Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama

[Prem]

I believe there are many among us who feel the same way but are afraid
to speak up about this subject. Muslims,Chinese and Indians who oppose
Sekolah Cina , Agama and Sekolah Tamil are afraid to be labelled as
traitors if they voice their dissent against these type of school.
There is a good reason why no other countries practise this and to
have one is not something to be proud of. Unfortunately for Malaysian,
no political party ,ruling or opposition is giving us an alternative.
This issue is used by politicians to gain popularity and the fastest
way to go up in politics is to push the government to build another
type of this school.

I guess I have been watching too many hollywood movies and the quote
that keeps popping in my head is 'do the right thing'. This will cost
a lot of votes but this is the only way to promote unity. Children are
naturally oblivious to the colour of their friends' skin. They become
racist as a result of adults' influence.

It is difficult for the government to be consistent with this policy
in the long term because there are so many different races in this
country. Eventually, the Ibans, Kadazans, Sikhs, Ceylonese, Orang
Asli, Melanau , Kelabit , Christians(religious) will all ask for their
own Sekolah Jenis. Rightfully, to be consistent the government has to
allow this. Of course, soon after our education system will be in
chaos.

Mandarin could be the most widely spoken language simply because the
population of China itself is more than 1 billion. In terms of
international trade, very few countries in the world use Mandarin as
an official language. If I am not mistaken Tamil is only spoken in one
state in India, and most Indians speak English well in India. China
seems to be making some effort to learn English to boost their
competitiveness. Most big businesses use translators to complete deals
anyway. To learn this language is not necessary but it can be an
advantage. I'm sure everyone understands that Mandarin is not the
mother tongue of most Malaysian Chinese.We have traded with so many
countries without the ability to speak their language even before we
existed as a country.

I would like to suggest all Sekolah Cina, Tamil and Agama be converted
to Sekolah Kebangsaan. All schools should teach same subjects in
either English or Bahasa Malaysia during normal schooling hours.
Schools can then provide optional subjects based on demand in that
area. Optional subjects could be Bahasa Arab, Mandarin,Hokkien,
Cantonese, Tamil, Iban, Kadazan, French, Italian , Spanish,German,
Korean , Japanese and Agama subjects. I hope we don't have exams for
these subjects. From time to time the government can revise the
optional subjects.

Lets put our personal ambition and pride aside. Lets stop bickering
with each other. We need to unite and think as one. Together ,we will
be able to compete with other countries.I hope my good intention is
not misunderstood.

Prem