CC Pung
Justice of Peace , Tokoh Wartawan Sabah and Labuan. Dose of philosophical musings.
SRJK Chung Hwa Kampung Air Kota Kinabalu established in 1917.
Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools have been in Malaysia longer than our nationhood.
They (at least the Chinese ones) were put together by early Chinese immigrants who, until token govt funding was introduced in recent years, funded, planned, built,
managed and sustained these schools.
It’s a classic example of an idea, born out of the Chinese community’s passion for education, that found resonance with the people, who ultimately are the source od its relevance and longevity.
There are hundreds of such Chinese primary schools (the govt calls them Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan, or SRJK (C)) in Malaysia with about 85 in Sabah.
In Malaya, about 20% of the enrolment is non Chinese. In Sabah, some such schools in rural towns (where school development remains neglected] are 80-90%.
Despite the statistics, there have been repeated moves to ban these schools on flimsy claims that such schools breed racial disunity.
The Malaysian Court has dismissed legal attempts to ban vernacular schools, but pro Malay groups, such as UMNO, is carrying on the narrative.
Visitors to Malaysia, including many who moved to the country under its Malaysia My Second Home Program, hail Malaysia multi cultural environment.
Study groups from China institutions have praised the preservation and promotion of traditional Chinese cultural practices, crediting it as having outdone China in some aspects.
But this hasn’t stopped the ultra Malay nationalists such as those in UMNO from incessantly trying to marginalise the Malaysian Chinese, of which I’m one.
A certain rich man named Mahathir, whose father originated from India, has been trying of late to question the patriotism of the Malaysian Chinese allegedly because they resisted assimilation into the dominant Malay group.
In not so many words, he was saying that the Chinese’s patriotism is questionable unless they lived the Malay way of life, and embrace Islam.
He also questioned the vernacular schools, saying that the insistence of the Indians to continue schools in Tamil and the Chinese for learning Mandarin.
But ironically, this man led Malaysia for 22 years and more during which he enjoyed the electoral support of the Chinese and Indians (one in four Malaysians is one or the other).
I think this man is senile or had taken the wrong medication.
Vernacular schools will survive simply because the support for them is now larger than the founders’ communal driven vision.
They now embody the vision of the PEOPLE, those who choose to see the world and its future through a global colourless lens.
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Talantang
