The Bangsa Malaysia concept was introduced by Tun Dr. Mahathir, our former Prime Minister, to create an inclusive national identity for all inhabitants of Malaysia. I’m not sure if Tun’s concept of Bangsa Malaysia is equivalent to a complete assimilation but I am of the opinion that the emphasis should be placed on integration first before we even start talking about assimilation.
Realistically speaking, it will be many moons to come before we can achieve it so long as the politicians of our generation continue to champion the cause of their respective races for political mileage. Sadly, racial politics remains relevant and work to the advantage of such individuals as long as our society remains divided along racial lines. Therefore, our only hope is to nurture our young ones to believe in the concept of a united Malaysia which can only be achieved through a single education system.
Of course we spoke about how the United States has transcended the race barrier through the election of their 44th President, Barack Obama. However, we (incl. myself) tend to overlook the fact that Barack Obama has completely embraced the national language of America and her culture. Still, it took America 200 years to break that race barrier. Here in Malaysia, 50 years on, we still have Malaysians struggling to speak a descent sentence of Bahasa Malaysia, even your Nepali guard or Bangladeshi worker could converse better. Naturally, human beings are more comfortable with people who share many key similarities with us especially the language that we speak because we need to have an effective communication before we can even start knowing one another better. Language and a common education system is the only hope to overcome the race barrier.
Our worsening race relations today can all be primarily traced to the 50 years of segregation in our schools and other factors.
Why race relations were better just about three to four decades ago?
The English-medium schools and 'other factors which i have not thought about'. Maybe those from that era can enlighten me.
Many urban Malays, Chinese and Indians attended English-medium schools back then.
The Alis, Ah Chongs and Mutus did everything together unaware of their differences.
They spoke a common language – English and Bahasa Pasar. The Chinese and Indians themselves did not speak their mother tongue well or did not speak it at all except for a handful and had remained divided among themselves in their own dialect groups mainly speaking their own dialect.
My suggestions.
The Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools must first be done away with for the sake of national integration. However, I anticipate a strong protest from Chinese educationists and various parties with a tendency of it becoming another racial issue (update: MIC urges AG to take action against Mukhriz) see how predictable it is in our race based politics). I wonder who will have the political will to do it since it is a political suicide to do so in our race based politics to abolish vernacular schools.
The feedbacks that I get from my Chinese-educated friends are that Chinese schools must not be phased out because they not only teach good Mandarin and are renowned for their effective methodology in teaching science and math. Besides, it helps ethnic Chinese understand their culture and roots unlike the banana (wearing a yellow t-shirt at the moment!) typing this.
I can see where they are coming from but all these comes at what cost to the nation? Are they more important than achieving racial unity, a key element in nation building, especially so in a racially diverse nation like ours? We’re not preparing ourselves to return to where our ancestors came from, are we?
Let me quote something Mr. Lee Kuan Yew said in one of his interviews.
(In Singapore) Everybody has the same chance in
education and we chose a neutral language – English. Rather than
legislating, we just said that you either go to an English school
where you learn your mother tongue as a second language, or you go to
a Chinese, Malay or Tamil school and learn English as a second
language. After a few years, parents discovered that having English as
a first language led to better job opportunities, so that solved
itself.
Malaysia went the other way by throwing out English and
adopting Malay. The Chinese and Indians decided to have their own
schools, teaching in Chinese and Tamil, and now they have a divided
society.
We are already 50 years late but better late than never, right?
A single education system with Bahasa Malaysia as the first language, English as the second language and Chinese, Tamil, Arabic etc. as an elective is what I envisage. An independent multiracial central education committee or body can then be set up to monitor and ensure the proper implementation of this newly revamped national school system. Language boards must also be set up to uphold the standards of the languages taught in school.
Other types of schools that encourage racial segregation should also be reviewed. Ie. the MRSMs (Maktab Rendah Sains Mara), matriculation colleges and residential schools. These are NEP-related institutions which must also be sorted out to be in line with the new national school system (The NEP is a non-issue here. I am of the opinion that these institutions should be reviewed and reorganized selaras dengan konsept sekolah kebangsaan dan rancangan-rancangan NEP. Please don’t jump to your own conclusion!). From my personal experience, such institutions do disrupt the objective of racial integration that we are trying to achieve through the national school system. I woke up one morning in the midst of Tingkatan 3 only to discover that I have lost all my Bumiputera buddies to the MRSMs and start wondering if the government is genuinely serious about encouraging racial integration in national schools. How many of you share my experience?
It is only fair that all other public institutions which also restrict racial integration be done away if vernacular schools were to be abolished.
Just my Two Sens worth.This entry was typed long before Mukhriz’s statement came into light but I chose to publish it now since it has been finally openly brought up in the political arena.I am non-partisan and I only agree with Mukhriz on that part of his statement. I don’t know why he had to contradict himself by harping on race supremacy issue again after voicing his concerns for race relations. Sigh, politicians! They make me puke. A Chronology of race relations in Malaysia from Chedet.1. Malaysia has a multi-racial population but is quite unique in that the division is not just by race alone but by religion, language, culture and economic situation. Unity in such a diversity is extremely difficult to achieve.
2. If we study other nations where people of different ethnic groups have immigrated, we will find that integration and unity depended on several important factors. Firstly the indigenous people or the people who had set up the country make up at least initially, a very big proportion of the population. Additionally they would be dominant and materially successful. The small numbers of immigrants trickling in found it judicious and beneficial to be identified with the numerically superior and powerful dominant inhabitants. They would willingly forget their original languages and adopt the language of the people of the country as well as their culture; they would intermarry and over time they would be totally absorbed and assimilated and identified with the indigenous people. In such a situation unity is not a problem. The United States is one such country where the original language and basic culture of first settlers are accepted by later immigrants.
3. In the old days before the coming of the Europeans the few Chinese and Indians who settled in Malacca adopted the language and much of the culture of the Malays. Though there was no assimilation nevertheless good relations existed between the immigrant settlers and the Malays. Unfortunately when later the China-born Chinese-speaking immigrants dominated in numbers as well as economic wealth, the Malay speaking Baba and Nyonya deliberately dropped their Malay language and Baba culture and reverted to being Chinese in every way possible.
4. Difficulties in assimilation arise when the late comers are more dynamic and better equipped to progress than the indigenous people. A feeling of superiority towards the indigenous people tended to keep the late-comers apart. As their community grew they established separate enclaves and to erect invisible barriers against the indigenous. As their numbers grew the separation became deeper.
5. The British are only partly responsible for the separation of the races in Malaysia, for keeping the Malays in the rural areas, the Chinese in the urban areas and the Indians in the estates. The different races are also responsible. They made no attempt to mix together as a matter of preference.
6. The Malays before World War II really believed that the Chinese and Indians were temporary guests who would return to their countries once they had made enough money. So it was at the beginning.
7. Even when they showed signs of staying permanently, the Malays and their Rulers believed the British would honour the treaties which recognised the Malay States as the land of the Malays, the peninsula as Tanah Melayu or Malay Land.
8. But after the Brits returned after the war they talked of “giving” this country to whoever wishes to stay here. Although the Malays rejected this and forced the Malayan Union to be abandoned, they realised that things had changed and they had to recognise the claims of some of the non-Malays at least.
9. To cut a long story short independent Malaysia recognised the citizenship rights of the non-Malays and gave them quite freely. This is unlike many countries in the region where strict conditions were imposed. In fact, some immigrants were actually expelled.
10. The hope at independence was that the non-Malays would accept a single national language and a single national identity. But it became clear very quickly that the Chinese and the Indians wanted to retain their identities, their mother tongue and their culture. They did not want to be solely Malaysians, certainly not Malays.
11. At the beginning some prominent people tried multi-racial politics but this was rejected by the ordinary Malays, Chinese and Indians. In the end we settled for a compromise - return your racial identity but cooperate with each other in a coalition of racial parties.
12. Politically it was a good formula and it worked. But when English schools were abolished and the Malay, Chinese and Indians children went to their own schools rather than to the national schools where the teaching was in the National Language. The hope for true national integration faded. After this even the attempt to put the schools from the three language strems in one campus was rejected by the Chinese.
13. It is no good blaming the politicians for perpetuating racial schism. Some of them who tried to ignore racial loyalties simply failed politically. For various reasons the races preferred to stay separated. They may meet at their work place or the playing field but they go home to separate enclaves according to their race.
14. We had opted for democracy and popularity decides who rules the country. Those who reject racialism simply lost popular support. But those who embrace racialism won.
15. They are not racists. The leaders of the different races were, at least in the beginning, able to get along well with each other. They develop close friendship. But they had to be very conscious of their racial backing and to cater to racial demands.
16. The lower ranking leaders, the ordinary members of political parties and the people as a whole had shown no sign of forgetting their racial identity. There may be few liberal minded ones who reject race, but some who do this do so because they believe their own race would gain b it. So even these people are racialist at heart.
17. Then came the resurgence of Islam worldwide. The Malaysian Malays began to adopt Islamic conservativeness especially with the dress code. This tended to push them further apart from the non-Muslims who saw this as an attempt to differentiate Muslim Malaysians from non-Muslim Malaysians. Some people suspect that this is the intention.
18. The behaviour of some extremist exponents of Islamic separateness did not help.
19. And so the races drifted further and further apart. All the time the so-called non-racial parties with their single-minded campaign against the positions of the Malays and Islam as agreed upon at the beginning actually intensified Malay racial sentiments, causing them to yearn for Malay unity rather than Malaysian unity.
20. The ideal of having a non-racial Malaysian nationality has now been almost forgotten. As the self-proclaimed non-racists attacked Malay racialism, the feeling among the Malays hardened. Openly the Malays have not attacked Chinese racialism as manifested by their practical rejection of the use of the National language, their rejection of the National schools, their Malaysian Malaysia slogan. If they do it would be muted and certainly not as blatant as non-Malay attacks against Malay racialism.
21. The Malays have seen what has happened to the Malays of Singapore and they have no desire to be like Singapore Malays.
22. So their reaction is to seek for Malay unity. They feel threatened, and their fear is real. Admittedly there are among the younger educated Malays a few who claim to reject Malay unity. But these people do not represent the vast majority of the Malays.
23. Malay unity, if it becomes stronger will make it more difficult to bring about Malaysian unity. But it must be remembered that the Chinese and Indian are also keen to retain their identities more and more. The Hindraf memorandum is very telling. And the Chinese educationists want even stronger role for Chinese language.
24. The trend is obviously against Malaysian Unity. A weak and unstable Government with its crude attempts to win over the different races through giving in on all demands does not help. Every time it gives in to the demands of one race it simply antagonises and pushes the other races further away.
25. If we still want Malaysian Unity we need to be willing to make sacrifices regarding what we consider to be our racial rights. Everyone has to do this. The leaders must be given some mandate to discuss these matters in private and to make concessions. After each step the lower rung leaders of each race must be given full briefing as to why the concessions have to be made. It would be useless if they don’t agree.
26. Provided we can roll back the present unhealthy trends and redirect it towards more positive non-racial objectives, provided we do this slowly by small steps we may be able to create a truly Malaysian identity where race would gradually become less important. It will take time but with sincerity we may reverse the present trends and move towards increasing co-operation and integration. -
Tun Dr. MahathirI do not agree with point 21 and i have strong reasons not to agree!
Please spare some time and read my comrade's take on this issue:
Should we close vernacular schools
