MY FATHER AND MY UPBRINGING

This is Mohd Yassin Shariff, my father. He retired as acting Perak's Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS) Public Relation Officer (PRO) but originally was a draughtsman. He was acting the post until his retirement because he didn't have any university degree but was excellent in managing JPS state's affair hence the prolonged acting of the post.

From him I learned what passion, quality and integrity are. He took pride in all his works and would tell all about them to mom and we, his kids, would then listen to it as well with amusement and admiration.

I believe this what makes up the other half of life education. Whilst we learn the "technical" aspect of life in school, the other half, that is the "spiritual" one, we learn in at home, we learn it from our parents, we learn it from our family.

If our parents were the passionate kind, we would be passionate too. If they were men of integrity, we would be too. Because we are what we listened and watched when we were kids.

And looking further at my greater family; my cousins for example, although we are not that grandly rich and famous but we are doing not bad. Most of us are professionals and many are quite successful businessmen. In fact, one of my cousin is the CEO and owner of Tutti Frutti Malaysia. In addition, three of my cousins got to the level of state player in Malaysia's football premier league.

And I would say we are all self-developed Malays, in the sense we are not politically connected, in the sense we optimized what have been provided for us by the government but nothing more. In the sense, our grandfather, SAIDIN ALANG MAT JASAT was just a chicken seller on a bicycle.

Now, the reason I write all these is to stress that, although our education system is partly to be blamed for many mischiefs in our society but there is another half that must be taken into consideration that is UPBRINGING. This is where the role of parents, uncles and aunties, older brothers and sisters come into play.

If we can blame the teachers and the schools and the ministry, why can not we take a little time to look back at our family; have they done their parts, have we done our parts?

This writing of mine was triggered by my attempt to search for reasons why there are distinct differences in the behavior and performance of some malays in general and some malay students in particular as compared to their counterparts; in terms of passion, enthusiasm, sincerity, integrity and quality in their study (for students) and/or in their works (for society).

Maybe, when I talk, say, about PASSION to some, their appreciation towards that very WORD is less simply because it is alien to them; alien as they didn't get the chance to hear and watch the manifestation of that WORD when they were kids.

So, am I writing this to downgrade my people? NO!

Am I writing this to say there is no hope for my people due to the lacking of our upbringing? NO!

Instead, I am writing this to say that there is another half of life education that governs our performance both as an individual and as a member of society.

WE must START HAVING THIS OTHER HALF; those had missed it during childhood, they must ACQUIRE it by themselves NOW and those who are starting a family on their own must ensure this half of life education to be manifested in their future family.

For this is the only way our people can change as a group, this is the only way we can change our culture for the better.

The change must be done in a collective manner, the change must be done FROM HOME.

wallahua'lam