Malaysia: At last, someone with the testicular fortitude to address head-on the issue of vernacular schools

[Harold Schiffman]

At last, someone with the testicular fortitude

Finally, a politician with the guts and the watak keperwiraan – the
testicular fortitude – to address head-on and stand his ground on the
issue of vernacular schools, the throbbing cancerous tumour that has
been the single biggest obstacle to Malaysia's social cohesion and the
main impediment to the creation of a Bangsa Malaysia speaking in one
voice, Bahasa Malaysia, guided by the budaya and tatatertib of the
Orang Melayu.

Kudos to Mukhriz Mahathir!

This vernacular school menace must be expeditiously and decisively
obliterated from our Tanah Air Tercinta. A society that allows, indeed
sanctions, such a prickly, divisive ethno-sociological anomaly – after
over a half century of Merdeka – does not deserve the privilege of
nationhood. If we think we are a people worthy of our own Negara
Merdeka under the Panji-Panji Raja-Raja Melayu Berdaulat, we must then
take swift and decisive action to annihilate this societal outrage
that has become a clear threat to our socio-political stability, to
the development of a cohesive Bangsa Malaysia and, indeed, to our
national security and integrity of Bumi Malaysia.

The Malaysian nation cannot support a system that produces functional
illiterates molded in the linguistic and cultural forms of alien
nations far from the shores of our Tanah Air. Many of these SRJK lost
souls drop out upon entering the national high school system due to
their sheer inability to adapt to the mainstream Bahasa
Malaysia-centric curriculum. Many will become lifelong socio-economic
burdens as these social outcasts ultimately percolate into the
underground economy to eke out a wretched existence on the fringes of
criminality. They also add to the social roadblock towards effective
nation-building and in the formation of a cohesive, productive Anak
Bangsa Malaysia.

The SRJK(C) and (T) produce kids who are more insular, more parochial
and less receptive to socio-cultural diversity. From my own direct
interaction with these products of vernacular schooling, I find them
not only below par in Bahasa Malaysia BUT also grossly deficient in
English as well. Hence, they are handicapped in the national language
and the international language of commerce – a double whammy the vast
majority will never be able to overcome.

These functional illiterates end up as a cheap source of
semi-indentured labour in the motor workshops, auto accessory shops,
in the building trades, sleazy unisex salons, become cetak rompak
aficionados, stalk shopping malls to harass shoppers with a myriad of
worthless gizmos and, in the case of many if not most Tamil-educated
Indians, become low wage general workers, lorry drivers and assorted
hired hands for the towkays.

The anti-Malay chauvinist politicians will then turn around and blame
the NEP and Ketuanan Melayu for this socio-economic malady of their
own concoction, further unraveling the last vestiges of social
cohesion we may have in our Tanah Air Tercinta.

I often wonder, where is this vast trove of "superior" products of the
Chinese and Tamil schools? Where are these people who purportedly
benefit from superior education compared to the government schools?

Where?

Rakyat Malaysia yang cintakan Negara dan yang mahu membina sebuah
Bangsa Malaysia yang Seia, Sehati dan Sejiwa harus berganding bahu dan
mengembeling tenaga untuk membanteras sehabisan-habisan gejala sekolah
vernakular yang telah menjadi sarang dan punca berbagai masalah sosial
Tanah Air tercinta kita. Inilah langkah pertama dalam perjuangan kita
untuk membentuk sebuah Bangsa Malaysia yang berbahasa Malaysia dan
berpandu kepada budaya dan tatatertib Melayu di Bumi Malaysia tercinta
ini.

Satu Bangsa, Satu Bahasa, Satu Negara bukan lah laungan retorik
semata-mata. Inilah teras pertiwi dan teraju segala falsafah yang akan
menjamin kedaulatan, ketahanan dan keutuhan Negara Malaysia tercinta
dalam menghadapi berbagai cabaran sosio-ekonomi dan politik dalaman
dan luaran yang kian semakin rancak bergelora.

Hasil Sekolah Vernakular

After 51 years of Merdeka?
A banner protesting Ahmad Ismail's "Cina Pendatang" remark written in
…… Mandarin …… the national language of the People's Republic of
China, an alien foreign language (even to ethnic-Chinese Malaysians)
that led Ahmad Ismail to view them as "Pendatangs" in the first place.
The inherently contradictory and indefensibly dichotomous position of
the Chinese chauvinists in their defense of vernacular schooling 51
years after Merdeka are endless. There exist no single logical
argument that supports the continuation of the archaic colonial-era
Chinese and Tamil school streams in a sovereign nation such as
Malaysia, where Bahasa Malaysia is the sole national language and
constitutionally supreme over any other language or dialect. Indeed,
no other language is mentioned by name in the Malaysian Federal
Constitution.

Anything that threatens the constitutional supremacy of Bahasa
Malaysia – and vernacular schools are the most blatant example – must
be vigorously curtailed and abolished. The greater public good – in
this case, a single unifying language for the Federation – by
definition must prevail over ancillary cultural rights of assorted
sub-groups and descendants of the immigrant races, collectively
defined as "other communities" in Article 153 of the Federal
Constitution.  "Malay" is mentioned 54 times in the Federal
Constitution. "Natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak" are
also mentioned many times, often in tandem with "Malay." There exists
no specific reference to a "Chinese" or "Indian" or "Punjabi" or
"Eurasian" or any other ethnic group. These non-Malays and non-Borneo
natives are lumped as "other communities," the residual populace of
the Federation. Hence, Article 153, by design and implication,
specifically differentiates the "Malays" and the "Natives of any of
the States of Sabah and Sarawak" from the "other communities."

Article 153 of the Federal Constitution in the same breath mentions
the "legitimate interests" of the "other communities."

"Legitimate" is the key word when we talk about the "legitimate
interests" of the "other communities." Indeed, the "legitimate" in the
"legitimate interests" of the "other communities" are subordinate to
the larger national interests of the Federation. In terms of National
Language policy, the "legitimate interests" of the "other communities"
must necessarily be subordinated to the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia
(a larger national interest) and these "legitimate interests" should
never be an impediment to the development and propagation of the
National Language among the citizens of the Federation.

Vernacular schools are clearly impediments to the development and
propagation of our National Language among our citizens. Hence, their
very constitutionality can be reviewed and debated in the context of
propagating the larger national interest and social integrity of the
Federation of Malaysia.
In a nutshell, the qualifying term "legitimate" in the "legitimate
interests" of the "other communities" implies the non-absolute nature
of the "interests" of Malaysia's "other communities." In terms of
language and cultural "rights" of the non-Malays and non-Borneo
natives of the Federation, the determination of what is "legitimate"
in the "legitimate interests" of these "other communities" must be
conducted against the backdrop of a larger, all pervasive national
interest and public good for the Federation. The Federal Constitution
hence clearly implies that the "right" of the non-Malay, non-Borneo
native populace is non-absolute and subordinated to the rights of the
general populace and to the public good. "Mother tongue" language
usage and vernacular schooling are no exceptions.

I must reiterate that the "Malays" and the "Natives of any of the
States of Sabah and Sarawak" are constitutionally distinct from the
"other communities." Sorry, we are not the same under the Malaysian
Federal Constitution. This was how the Federation of Malaysia was
forged amidst the polygot of former Malay States under British
protection, British colonies and settlements. To question the distinct
status of the "Malays" and the "Natives of any of the States of Sabah
and Sarawak" is tantamount to a repudiation of the fundamental tenets
of the nation of Malaysia itself. In other words, treasonous.

Hence, for contemporary opportunistic anti-Malay politicians to cast
the "Malay" and other "Natives" in the same light as the so-called
"other communities" and then to demand kesamarataan among these two
groups – including a parallel National vs. Vernacular school system –
are not only unconstitutional, but also seditious, delusional,
mischievous and self-destructive and, indeed, a pathetic indication of
their utter ignorance of the socio-demographic blueprint of the
Malaysian Federal Constitution that was forged in the context of Malay
compromises and giveaways to the desperate, stateless pendatangs and
their descendants.

Mukhriz Mahathir is absolutely correct and Demi Negara lauds his
position. At a time where "Malay Rights" and every single instrument
of Malaysian nationhood are being brought into disrepute by the
anti-Malay reactionary forces currently infesting and contaminating
our Tanah Air, it is time for all patriotic Anak-Anak Bangsa Malaysia
to rise and question the many social anomalies and maladies propagated
by these same treasonous reactionary forces that have effectively
short-circuited our nation building process. Vernacular schooling is
the most prominent of these social ailments.

Lets discuss. I want to hear intelligent arguments. State your case
logically and share your thoughts and experiences.

http://deminegara.blogspot.com/2008/12/at-last-someone-with-testicular.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************