Interlok: NIAT’s response to Deputy Prime Minister

ARCHIVES 2011

By admin-s On Apr 2, 2011

Who is actually irresponsible and ill-intended?

By NIAT

CPI introduction

We are reproducing the statement below which appeared in the NIAT website yesterday in response to the most recent statement by the Minister of Education Muhyiddin Yassin on the Interlok school book controversy.

Readers are encouraged to go directly to the NIAT website for fuller coverage of the issue.

NIAT Statement

In response to recent reckless, irresponsible and misleading statement by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, NIAT Chairman Dato’ Haji Thasleem says that “NIAT would not react but, will respond firmly”.

DPM in his statement yesterday stated that “the government would not bow to pressure over the Interlok novel as the issue had been resolved and the final decision already made, raising of the issue again to gain support was irresponsible and ill-intended”.

The NIAT chairman asks, “who is actually irresponsible and ill-intended?” He further clarifies that the DPM’s stand on this issue is very ironical and does not reflect him as a leader of multi-ethnic nation like Malaysia.

He says, NIAT would not react to his reckless, irresponsible and misleading statement but will respond factually to reaffirm NIAT’s firm stand from the beginning to remove INTERLOK from SPM syllabus and replace with a literature book from other zones likeKembara Amira from zone 1 or Sutera Dalam Lukisan from zone 3.

This is in line with NIAT’s research findings that Interlok cannot be continued its use in schools as compulsory text book for SPM BM paper 2 due to following reasons:

Interlok is against Islamic teachings and every other religious teachings
Interlok is against educational guidelines, textbook guidelines and National Educational Policy
Interlok is against all races in Malaysia including Malay, Chinese & Indians
Interlok is against UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Interlok is against the 1Malaysia concept of our beloved Prime Minister to foster national unity

NIAT also endorse the recent evidence found by the Chinese NGOs that

Interlok is also against racial harmony in Malaysia with its embedded Biro Tata Negara principles and Malay Supremacy ideology, making the novel part of the process to indoctrinate our youth.