Off The Edge (June 29, 2005)

Is a once-a-month publication that comes free with The Edge. It's only been in magazine form since a few months back. You can't categorise it. It's really quite "off".

There is also a magazine called Cubes. If a category is needed, then it would be under design. It's about design from fashion to food to buildings to anything. It goes by issue not by month. It goes by themes not by categories.

The emergence of such mags I see as an encouraging sign- maturity of society, liberation of the mind. I hope. The same theme that is running in my mind now.

It is basically hell-week but in the midst of a crisis, I needed some calm to preserve sanity. I picked up this month's Off The Edge and read the cover story- an interview with two old boys and four ex-teachers of MCKK- Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

It has been a long time since I was entranced by something I read. No foreigners in this list- all Malaysians. You should try to get a hold of this issue.

There really was a time, though we cannot imagine it now, when the Malays were progressive and were taught to think. One old boy in the interview said something like this: We were taught in English and we debated in English. Now we cannot read English and so the Internet is all about porn. When in MCKK we used to debate about porn.

There was a time when MCKK invited opposition speakers to the school. One spoke against the NEP in an elite school only for Malay boys. "We invited him," the alumus proudly declared.

"Forget about the NEP. It will never work" exclaimed another old boy. Quite a prominent royalty in business and civil society (even if elite)- Megat Najmuddin Khas.

It got me to thinking how nice it might have been to grow up in those times. In the 60s. Liberation. When people were freer to be who they want to be, or freer to THINK about what they can be. I've never liked sci-fi books but I found myself wishing I could be transported to that era just for a look. I may never return.

The generations which followed have so been molded to think, if at all, within a box, Megat said. And I wonder if it is too late now for Malaysia. The civil service, not politicians, will be the death of the country. Politicians come and go but district heads, department heads build their own empires. He wonders if it is too late now for Malaysia.

We have a National Insitute of Integrity. Why?