The Odyssey of the Scholar-Politician: In Conversation With Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Welcome back to Pathways!
In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak to Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, the 3rd Chief Minister of Penang under the Mahathir administration, the 4th President of Gerakan, and also Princeton, UChicago, and Stanford alumnus and by extension, one of the most academically qualified politicians in the entirety of Malaysia's history, at the Wawasan Open University!
Link: www.wou.edu.my/
I recently reconnected with Tan Sri over an American Universities Alumni of Malaysia (AUAM) event, which is what eventually led me to meet him in Penang and to talk about the doctorate that I didn't know that he had done: A doctorate in Comparative Education at UChicago.
This was a fascinating and riveting conversation spanning from education to society, leading from Tan Sri's own experiences at Phor Tay and Chung Ling High School over to his time at Methodist Boys School, leading into his university experiences at some of the most prestigious universities in the world, before he eventually yet magically decided not to get brain drained away and ended up serving Penang as its Chief Minister after the late Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu, Gerakan as its President, and otherwise.
Our conversation led eventually into the subject of this series: Education.
We talked a lot about Tan Sri's work in education, how he developed Penang's educational policy with an eye to making it relevant to purpose, the development of PSDC and PDC, and the need to balance the interests, identities, and needs of multiple different communities in a country like Malaysia.
This was a truly fascinating conversation in many different ways, and I consider it a transformative one as well.
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Thank you so much Tan Sri for the privilege of this chat, and it is a chat that I am truly honoured to have had.
See you and Chui Hong again a little later, and look forward to seeing you again soon!
V.
P.S.
The American Universities Alumni of Malaysia is a real thing, and I’m currently serving as the organization’s super-admin.
Check us out here!
Link: www.linkedin.c...
If you’re an American university alumnus based in Malaysia, please register for a membership here!
Link: docs.google.co...
Tan Sri Khor, a true Penang Msian son, academician, Moderate politician had contributed much to Penang's industrial and tourism developments and prosperity. Thank you very much and good health, TanSri for all your good works and contributions. 👍👏🙏
He will be very happy to hear this! I’ll tell him to check comments! 🤩
KTK is a typical leader in a Chinese meritocracy political system. He rose to serve ppl with honour and moral without any stain .
I cannot comment so extensively on his personal legacy, because I have not enough knowledge at this stage, but I am glad that you have found him to be a chief minister that is worthy of your deep and abiding respect!
I simply think of the man as a very, very bright friend, who no doubt will be tremendously happy to hear of your kind words! Thank you for your comment!
So far he is most excellent Ex Penang CM
He is definitely an incredible person!
Having the privilege to interact with him personally and to consider how his thought process worked in person was something that I consider transformative, and that transformative experience no doubt will guide me in many ways untold for the years to come.
Thank you for your comment. I am sure that he will be very happy to hear of your praise!
Gonna enjoy my durians while watching this interview
Try the Penang blackthorns! They’re amazing! 🤩
Lama tak nampak Tan sri
Saya dah passkan salam kepada beliau! 🤩 Terima kasih kerana menonton!
Intersting chat. Wanted to know KSK's general view/ philosphy on economics since he was in U of Chicago - Milton Friedman (Chicago Boys). A big fan of the debates between laissez-faire and Keynesian ideas.
Haha, I’m the one who studied Economics at the University specifically - he had studied Comparative Education; happy to ask him his thoughts once we hit the 10k mark though!
It is possible to infer some parts of what he thinks about economics from his discussions about equity and I will be introducing him to several of Malaysia’s most famous economists soon, but it’s worthwhile to note that we (Chicago) don’t broadly have a particular dogmatic approach towards understanding the economy at large.
感谢分享！
不客气! 感谢您来到我的频道，希望您喜欢观看这个采访! 期待下次在我的视频中见到您!
Tan Sri is a very well qualified academic. Somehow Gerakan lost Penang and the support of Penangites. Too bad.
That's absolutely true!
The really unfortunate thing about politics is that often people vote on the basis of party decision rather than just on the basis of the quality of individuals.
On one hand, we can say that this is unfortunate because then really qualified people who choose the wrong party end up being sidelined on account of a stronger narrative from a party that is more successful at appealing to the populistic sentiments of people.
But at the same time, you could also say that it's a good thing in the sense that perhaps we in Malaysia should not be worshipping heroes and should not perhaps be seeking out idols who are able to push forward the envelope of our society.
Of course, in order to move away from hero worship, it would be necessary for us to move towards a situation where we can actually have a system that is broadly working and isn't too dependent on the individual contributions of people around our system though at the same time, there's no question that sometimes singular individuals have the capability to contribute in an outsized manner relative to others in the context of their communities and constituencies as well.
Hopefully, in the balance of things though, we can build a better ecosystem such that the average level of talent regardless of political affiliation is high and we aren't dependent on one particular party winning so that individuals with the requisite talents to administer the country effectively will be continually sidelined due to personal choices and statistical accidents due to the vagaries of the political process and also the thoughts of the people!
Boh chun
还是老的比较有才华 👍
许子根博士 是一位国宝。他的贡献非常卓越，体现了在一个常常被政治和人们觉得只是合理或可信、以及吸引人心而不是理智的世界中，很多人不太接受的中庸文化。
他在槟城的领导在许多方面都堪称典范，这些方面是我在这次采访过程中以及通过一些额外阅读中才真正发现的。
如果你是槟城的居民，你将有机会更亲身地体验他的领导--这是我希望更多的马来西亚人能接触到的，而不是他们现在所经历的论战，但这最终是槟城人的特权。他一定会很高兴听到你所说的话，并毫无疑问会阅读这些评论并从中获得快乐！
谢谢你的分享。
@@VictorTan 我不懂太多，只是听过槟城半导体是民政先争取的。我印象中是2008大家经济不景、反老大才把马华民政刷下来。我区马袖强也不错的被刷了。就这样一下子马华和民政党被断层没接班人了。
其实如果能常一点听到一个像他这样去以事论事的监督政府，我觉得也挺好的
org suh jaga penang, dia bagi pelingkup
Isnt PDC headed by a Malay man during his time.
Possibly. Is that a good thing, bad thing, a neutral thing, and are you asking for a confirmation of fact or is there something else attendant to that statement?
@@lot10101 only a racist will pose the question. 😭
@@VictorTan confirmation, shouldn't it be led by its founder.
Would be interesting to interview him too.
Is what a good, bad or neutral...