刘氏佣民, 汉世春秋
李后酒诗, 国殇绝唐

强曹霸羽, 未能尊胜
立备后邦, 汉室盛世


任保南博士

精英教育- 开倒车, 拒绝分流！

外国人只认识我们的政府,精英和领导，新加坡人通常相信并且习惯于把所有事情都交给政府决定。不是只有新加坡政府才有顶尖的人才. 我晓得一些在美国成功顶尖的新加坡人：包括NASA负责美国国家宇航局无人驾驶木星探索的首席科学家；在西雅图的飞机设计师。 我不晓得他们现在还持有新加坡护照，当时选择离开新加坡的国人有很大的相似之处，他们不是南洋大学(新加坡六七十年代的中文大学)就是理工学院学生，他们没有机会在新加坡完成大学教育，进入 "新大" (当时的 SU - Singapore University)进修。新加坡精英教育政策是严重人才的流失的根源。

这是我们的精英教育和分流所造成的……我们的收入差距的问题也是越来越严重。而分流与名校就是我们社会的分化的源动力。这难道不是与我们宣誓的"One United People"相违背？

在如此精英教育之下，那些贪玩而聪明的孩子尤其迟熟小男生在PSLE就落后了。后进的，即使是爱因斯坦也会被现在的学校所抛弃。我们现在的教育制度只重视精英。我们的孩子只会考试。

举个例子，"O" 水准的高级华文学生无需在初级学院继续修读华文，而对于其他的学生这是必修课。这项政策，我担心这会让学生错误的认为他们在考好华文之后就不必再学习华文。

我认为这是开倒车，我相信我们都与中华文化有着深厚的感情。我们这些在60年代长大的能说方言，华语与英语,精通三语。而70年代出生的这大多只能用双语交流。我们已经抹杀了拥有丰厚文化底蕴的方言，不说方言，那些在推广华语运动后出生的孩子大部分只能说英语(Singlish)。

我们的教育系统对于家长是非常的混淆。在我们的分流制度下，学生只要通过华文考试，在毕业之后，就可以把所有学的东西还给老师。在马来西亚，我们的邻居，学生们可以流利的说华语，马来语与英语。教育部能考虑研究一下我们的问题到底出在哪里?马来西亚华社成功的华文教育可以给我们作为榜样。

不要抱怨学校太多的功课，这全是因为我们直通车计划，升入理工学院还是初级学院的错误。我们的教育制度需要的不是真正的精英，不是淘汰，适者生存。我相信广大家长会同意我的观点，拒绝分流！

是的，教育部目前在尝试改变，相信我们的教育系统是因材施教，但是不论我们如何改变，学校学生还是承受着巨大压力。这已经违背了教育的本质 - 百年树人。

Singapore and Mini Dragon Legacy

Dr John Yam Poh Nam, Ph.D. (University of South Australia), MBA (University of Strathclyde), B. Eng, Electrical (National University of Singapore)
任保南博士 南澳大利亚大学, 斯特拉思克莱德大学, 新加坡国立大学

Let's consider that history in China is re-written as follows:
China in the very early days, after its founding, started to pursue an open door economic policy.
Consider another scenario - it was Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist government, with strong USA support, that ruled the mainland China since 1949.
Given each of these two scenarios, will the four mini dragons of Asia still exist?

As some of us may be aware, the four economies prosper due to several unique reasons which include:
i. China was the sleeping dragon during the time when the mini dragons were awakened.
ii. South Korea & Taiwan - with strong financial, economic and defense support from the USA, served as their primary engine of the economic growth.
iii. Hong Kong continues with its open commercial and trade practices that stayed well connected to the rest of the world. This helps to strengthen Hong Kong
as a competitive economy.
iv. Singapore - our neighbours who are not as hardworking, well educated and competent as Singaporeans, give us the chance to outperform them. In other words, Singapore did well because its neighbours are more layback and less competent.
Also, Singaporeans, with a very adaptable and hardworking early immigrants, with culture which is inherited from their ancestors who migrated here in the early days, will still prosper. This is also the case in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines - these immigrants outperformed the locals in many areas, especially economically. In addition, Singapore, just like the other mini dragons who helped in the fight against the expansion of Communism in Asia, benefitted from easy access to the USA export market, the world largest economy.

If not for the above factors, i.e. if Singapore had "Smarter" and more hardworking neighbours and had the economic giant (China) had a much earlier awakening, Singapore would have faced tougher challenges and there would not be any economic legacy for Singapore and the other Asia mini dragons. The political and economic landscape in Singapore and the region today would then be very different.

Some Singaporeans believe that Singapore prospers because of its strong leadership and good governance. The post-war Japanese government has never been a strong one, yet its economy still becomes the world second largest economy today, though it will soon be overtaken by China. Given this, others hold the belief that Singapore could still prosper even if it was ruled differently at that time.

As Singapore continues to evolve politically, hopefully to be one that's more opened, I strongly propose our defense and economic development ministries to be independent of politics, that report directly to the People Elected Executive President.

Singapore Nobel Prize Dream

Hong Kong (population of 7 million) already produced the first Nobel Prize this year (2009). Israel (7.5 million) has produced nine Nobel Prize winners to date. Look forward to the day when Singapore will produce our first Nobel Prize winner. The greatest stumbling block for us to achieve this goal is our education elitism policy: streaming, branding and ranking of our schools in our education system.

Is Mandarin our Mother's Tongue? Not quite

To Chinese Singaporeans, who are mostly Hokkiens and Cantonese, our true mother's tongue is actually our dialects, not Mandarin. Forty years ago, in those days, our parents referred Mandarin as China national language (国语), not our mother's tongue (母语). I believe our Ministry of Education is making a very serious mistake when they introduced the learning of Mandarin as our mother's tongue.
From personal experience, having mastered Cantonese and Hokkien in my childhood made learning Mandarin alot easier when I entered primary school.
Since the launch of the "Speak Mandarin" campaign, sad to see that many of our youths who grew up under Singapore elitism education policy, are struggling more with learning Mandarin. Instead of being bilinguals, our youths are reduced to monolinguals. Even worse, we are speaking Singlish instead of proper English. Something is seriously wrong here!

Are We Truly Bilingual?

Thirty years ago, it was quite common that our students could speak English, Mandarin plus one or more dialects. With the "Speak Mandarin Campaign" launched in the early 80', dialects at that time started to become extinct dinosaurs - we were producing bilingual graduates - at that time not sure we have any reasons to feel proud. Since ten years ago, our pupils speak only Singlish. Recently I learnt from an Indonesian friend of mine that parents in Indonesia are encouraging their children to learn Mandarin. Hope the day will not come when both Malaysia and Indonesia are producing more and more triligual graduates whereas Singapore becoming more and more a monolingual society - a worrying trend!
逆水行舟，不进则退

崛起的中国是和平还是威胁

崛起的中国是和平还是威胁
任保南博士 南澳大利亚大学,斯特拉思克莱德大学,新加坡国立大学



要了解今天崛起的中国是和平还是充满威胁的敌人我们必须深入了解中国的历史文化。中国有超过50个民族，人口最多的是汉族，其次，少数民族有蒙古族，满族，壮族，维吾尔族，朝鲜族，西藏族等。我们所说的汉族是生活在富饶的中原地带，被三条河流:长江，黄河和珠江所包围。汉族作为汉朝的后裔，自古以来就是中国内外最具有影响力的民族。而对于周边的国家也有着深厚的文化影响，汉语。中国汉人主要被三种哲学思想所主导。

儒家思想——以和为贵，以礼待人

道家思想——重视人与周围自然的和谐共处

孙子兵法——第一条胜之不战

自古以来中国就是爱好和平的，他们与邻国通商，并寻了互惠互利的准则。汉族有着超过5000年的历史，在过去常被北部的匈奴以及蒙古所侵袭。中国皇帝，包括汉朝和唐朝，尝试通过“通婚”睦邻友好往来化解双方的矛盾。尽管偶尔也会为了保护自己也会发起反击，比如汉武帝和唐太宗。但总体来说，汉人是还好和平与安定，从未主动发起过战争的。

在中华5000年的历史，从秦朝统一六国以来，中国只有内战的困扰。即使是最暴政的皇帝也从未对非汉人发起攻击。屈指对外发起过攻击的也只是唐，元，清三个朝代。而元朝和清朝当时还不是被汉人做统治，当时的统治者是长城以外的游牧民族。即使是唐朝皇帝唐高祖李渊也是有这汉人与北方游牧民族的血统。有此记载：

“李世民的宗室，几代都有少数民族的血统，

李世民的祖母独孤氏为鲜卑人，

皇后长孙氏的祖先为北魏拓跋氏，太子 -

后来的唐高宗李治就是长孙皇后所生，

由于这一缘故，加上李世民的伟大胸襟，

唐初并不过分歧视少数民族。”

世界对于中国唯一的恐惧，恐怕来自于中国的一句古训“君子报仇，十年为晚”汉人从来不可容忍对于国家的侵略。对于中国来说最近的国耻莫过于八国联军，当西方八强侵入中国，以及日本犯下南京大屠杀的罪行。尽管他们的军事力量强大，但中国向来重视自卫与通过外交途径的和解。

中华人民共和国目前是由汉族精英所领导的，这并不是某些人所想象的中国的崛起会是一种威胁。中国建国前三十年与西方的摩擦不是因为中国崛起而是因为共产党思想 与西方自由民主主义的对峙，所以这些恐惧与威胁是没有依据的。稳定的世界可能需要三国三分天下的局面，互相制衡。相反的中国的崛起给美国造成了权力的牵制，三大超级强国，美国，中国与第三个超级大国，让我们拭目以待。