In 1987 when an UMNO Anwar Ibrahim was Minister of Education, he issued policies and actions that were inimical to Chinese vernacular schools. In an unprecedented and grossly insensitive policy against the Chinese Malaysian community’s concerns for education, his ministry appointed 100 senior assistants and principals to vernacular Chinese schools, who were NOT educated in Mandarin.
Chinese Malaysians saw it as an Anwar Ibrahim move to undermine the foundations of Chinese education, because the cornerstone of a Chinese vernacular school hs always been the principal.
Many considered the Education Ministry decision to appoint ‘unqualified’ principals as a malicious move to subvert the standing of Chinese vernacular schools. His ministry had also issued a proselytising policy where non-Muslim students (Chinese, Indians and Eurasians) had to hold their hands up in Muslim fashion during school weekly prayers.
Even leaders from the BN’s component parties, the MCA and Gerakan were so shocked by the Anwar Ibrahim policy (and politically undermined) that they were compelled into joining opposition leaders and Dong Jiao Zong Chinese educationists to call for the resignation of Anwar Ibrahim.
The minister's policy was so revolting and threatening to one of the central pillars of Chinese culture (education) that the MCA and Gerakan did the unexpected - they found their backbone.
In a not-unexpected UMNO response, the party of Anwar Ibrahim led by its brownshirts proposed to retaliate to that insult to their hero with a show of force, by holding a mass rally of 10,000 at the TPCA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur under the pretext of celebrating its 41st Anniversary. UMNO claimed (threatened) that the rally would eventually see the attendance of half a million members.
There was a strong perception (even by police) that, had the rally been held, racial riots would have been a strong probability, given the typical UMNO bigoted speeches and keris waving at such UMNO rallies. The racial tension was so high it was positively crackling.
Given the rising racial tension caused by Anwar Ibrahim’s insensitive move to undermine the foundations of Chinese vernacular education in Malaysia, the Inspector General of Police did a preemptive ops called Operation Lallang, where Chinese politicians and educationists, including some token UMNO small timers like Ibrahim Ali (Pasir Mas) and Fahmi Ibrahim (UMNO Youth), were rounded up by police and incarcerated.
The opposition bigwigs were opposition leader Lim Kit Siang and his deputy Karpal Singh (DAP) and social activists Chandra Muzaffar and Kua Kia Soong. The MCA also contributed to the populating of Kem Kemunting with MCA Vice President and Perak Chief Chan Kit Chee.
BN leaders quietly told MCA Youth leader Lee Kim Sai to disappear overseas for a timely holiday, though Lee eventually had his Datukship revoked by the late Sultan of Selangor on the instigation of UMNO Youth.
All this, thanks to Anwar Ibrahim and his education policies.
So forgive me for puking when now I hear him talking about his championing of the right to mother tongue education. In criticising his former UMNO colleagues, Najib and Hishammuddin Hussein, the latter for the Education policy on Science and Maths to be taught inEnglish, he screamed out to a largely Chinese crowd in Ijok:
"I am Malay, so I want Maths and Science to be taught in Malay. But it should also be taught in Chinese and Tamil."
Those Chinese lapped up his recently dicovered support for Chinese vernacular education.
Oh, his honey-sweet talk (which wasn’t ever 'walked') has been amazing.
But the Ijokian Chinese ought to be mindful that his brand of honey isn’t made by bees but by highly poisonous hornets (tebuans).
wow.... and not a word about the then ketua pemuda umno, najib razak wanting to bathe the keris with chinese blood
ReplyDeleteWhile it cannot be denied that Anwar has less than an impeccable track record as you have shown while he was Education Minister, on balance, I think many Chinese would still support him against the govt. Put it this way. There are presently NO Malay leaders with sufficient national stature to challenge the racist policies of the UMNO/BN which has caused so much untold misery to the non-Malays especially among the Chinese in so many issues. Even should one emerge, his record as regards the Chinese would have been less than clean, perhaps even "dirtier" than that of Anwar. Thank the racist policies of UMNO for making the racial divide so pronounced. In so far as the Chinese are concerned, Anwar is still the BEST candidate available to fight for their rights. His present track record since Keadilan has been reassuring to the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteAnwar SHOULD BE GIVEN A CHANCE TO RIGHT ALL THE WRONGS UMNO PERPETRATED ON THE CHINESE. I think many Chinese can trust him at this stage to settle scores with UMNO/Bn. Or perhaps they have no choice?
Most voters don't have long memories and while there are those that will remind us the true nature of Anwar, there is also the underlying fact that most don't think supporting Anwar is equivalent to supporting him for PM at this stage. In fact, most people don't think its possible for him to be PM.
ReplyDeleteSo a vote for Anwar is a vote of protest against BN much more than it is a vote for everything that Anwar is.
Malaysian voters are generous to a fault. Although most suspected that Badawi was not going to fufill his 2004 promises especially with regard to vernacular education,they voted for him anyway out of lack of choice. But Malaysian voters are also limited in generosity as indicated by polls. For sure Badawi broken promises is haunting BN now given their vast spending in the current by-elections.
Its why IJOK, the most expensive by-election in history will be a clear sign to Badawi of the cost of broken promises and Anwar will surely take note of it even if he comes to power.
Our democracy is imature but there is some maturity with voters even if there is none with the politicians.
ASnwar will jump ship the moment he has a chance, as his inner heart desires. Vote for him, you vote for UMNO. But having said that, it's OK to vote for Khalid. But be cautious of Anwar.
ReplyDeleteas for 1st Anon, not a word about Najib because at least he doesn't pretend he's a champion of Chinese education.
KT, I wonder why you are really pissed off by Anwar Ibrahim. You have been hantam-ing him for four days now. Have you not heard the saying "it is better the devil you know than the other devils". Isn't he better than the kris wielding EM or his condoning DPM?
ReplyDeletetan, just making everyone knows he's, as you said, a devil too, and not a reformasi angel. Remember what Abe Lincoln said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time”.
ReplyDeleteDon't let Anwar fool you. Don't think he's a devil you know - au contraire, he's a devil that's less known than the other 2 devils, for he conceals his true intentions, inclinations, proclivities with honey-sweet words (produced by UMNO-bred tebuans).
Anwar to "challenge the racist policies of the UMNO/BN"??
ReplyDeleteWell done KT - Pak Lah maybe the worst PM in history but I remember Ops Lalang!