Malaysia Madani and apartheid-like policies

Malaysia Madani and apartheid-like policies

S Thayaparan


"We do not want apartheid-like policies to exist in a fair and democratic Malaysia”

- Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim

COMMENT | For the record, anyone who reads my columns understands that I do not like to use the term apartheid to describe the situation in Malaysia.

Having known apartheid activists, violent and nonviolent, you do not truly understand the dehumanisation that went on under the apartheid system until you have spoken to people who resisted the system and looked into their eyes.

Furthermore, since we have non-Malay political operatives who are part of the system – until Abdul Hadi Awang takes over of course – and have supported not only the system but also their Malay allies, and let’s add columnists in the alternative media who have endorsed those political operatives, it would be mendacious to claim that we are living in an apartheid state because reality does not conform to the term.

Also, I am someone who believes like the Johor sultan that there should be a single-stream school system in which the medium is English.

Having said that, to deny there is systemic discrimination in this country - I’m leaving out the private sector for this piece - is delusional.

To deny we have apartheid-like policies is disingenuous and to deny that non-Malays have not been complicit in this is mendacious.

While I am not in favour of vernacular schools, I understand why some parents do not want their children to be exposed to the racism and bigotry of the ketuanan dogma that is part of the education system.

I understand why parents would not want their children subjected to the racial and religious tyranny of educational apparatchiks who have no doubt through various kursus fortified their racial and religious inclinations.

Folks think that this segregated workshop drama is horrendous but anecdotally speaking I have received hundreds of complaints from non-Malay parents over the years that this is fairly common in various institutions of government learning in this country.

Not only that, non-Malay students put up with this because to cause a ruckus would be to invite a whole other set of problems.

An incident that really sticks in my craw even after all these years happened in Sarawak in 2010. A 10-year-old student was caned by a senior assistant for bringing non-halal food to school. You can read it here.

But what really illustrates the mentality of these people in this snippet -the senior assistant’s exact words, according to Jabing who confronted him on Oct 19, were: “Jangan besar-besarkan hal, kerana ini isu yang cukup sensitive di kalangan orang-orang Islam (Don’t blow up this matter as it is a very sensitive issue among Muslims).”

Single-stream education system

Remember in 2019 when then PAS central committee member Khairuddin Aman Razali welcomed the Education Ministry's rejection of a proposal to teach non-Muslim religions in schools and universities?

He was quoted as saying - “To achieve that objective (of promoting interfaith understanding), it would be better to ensure non-Muslim pupils learn about Islam in national-type schools and national-type secondary schools so that they better understand Islam and the customs of Muslims in this country.”

Back in 2017, the district education officer of Kuantan said that all schools there must hold after-school prayers before students are allowed to leave.

As reported in the press, district education officer Mohd Razali Mustafar said this was because prayer was one of the key elements in character building, especially among schoolchildren, in a bid to strengthen their personalities and prevent them from getting involved in social problems.

Let us say we have a single-stream education system with English as the medium of communication. Would it be easier to communicate to non-Malay students that there are certain words that they are prohibited from using because it is for Muslims only?

Would it be easier for non-Malay students to understand that no matter how well they do in their rote examinations, public universities will be difficult to get into because of a quota system for non-Malays?

How about bumiputera prices and the other entitlements that only they receive when all these students are supposed to be equal citizens of this country?

Would it be easier to teach students when the medium is in English that the sensitivities of the Malays must be at the utmost on their minds when elected representatives go about making policies?

Or how about when an elected representative like Hadi claims that these equal citizens and apparently close to his heart must be pak turut?

What about issues such as secularism (which protects all citizens), sexuality and liberalism which are supposedly anathema to their Muslim friends in school even though progressive and liberal are in the Rukun Negara?

But really, how exactly are young people going to forget their differences and forge any kind of "Malaysian" identity when they are constantly reminded that they are either the masters of this land (and their position is under siege) or they are pendatang?

Non-Malays, even children are warned not to "provoke, provoke, provoke" Muslims. Islamophobia as defined by these extremists is any rejection of racial and religious bigotry. "Bangsa Malaysia" means always having to appease.

How exactly is an education ministry headed by anyone believing in Malay special rights going to formulate an education policy which creates citizens who may be able to get employment but who will never think of themselves as equal citizens of this country?

While rich and middle-income Malays ensure that their children receive an education that would make them competitive in this fast-changing geopolitical landscape, the system is designed to keep “rural” Malays and working-class Malays bereft of the opportunities available to that class of Malays who control or who serve a political system that enables their privilege.

Of course, the kind of class that this system of education engineers makes them perfect as petty mid-level bureaucrats or working-class drones, steeped in religion and racial grievances, using the system at the behest of their political masters always hoping to jump to the next level using corrupt means.

A new serf class was created post-May 1969.

I bet you are wondering what Malaysia Madani as referenced in the title of this piece has got to do with any of this.

That is the point.



S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”