Having
said that, to deny there is systemic discrimination in this country -
Iām leaving out the private sector for this piece - is delusional.
To
deny we have apartheid-like policies is disingenuous and to deny that
non-Malays have not been complicit in this is mendacious.
While I am not in favour of vernacular schools, I understand why some
parents do not want their children to be exposed to the racism and
bigotry of the ketuanan dogma that is part of the education system.
I
understand why parents would not want their children subjected to the
racial and religious tyranny of educational apparatchiks who have no
doubt through various kursus fortified their racial and religious inclinations.
Folks
think that this segregated workshop drama is horrendous but anecdotally
speaking I have received hundreds of complaints from non-Malay parents
over the years that this is fairly common in various institutions of
government learning in this country.
Not only that, non-Malay students put up with this because to cause a ruckus would be to invite a whole other set of problems.
An
incident that really sticks in my craw even after all these years
happened in Sarawak in 2010. A 10-year-old student was caned by a senior
assistant for bringing non-halal food to school. You can read it here.
But
what really illustrates the mentality of these people in this snippet
-the senior assistantās exact words, according to Jabing who confronted
him on Oct 19, were: āJangan besar-besarkan hal, kerana ini isu yang cukup sensitive di kalangan orang-orang Islam (Donāt blow up this matter as it is a very sensitive issue among Muslims).ā
Single-stream education system
Remember
in 2019 when then PAS central committee member Khairuddin Aman Razali
welcomed the Education Ministry's rejection of a proposal to teach
non-Muslim religions in schools and universities?
He was quoted as saying - āTo achieve that objective (of promoting
interfaith understanding), it would be better to ensure non-Muslim
pupils learn about Islam in national-type schools and national-type
secondary schools so that they better understand Islam and the customs
of Muslims in this country.ā
Back in 2017, the district education officer of Kuantan said that all schools there must hold after-school prayers before students are allowed to leave.
As
reported in the press, district education officer Mohd Razali Mustafar
said this was because prayer was one of the key elements in character
building, especially among schoolchildren, in a bid to strengthen their
personalities and prevent them from getting involved in social problems.
Let
us say we have a single-stream education system with English as the
medium of communication. Would it be easier to communicate to non-Malay
students that there are certain words that they are prohibited from using because it is for Muslims only?
Would
it be easier for non-Malay students to understand that no matter how
well they do in their rote examinations, public universities will be
difficult to get into because of a quota system for non-Malays?
How
about bumiputera prices and the other entitlements that only they
receive when all these students are supposed to be equal citizens of
this country?
Would it be easier to teach students when the medium
is in English that the sensitivities of the Malays must be at the
utmost on their minds when elected representatives go about making
policies?
Or how about when an elected representative like Hadi
claims that these equal citizens and apparently close to his heart must
be pak turut?
What about issues such as secularism (which
protects all citizens), sexuality and liberalism which are supposedly
anathema to their Muslim friends in school even though progressive and
liberal are in the Rukun Negara?
But really, how exactly are young
people going to forget their differences and forge any kind of
"Malaysian" identity when they are constantly reminded that they are
either the masters of this land (and their position is under siege) or
they are pendatang?
Non-Malays, even children are warned
not to "provoke, provoke, provoke" Muslims. Islamophobia as defined by
these extremists is any rejection of racial and religious bigotry.
"Bangsa Malaysia" means always having to appease.
How exactly is
an education ministry headed by anyone believing in Malay special rights
going to formulate an education policy which creates citizens who may
be able to get employment but who will never think of themselves as
equal citizens of this country?
While rich and middle-income
Malays ensure that their children receive an education that would make
them competitive in this fast-changing geopolitical landscape, the
system is designed to keep āruralā Malays and working-class Malays
bereft of the opportunities available to that class of Malays who
control or who serve a political system that enables their privilege.
Of
course, the kind of class that this system of education engineers makes
them perfect as petty mid-level bureaucrats or working-class drones,
steeped in religion and racial grievances, using the system at the
behest of their political masters always hoping to jump to the next
level using corrupt means.
A new serf class was created post-May 1969.
I bet you are wondering what Malaysia Madani as referenced in the title of this piece has got to do with any of this.
That is the point.
