Sunday, August 04, 2019

Khat is OK, Pakatan's non-Malay politicians are not

From Malaysiakini:

DAP leaders to meet on Monday over khat issue, say party sources

Lu Wei Hoong  |  Published:   |  Modified: 
DAP is calling all its MPs, assemblypersons and central executive committee members to explain about the plan by Education Ministry to introduce khat writing in the Bahasa Melayu syllabus in Chinese vernacular schools.
The move comes amidst widespread objection from the party's grassroots over the matter. 
Sources told Malaysiakini that the briefing session would be held at DAP headquarters in Jalan Pudu starting at 8pm on Monday (Aug 5). 
The meeting, according to one of the sources, will be held as an effort to display the right attitude towards the issue and at the same time quell the uneasiness of DAP members. 
Although a notice for the meeting did not specify an agenda, sources, however, believed that the briefing session would discuss the Jawi calligraphy issue, which is a hot topic among the Chinese community in the country.
"Two days ago (Aug 1), DAP MPs received a notice to meet with central leaders, including party veteran Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng. 
"There was no agenda specified, but I believe this has something to do with the Jawi calligraphy issue," said the source. 
Other sources also shared the same sentiment, saying the matter is now a hotly debated issue among the Chinese community. 
Meetings usually issue-based 
A source said DAP members are criticising each other over the matter. Thus, the source added, there is a possibility that its leaders at the central level are trying to cool down matters over the issue. 
"It is usual for the central leaders to invite members to come for a dialogue whenever there is a hot current issue." 
However, another source claimed Monday’s meeting is only a normal gathering and not related to any specific issue. 
"We always meet every two or three months. The last time a similar gathering like this was held was during the fasting month. This is usual," said the source. 
The Sin Chew Daily recently reported that the Jawi calligraphy khat will be introduced in the Bahasa Melayu curriculum for Standard 4 at the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools.
Following this report, Tras assemblyperson Chow Yu Hui had led a group of DAP leaders to issue a statement objecting to the new policy. 
They claimed the introduction of khat was an attempt to politicise the use of Jawi writing.
*********
More than ten years ago, in Feb 2006, I posted
Nice Kind of JAWI, obviously NOT referring to the notorious Jabatan Agama Wilayah Persekutuan (wakakaka), but to the Arabic-script Bahasa Melayu.


Then, I had penned:

I feel terribly sad, that while the Malay language continues to be vigorous in its English alphabetical form, the closing of the Jawi newspaper* could well spell the beginning of the end of the unique Arabic-based script, at least in Malaysia. It's surprising the Malaysian government hasn't done much to promote its continuous usage and availability in schools, newspapers and magazines, or am I incorrect here?

* The 67-year-old Utusan Melayu Mingguan, a Malaysian weekly newspaper, published in the Jawi script started publication on 29 May 1939 but came to a stop with its final print on 28 January 2006. The reason? Plain economics due to declining advertising revenue and operational losses.

However, I heard Jawi is still strongly promoted in Aceh and Brunei. People in the southern provinces of Thailand could well be still using Jawi. Let’s keep it running strong too in Malaysia. BTW, does anyone know of a society that promotes the use of Jawi? [...]


I prepared this article one week ago, but am glad that I haven't published it then, because I now can include latest news from the Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Dr Rais Yatim.

First he bemoaned that no one cried or mourned the loss of the Jawi-script newspaper. However, he directed his disappointment at the Malay community, whom he criticised for not caring about their heritage in not supporting the Jawi script any longer.


No worries, Minister, me and that bloke from Kelantan will keep Jawi alive. By the by, both of us are Malaysians, though not Malay. But an advice from me if you please - don't politicise the newspaper too much or the PAS followers may not want to support it. Hey, can anyone tell me whether Harakah has a Jawi version?

The Minister also talked about the Cabinet allocating some money to his ministry to revive the newspaper but in another form. He has my support. Hope it will be some kind of a weekly variety magazine a la Readers Digest size.

As you can see, I'm a supporter, admirer and student (devotee) of the Jawi script, just as I am a supporter, admire and student (devotee) of Chinese script. Thus I am not terribly supportive of DAP people who objected to the introduction of khat in Year 4 schooling for purported fear of Islamisation, though with a qualification which I'll come to in a short while.

And to show I am not unique in my admiration for Jawi and my earnest efforts to learn it, here are some words from my FB (previously blogging) matey, Susan Loone, a journalist form Malaysiakini. She wrote on FB recently:


Don't understand why there is a backlash and hu ha.

I learnt Jawi for 3 years from Std 1 to 3. Proud to say that I can recognise Jawi alphabets and words. It's a very creative system of writing, artistic, refined and can be quite fun. But its just like a few hours a week as in writing class. We learnt to write cursive too, ahem! our writing on paper is quite nice.

I was in Kuantan then. I regret there were no Mandarin classes. Children at a young age can learn quite a lot, the ability to absorb new skills is immense. I even learnt to speak Tamil but without practise, lost the language as time went by.

I'm glad my parents allowed me to learn everything. I remember they only protested hard against issues like canning in school, as I was a victim. Canned by a class monitor in Std 1. Ouch!

Ps. I also learnt Islamic history in University, sat for the exam and got a B. It didn't make me less a Christian
😁

Well said, Susan. Learning new languages as an activity has always been a fun thing for me, though I'm not as talented as some natural polyglots.

Now, while I did say I support the learning of Jawi, let alone just penning khat, I also mentioned above I have a qualification to the introduction of the script in Year 4 schooling. I refer to Malaysiakini columnist Commander S Thayaparan's Is the non-Malay fear of 'khat' legitimate? who wrote (selected extracts):


.. learning this khat writing - or whatever it is - is not going to jeopardise the faith or lack thereof (as may be the case) of non-Malay children. But this is not really the point, is it? What some people fear is the intrusion of culture/religion in our supposedly secular spaces.

The question is, is this fear legitimate? Teo (Kok Seong of UKM's Institute of Ethnic Studies) said that in order for us to move forward as a nation, “the people must be open to learning the arts and cultures of others in order to understand their uniqueness and strength.” [...]

So is opposing khat anti-Malay? People who are concerned about the introduction of khat in our education system are merely reacting to decades of the Islamisation process that turned an education system that was one of the better elements of our colonial legacy into the broken, religious and racially addled system it is today.


I haven't seen the word 'addled' for quite a while so I must thank the Commander for refreshing my long-dormant brain, wakakaka, as that word 'addled' really describes the 3-decades long state of our once-Asian-famous education system since Mahathir's reign in 1981 most appropriately.



addled brain 


addled egg 

Continuing with the Commander's article we come to its most telling part, namely:

The real question is, why even introduce something like this at this moment? Surely there are more important issues in our education system that need to be addressed?

Even in (if?) this was not a cultural issue, is good handwriting a priority when it comes to educating our young people?

What possible benefit could the introduction of khat into our education system have beyond the pabulums espoused by certain non-Muslim intellectuals?

I am afraid the Commander has been spot on - where is the educational benefit for our young school students already trapped in an ill-run schooling system of pitiful standards.






I am ALSO afraid that such a (at this stage) value-less educational policy is consistent with a hair-brained minister who dreams up a series of idiocy such as black shoes, borrowing swimming pools from hotels, cashless kerbau, teachers' restroom, ethnic ratio for the matriculation program based on his perception of Chinese students being rich and thus don't need the abbreviated pre-university course, and his still-ongoing-unending 'holistic evaluations of the UEC which has already (long) been accepted by foreign universities in UK, USA, Australia, NZ, Canada, China, Japan, Russia, and many other European and Asian countries.

OK, continuing on with the last part of the Commander's extracts that I want to share with you:



Instead, this [the khat program] has become a minor skirmish in a culture war that the Harapan government should not engage in.

It also demonstrates that when it comes to anything to do with the Malay/Muslim culture, the normally boisterous political operatives in DAP have suddenly become mute (the grassroots-level of political operatives of the party exempted, of course).


don't look up Chye-Chye

moe chut seeng, 
hoi kaytee hoe suoi


[translation: jangan bising sedit pun, 'ni kaytee celaka lah]


wakakaka

If this was something that the BN regime had done, you could imagine the controversy it would have generated.


semua kesalahan (termasuk pelajaran khat???) berasal dari Najib - dia harus memberi jelasan


wakakaka 

These days supporters of Bersatu Parti Pribumi are quick to condemn non-Malays when they speak up on the very issues which were political currency for Malay political operatives before the historic May 9 win.

[meaning Parti Pribumi now = UMNO]

This idea that speaking up on “non-Malay” issues would rock the Harapan boat is prevalent in social media.



[therefore, must 'give in' to Mahathir's Parti Pribumi's interests]

When it comes to the culture war, the non-Malays lost a long time ago. The reality is that people who speak up on issues like these are like soldiers who skulk around in jungles not realising the war is over.

Don't look to non-Malay political operatives in Harapan to oppose such measures. They are now part of the problem.



They are now part of the problem 


15 comments:

  1. It all boils down to suspicion and mis-trust. Bear in mind this decision was made by the BN government back in 2016(?) and the question here is why is the Harapan government supporting it?

    Because Khat appears on our ringgit notes? But that has not always been the case.

    Fact Check:
    Since independence Bank Negara has introduced four series of bank notes (1967, 1982, 1996, 2012). Khat only started appearing on the third series onwards (guess who was FM in 1996 ha ha ha). Was this slow subtle arabisation? Deep State at work?

    Surely not...!!

    https://says.com/my/fun/how-malaysian-banknotes-have-changed-over-the-yearsM

    In fact the dollar sign $ also disappeared and was replaced by Ringgit Malaysia RM around the same time.

    So let’s not give the impression that our currency notes always had khat script.

    Singapore got it right. They have 4, yes 4 languages on their currency notes: Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English. And the signature of the Chairman of the Singapore Monetary Authority even carries the Chinese/style red “seal”. But they don’t bother to put 4 languages in their school text books.

    The other argument is Jawi is our history, and has long appeared on legal documents before independence. True, and we are not disputing that, but the key words here are “before independence”, when non-Malays were really pendatangs, they were not citizens and their languages were indeed foreign. But since 1957 the pendatangs are now citizens. So their language should be given respect as well, besides Jawi.

    The use of English in legal documents have also diminished since 1957. No problems there.

    Again, as I said, it boils down to suspicion and mid-trust. Nothing more. What is the real motive for teaching khat. Teach all the khat you want but don’t waste the children’s time. With Toonsies push for teaching Science and Maths in English the poor child will have unnecessary burden. Not to mention do parents have to buy calligraphy brushes and ink....just for a few pages in the BM textbook?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is the mis-trust and suspicion I was talking about....sikit sikit lama lama jadi....COMPULSORY.....ha ha ha...even LKS wasn't aware that khat creeped into our ringgit notes but only from 1996 onwards.

    Make no mistake, once introduced in Std 4, it may not end there.

    QUOTE
    GBN fully supports MoE on Khat calligraphy, proposes it be made compulsory subject at all levels

    August 3, 2019 7:35 pm Raggie Jessy

    “If it is right, it is right, and GBN is on a page with the MoE on this. GBN also urges the MoE to consider making the art a compulsory component in upper secondary school subjects as well”

    Gerakan Bangsa Nasional (GBN) fully supports the Ministry of Education’s plan to introduce the art of khat as part of the Bahasa Melayu subject for Year Four students and hopes the move will be extended to secondary level.

    In a statement yesterday, the MoE said it had engaged linguists and educationists to discuss the proposal which, according to the ministry, had been around since 2014.

    “Khat is an integral part of Malaysia’s national identity and Bahasa Malaysia, which is the national language and the language of unity.”
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
  3. What is Khat?

    1. The leaves of an Arabian shrub, which are chewed (or drunk as an infusion) as a stimulant.
    2. The shrub that produces khat, growing in mountainous regions and often cultivated.

    Obviously the Minister of Education is not referring to the meaning of Khat as above but he means Islamic Calligraphy written in various languages like Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Jawi etc where the majority of inhabitants are Moslems. It's just like Chinese, Japanese calligraphy etc where the art form is prevalent among the majority of inhabitants speaking and writing the same language or race unlike Islamic calligraphy which is more religion based and on the language prevalent among the Moslem inhabitants.

    Now, seriously, what is the intention of the Minister Of Education in introducing Islamic Calligraphy into a language subject like Bahasa Melayu?

    1. Is it to teach children skills in calligraphy art? Then why not also introduce Chinese, Japanese calligraphy and teach all those skills in Arts & Crafts subject instead of a language subject like BM?

    2. If the intention is to teach another cultural language like Jawi which is not widely used except in Southern Thailand, Malaysian East Coast States, Brunei, parts of Indonesia like Acheh, Malays in Sumatera and where the minority Malays reside in Indonesia , then wouldn't it make more economical and beneficial to the children's future prospects, to instead teach languages like Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, English, French, German etc?

    3. If the intention is to stealthily introduce Islam as a religion via Islamic Calligraphy using Jawi as the language medium, into a subject like Bahasa Melayu, then what is the purpose of having Agama subject currently? Is it a form of stealthy proselytism targeted at non-Malays/non-Moslems when learning the National Language subject of Bahasa Melayu which is a compulsory subject in all schools whether national or vernacular?

    The signs are all there that it is a stealthy attempt by Deep State players and religious bigots to use schools and the education system as a platform for religious propagation ie Islam.

    No wonder the non-Malays/Moslems are in uproar over the attempt to introduce Khat (Islamic Calligraphy) as part of a Bahasa Melayu subject in all schools.

    Why don't the Minister of Education just be forthright in saying it is a form of Proselytizing instead of hiding behind Arts & Crafts, Language subjects?

    And what is the final product the Minister wants from all the future generations of Malaysian children?

    Making everyone believers in an illusion created since ancient times called religion and to achieve bliss in the next world? or

    Making education as a tool to help prepare future generations of Malaysians to compete and survive better in a globalized competitive world of which they need to survive in?

    ReplyDelete
  4. You are mistaken that LKS is silent on this issue:

    https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/486584

    ReplyDelete
  5. I remember learning Alif/Ba/Ta in primary school a long time ago, it did not make me any less a person of what I am today. 80% of me says no problem for 'khat' to be introduced in year 4 primary schools. The balance 20% is unsure with questions like....Does learning 'khat' helps and improve our student's skills in the job market later on in their working life or ...how does 'khat' helps and improve malaysia's competitiveness ? ....or are we better off using the time learning other skills...???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes but if you had spent that time learning basic Chinese, Japanese or Korean would you be the same person or a better one today? When was the last time you read something, anything, in Khat?

      And do we really believe Khat is only going to be in Year 4 or Year 4 onwards?

      Delete
  6. to quell the suspicion, mistrust etc just make the khat subject optional, give the parents the choice

    ReplyDelete
  7. IMHO, many of you are barking up the wrong tree.!
    Learning Khat is fine. But why park it under BM? What has it got to do with BM?
    This Khat should be parked under either Jawi/Islamic studies or Lukisan/Arts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. but chinese calligraphy is under chinese language class.

      Delete
    2. Is it mandated in the same manner as khat by the deep state em?

      Just another stirring topic to destabilize the ph by the moles of ketuanan agenda.

      No help too with a blurred em who ONLY understand piecemeal approaches to solve, u guessed it, those insignificant educational issues!

      Lalang r indeed everywhere, even when they r name tagged with alphabets!

      Delete
  8. The move to park khat under BM is deliberate. Because a pass in BM is a must in order to pass SPM. That won’t change.

    The decision to insert Khat into BM today and saying it is not compulsory (for now) smoothens the path to make khat compulsory to pass in the future.

    Think Sejarah. After the slow re-writing of Malaysian history over the decades with the heavier and heavier emphasis on Malay, Arab and Islamic culture then all of a sudden hey presto Sejarah becomes a compulsory pass in SPM and therefore all our students are required to absorb everything in the Sejarah textbook, whether they like (or believe) it or not. The contributions of the other races and religions to our nation’s history are reduced to mere sentences and short paragraphs whist Middle Eastern cultures takes up entire chapters.

    I am not saying this will happen for Khat but can you blame the suspicious mind? Fool me once, fool me twice.....remember that...?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Malaysian Chinese voted Pakatan. So you deserve your punishment.

    First they sneak it in as mandatory but non-examinable (2) then they 'upgrade it' in 4 years to mandatory & examinable (3) then they sneak in a few more years later to mandatory, examinable and compulsory pass in order to be awarded Pass in SPM!!

    Yes that is creeping anti-Chinese Malayisation of education. It is coming full circle from time of Khir Johari. And you have Pakatan to thank for all these creeping anti-Chinese agenda...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. U bloody otakrosak old fool!

      Khat was planned way way back when yr love, jibby, was the pm busying scrapping clean the national coffer!

      The creeping anti-Chinese Malayisation of education is coming full circle bcoz of the ketuanan agenda planted by f*cks so loved by moron like u!

      Delete
    2. Khat was planned by Najib. Is he still the PM? Or Edu Minister?

      So what is Pakatan doing now?

      Delete
    3. The question IS - is the implementation of khat discussed within the ph top level?

      I can buy the idea that the current em is been (mis)led by the ketuanan moles within his ministry. After all he ONLY knows about piecemeal kacang-putih issues.

      Perhaps, there is also that ummat kindred spirits of anything zombieic goes!

      Thus, wait lah! Why so eager to tambak Nanak, as if it's a gift from heaven?

      Delete