REFORMATION TO DOOM!

 The term of 'Reformation' brings various meanings to all of us. From our view, (or to be specific, what we learnt from class), reformation is a changing established bereaucratic practices, behaviors, and hierarchy structures-Khan). In other words, it is simply saying that it is a changing for the main features in any organization.

But, the question now is; is reformation brings us benefits or disaster?well, 'disaster' is a harsh word, perhaps 'ruin'? yeah..

in our opinion, reformation is  not something which is wrong to be done. it can be done for sure, but the question is, does it work out? can someone guarantee that nothing bad will happen when reformation is to be done in our government administration?, for example. We are saying that, reformation will bring us to doom.

If we go take a look at the issue of the war at Iran, with all the war, and conflicts happen at there, do you think reformation is possible to be done there?we believe that reform is needed in Iran, but not at the expense of Islamic culture. What Iran should focus on is to move to a true Islamic way of living, and not to the materialistic Western way of life. It is all about being a genuine Muslim.While the talk about 'reform in Iran' sounds good, it is ultimately meaningless. In a country where the Guardian Council approves or rejects candidates, where the Supreme Leader's words cannot be challenged, where the fundamentals of the regime cannot be questioned or criticized, reform and democracy are meaningless concepts.

Other than that, we think that reformation will bring us to doom because, if the reformation need to be done, it needs collaboration from all people to make it come true. However, it is too good to be true 'if all people do give support for this'. 

Moreover, with all problems that occur in the administration such as political bribes, people participation which is lack, and politic and social instability, that ia way too impossible for reformation to be done. 

as for the conclusion, we still stick with our opinion which saying that reformation will bring us to doom because, of course, reformation can be done, but, too much reform showing us that our country is weak, and we are absolutely doesn't want the foreign country to see our country in our weakest stake....right?

this is our last assignment for DA class..we would like to thank to our Miss Fisha for teaching us through whole semester..and we alslo would like to apology for everything that we have done..

*sniff sniff*LOVE U MISS^^

-juwaini-sharafina-ross-che ros-sofya-linda-nisa-zura-

Teacher's Note - TEST

Salam.

Because of BTN, I've to reschedule your Test 1. I've decided the test will be held as follows:

• AMD6PA - Tuesday (Feb. 17th, 2009), KARAH 10/3, 10.15am - 12.05pm

• AMD6PB - Thursday (Feb. 19th, 2009), 12B1, 12.15pm - 2.05pm

• AMD6PC + AMD6PD - Monday (Feb. 16th, 2009), 8C, 4.20pm - 6.10pm

Thus, for this coming Monday, AMD6PA and AMD6PB can have more time to study because your test will be held as scheduled.

Only AMD6PC and AMD6PD will take the test on that day.

Those from AMD6PC and AMD6PD who has problem taking test on the mentioned day, please notify me by or before Sunday (Feb. 15th, 2009 - 10am) so I can prepare the things accordingly.

The test will covers all chapters i.e. chapter 1 - 4, and don't forget Vago's chapter 6 and 9.



Good luck everybody and have a nice day!

Love you all ... as always!

Wassalam

Four differences between Ralf and Marx Theory

1. society vs. classes

- In Malaysian society, conflict happen when the society's culture changes. For instance, during the old days, girls are not advised to further their studies because at the end of the day, they will end up doing housework(even though they have qualification in education)("orang perempuan belajar tinggi mane pun, ke ceruk dapur jua akhirnya!") . Nowadays, girls are free and being advised to pursue their studies to a higher level of education because there will be job waiting for them when they have graduated.

- In India, they have gap between the upper and lower classes that can be known as "kasta 1" and "kasta 2". Kasta 1 is the upper classes who have their own capital. Kasta 2 is the lower classes who only have energy and does not have the means of production. Kasta 2 suffer from poverty. They depends on Kasta 1 for job mainly as slaves. Conflict happens between them when Kasta 1 look down towards the Kasta 2.

2. authority vs. means of production

- Ralf's stated that society is divided into two which are those who have authority and those who do not have authority. Those who have authority are those who possesses legitimate power. They control and make decision for those who do not have authority.For example, government and people.

- Marx, in the other hand, stated that classes are divided into bourgeoisie and proletarial. Bourgeoisie are those who have the mass of production. They have energy, manpower and capital to initiate product. Proletarial are those who have not. They are more known as the working class society. They are being exploited by the Bourgeoisie.  

3. communism(utopian) vs. compromise 

- Communism, in which wanted to achieve the classless society which means everybody is equal in terms of their rights. Moreover, they also wanted to achieve the utopian society (ideal society). however, it is impossible to achive as nothing in this world is perfect. 

- Compromise means that the society willingly accept and follow any government rules, regulations and policies although sometimes they do not agree with those policies. The concept of compromise can be seen in social contract.

   

4. natural vs. complex

- Based on Marx theory, conflict can be seen as natural. The upper and lower classes are impossible to compromise.

- Based on Ralf theory, conflict are complex. Those who have authority have to persuade those who do not have the authority to agree with the decision made for them.

Teacher's Note - Public Announcement

Dear students,

Hi and welcome back to class.

As I browsed your blog and read and commented on them, I noticed some common pattern of answer, 1) where you have the tendency to simplify your answer that sometimes I couldn’t find any relevancy to point discussed before it; 2) having so much unnecessary facts and details that making readers fell like reading a textbook.

Even though a blog entry should be short and simple, you don’t have to discount many of your words and make your argument everywhere. You don’t have to write an essay for that matter, but try to use concise word to articulate your point.

For those who love to back up their answer with all facts and data (as if we really want to know!), you too need to be concise and precise in choosing your words so that your entry doesn’t dazzled me … you know how much I hate to scroll the whole page just to find your main point at the end of your entry!

It is a waste when you come out with such a good point but having discussed it on the surface or lace it with unnecessary ‘ornament’ …

Try to be concise and precise and at the same time keep it short and simple.

On other words … briefly elaborate your point in detail – if you know what I mean.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Malaysia's economic downfall

Well, the issue is the Malaysia's economic downfall. Malaysia is now heading to another economic crisis. Due to the economic crisis, the industry suffered tremendously. This is because as the economy has set back the blooming construction industry into a sudden fall and a major drop in growth graph. Suddenly, everything was declined in the construction and no new works was done. There were lots of projects that delayed and many workers are loosing their jobs recently.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

a) The identity of changes are (i) the behavior of the society. People starting to save their money and their savings in order to live. Some of the workers from the private sector works harder than they used to because of afraid being fired by their employers. (ii) the productivity rate. The products produce by the companies are less than usual. These companies tries to keep the level of quality for their products. So, the productivity rate became lesser than before.

b) The level of changes happens throughout the organizations and society. The organizations have to retrenched their employees in order to keep their companies stable with less budgetary problems. The society will also feel the changes too during the economic downfall. The society have to save in spending their money because of the price of goods have increased too. 

c) The duration of change in this issue is a short-term phenomena. Most of the time, when a country suffers from the economic downfall, it will only last from few years. It doesn't last long. The countries will recover from the economic downfall as fast as they can. 

d) The magnitude of change are comprehensive and revolutionary. It is comprehensive because the whole society in the country felt the changes happened in the country and life due to economic downfall. It does not only effect organizations, employees or undergraduates but the whole society in the country including people in the rural areas or even housewives.  As for revolutionary, it is really drastic. As we can see, during the economic downfall, the price of oil increased massively. The price of oil did not increase slowly but drastically. This does not only apply to the price of oil but to the price of goods too.  

e) The rate of change are fast and spasmodic. When the economic downfall, the rate of change becomes fast as it involves the flow of income of the society in most of the things including oils, goods and loans. The behavior of the society changes fast as the increments of price and the shortage of money or sources. It is certainly not continuous because the economy of the country will be better sooner of later. Usually the economic downfall lasts for only few years. Besides, the country's economy will change throughout the time. 

VARIABLES/SOURCES OF SOCIAL CHANGE

1) The productivity of the goods in some industry may tend to become slower. It means that when the workers has been reduced, the quantity and quality of the product will decrease. 

2) The political system in the country may become chaos as the politician are focusing to the economic problem and with the other matters as well.

3) There will be competitions between the citizens, especially those who are jobless, in finding their jobs.

Tada!!!! our second task^^-juwaini, sofya, ross, sharafina, che rose, nisa, linda, zura

Question 6: Evaluate the political situation in Malaysia during 1960s in term of people participation.

In 1960s, the awareness of the society to participate in election start to arise. In this term, people's participation does not only focuses on the voting but also the interest of the individual to become the candidate in the politic development. There were many campaigns that had been done by the government to enhance the people participation. There were also training that had been done to the candidates on how to play the political game.
During the 1969 election, the political candidates especially from the opposition party, talks on the issue of Bahasa Melayu becomes the main language in the country, the Malay privileges and the non-Malays citizenship rights. Due to their actions, there are many suspicious arises between the citizens of Malaysia.
The Gerakan won during the election at the Batu, Selangor. Gerakan got police permission for 1,000 party members and supporters to hold their own demonstrations that evening. Word got around quickly and the number swelled to 4,000 which later broke up into smaller groups that conducted their own “demonstrations” away from the restrain of party leaders. They, too, taunted the Malays with insults, using similar words that had been hurled by the previous day’s demonstrators, such as: “Melayu balik kampung, kita sudah berkuasa sekarang” (“Malays, return to your villages, we are now in power”) and “Hey Sakai boleh balik ke hutan” (“Hey Sakai, you can return to the jungle”).
The awareness of politic participation also influenced by the appearance of maktab teachers. they started to play roles to publish their writing which is more focuses on political spirit and a sense of patriortisme among Malays. all the writing published by them is more oriented to Malays spirit. due to the publication of all the writing, Malay people started to have a sense of patriotisme to stand on their right as a local citizen of Malay. Aminuddin Baki is one of the writer of the political spirit book at that time.


Question 7: Define urbanization and the impact of urbanization.

urbanization is a transformation process from the rural areas or natural into a city which is urban area. it can be seen when there is the increament of population living in a city. the process of urbanization must be focus on the development of rural area to be in same level with other urban area. to have a title of urban, that particular area must follow some characteristis that been underlined. for example, the population must be around 100 000, there are many facilities provided by local authority in that area, there must be a centre of administration and centre of high education institution and so on.
there are two impacts of urbanization which are divided into negative and positive. In the term of positive effect, the industries at the area will develop as there are improvement in demand and supply as for the population had expand. Normally, the industries that have been developed are food industries, the electrical industries and so on. Thus, it shows the positive impacts of urbanizazion that related with the development administration. however, there are some negative impact in terms of social aspect. As we know, in the urban area, the technology advancement is better than rural area. Thus, most of young generation can use and supply all those technology advancement. However, most of them have misuse those advancement. Some of the problem occurs were the pornography video clips which have been downloaded by the underage. 

Question 8: How far the existence of civil society may increase the government competency? illustrate your answer with appropriate example.

civil society refers to that sphere of voluntary association and informal network in which individuals and group engage in activity of public consequence. it is distinguish from the public activities of government because it is voluntary, and from the private activities of market because, it seeks common ground and public goods. it is often as the third sector. the existence of civil society such as 'SUHAKAM', Biro Pengaduan Awam, MAKNA, and so on. all of them have been contribute in government administration. Besides the Biro Pengaduan Awam also has become a link between the government and society in order to reach out all citizents complaints and matters to the government. SUHAKAM also play a role to advise and assist government in administration and suggest action to be taken, for example, the issue of the price of goods.

Question 9: To privatise or not to privatise.

Privatization refers to transformation of ownership and responsibility of government to private company in order to decrease the government burden. Privatise surely can give a lot of advantage, such as the quality or product and services are better than the non-private sectors. However, the negative effect is that the citizens will loose their confidence in government's capablity. For example, the privatization of IJN, majority of the people did not agree with that because it would lead to high cost in its treatment which poor people cannor afford for it. 

the positive effect is that, the corruption in their administration are less because they are really concern in the terms of services and goods. in our opinion, Malaysia should have balance in private sectors and also government sectors in which both of them should be applied in our country. 

Question 10: Of all aspect of development in our country, (inclusive social, economic, and politic) which of those that should be given more emphasis right now and why.

In our opinion, the government should be given more attention in the term of politic. This is because, in order to improve the economic and social system, the stabilization in politic is very important. This is because the political system will be the one in which to formatize the structure of our country, no matter in economic and social system. For example, the political system in Somalia. the political system in the country is not really in its best condition. therefore, the citizens in the country are having problem in economic and social matters, in which they have no foods and they also have committed many crimes in order to get food, such as they have become pirates and rob the foreign ships to get the foods.    

Question 1: Appropriate theme for the current development in Malaysia

Malaysia has developed massively for the past few years. Its theme has changed rapidly with the changes done in the country. It has its ups and down in developing the country.
In the political development, people's participation in election or politic issues has increased greatly. The citizens are more aware to the political development. The number of voters arises as well as the number of the candidates. As the rising of the number of voters, this shows that Malaysia citizens are increasing day by day.
The lifestyle of the citizens in Malaysia are increasing as well. The government focuses more on the modernization of life in its people. As we know, there are many of them who are still living in the rural area. There are not enough of facilities provided to them such as education, health centre and electricity. The government has launched many activities in order to increase the welfare and lifestyle of the society. For instance, building up more schools in the rural area, provides more health centre or clinics and giving more scholarships to rural area students.This may enhance the students desire to pursue his or her studies to a higher level of education. Recently, the Ministry of Education has changed the language in learning Mathematics and Science in primary and secondary school. The syllabus of primary school has also changed. The Ministry has included Science subject to be learn by the Standard 1,2 and 3 students. School kids must also learn Civic subject in school.
The Ministry of Education has also launched the Blueprint project. The Blueprint project is mainly to increase access to education, increase equity in education, increase quality of education, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education management. It focuses on the development of preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels which will be strengthened through the development of support programmes, funding, management, and integration of information and communication
technology (ICT).
In social development, the government implements many programs to enhance development in social through various ministries such as the Ministry of Youth, Ministry of National Unity and Social Development and Ministry of Human Resource. For example, the Ministry of Human Resource play role to protect the interest of workers through the concept of industrial relations. In fact there are many NGOs existed in Malaysia in order to protect the welfare of workers such as Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC). MTUC are mainly formed to settle any disputes between the worker and public or private sector employer.
In the economy development, Malaysia's Small Medium Entreprenuer (SME) has increased highly these days. The development in the rural area had been improved since they gained a lot from the small medium industry. Some of them are from the sales of budu, handicraft and 'keropok'.

Question 2: The impact of securing foreign aid and how far should the government comply with the rules put by the borrower.

USSR, China, and few others countries are well known for aiding Malaysia in various aspects, whether in economic, defences and politics. the impacts of having all those aid can apply the new technology from the developed countries to our technology for the expansion in the aspect of education (science and technology). It is also to access the development in a big project for example, the construction of Kuala Lumpur Convension Centre (KLCC) which was supported by the foreign country.
once Malaysia received the aid by the borrower, of course, they will be given certain rules and conditions by the borrower. Usually, the rules which were given are profitable to the borrower sides. Therefore, Malaysia should have their own limits in gaining aid from the foreigners. For example, lets go back in the year 1997. When ASEAN countries were facing financial crisis, Malaysian former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had accused one economist from United Stated, George Soros, from using the wealth under his control until Malaysia and Indonesia suffered from inflation.
During Tun's administration, to overcome the inflation crisis in 1997, IMF had offered Tun foreign aid in term of loan. However Tun refused to accept the offer. The reason was Tun did not want Malaysia to be burden by the interest from the loan as the IMF are well known for their high interest charge and Tun did not want to depend only from the IMF.
That is why the goverment must careful in accepting the aid and they should examine whether the rules can make us Malaysian gain loss or benefits. They also should comply the rules if they want to accept the aid as long Malaysia would not affected by the deals between both parties.