Pots & kettles

It is interesting to note the response to Mukhriz Mahathir’s statement that the federal government should change the vernacular-school system so that Chinese and Tamil schools could be streamlined into one ‘Malaysian education system’. In his view, there should only be one system, where only Bahasa Malaysia and English are used for teaching purposes, but with Tamil and Chinese offered within the system for those interested.

Many have chosen to lambaste Mukhriz for his comments, saying that it is seditious and against the spirit of respecting each races’ right to self-education (plus it probably scores them brownie points for attacking the son of Tun Dr Mahathir). And such assaults have come from both BN and PR, with MCA and MIC making the appropriate noises and one can even find that champion of ‘Bangsa Malaysia’, Lim Kit Siang, spewing verbal fire on the matter.

A rational mind would agree that an educational system which espouses segregation would inevitably lead to segregation within society. All that talk about getting the various ethnic groups to mix together in university is pointless if the individuals have spent the formative years of their lives in a school where they’re mostly surrounded by individuals of the same race (and this includes the boarding schools that cater almost exclusively to the Malays).

How can one expect children to learn about other races or to learn to not only respect but rejoice in diversity if they only mingle with their own kind? You might as well start building separate towns for each ethnic group then, and allow them to be run as individual fiefdoms.

I find it rather farcical that the very same individuals who are arguing for a dissolution of Malay rights for the sake of unity are not only unwilling to let go of special privileges granted to other ethnic groups, but fail to see the hypocrisy of their actions.