A School For Every Malaysian – Redux

By Eyes Wide Open

Reading Tunku Abdul Aziz's "Vision for a Malaysian Malaysia" post about education reminded me very much of my anthi-thesis to Demi Negara's "Satu Sejolah untuk Semua" forced-assimilation-in-disguise project. (After being roundly beaten by bloggers and rejected by the Education Minister, it is now being recycled in a more sanitised format – i.e. less blatantly racist content).

The Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua initiative led by DemiNegara urges a unified education system (which is good). But their premise springs from the Ketuanan Melayu idea of either eradicating or subordinating non-Malay cultures/identities (that's baaad!). This kind of "unity" merely requires brute force to be "achieved".

I completely disagree on his premise because the philosophy of the policy directly influences the implementation of the policy.

I counter-proposed with an idea for also for a unified school system, but one based on a democratic model, which I called "A School for Every Malaysian." In a nutshell, this proposal is based on meritocracy, freedom of expression, celebration of diversity and unity by mutual acceptance – which requires diplomacy and visionary leadership to achieve.

I'll leave it to you to judge which is better for sustainable and peaceful nation-building.

Since Demi Negara has recycled his forced-assimilation "Satu Sejolah untuk Semua" project and Tunku Abdul Aziz has written his opinion piece about achieving unity through a unified school system, I'd like to revisit "A School for Every Malaysian."

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