Proposal to "license" students going abroad

As an old man who can never forget his student days, I feel for all you students out there.

“Cannot do this”, “must wear that”, “watch your speech”, “you stay in” and the like were phrases expected of one’s parents when one was growing up. Now it seems the powers that be have taken over from our dear parents.

True the young need some guidance at times but surely the 18 year olds going on 21 and those older in our tertiary institutions are old enough to be trusted to live their life.

Giving examples and making comparison with things during “my time” (as we oldies like to say) would be pointless. It would be like playing a 78 rpm record on an old gramophone. On and on the same song and nobody listens.

And today I read something about students again. You fellas are in for another “shocker”.

“NON-OBJECTION certificate - a must for Malaysian students studying overseas. Such students will have to be "licensed" before they can leave Malaysia under a plan by the Higher Education Ministry” goes the sub-heading of the story in the New Sunday Times.

This old man is too tired to react to this type of news, seeing that they come once too often. Sorry, but I prefer to go back to my memories.