual sports days were always a glittering event, with parents attending in droves. Same with the annual prize giving days. They were plenty of wonderful entertainments provided by the 10-12 year old boys on stage, sometimes in drag (no choice what?). We learnt to sing “kookaburra sits in the old gum tree”, and write the lyrics line by line in our exercise book, and between the lines we drew our own patterns. I was very good at this and drawing in general. I remember at one time, my teacher asked me whether I was interested to do illustrations to accompany a famous children book. Before she gave the responsibility to me, she asked whether I could draw a fairy. I lied and said yes, because I badly wanted it. A few days later I showed the product to her. And she said “how come your fairy is without wings and magic wand?”, but she accepted it all the same. The good thing is when my Wan visited the school during the Parent-Meet-Teacher session, she proudly showed my work of art to her. We experienced similar kind of situation in Anwar Al-Majd International School (managed by Lebanese) Riyadh where we enrolled our children Arman and Ainaa from Sept 2006 to June 2007. But now our roles are as parents, and of course no sporting, singing and dancing in public. Rather sadly we have yet to recapture the “feel good” sensation in Malaysian primary schools in the new Millenium."

All is not lost though. My elder brother’s secondary school, the Sultan Abdul Hamid College (SAHC), is still committed to churn out an all-round scholar, sportsman and gentleman. Way to go …

UPDATE: 6 July 2009

The photo below shows young scholars, sportsmen and gentlemen of SAHC waiting to receive their excellence awards from the affable and young-at-heart the Regent of Kedah during the Iskandar Hari Anugerah Cemerlang 2009 today.

UPDATE: 10 July 2009

In those days, parents had a choice whether to send their children to Malay-medium or English-medium schools. Papa's parents decided to send their eldest and third boys to Sek Bukit Galing, a Malay-medium school, and their second son and Papa to SAS, an English-medium school. Although Papa's cohort in 1970 was the first batch to learn Maths and Science in Malay at a formerly English-medium school, but he did well in his Standard One assessment, and was selected to fast-track to Standard Three (skipping Standard Two) the following year. In Standard Three, he learned Maths and Science in English, the last batch to do so, before the PPSMI policy was reinstated in 2003 (which has benefited my siblings). However by 2012, it's back to square one, and round and round the circle again, instead of moving forward in the 21st Century.

Why can't parents be given a choice like the good old days whether to opt for PPSMI or otherwise? I am pretty sure my parents want the best education for me that prepares me well to compete in the globalised world. We have no private schools in Kubang Pasu. Even if we have one, I really don't know whether they can afford it. Assuming they can afford it, they would rather prefer me to have a balanced and complete social life, and not mingle exclusively with the children of the so-called elites of our society.

Read an erudite analysis on the dark side and "unintended" consequences of PPSMI here.