The latest furor over Dong Jiao Zhong, Dong Zong and all those who support the Chinese education cause and the right to mother tongue education merely further underlines the fact that the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) continues to squat on the community and is a spent force headed for the dustbin of history.
It’s time that the Chinese get their politics and relationships right, as in business, on mother tongue education in the country. Mother tongue education is a right enshrined in the UN Charter and best illustrated in the ideals of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) of which Malaysia is a member and a signatory.
Sudden about-turn
But if Malaysian Chinese think the MCA will secure these rights for them, they will have to continue to dream on as they have already been dreaming for decades without fruit. And Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong, who was chased out by the Dong Zong ralliers on Sunday is the best example of how the community has been short-changed all these years.
The Dong Zong or 325 rally was organized to protest the shortage of Chinese primary school teachers. To an extent, Malaysian Chinese have themselves to blame for not checking on the MCA sooner. Now at the brink, it is still not too late provided the community awakens from its political stupor and renounce the 'devils' who have been masquerading as 'angels', sucking away at their life blood - time and hard-earned money.
On Sunday night itself, Wee had put on a brave face, offering to quit "if it would help" to resolve the problem. The next day, he arrogantly said he "chose to forgive" his attackers.Yes, he was immediately accused of hypocrisy. But worse was yet to come.
The next day, Wee and his opportunistic MCA party tried to damage control and turn the tables on political rivals, the Pakatan Rakyat. Suddenly, Wee complained of being punched and hit by ralliers, contrary to what the police had annouced that there was no assault.
Helping Umno
Such volatile U-turns underscores unreliability, un-trustworthiness and outright dishonesty. By its actions, the MCA appears to be a ruthless machine, geared only to preserve the survival of its current top leaders Chua Soi Lek, Liow Tiong Lai and Wee himself. Maybe the party has no choice because it is now a matter of life and death for its political survival. Still for Wee and MCA to go about trying to score political points at a time when they should apologize is the height of insensitivity to the wishes of the Chinese, who want their full rights to vernacular education restored.
Critics say the episode shows the MCA does not care about the Chinese at all. It is only interested in their votes and thereby the cushy office, perks and lucrative government contracts. Shocked at Wee's sudden U-turn from being falsely apologetic to openly twisting the truth, many pundits believe MCA had no choice but to lie in order to appease an Umno, terrified to watch how very weak the MCA really was.
"Wee and MCA are trying to get sympathy but from whom? The majority of Chinese across Malaysia feel the same way as those who attended the Dong Zong. Very likely, Wee and MCA have been asked by Umno to kick up a fuss so as to rouse the Malays into feeling afraid that Bahasa Malaysia will become sidelined if the Pakatan takes over," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Such tricks confirm that MCA is nothing but an Umno stooge and is willing to sell out the people it represents just to be in the good books of its coalition boss, Umno."
Political observers reckon the chances of MCA winning zero seats in the 13th general election, expected to be called soon, has now tripled due to the clumsy way in which Wee tried to capitalize on the issue but to no avail.
A child is best educated in his mother tongue.
It’s true that Malay – i.e. Johore-Rhio dialect -- is the national language and everyone should be proud of this and be proficient in it. The more languages one knows, the better to communicate with the world around us and especially with our fellow countrymen. But that’s about as far as it goes. Not everyone can master more than one language. It’s not possible to master one’s mother tongue, Malay and English, all at the same time. Choices have to be made and sacrifices follow.
The return of Malay to its rightful place in Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore and Indonesia, after nearly 500 years of western domination, is merely an accurate historical reflection of its status as the lingua franca in the Archipelago from the Hindu and Buddhist eras.
Malay went under the Hindus and Buddhists from being a dialect (Miao-Yao) which cognates with Cambodian to a regional language through the infusion of Sanskrit and Pali – a Sanskrit dialect – words. The purpose was clear: to have a simple language for communication, missionary work, administration, basic education and trade. Javanese and Sundanese, the two major languages in the Archipelago were both too difficult for other to master.
Old Malay was written in the Pali script of south India (Bahasa Kebangsaan A Module, Page 6, Open University of Malaysia) During the colonial era, Malay consequently lost its pride of place and was replaced by the language of the colonialists – English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish – at the higher level and Chinese in local commerce. Malay was relegated to the marketplace as bahasa pasar, much like the fate of the fledging English language during the Norman occupation of England, before it (Malay) re-emerged after World War II.
It’s a misnomer that the Malay language belongs to the Malay-speaking communities in Peninsular Malaysia. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mother tongues of the Malay-speaking communities in Peninsular Malaysia in fact vary from Bugis and Javanese to Minang, Batak and Acehnese, among others. No one in Peninsular Malaysia can claim to be Malay because there’s no such race despite certain coastal communities speaking in variants of the language in dialect. The existence of the Malay language does not mean the existence of a race by that term.
In short, the Malay language belongs to all Malaysians.
In any case, the Malay language has since fallen into disuse at the official level and been replaced by Bahasa Malaysia i.e. English and local words superimposed on Malay. Bahasa Malaysia, however, isn’t the national language of Malaysia despite having replaced it in schools and in official circles.
Mandarin in Malaysia today is not only tied in with mother tongue education but also trade and commerce. It’s for this reason that Chinese businessmen are willing to pour millions into Chinese schools for their upkeep.
The Umno Government belabours under the misconception that it can destroy the Chinese position and control of the economy at the retail level by denying Chinese schools in every way possible. Hence, the long-experienced shortages of teachers in Chinese schools are no accident but a deliberate strategy to destroy the Chinese character of schools, the Chinese character of the retail economy and the Chinese community in the process. Therein lies the betrayal and tyranny of MCA, heinous crimes against the community.
Silence from MCA, MIC
Between 1968 and 2000 alone, by one estimate, 48 Chinese and 144 Tamil schools were shut down and replaced by 2637 Bahasa Malaysia schools. We didn’t get even a squeak from MCA and MIC because their leaders were too busy fighting over the crumbs on the scrapheap left by Umno.
Since then the remaining Tamil schools have degenerated into nothing more than cowsheds which leak buckets in the rain. Unelected Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, a Bugis-Indian, claims that RM 350 million has been allocated to Tamil schools since 2008 but there’s no indication as yet that theses schools have received even a sen of the money pledged in public.
The fate of the Tamil schools mirrors the fate that awaits Chinese schools in the country.
Wasting time with Umno and MCA
Education is about being given the freedom to make choices. If a Malaysian wants to be educated in Tamil, for example, or Kadazandusun, Iban or any other language including Mandarin, it’s a God-given right.
It’s not the done thing to force any student to study in this or that language or study any subject in this or that language.
It’s a shame that just because there are people who want to study science and maths in Bahasa Malaysia, for example, the rest of the nation including unwilling members of the Malay-speaking communities should be forced to do likewise and abandon learning the said subjects in English or in any other language that they want. .
Unesco is the right forum for educationists to highlight the plight of Chinese education in the country. Clearly, they are not going to get anywhere with Umno or MCA on this matter.
Wee is actually a 'nobody'
MCA legislators are by and large not elected by Chinese voters and therefore cannot be expected to get anything done on the numerous problems facing Chinese schools in Malaysia. The fact that a Deputy Education Minister is from MCA and is Chinese means nothing but cosmetics and tokenism in the language of Umno.
Picking on Wee Ka Siong is like barking up the wrong tree when the real culprit is Najib and his Umno who hold the purse strings. However, Wee needs to be rapped to thy kingdom come for taking on more than what he can chew and misleading the community in the process.
It goes without saying that he should resign immediately if he has any sense of shame left in him and not merely offer to resign “if that would solve the problem of teacher shortage in Chinese schools”.
He knows very well that his resignation as Deputy Education Minister would not solve anything but that still doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t resign immediately. Others more capable than him can then be fielded.
No comments:
Post a Comment