Writer: Su De Zhou

Kwong Wah, Oct 9, 2014

Malaysian debater Victor Gu Chian Peow took part in the “I am a speaker” contest in Beijing and spoke on the struggle of Chinese education in Malaysia, highlighting the development of Chinese education in a harsh environment.

By coincident, PJ Utara Umno deputy chairman Azli proposed to discuss the closure of Chinese primary schools in the forthcoming Umno general assembly. Such talk occurs almost every year as certain Umno politicians still cannot tolerate the existence of Chinese education and appreciate its value.

Some Umno extremists have a narrow mindset towards Chinese education which results in unfair treatment to Chinese schools. They insist that the Chinese community must show their gratitude even to some paltry government allocations.

The Chinese community does not demand a lot. All they want is fair treatment. We all know that Article 152 (a) and (b) of our Constitution guarantees mother-tongue education. The citizenship of non-bumiputras and their right to mother-tongue education are beyond questioning.

Malaysia is a multi-racial country and the only country in the world to have a double-track education system. Azli thought that the two systems should merge into one to avoid problems. He also said Chinese-stream schools have been exploited by opposition parties and their students have been brainwashed to hate other races and the Government.

By accusing that Chinese schools have been exploited by opposition parties and using it as an excuse to create a debate to close down Chinese schools is unreasonable, illogical and baseless.

In the face of unfair treatment, Chinese educationists have come to a stage where they just soldier on quietly in a long-term struggle. If Umno worries that Opposition leaders will exploit such unfair treat to create issue in order to arouse discontent, then it should re-examine itself.

If the Government can make real efforts to solve the root cause of the problems faced by Chinese education, the opposition will be silenced and there would not be any more trouble.

Chinese schools are lacking in funds and this is another problem that needs to be pondered over. It is undeniable that many leaders who chair the board of governors or parents/teachers associations of Chinese school are actually MCA or Gerakan leaders.

These party leaders who are leading the board or association will accept donations from Dap or Keadilan either collected from funds-raising campaign or from the party funds. They accept the money as to reject it is doing a disservice to the Chinese education and they understand every cent is important.

Therefore, Umno, MCA or Gerakan leaders should not blame them for their leaning towards opposition parties even though they are members of the ruling parties. It is therefore quite natural that these school leaders who are also party members would make comments unfriendly to Barisan after accepting donations.

If these school leaders are opposition members and make their requests to the Government as chairmen of the board of governors or PTA, it is possible that their request will be ignored because of their party affiliations.

Recently, Dap secretary general Lim Guan Eng distributed RM40, 000 to three Chinese independent schools and five Chinese primary schools in Kedah. Some of the chairmen of the PTA or board of governors of these Chinese schools is MCA members. The opposition party leaders know about it and so do the local MCA state assemblymen.

But they accepted the donations without any embarrassment. The blame should be on the Government for not having a system for the allocation of such aids.

Original Source: 华教辛酸