Are Vernacular Schools the Obstacle to a United Bangsa Malaysia?
What are the obstacles to a united Bangsa Malaysia? Clearly, not vernacular schools per se. To answer that question truthfully will take lots of soul-searching, reflection & honest conversation among Malaysians.
By Malaysian Heart
In May 2009, blogger Kijangmas and his friends submitted a memorandum to the Malaysian Minister for Education, asking that the "menace of vernacular schools be totally eliminated" from Malaysia. What were their reasons for this request? They claim to believe that "...a strongly united Bangsa Malaysia will never be achieved as long as the menace of Vernacular Schools (National Type Schools or SJK) exists on Malaysian soil," (my translation from the original in BM). They also claim that vernacular schools (in their words a "divisive social cancer") are the reason why some Malaysians are "unpatriotic", harbour "anti-Malaysian" attitudes, "subversive" and "traitorous".
What would one have to do to qualify as "unpatriotic", "anti-Malaysian", etc. in their book? Not very much. Amongst other things, you could qualify by:
- by promoting Mandarin and Tamil (which they refer to as "foreign languages") in Malaysia. They believe doing this is against our Federal Constitution
- "over-exaggerating" the contributions of immigrants in the formation & development of Malaysia
In the memorandum, Kijangmas and friends also state their belief that the languages & cultures of Malaysian minorities must be removed from all national and public roles and confined to private community matters only, because, as they claim, that is what our Federal Constitution requires.
Read more at: http://malaysianheart.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-vernacular-schools-obstacle-to.html
