You are an active participant in the SOPO blog sphere discussion.

I would like to ask for your answer and seek to understand your thought processes in these questions;

1. Do you support SSS?
2. Will you support “Assimilation Law” as implemented in Thailand and Indonesia before (If it is table as a Law Bill in Parliament or a Referendum was asked)?
3. Your stand on Tun V.T. Sambathan historical statement as appended in my previous comment (Source from http://deminegara.blogspot.com ) ?
4. Your stand on Tun Tan Siew Sin historical statement as appended in my previous comment (Source from http://deminegara.blogspot.com ) ?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

Abdul Razak Harun

It gets on everybody’s nerves – those loyal and Constitution-respecting and abiding citizens, that is. Especially the vocal ones, like me.

There’s no other way to say it but those Dong Zong fellows are not respecting the Constitution of the country. Particularly Article 152, pertaining to the position of Bahasa Malaysia.

Let’s repeat it again and again (as someone said, “sampai telingaq depa bernanah”!) that it’s wrong to have any other language except BM as the medium of instruction in SJKCs and SJKTs, that these schools should have the same curriculum and syllabus as the SKs, that Mandarin and Tamil can be studied as elective subjects, that the schools don’t have to be physically changed (only the enrolment, medium, curriculum and syllabus changed), that teachers and staff don’t have to lose jobs, as they can be absorbed into the national system.

That the 3 systems of education (SK, SJKC and SJKT) had existed since over 50 years ago doesn’t mean it is right. They have to be merged into a single-stream or 1 system for the sake of long-term unity and cohesion of Malaysian citizenry.

The Dong Zong are Malaysia citizens and they must conform to the will of the majority. They certainly are not the majority. Even among Chinese, there are those who send their children to SKs.

If they refuse, they certainly should think about their loyalty to this country. What else is proof of loyalty other than respect for, abiding by and living with the Constitution of the country.

We are talking about PRIMARY schools, neither about MRSM which is a secondary school nor about UiTM which is a unioversity. Inter-racial unity and harmony can only be nurtured at primary school stage.

Now that is good letter writing.

DZ, like many of the pre-Merdeka race based institutions, are clutching at straws.

It is about survival and a continuity of those in power and what the positions meant.

DZ is politically affiliated and their masters are even in Cabinet. If DZ is smart it should just stop releasing statements but quietly go along its business as they are actually quite safe in the current political climate.

It is not just the schools, teachers, or the boards and chairpersons that eventually make up DZ, it is also an industry of textbook publishers, suppliers, and what not all linked behind the scenes.

The cultural identity loss excuse is just hogwash given that the Cultural Revolution in China and what followed changed the whole cultural identity of the Chinese under CCP rule. The Chinese here was spared that so that is why we still observe some cultural traits in Malaysia which are no longer present in mainstream CCP controlled China today.

Being typical Malaysians, the parents cannot be counted on to do the right thing, strangely, from my personal conversations with parents who send their children to SRJKC, there are Malay and Indian students in SRJKCs in urban areas. It is an odd phenomenon as there are many national schools in the same area. Not sure if there is a rise in non-Chinese enrollment in urban SRJKCs.

So do we aim for the head or the tail?

No where in this world that I had traveled at condone this kind of behavior.

We need “Assimilation Law” NOW! before it is too late for future generation of Malaysia and Malaysia itself as a country.

Time for the “Masa untuk duduk bersimpuh, tertunduk malu seperti anak dara” of Malay culture have to end now.

Source from http://deminegara.blogspot.com

Quote from a speech by MIC President and Works, Telecom and Posts Minister, V.T. Sambanthan in the Dewan Rakyat on June 1, 1965:-

… in 1955 we won the elections with a great majority. Then we obtained freedom in two years time. During this period, we had to discuss citizenship and various other things. Now what did the Malays do — since we are speaking on racial lines — what did the Malay leadership do? They had 88 percent of the electorate still with them. What did they do with citizenship? If we look around in Asia and East Asia, particularly, you will find that my race the Indian race, is not welcomed in Ceylon, is not welcomed in Burma.

Look at my brother Chinese race, it is not welcomed in Thailand, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in all the other areas. What help do they get for citizenship in all these territories? In Burma, as we know, Indians have been send packing, in Ceylon they refused them citizenship and in Burma it is likewise. I know it, you know it. And yet in Malaya what happened? Here we found that the Malay leadership said, “We shall take them unto ourselves as brothers, we shall give them full opportunity to live in this country, we shall give them every opportunity to become citizens.” And so, in 1957, for the whole year, we waived language qualifications, and tens of thousand of Indians, Chinese, Ceylonese and others became citizens …

As I said, it has been my great good fortune to have been born in this country. Where else can you find a more charitable, a more polite, a more decent race than the Malay race? Where else can you get such politically decent treatment for any immigrant race? Where else in the history of the world? I ask you. These are the facts. Who are you to safeguard us? I am a 10 percent minority race here. But I am happy here.

(Source: Tan Sri Khalid Awang Osman, Malaysia – An Anthology, Vantage Press, New York, p. 60)

Quote of statement by Tan Siew Sin, MCA President and Finance Minister in a local daily titled, “Tun Tan Answers Critics on Special Previleges” dated April 30, 1969:-

The Malays, through UMNO, were generous enough to relax the citizenship laws of this country to such extent that within 12 months of independence, 90 percent of the non-Malays became citizens. This was different to the situation before Merdeka whereas 90 percent of the non-Malays were still non-citizens after nearly 100 years of colonial rule in the Malay States. In return for this major concession. the MCA and the MIC agreed to continue the policy of preserving the special position of the Malays while at the same time upholding the legitimate interest of other communities.

(Source: Tan Sri Khalid Awang Osman, Malaysia – An Anthology, Vantage Press, New York, pp.38-39)

To my fellow Malaysian, whatever race you are; “A journey of a thousand miles start with a single step – Confucius” Let us start the first step and be united by accepting Bahasa Malaysia is “THE” Malaysia National Language, no “If” or “But”.

Abdul Razak Harun

The question, is this your stand?

Very appropriate. Some of us have given up on trying to make these people accept SSS.

Some felt that we should let them be. We can only bring a donkey to the water….

What the goverment should do is to try, to make SK the best in the country.

If necessary, right from Kidergarden.

mohamed