Last year, when non-Malay parents of a school in Pandamaram in Port Klang alleged their children were sidelined, and not given credit, for their work, an official commission of Malaysian worthies was appointed to prove the parents and the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) wrong. All is well. Those who disagreed with the made-to-order findings were promised free board and lodging at the Kamunting detention centre. And the matter quickly pushed under the proverbial carpet. But this racial exclusion is an unfortunate and frightening fact of life in Malaysia. There is now not even an pretence that Malaysia is a multiracial country.

There is no interaction amongst the races, most of your friends come from your racial group, with this added frightening phenomenon: the Malay will not even join any group where non-Malays predominate. The races are pigeonholed into separate and mutually exclusive segments from which the inhabitants step out only when they have to. Go to a wedding, and most present would reflect the bridal couple's race. It does not matter if you are a high ranking civil servant or a lorry driver. The mutual racial exclusivity is the order of the day. So, it is in education. This is the more frightening for the Malay students are taught to ignore and hate the non-Malay. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, who would not stand up and be counted when he should have, now says the official commission report was wrong: Extremism is alive and well in Malaysian schools. The national school system, he now avers, is hijacked by obscurantists and extremists in Islamic practices took over the national curricula.

He is upset, in the interview he gave to the New Straits Times and the Berita Harian yesterday ( NST, 26 December 2002), at this trend. More importance, he said, is placed on such as banning shorts and skirts, form preceding substance. All aimed at alienating the non-Malay. Despite what the extremists wrought, they insist it is not Islamic enough, and driving them to send their children instead to Islamic schools. "The idea was to set up a school system that would cater to all races in Malaysia," he said.

"But we find that the people who run the schools have other ideas," citing as one example the refusal to have classes in Tamil and Mandarin in national schools. Islamic practices had been introduced so the non-Malay and non-Muslim is alienated. "For example, before, we had no problems with girls wearing shirts and boys wearing shorts, especially for games. Now boys are forbidden from wearing shorts, even for playing games, and even games are discouraged,"

You would not expect the UMNO-controlled NST and BH to say this, but his comments on the education system is one example, from the horse's mouth, of how he failed, raising, to Malaysians, the tantalising hint that his 21 years as Prime Minister and seven earlier as a cabinet minister, are a monumental failure. But in the controlled conditions the mainstream newspapers like the NST and The Star operate, it would be protrayed as how firm and effective he is to highlight what is wrong with Malaysian society. They ignore as now that the wrongs he now rails against are what he actively encouraged.

He addresses, for instance, this extremism in a newspaper interview, but he attacked those who suggested it over the years. He now heads a committee to overhaul the national education system. It cannot work. He leaves next year. Whoever comes after him -- as William Shakespeare would have put it, Brutus (Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) hopes, with Cassius's (Tan Sri Musa Hitam) help, he would succeed the ageing Caesar (Dr Mahathir) -- will not have the time to repair the damage of the Mahathir years, and with the political scene shifting from Malay to Islamic values, even a return to the multiracialism on which Malaysia was founded.

Dr Mahathir has now declared Malaysia an Islamic state, and played into the hands of those who want Malaysia ruled by a Muslim ummah, in which the non-Malays are reduced to non-entities. He can moan as he likes about the declining and reduced multiracialism in an increasingly Islamic Malaysia, but it is crocodile tears he sheds. He allowed the rot to seep in, allowing the Islamic zealots in Malaysian life -- every ministry has its own Islamic vanguard which vets and prevents non-Muslims from promotions and even the perks of the jobs they hold. One now retired senior non-Malay civil servant told me how he, as deputy head of the department, was never allowed to act for his superior; the third in line, a Malay, always was. His promotion itself was so resented by this group that the head of department nearly got transferred out himself. Dr Mahathir is aware of all this, but he is powerless, in the circumstances by which he now governs, to act.

Where once Malay traditions provided the strength of Malaysian society, where fair play and genteel conduct provided a safe haven for the non-Malay, this hijacked and skewed Islamic worldview wants the non-Malay reduced to a cipher. Race relations is skewed beyond belief. A Chinese business man, over Christmas in Port Dickson, invited his Malay neighbours, a senior civil servant and his family, over for a meal. And wished he hadn't. The man and his children, ranging from 17 to 7, refused to shake hands, drank only water they brought with them, went about behaving as if they owned the house, skulking in the corner or dribbling a football, and kicking into a glass cupboard, making no apologies. When food was served, they would not eat. So the host decided to take them out to dinner, went to a well-known seafood restaurant where crabs were served. To his horror, they would not touch the food. This is not as rare as one would imagine, especially those who grew up in the multiracial background of their youth. Frighteningly, it threatens to be the norm.

This is instilled in homes and in the schools. The view has grown in the Malay that he must punish the non-Malay for his failure, despite the massive handouts from the government. It is, in one sense, a reaction to a government policy not properly thought out and mishandled as the years went by. The disadvantaged Malay is alienated from the Malay society which rules over them. The Malay society, having been raised on a policy of mollycoddling, find it cannot compete, and compensate by putting more hurdles on the non-Malay, while keep a wary eye on the disadvantaged Malay who demands to know now why they are not helped as the official policy demands. Non-Malay political leaders have given up the ghost, more interested in their own comforts than of their communities, and are now the gardners, drivers, cooks and security guards of the Malay political gentry.

There is no political debate or discussion about this fearful spectre before us. When Malay hopes and promises are not met, in this highly charged atmosphere of a Malay cultural community alienated from the Malay-led government, it would be the non-Malay, especially the Chinese, who is targeted. One does not need to look far. Whenever a riot breaks out in Jakarta, it is the Chinese quarter which is attacked first. So it would here. Could this volatile pressure cooker be released so it could be minimised? Yes, but there is no political will.

The government does all it wants on its own, usually without consultations or discussion, often with no rhyme or reason, providing funds out of thin air, and promised all will be well at the end of it. Nothing is further from the truth. Hundreds of millions of ringgit is now allocated to schools to upgrade its facilities. How do they benefit? Well, they get new highly decorative gates, coloured in green and gold. Look inside, and even basic facilities as a library is not there. The aim is to spend money, not so the children could come out of schools better educated. When the authorities give up the ghose in education, why are they surprised that those with an agenda -- like Islamic zealots -- seize the opportunities given them on a platter?

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my

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Terbitan : 29 Dis 2002
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