Thinklog Wargafikir

Pagi ini di dalam rancangan bual bicara di sebuah stesen tv tersohor negara, seorang menteri berbicara tentang suatu pendekatan baharu di dalam pengajian di universiti, iaitu program SULAM (Service Learning Malaysia - University For Society). Ianya merupakan program memasyarakatkan universiti dengan cara menggalakkan pembelajaran dalam kuliah di aplikasi kan ke dalam masyarakat. Contohnya pelajar belajar tentang struktur binaan kayu dan dalam kursus itu ada kerja kursus membina struktur kayu untuk sebuah kampung. Ianya sesuatu yang sangat bagus, namun di sini saya ingin mengutarakan suatu kesimpulan yang penuh kontroversi, iaitu ilmuwan negara di menara gading adalah ibarat lembu yang dicucuk hidung. Bukan kerana program itu sendiri, tapi pernahkah terfikir mengapa program sebegini wujud? Program ini berasaskan prinsip yang dilaungkan dengan slogan Universiti untuk Masyarakat. Soalnya Selama ini universiti untuk siapa? hanya sejak 2 tahun kebelakangan ini Kementerian membuat saranan se...

Photo: Chronicle.com Bismillahiirahmanirrahiim. There is a contentious debate in academia regarding the need for quick completion of a PhD study. While this need seems rather obvious for various reasons, I would say not so desirable in the field of humanities. Regardless of how brilliant a scholar is, to get around the depth and complexity of a phenomena in humanities requires time. A brilliant scholar would be able to solve a clear problem pretty fast, no doubt. However in PhD, the most difficult part is to identify the problem not the solution. the network of interconnected phenomena. An issue cannot be viewed independently of its context. Rather than looking at an isolated samples in a lab, a scholar in humanities need to put things into context, place, culture, and time, and this requires the knowledge of the world, almost the whole world. Human evolve in thinking and behaviour through times. What is true today might not be true tomorrow. For this reason, establishing the contextu...

Reductionism is the basis of current scientific thinking, and extend well into humanistic domain as well, with a lot of undesirable outcomes. I have written about the damage reductionism is doing to our national higher education here ( Part 1 ) and here ( Part 2 ). This article is another article illustrating how reductionism is still the basis of our mode of thinking, even matters relating to education.  An example currently at work Id like to share here. A research group is trying to formulate new direction for  education of a specific field for the next 10 years. The project is currently drafting an extensive quantitative survey of the current situations. Some 60-70 questions asking multiple choice answer to various stakeholders. To me this is another example of reductionism at work, trying to understand phenomena by specific answers and quantify them. First and foremost, in the age of VUCA, (Volatility, Uncertainties, Complexity and Ambiguity - a phenomenon brought about b...

 Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera Sumber foto: www.bpe.org Akibat dari kesan COVID19, dan sekatan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan, memaksa ramai pelajar belajar dari rumah. Situasi ini mengingatkan saya kepada suatu idea yang pernah saya fikirkan beberapa tahun dahulu sebelum COVID19 . Asalnya idea ini difikirkan kerana beban sosioekonomi sekolah awam dan swasta yang memerlukan infrastruktur yang mahal disamping menambah bebanan pengangkutan (antara penyumbang kesesakan jalanraya) dan juga bebanan ekonomi dan sosial keluarga yang terpaksa menghantar anak agak jauh dari rumah.  Di dalam krisis pandemik ini pula, ada masalah baharu yang timbul. Waktu ini, pdpr (pendidikan dan pembelajaran di rumah) menjadi pilihan. Antara masalah yang tidak ramai sedar dari pendekatan ini ialah beban infra pembelajaran, iaitu keperluan capaian internet dan penyediaan peranti jatuh ke bahu ibubapa. Bagi kawasan yang jauh dari jaringan, dan bagi ibubapa yang tidak mampu menyediakan peranti yang cuk...

This article is a welcoming speech note given to the new students of Archtiecture, Universit Putra Malaysia. the speech were deliverd online on the 26th of September 2020. The video of the speech (slides presentation can be found here ): 26/10/2020 Dear Students, welcome to the department. You are here with dreams. And dreams are made of stories. It is nowhere to be found amongst the current available atoms in the whole universe. The COVID 19 pushes everone to find new perspectives on life, on economy, on society, on selves, on values. My Name is Zaky Jaafar, the head of Department. I am welcoming you to the department with this message. That you are here for a reason. You are here for more than just getting information, more than just getting a certificate, more than just getting the skills to be a future successsful architect. You are here because you want to elevate your inner being to the highest achievable level you can attain. For this I need to tell you, you are more than wh...

Just finished watching a documentary on algorithm. Algorithm is everywhere. It simplifies life, enrich, empower civilisations in leaps and bounds. Face recognition, shopping preference, crime prevention, future trending and so much more. However with any technology there are two sides of the coin, good and bad. What I want to propose here is that in Malaysia, there is a lack of parallel narratives on the humanistic aspects of algorithms and other technology in general. We as a nation are not ready of the dialogue accompanying its advent into our social construct. And I would like to point out the glaring missing parts in our society, we don't have storytellers. The role of story tellers in the development of technology has been discussed by Cave, Dihal and DIllon in an article: "  Narratives can make or break a science: palaeontology got massive boosts in funding after Jurassic Park, while Frankenstein was deployed to constrain the use of GMOs in food – with huge impact in Eur...

Apakah tugas sarjana dan ilmuwan negara? Bagi saya mereka bukan hanya menjadi tenaga pengajar, bahkan yang lebih penting ialah menjadi tenaga pemikir yang mampu mengolah, mencorak dan menjangka perubahan yang bakal menerjah di masa hadapan. Dalam situasi krisis mereka mampu mencadangkan penyelesaian yang berkesan dan berimpak. Oleh itu mereka perlu banyak masa untuk mebayangkan dan memainkan situasi dan senario berbeza bagi setiap permasalahan yang timbul. Mereka tidak boleh bertindak secara refleks seperti robot ataupun melatah dalam menggarap isu2 kemajuan pembangunan, dan permasalahan masyarakat di dalam krisis seumpama krisis pandemik yang sedang kita hadapai sekarang. Untuk itu salah satu aktiviti yang sangat perlu bagi golongan sarjana dan ilmuwan ialah 'berangan', atau bertafakur dalam bahasa yang lebih rasmi. Mungkin perkataan ‘berangan’ dalam tajuk artikel ini lebih sensasi untuk menarik minat pembaca. Berangan sering diangap negatif oleh masyarakat. Namun kalau kita ...