The good time that we never had

Teo Bak Kim

Nanyang Siang Pau, 23-02-2016

Nowadays, the Chinese position is low and the benefits for the Chinese are getting worse by days.

It is easy to say things like these and we can hear them anytime. This is a dissatisfaction for the present and a nostalgic feeling towards the past. We have a nostalgic feeling about the past where we stood tall and have good benefits. We sigh that our present isn’t as good as the past.

Did we have such a good past? I cannot recall so.

In 1932, Tan Cheng Lock wrote to the British governor, protesting that the British government policies were too in favour of the Malays and marginalized the Chinese.

He protested that the British officers have made all the arable lands into Malay reserved lands and no farmland was given to the Chinese.

The Chinese students couldn’t find jobs in the cities and no farmland in the village. It was hard for them to earn a living.

Furthermore, the 1948 Federal Constitution clause was very unfavourable for the Chinese. All the Chinese traders went on a total strike for one whole day but they failed to fight for anything in the end.

Of course, we cannot forget the moments where we had nowhere to go during state of emergency.

The dire situation of Chinese education is most concerned and many said that it has been sold by MCA.

Actually, the dire situation started in 1920. Since the School Registration Act was enacted, the British has been oppressing the Chinese education. Even up until the independence, they still planned to change the system of the Chinese primary and secondary schools.

Therefore, I can understand that we are dissatisfied with the present. But we didn’t fall from a higher place, we were worst in the past.