Lulu's Concerned About Our Schools

The following post is taken in its entirety from Lulu's blog. I don't have to add much else really. But we know that it's nothing new. Those interested in reading up other examples of the deteriorating state of our national schools - check out my post here.

I do think however, that the recent developments are absolutely shocking and certainly runs in the face of the objective of making our national schools the school of choice for all Malaysians as per the much-hyped National Education Blueprint.

This school, and trust Lulu, it's not the only one, "disqualified" kids who were wearing shorts from winning with flimsy excuses such as failing to get the ribbons at the designated spots and that the numbers pinned on the shirts were torn.

This school pula, insisted that the children shave off their moustaches and beards and used harsh words when they tried to explain. The reason behind their un-shavenness was that they had taken a Thaipusam vow, and at least one of their parents had written in to the school informing them of their vow and the date when they would shave it off.

And we have here a case of kids who do not attend religious class [and you know la, in schools, which religion is allowed to hold "religious class"] who were asked to wash the toilet. Nothing bad/evil in washing school toilets, Lulu has had a fair share, but making it non-muhibbah? that's not right...

KJ John, who has a regular column in Malaysiakini also had problems with the zealots in his son's school.

He writes,

"The second case was when a new Ustaz in my son’s primary school insisted that all Primary 6 prefects wear long pants; not one teacher stood up to ask why or challenged this arbitrary decision. Therefore, when I went in to write a complaint, the non-Malay deputy principal was truly appreciative of my “public protest” as he could use “my parent complaint” to raise and address this issue with the principal regarding the “new policy” which was not discussed by the teachers, but merely implemented by the new Ustaz.

The third instance was when I was on a PIBG committee at my son’s school when we heard that the principal had issued a verbal directive to all non-Muslim clubs and societies to “refrain from undertaking their religious activities within the school compound.”

At the next PIBG committee meeting, I enquired of the principal where and why there was such a policy. She replied that it was a directive from the PPD or the Pegawai Pendidikan Daerah. I asked for a copy of the written directive, as I knew the implications of such a directive. The principal confirmed that it was an unwritten one. I advised her against following such “non-policies” and requested for her to rescind the policy before the annual PIGB meeting.

She did not and the matter was raised at the next PIBG meeting and was resolved when another senior ex-government servant and a Malay parent argued that it was against the Federal Constitution."

If you are a parent, Lulu hopes that you are sensitive and aware of what's happening in your children's school. Also, some children may choose to abide and suffer in silence. Take an active role in your children's school. Also, remember that right for your school Christian, Buddhist and Hindu activities are given in the Federal Constitution. Challenge your school principal if he does not allow it. When/If you are not sure if they are right or wrong, use your schooldays as the benchmark.

Join the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA/PIBG). You cannot afford to let zealots narrow your children's mind and perspective of life.

De-Cristianising Mission Schools? (II)

Here are some follow up reports on the blog post with regards to calls by Members of Parliament to remove all traces of non-Muslim symbolises and influence our national schools.

Parliamentary Opposition leader, Sdr Lim Kit Siang has received reports of such actions in the following schools, and is awaiting reports of more. He has also called for the Minister of Education, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to respond as to whether such actions are encouraged by the Ministry, tacitly or otherwise.

• St. David High School, Bukit Baru, Melaka, the cross had been replaced by a crown.
• Convent Girls School in Muar, Cross was replaced with a cresent moon on badge.
• Methodist Boys Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur

Here's also the full text from the Parliament Hansard of the speech made by the two honourable members of parliament from Parit Sulong and Sri Gading, both of which are adjacent to my hometown. Sigh.

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: …Tuan Yang di-Pertua, saya ingin menyentuh satu perkara tentang Kementerian Pelajaran iaitu sekolah-sekolah mubaligh seperti Convent, La Salle, Methodist dan sebagainya. Saya difahamkan Lembaga Pengarah di sekolah-sekolah ini
sebahagiannya ditadbir dari gereja-gereja di luar negara seperti di Vatican City. Saya juga difahamkan permohonan untuk membina surau di sebahagian sekolah-sekolah ini terpaksa mendapat kebenaran daripada Lembaga Pengarah yang mana Lembaga Pengarah ini sebahagiannya ditadbir oleh gereja.

Jadi amat memalukanlah, bagi diri saya, tentang pentadbiran sekolah-sekolah ini yang masih lagi dikawal oleh pihak gereja. Begitu juga saya difahamkan tentang iklim sekolah-sekolah tersebut, banyak ibu bapa Islam menghantar anak-anak mereka ke sana, mereka kompelin sebab ada kalanya sekolah dimulakan dengan lagu-lagu gereja. Ini saya tidak tahu benar atau tidak, tetapi ia apa yang saya dapat daripada ibu bapa sendiri tetapi yang jelas di sekolah-sekolah ini terpampang simbol-simbol agama. Saya rasa kecewa di dalam negara Islam, Malaysia ini, kalau saya pergi ke sekolah convent, ada terpampang patung St. Mary di depandepan sekolah convent...

Datuk Haji Mohamad bin Haji Aziz [Sri Gading]: [Bangun]

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: Silakan Yang Berhormat bagi Sri Gading.

Timbalan Yang di-Pertua [Datuk Dr. Yusof bin Yacob]: Ya, Yang Berhormat bagi Sri Gading.

Datuk Haji Mohamad bin Haji Aziz [Sri Gading]: Bagi saya sudah tidak terkejut, Yang Berhormat bagi Parit Sulong, cerita ini... [Disampuk] Bukan soal biasa. Soalnya kenapa boleh berlaku seperti ini? Satu. Hari Raya yang lepas, saya diberitahu oleh seorang bapa, waktu Aidilfitri disambut, sekolah jenis-jenis ini tidak ditutup. Terima kasih.

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: Bukan sahaja patung, tetapi Ahli-ahli Yang Berhormat pergilah, tengoklah salib Kristian diletakkan di depan-depan sekolah. Saya tidak faham Kementerian Pelajaran, adakah pegawai-pegawai tidak nampak atau memang dasar kita
membenarkan perkara ini. Walau bagaimanapun, saya sebagai orang yang bertanggungjawab kepada diri saya, agama, bangsa dan tanah air ini, saya menyatakan pendirian saya bahawa patung-patung ini hendaklah dirobohkan, salib-salib ini hendaklah dimusnahkan dan pengaruhpengaruh gereja di sekolah-sekolah ini hendaklah dihentikan. Begitu juga dana yang dikumpulkan di sekolah-sekolah ini. Adakah kita mendapat laporan? Kalau boleh kementerian mendedahkan dana sekolah-sekolah ini. Saya
difahamkan ada sekolah-sekolah ini juga ditaja oleh pihak-pihak gereja. Dana-dananya datang daripada gereja-gereja dan adakah pihak kementerian pantau sumber-sumbernya? Adakah audit-audit dilaksanakan?

As some readers have suggested in the comments, the MPs should possibly call for the Government to stop sending scholars to foreign schools, particular those like Oxford and Cambridge as practically all of their colleges have a chapel within its compounds.

De-Cristianising Mission Schools?

Here's just some excerpts from a blog post by a self-confessed drama queen currently studying at one of our local "mission" schools i.e., a "Sekolah Kebangsaan Convent" over recent comments by a few honourable Members of Parliament on such schools. The rather over-the-top post has been circulated widely over the Internet and has received the attention of our Parliamentary Opposition leader, Sdr Lim Kit Siang. ;-)

Apparently in the Parliament, some exceedingly brilliant gentleman, the representative of Parit Sulong (where?) have nothing to do with his time and nothing to do in his community that he had to point out that mission schools in Malaysia, such as Convent, La Salle and Methodist have crosses and statues representing the Christian faith in them. These crosses and statues must be demolished.

Also he pointed out that these schools have strong Christian influences and apparently sing "church songs" during school assembly.(FYI: Those are hymns, not songs). And shock and horror!!- apparently Malay-Muslim parents send their children to these school as well!! What is the world coming to?!!

Then his sidekick, an even more incredible genius of a man, the representative from Sri Gading (bitch, again - from where?) have to butt in and mentioned that apparently "a father have alerted him that these missionary schools are not close during Raya". Raya is Eid Mubarak; as in the main festival celebrated by Muslims. Bear in mind, Malaysia is an Islamic nation.

Not close during Raya? Right....

Ok listen up geniuses, I am a Malay woman. A Muslim-Malay woman and my parents sent me to be educated in SRK. Convent Klang and then, oh nooo they didn't stop there. They then sent me to my high school: SMK. Convent Klang. That's right bitch, I'm a Convent girl. A Muslim-Malay woman educated the Convent way.

When I went there, there was never a moment where we were made to sing...what did you called it again...right "church songs" during assembly. We did read prayers but it was the Islamic prayer that we read weekly at the assembly while the other students who weren't Muslims stood in silence of respect to it. Did they other students have parents alerting the Parliament members about how the have to stand in silence when the Muslims were saying their prayers? No. Perhaps its a little thing called religious sensitivity or maybe because they were shit scared of idiots like you who are in the Parliament talking about Islamic supremacy.

Also calling into the demolishing of the crosses and Christianity artifacts. Where I went to school, we no longer have a church in it. The church have been converted into the hall and where the altar where the people used to pray, a stage have built over it. There were no crosses at all though on the walls where they used to hang, one can see the outline of Jesus Christ. When the school was repainted, all that gone missing. So what is there to demolish? We do have a giant cross in front of the school but it never bothered us. It is a part of the British/Malaya heritage, it is a part of Malaysian history. Demolish that? Demolish a part of our country's history just because you are an uneducated prick that have no religious tolerance?

[...]

Religion is a set of beliefs. You choose what to believe. Just because you think your religion is better than other peoples' does not give you the right to condemn and push your religion onto them.

Last time I checked, we promote this country to the outside world as a country where people of different races live harmoniously and without conflict. Last time I checked, we are a country that is proud of our religious diversity and sensitivity. Last time I checked, this country wasn't run by a bunch of idiots with the Taliban-mentality.

Sdr Lim Kit Siang followed up in Parliament yesterdy by raising several supplementary questions to another genius, Datuk Noh Omar, the Deputy Education Minister, and as per usual, no satisfactory response obtained.

The loyalty of mission schools was questioned, with the baseless allegation that they refuse to observe Aidilfitri public holiday and close the schools. There was even the preposterous accusation that the mission schools were administered by churches outside the country, including the Vatican.

I asked Noh Omar whether he is aware that the extremist demands by the two BN MPs have created a furore, particularly on the Internet, and why the Education Ministry was condoning such extremism by its silence when such statement should be denounced without equivocation.

I also reminded the Deputy Education Minister that it is wrong and mischievous to assume that Muslims studying in mission schools are potential apostates, when mission schools had made great contributions in nation-building and produced many Malay leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Education Minister himself, the Perak Raja Muda Raja Nazrain Shah and the Sultan of Selangor who had been products of mission schools.

There was no satisfactory reply from Noh Omar.

Will you be willing to bet your bottom dollar that we haven't heard the last of this issue and the highly intelligent Members of Parliament will continue to raise this issue to stir religious fanaticism leading one day, to the renaming of all national missionary schools from SK Convent Klang to SK Tan Sri Zakaria Mat Deros?

Dress Code Controversy

Latest Update: The Dress Code decree by UUM has been retracted. See Sinchew (headlines today) or Oriental Daily for more reports.

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Ah, this must be one of the favourite issue for our Malaysian leaders. If only they have the same amount of passion when it comes to raising academic standards at our local schools and institutions of higher learning. I've written on the tudung controversy at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa previously, and now Universiti Utara Malaysia faces a similar controversy.


I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong with the prohibited dress code illustrated on the right above. Can you?

I don't have to say much about the above issue for Clare Ng of UUM had plenty to rant about it here on her excellent blog.

As I’ve ranted and criticised in countless posts before, this university is seriously crappy. Everything here is ridiculous including the rules and regulations especially their emphasis on dress code for their student.

Almost all the non-Muslim female students here wear similar attire to attend lectures, enter the library, see the doctor, dealing with official matter, etc (Yes, it is a MUST!).

She's funny too.

They had the nerve to come up with something this shitty without even conducting a proper survey around the campus. Where to get attire like the fourth girl on the left nowadays? So out-dated fashion where to get?

This is my final year here and I do not want to create any trouble for myself but this kind of ridiculous rules and regulations are getting on my nerves. Why do they have to come up with all these nonsense when they have a lot of other more important issues to skirt?

From the "approved" dress codes above, it appears that for non-Muslims, you are either expected to be suited up entirely, or you'll have to be in baju kurung.

I went to one of the top schools in the UK. Most of the time, I'm in track tops, track pants (badly torn by the final year) and worse, flip-flops. I attend lectures in old t-shirts and torn jeans. And I certainly wasn't the worst dressed nor was I not the norm. I can only speculate that with the decline in the quality of university administrators over the past decades, the focus on form now overwhelms the attention which should be paid to substance.

If anyone out there still insist that there isn't a religious and cultural assimilation (as opposed to integration) agenda and process happening in our country's schools and institutions of higher learning, he or she must be living in a totally different world.

Read also Enki's account of the same issue.

Oh, did you know that students are also "strongly encouraged" to open accounts with Bank Islam? Check out Clare's post here:

As I went about the campus attending lectures and going to the library, I noticed a lot of juniors as well as some seniors from my batch are wearing our Bank Islam ATM card around their necks! Well, the ATM card doubles as our metric card a.k.a. our identity card in the university. From what I heard from the juniors, memos had been passed that students MUST wear the ATM card around their necks like a dog tag! Failing to do so will cause us to become RM50 poorer! WTH!!!

They are absolutely out of their minds.

Footnote: This dress code issue is also reported in Oriental Daily today. However, I'm unable to find the same story online.

Rogue Academics

In an aptly titled opinion piece, "The joke's now on Malaysia" by the Star's Group Editor in Chief, Datuk Wong Chun Wai, he cited many instances of religious over-zealousness by our country's administrators as well as the leaders of PAS which is making Malaysia the brunt of international jokes.

However, there was one example which caught my attention, which I've not picked up any where else (if someone has the full story to this, let me know ;)). Apparently a dean from the business faculty of a top Malaysian public university "makes alleged spot checks during lectures to check on the dressing of female students."

Students who he perceives are wearing tight T-shirts or blouses are singled out. At least on one occasion, they were asked to bend down to see whether parts of their bodies would be exposed.

OMG! In any self-respecting university of the modern world, the act will have constituted sexual harrassment which will only mean a disgraceful end to his career. Many have been fired for doing or saying much less!

As rightly pointed out by Datuk Wong, "a university is not a high school and it is not the dean’s job to worry about students’ dressing. It’s their academic performance and his – whether he has produced enough research and articles for international journals – he should be worried about."

Or maybe the dean is just performing research for his new business or management study on the impact of tight T-shirts and exposed bodies (after bending down, no less) on female purchasing patterns.

This Dean should certainly be sacked. And he should be made to apologise publicly to the students and university. Anything less will just be a disgrace to the Management and reputation of the "top university".