Schooled but Not Educated

We are witnessing some great events going on around the world in recent years, especially last March. Russia invaded Ukraine from multiple directions with barrages of missiles, and artillery accompanied by troops. Major cities around the world are filled with anti-war protestors while some are predicting a major war. And as always, we Malaysians got into an opinion war on social media that spread hatred.

At the end of January, Ipoh was hit by a freak storm causing damage to hundreds of homes. A Twitteratti quoted the video clipping saying, 'Ipoh need skyscrapers to prevent such mini-tornadoes. Perhaps KL is safe for that reason.' His idea astounded me. Perhaps, it is his neo-geographical solution. Another Twitterati posted a screenshot of the population of Muslims in Ukraine with the caption, 'Let us pray for our fraternity in Ukraine'. He created an outrage among Twitterjaya. I looked up their bio and to my surprise, they schooled in our renowned educational institutes.

These people are not among those who experienced colonialism or insurgency but Millenials and Gen Z of Malaysia. They are putting forth their so-called opinions without any moral consideration. And the opinions are not their own. They wait for the problem to blow up on social media and other platforms which provide them with first-hand knowledge. They observe who gets the majority of the support in a problem, whom their idolised person/leader/nation is supporting, and adapt their opinions as theirs. They completely abandon their primal moral instinct in forming a personal opinion.

We spent about seven years studying Malaysian history in school. Is that knowledge enough for us to make a stand about an international crisis? We have no idea about the history of the countries in war and we are ready to pelt stones with the knowledge from social media and WhatsApp university. Why not dig up some history books and read about both the countries? People judge about things they know, thus it makes them good critic of those things. When critiquing for each thing in specific, someone must be educated and to be a critic in general, one must be educated about everything.

With the problematic immediate knowledge at hand, youths are fed with information about injustices that happened in history. It fuels their adapted opinion with communal hatred and unnecessary rage toward those who oppose them. One thing they do not understand is that they are merely letting history repeat with their present actions and not fighting for justice. When a right mind can plainly see which is right and wrong, why are we recalling the past and blowing the ambers of hate? Why can't we entertain someone's stand without accepting it?

Malaysian people are literate. Yet, I feel a lack of educated minds in Malaysia. Most of the young generations are only schooled here but not educated. We do not nurture the habit of reading for knowledge. We stopped being a student after our college days. The ability to pick up a book to learn about something at any time of life is crucial as the Internet is becoming a dumpsite of knowledge. We occasionally boast about the quality of our education system is on par with the UK education system. But are we producing literate people or educated minds?

- Pulari