Abolish SJK Schools Once and For All

By Young Malaysian in Fargo, North Dakota

If I were the education minister, I would abolish the SJK Schools. Radical Eh? I can feel the anger boiling in some people and also a tinge of curiosity too. Maybe not if you take a few minutes of your time to listen to this controversial opinion of a young Malaysian studying overseas. Now that I know you are this far I know that you are open minded and definitely curious to at least entertain this very controversial claim.

Abolishing SJK schools won’t be the only thing I do as the Education Minister however. Unifying all the schools in Malaysia and ensuring that the medium of instruction is English would be the primary priority.

Implementing this will definitely enrage some quarters of people that will contend that this will kill off the Malay language. And I do concur that this is a concern and that it would be a very sad day if we live to see the day that no Malaysian spoke Malay. Wouldn’t the name Malaysia feel like a farce then?

The solution to this is to ensure that the Malay language be made a compulsory subject for every student that enrolls in any school in Malaysia. It has to be a compulsory subject that in the case that someone does not pass the Malay language then graduation from school shall be withheld.

Malay has always and will always continue to be our National language and to be true proud Malaysians we
from all different backgrounds should all know the language, as this is what defines us as Malaysians in the eyes of the world.

Another radical change that would be implanted is to encourage every student to learn a 3rd language also. Before I hear detractors claiming that it will be detrimental to a child’s progress as they will be bombarded with too much information at a young age, I would like to point out that there are already many countries that practice multiple languages and that the majority of Malaysians are already bilingual and trilingual. This should not be that tough to implement, as we are already halfway there.

This third language that is to be offered in schools will be a preference of one out of these three widely used languages in Malaysia as in Arabic (Jawi), Mandarin and Tamil. The SJK teachers that lost their jobs due to the merger will be integrated into this unified school system and they will ensure that the students master these third languages. Students are allowed to choose one out of the three based on their own interests. Realistically the parents make this decision for young kids, as I don’t remember many 7 year olds at my time that were too keen to learn an extra language or two. Now that I am 23 and supposedly learned, I realize the folly of my mistake when I used to repeatedly argue against my father’s wisdom. How I wish I spoke more languages now.

Imagine Malaysia as a country of English educated trilingual people. The command of English will help us Malaysians be competitive in the global economy. Malay will help promote unity, develop a sense of pride and increase our relations with Indonesia that is becoming a member of the BRIIC group.

Let us examine the other countries in the BRIIC. Ahh an interesting fact sticks out in particular the fact that India and China are part of this illustrious group. Maybe just maybe, the knowledge of Chinese and Tamil amongst our people should help us foster greater business and social works with India and China.

The knowledge of Arabic helps us cultivate even deeper relations with the Middle Easterners. Is this just a blessing in disguise that we will inherit because of this radical abolishment policy?

I wouldn’t mind these benefits, as this would once again revive Malaysia to be the best it can be as a link between developed economies in the world. This also ensures that racially based dividing politicies can never be revived in Malaysia as the majority of Malaysians will be aware of racially and sexually based gutter politics.

We would never have had to resort to such a drastic measure if we were somehow blessed with visionary or at the very least competent policy makers in our current government settings who have taken the liberties to ensure that the common Malaysians will always be non-free thinkers as these so called free-thinkers can and will be a thorn in their side. [Free as in thinking freely.] Who might know our economy might be strong enough to persuade our Singaporean brothers and sisters to return to us, as they are already pioneers in these ideas.

Alas these are all just pipedreams of a young foolish idealistic 23 old boy that wishes to see Malaysia fulfill its massive potential thanks to the its multi-cultural and well resourced land. To achieve something of this magnitude is somewhat impossible in the present Malaysia as it seems to be run by a bunch of goons that do not seem to have a single iota of common sense in their thick skulls.

To all the great Malaysians that are already fighting to save our current generations from mass exodus of the people and to ensure that the future generation will once again rise and make us proud, do not despair anymore for us in the age 20-25 bracket are all accumulating knowledge like dry sponges absorbing relevant knowledge to wage the final war that needs to be conquered for all Malaysians to continue living harmoniously per the wishes of the Late Tunku.

Obviously we Malaysians are well known for perennially being late, so do forgive us for not actively fighting alongside you at this very moment. Its not that we are not aware or we do not care. It is because we want to be well prepared before we face the true enemies of our beloved country. When the day of reckoning is at hand we will vanquish the evil from our Tanah Air Tercinta. Rest assured old timers, we young‘uns will do what we need to do in emphatic style.