Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua - I'm All For It, Except That...

Surprise, surprise!

The racist blog DemiNegara has actually put up a posting that makes a little good sense for once!

In a surprisingly toned down posting, KijangMas has presented a seemingly credible case for a single school system for all. Complete with a letter the the DPM cum Education Minister and online petition to boot! How the DPM will respond to the petition of a viciously racist anonymous blog remains to be seen. It would speak tons about the leanings of the ruling party, and we will watch his reactions to this issue with our Eyes Wide Open.

But even though I support a single official Malaysian school system for all, I am hesitant to throw my support behind KijangMas' effort, noble as it may appear. But first, let me explain why I'm not posting my comments on his / her blog.

I'm posting my opinions here because in my experience, KijangMas and gang judge a person's arguments based on the colour of his skin. So if you're not a fawning DemiNegara groupie, be prepared for a sustained assault of stinking insults, gutter language and racist squeals.

Never mind about debating his commentors intelligently. He usually publishes the people he can quickly and easily dispatch of. But he hides the comments of those who have a valid dissenting argument. Or if forced to publish them, his “rebuttals” (and those of his cronies) are little more than low-brow rants of a special quality that one would be hard pressed to find even among the dregs of the worst sewers.

An example will be his response to my invitation to visit my blog.

Wahaiii EWO @ Murai Mata Luas,

Kunang-Kunang Terbang ke Langit,
Sampai di Langit Membuat Sarang;
Mulut mu busuk, ketiak mu hangit,
Ceh, angan-angan nak mempelawa orang!

So rather than waste my time trying to reason with the herd of Neanderthals at DemiNegara, where you will never find a decent exchange of opposing ideas, I would rather open up the space for proper discussion here.

I had stated my support of the One School System For All proposition in one of my early posts, so it would be superfluous for me to repeat myself here. Please refer to that short article for my suggestions on the way forward for Malaysian Education.

Now while I do support the One School System, why do I not support the DemiNegara platform? Because there are fundamental and irreconciliable differences in our opinions on the nature of unity, nationhood and education.

Rather than try to explain myself, I'll let KijangMas speak for himself so you can see why for yourself.

In a nutshell, it's because I support freedom of expression, celebration of diversity and unity by consensus – to achieve this requires diplomacy and visionary leadership. His ideas spring from the Ketuanan Melayu brand of either eradicating or subordinating non-Malay cultures/identities and unity by enforcement – this merely requires brute force.

Which is better for sustainable and peaceful nation-building? You be the judge.

I will merely present to you the reasons why I see DemiNegara as disagreeable platform to achieve a noble cause.

1. DemiNegara's vision of Malaysian unity.

KijangMas is rabidly ANTI Unity-In-Diversity. He has mercilessly ridiculed Malay proponents of this concept (like Malik Imtiaz, Haris Ibrahim and Zaid Ibrahim), countering their moderate proposals with quality “rebuttals” like calling them traitors and other such quality words.

As such, he has arrogantly set himself up as the Adjudicator General of Malay-ness and Malaysian-ness. Whether a person is qualified to be a Malay or Malaysian is subject to his / her approval according to DemiNegara's (self-)exalted definitions. And any Malay who deems to disagree with him / her is automatically considered to be of doubtful Malay stock or motive, while non-Malays are considered as ungrateful, treacherous pendatangs. In his own words:

“These anti-Malays, inspired by the paranoiac fantasies of malignant narcissist Haris Ibrahim and his zealotrous disciples, now have the audacity to proclaim themselves as the Anak Bangsa Malaysia.”

He further demands that the non-Malays demonstrate:

“A little Sedar Diri and appreciation of your Asal Usul and Tempat Dalam Masyarakat would go a long way towards the rehabilitation of your groupthink, to cleanse your souls of the inherent mala fide and degenerative inclinations, and provide a glimmer of hope, albeit excruciatingly faint, of your embrace of the tenets of the true Bangsa Malaysia concept that I have expounded many times.”

According to him, to achieve a united Bangsa Malaysia the national leadership must

“recalibrate our societal dynamics to a new paradigm of shared affinities underpinned by a common, pervasive national language, Bahasa Malaysia, and a socio-cultural mold based on the budaya and tatasusila of the original Orang Melayu essence of this nation.”

Now I've got great appreciation for Malay culture. I celebrate festivals with my Malay-Muslim friends every chance I get and have many business and personal dealings with Malays and admire the elegant balance of yin and yang in their psyche. In short, I celebrate Malay-ness as much as I celebrate my Chinese-ness (what's left of it, anyway). But this is in stark contrast to what he propounds:

“the flawed prescriptions of the first 51 years of nationhood, including the utter neglect and confusion of the past six years, that collectively created an untenable multilingual, multicultural, multi-identity and multi-everything milieu.”

Isn't anti-multiculturalism and pro-uniformity following the model of a superior race the hallmarks of a Fascist state of mind?

KijangMas's “common enemy” of Malaysian nationhood is the non-Malay who wants to retain their cultural heritage. He blames them, with especial vitriol aimed at Malaysian Chinese, for all the ills of the country. This is akin to Hitler and the Nazi party blaming all Germany's problems on the non-Aryans, most specifically the Jews. KijangMas's solution to his “problems”?

“My advise to Najib and his team is to lay off these wayward non-Malays for now. Ignore and forget these hopelessly seduced bigots and chauvinists.”

In his opinion:

“Najib should instead focus his energy on rebuilding the Malay support base for UMNO, and work towards some semblance of "Malay Unity" with PAS”

KijangMas, the self-styled architect of Malaysian Unity, had just elocuted a strategy of DIVIDING the nation neatly into two – Malays vs non-Malays – with the implied battle plan of completely subduing the non-Malays! I fail to see how such a Malay vs Non-Malay, do-or-die, winner-takes-all attitude has a place in forging national unity!

Perhaps it makes sense to racists like KijangMas because according to him:

“the "right" of the non-Malay, non-Borneo native populace is non-absolute and subordinated to the rights of the general populace”.

KijangMas then goes further to propose the creation of a new race - the Melayu Celup!

“Fundamentally, a member of the Bangsa Malaysia should speak the national language of the Federation, Bahasa Malaysia, fluently and as a primary language; be fully versed with adat-adat and tatasusila orang Melayu and other Bumiputras of the Federation; demonstrates respect and deference to Islam as the official religion of the Federation and exhibit traits and mannerisms acceptable to the Malays and other Bumiputras.”

Perhaps KijangMas' simplistic, black-and-white, us-vs-them worldview is only capable of coming up with an equally over-simplistic solution - to create a race of Melayu Celup. Although he / she does concede that the non-Malays should allowed to be equal when that happens.

“we have a truly unified Bangsa Malaysia speaking in one language, amenable to Malaysian cultural norms, and with a cohesive Malaysian mindset will we as a nation be able to look beyond the NEP, beyond Malay privileges, beyond safeguarding Malay Rights as we are now all anak Bangsa Malaysia in the arca of the Malays and other Bumiputras of this blessed land.”

Now, I do agree with him / her that primacy of the national language is of prime importance in the efforts to build a united Malaysia. But what KijangMas is proposing goes beyond mere lingua franca. Ultimately, KijangMas' rantings reveal that his / her idea of national unity is to subordinate and eventually eradicate any trace of cultures that are deemed un-Malay by him / her.

As a believer of unity-in-diversity, I find this way of thinking completely unacceptable.

2. DemiNegara's view of nationhood

Although KijangMas has a valid point in saying that in other countries, immigrants have seamlessly assimilated into the local culture (sometimes by force), he takes the Malaysian context even further by likening non-Malay culture to a pestilence that needs to be completely eradicated.

“to go searching for "Chinese" and "Indian" cultural relics and costumes and dances in the original motherlands of these naturalised pendatangs and their descendants. Itu sudah lebih. Sudah tidak masuk akal. No Malaysian citizen should be in the business of importing cultural forms of foreign nations into our Tanah Air and "passing them off" as part of our Malaysian heritage. That is treachery of the highest order.”

To KijangMas, non-Malays who do not talk or act or live like Malays are traitors who refuse to participate in Malaysia despite being sedekah-ed with citizenship

“When the Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja Melayu agreed to the wholesale dishing out of Malayan citizenships -- even inexplicably waiving Bahasa Melayu proficiency tests -- to a million and a half unwanted, abandoned stateless Chinese (and Indians) in 1957, could the Duli-Duli Tuanku have envisioned that the descendants of these desperate huddled masses would after 51 years become an unintegrated community of lawbreakers; a community infested by crooks and thieves and counterfeiters and pimps; a community that not only tidak terhutang budi to the Duli-Duli Tuanku for the precious kewarganegaraan, but now had the audacity to challenge every single tenet of Duli Tuanku's instruments of nationhood, not least the Bahasa Malaysia and Adat-Adat Melayu and the keris and the songkok and the sacred principle of Negara Dalam Arca Melayu held dear by Duli-Duli Tuanku.”

Now it's one thing to point out the non-Malay racist bigots for who they are. It's quite another to tar 35% of the population with the same brush! On the DemiNegara stage, KijangMas has cast ALL non-Malays, especially Malaysian Chinese, as criminals, leeches, ingrates or cheats. He even laments:

“You know, I find it harder and harder by the day to justify to myself why I should tolerate these pengkhianats and accept these ungrateful makhluk perosaks as fellow citizens of a land my direct ancestors carved up from the wilderness into the negeri-negeri Melayu.”

For all his posturing about achieving national unity, this is hardly a statement befitting this self-proclaimed “Champion of Malaysian Unity”.

And, he / she goes even further, stating categorically that:

“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”

So, what KijangMas is agitating for is actually not full assimilation of other races into the Malay race. Although he says it is, what he really wants first and foremost is for the original cultural identities of the non-Malays to be eradicated at all costs,

BUT...

These Melayu Celup CANNOT stand on equal footing with the Melayu Tulen just yet. No, no, no! He cautions that will happen only when,

“Later, upon satisfactory cohesion and amalgamation of the Malaysian populace into a truly united Bangsa Malaysia, then by law, ALL references to race and ethnicity in our daily activities should be forbidden.”

Well, this sounds good when you're bullshitting to your friends at the kopitiam about what you'd do if you were the PM. But note the arbitrary nature of the words “later” and “satisfactory”. Who decides this? At what point do we know we have achieved it? Perhaps KijangMas in all his wisdom knows but prefers to keep this heavenly revelation a secret for the moment.

For all his pretty words, KijangMas is not remotely sincere to see a truly united Malaysia. For all the demands he makes for non-Malays to turn their backs on their cultural heritage, he still expects the Melayu Celup to prove themselves first. Their worthiness as Malaysian being measured by the arbitrary standards of “later” and “satisfactory”.

Until such time when the Melayu Celup are deemed to have “satisfactorily” assimilated, they shall remain as second-class citizens.

And the non-Malays are expected to accept this deal and be thankful?

In blaming all the nation's social ills on the non-Malays, KijangMas has closed his mind to all other viewpoints about issues faced by the nation. In his / her mind, the Malay can do no wrong, the non-Malays can do no right and thus is absolutely adamant that non-Malay Malaysians have no right to even discuss issues affecting them, and that they should shut up and just accept their blessed lot in life. He dismisses the non-Malays' concerns about their place in Malaysia as:

“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.”

In other words, KijangMas is telling the non-Malays: “Ini negara Melayu! You tak suka, you boleh balik Tionghua/India/mana-mana!”

Hardly words of a person truly passionate about forging national unity!

I mentioned earlier that I support freedom of expression, celebration of diversity and unity by consensus and that to achieve this requires diplomacy and visionary leadership. The reason why we are finding it difficult to achieve this today because there is a severe breakdown of diplomacy and visionary leadership within UMNO/BN.

But KijangMas myopic racist view is to blame the non-Malays for everything. Of course, when you have the attitude that you can do no wrong, the only solution you can think of is to correct the perceived wrongs of everyone else. And in KijangMas' Final Solution to the problem of fragmenting national unity is to enforce UNIFORMITY upon all Malaysians by brute force.

No diplomacy or leadership needed for that. All you need is the (metaphoric) barrel of a gun! And therefore, no need self-reflection to see if one has what it takes to lead the country. KijangMas' vision is nothing less than a Cultural Total War declared by 65% of the population upon the other 35%

For that, I oppose the DemiNegara platform to promote the One School System For All. What KijangMas envisions is NOT unity, it is mere UNIFORMITY – an artificial veneer enforced against the will of the people.

His examples of Thailand and Indonesia ignore the truths behind their forced assimilation programmes. While Thailand did force assimilation of the various races, they did not distinguish between different classes of citizens, defined by race. So much so that a Thai Chinese can become a Prime Minister with no problem at all. In Indonesia, KijangMas conveniently forgets that when the 1997 economic crisis hit, the artificial veneer of racial assimilation shattered and the Chinese were slaughtered wholesale for the sin of being Chinese. It took more than 10 years for the nation to move forward, with the passing of a Bill guaranteeing the right of all citizens (including the Chinese) to practise their cultural heritage without impediment.

Unfortunately, in his pursuit of his racial agenda, not only has KijangMas has closed his mind to these facts, he / she is also blind to the findings that have emerged among psychologists, academics, and field staff in the education profession.

Study after study has shown that children who grow up in multi-cultural or multi-language settings are more mature, more understanding and tolerant, quick to grasp differing ideas and more flexible in their thinking.

The experience of thousands of employers worldwide affirm this experience with their Malaysians staff. They are fascinated at the abundance of these traits diplayed by Malaysians. Many have admitted that the uniformity of their cultures limited their personal growth in certain areas compared to Malaysians. Many have shared that they envy the intrinsic character strengths of Malaysians which could only have been borne out of a true melting pot of cultures.

These unique Malaysians were the product of English-stream and Sekolah Kebangsaans back in the days before they were made into convenient racial indoctrination tools. And this brings me to the next reason why I will not share DemiNegara's platform.

I especially oppose his view that the nation's school system is to indoctrinate our nation's young with his racist agenda. Schools should be where we teach our young to be independent-minded, innovative and analytical individuals. Not to teach them that the second-class Melayu Celup have to continue to kow tow to the Tuan Tanah Melayu Tulen until they are deemed to be “satisfactory” enough to be equals at that elusive “later” date.

Fate has been kind enough to throw the descendants of the 3 greatest empires of the world together in this land called Malaysia. Shouldn't the way forward for Malaysia be to capitalise on each other's strengths and propel ourselves forward through the synergy of our cultures?

I firmly believe that when all Malaysians are given the framework and freedom to achieve this synergy, a naturally eminent and united Bangsa Malaysia will evolve by itself. There would be no need to enforce UNIFORMITY based on narrow definitions.