Ministry of Higher Education vs Vice Chancellor

I supposed our Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Dr. Shafie Salleh agreed to retain the continued service of Prof Dr. Mohamad Zohadie as Vice Chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia despite the controversial poem issue and his objection to the transfer of UPM’s Aerospace Engineering programme to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

And let's not forget the involvement of Dr. Shafie to recall the resignation of Dr. Terence Gomez of the University of Malaya, who was initially rejected of a two-year leave application to be based in Geneva after being appointed by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) as the Project Manager for the research area on Identity, Conflict and Social Cohesion.

However I question the constant interference and involvement of the Ministry of Higher Education which seems to contradict with the decisions made by the VC. I somehow believe this will indirectly threatening the position and the credibility of not only the VC but also the universities themselves.

Malaysian Idol no difference from Akademi Fantasia

First, I was disappointed with Akademi Fantasia and gave up watching the show. Then I thought there was still hope with Malaysian Idol. However after the result show last night, I really believe that Malaysian do not vote based on talent.

The voting system might work in countries with large population like the US whereby the chances of fanatic votes are low. I don't see this system works in our country. I'm not sure how many percentage of Malaysians are going to spend 65 sen per vote (which is darn expensive!). I don't even spend on a single vote for anybody and none of my friends did.

Since our judges are not powerful and influential enough to convince the viewers (who are the best and who should be out from the competition), I say we should allocate a certain percentage of votes to the judges and the rest to the voters.