The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Alien as:-
1. Belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing
2. Strange
3. Relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government
4. Foreign
5. Differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility
and Alienation is:-
Withdrawal or isolation from other people, rejection of the values of one's family or society.
The gritty opposition to Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua by Chinese educationists and the Chinese community at large is to be expected. In a way it is understandable. Who are we fooling here? The self-segregating, self-alienising inclination of this minority group is out there for all to see in our daily life.
Yeah I know, the excuses spewed by the Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committees Association) people are beyond the absurd, and the high priest of this Chinese Segregationist movement, Yap Sin Tian, scaled new heights of oxymoronic idiocy. He said that "instead of promoting national unity, the implementation of the single stream school system would hamper unity and create racial tensions."
Ah? Apa? How?
Is this the kind of twisted logic taught in the SJKC?
Let me get this straight.
In this Yap fellow's convoluted mind, a unified school environment -- where our children attend the same school, learn the same subjects, and experience the same joy, pain and challenges of scholarly and co-curricular pursuits -- is an impediment to unity and spawns racial antagonism. And Yap's logic would infer that a three-silo school system, with National schools co-existing with distinct and separate Chinese and Tamil schools, would not hamper unity and not create racial tensions. Yeah, I know, this hard core segregationist's logic is fatally flawed as manifested by the malignant racial tension permeating our confused polygot society caused in large part by the inability of the alienised SJKC and SJKT products to fit-in with the rest of us, with the other 70% of the population.
Why so susah one?
Dong Zong's insult to our intelligence indicates one thing: the Chinese Segregationists are now totally bankrupt of reasons and excuses to perpetuate this societal anomaly.
Indeed, the only way Yap's statement would make sense is if the races never mingle from cradle to grave, with the minority communities languishing in their own self-sufficient cocoons insulated from practical interaction with the mainstream.
Is this possible anywhere on earth?
No, unless Chinese Malaysians form their own separate racially-homogeneous region where everyone from the garbage man to tollbooth attendants to policemen to bureaucrats are Chinese. Likewise the Indian Malaysians.
Why so susah one?
Dong Zong's insult to our intelligence indicates one thing: the Chinese Segregationists are now totally bankrupt of reasons and excuses to perpetuate this societal anomaly.
Indeed, the only way Yap's statement would make sense is if the races never mingle from cradle to grave, with the minority communities languishing in their own self-sufficient cocoons insulated from practical interaction with the mainstream.
Is this possible anywhere on earth?
No, unless Chinese Malaysians form their own separate racially-homogeneous region where everyone from the garbage man to tollbooth attendants to policemen to bureaucrats are Chinese. Likewise the Indian Malaysians.
This type of Racist Utopia exists anywhere?
No lah. Where got?
South Africa's apartheid policy collapsed under the weight of its own ludicrousness a couple of decades ago. But the Chinese cannot be blamed for not attempting their own brand of apartheid as manifested in their ubiquitous Chinatowns the world over. Is this what PM Najib's 1 Malaysia is all about? Islands of racially-segregated Chinatowns and Tamil ghettos scattered over a Malay ocean where the races and tribes don't mix lest it "would hamper unity and create racial tensions" as claimed by Yap Sin Tian? Is this the "multi-national state" fairytale concocted by Yap Sin Tian's convoluted mind in his pathetic defense of Chinese schools in this land called Malaysia?
No lah. Where got?
South Africa's apartheid policy collapsed under the weight of its own ludicrousness a couple of decades ago. But the Chinese cannot be blamed for not attempting their own brand of apartheid as manifested in their ubiquitous Chinatowns the world over. Is this what PM Najib's 1 Malaysia is all about? Islands of racially-segregated Chinatowns and Tamil ghettos scattered over a Malay ocean where the races and tribes don't mix lest it "would hamper unity and create racial tensions" as claimed by Yap Sin Tian? Is this the "multi-national state" fairytale concocted by Yap Sin Tian's convoluted mind in his pathetic defense of Chinese schools in this land called Malaysia?
Haiya Ah Tian ... apa sudah jadi?
Lu mau sendiri punya negara dalam ini negara ka? Mana ada "multi-national state" dalam ini dunia? Semua negara ada satu "national" identiti maaa. Semua negara ada satu saja "national" museum, stadium, football team, flower, anthem dan lain-lain. Jadi dalam lu punya multi-national state, Malaysia ada satu Melayu punya negara, satu Cina punya negara dan satu India punya negara ka? Itu Iban, Kadazan sama Orang Asli amacam? Boleh kasi mereka sendiri punya "negara" dalam Malaysia ka?
Apahat lu pikir ini macam? Ada ka satu negara dalam ini dunia kasi dia punya tanah picah jadi 3, 4, 5 negara-dalam-negara? Lu ingat ini Malaysia macam kopi segera ka? 3-dalam-1 "multi-national state" kasi bancuh dalam air panas? Negara China ada bikin ini macam ka? Sana lagi ada macam-macam jenis kaum dan ugama dan bahasa dan budaya. Kurang-kurang sana boleh bikin 50 biji negara-dalam-negara wohh. Boleh ka Ah Tian? Mana boleh maa ... Sana semua orang kina pergi itu sekolah cakap Mandarin maa. Itu kawasan negara China sudah kasi ceroboh dan takluk macam Tibet dan East Turkestan pun kina cakap Mandarin wohh. Mana ada SJK Tibet atau SJK Uighur sana?
Itu China tadak kasi hak sama dia punya kaum minoriti lu takpa. Lu diam-diam duduk saja. Tapi lu mau paksa Malaysia kasi lu orang benda lain negara dalam dunia tadak bikin punya. Ini macam ngam ka? Adil ka?
Jadi lu mau Malaysia jadi satu negara aneh dalam ini alam ka?
Atau lu orang memang suka bikin lain orang susah? Amacam?
Ini macam boleh tahan ka?
Lu mau sendiri punya negara dalam ini negara ka? Mana ada "multi-national state" dalam ini dunia? Semua negara ada satu "national" identiti maaa. Semua negara ada satu saja "national" museum, stadium, football team, flower, anthem dan lain-lain. Jadi dalam lu punya multi-national state, Malaysia ada satu Melayu punya negara, satu Cina punya negara dan satu India punya negara ka? Itu Iban, Kadazan sama Orang Asli amacam? Boleh kasi mereka sendiri punya "negara" dalam Malaysia ka?
Apahat lu pikir ini macam? Ada ka satu negara dalam ini dunia kasi dia punya tanah picah jadi 3, 4, 5 negara-dalam-negara? Lu ingat ini Malaysia macam kopi segera ka? 3-dalam-1 "multi-national state" kasi bancuh dalam air panas? Negara China ada bikin ini macam ka? Sana lagi ada macam-macam jenis kaum dan ugama dan bahasa dan budaya. Kurang-kurang sana boleh bikin 50 biji negara-dalam-negara wohh. Boleh ka Ah Tian? Mana boleh maa ... Sana semua orang kina pergi itu sekolah cakap Mandarin maa. Itu kawasan negara China sudah kasi ceroboh dan takluk macam Tibet dan East Turkestan pun kina cakap Mandarin wohh. Mana ada SJK Tibet atau SJK Uighur sana?
Itu China tadak kasi hak sama dia punya kaum minoriti lu takpa. Lu diam-diam duduk saja. Tapi lu mau paksa Malaysia kasi lu orang benda lain negara dalam dunia tadak bikin punya. Ini macam ngam ka? Adil ka?
Jadi lu mau Malaysia jadi satu negara aneh dalam ini alam ka?
Atau lu orang memang suka bikin lain orang susah? Amacam?
Ini macam boleh tahan ka?
Why so susah one?
Back to this "multi-national state" fairytale, the nation of Malaysia according to Yap Sin Tian plays host to Malay and Chinese and Tamil nations, each with their own schools, values, historical narrative, national agenda and identity.
Back to this "multi-national state" fairytale, the nation of Malaysia according to Yap Sin Tian plays host to Malay and Chinese and Tamil nations, each with their own schools, values, historical narrative, national agenda and identity.
Ada ka? Boleh ka?
This is what happens when even terminologies are distorted by alien concepts and interpretations spawned by Maoist thoughts induced by sole literacy in the national language of a foreign nation, a nation that hitherto backed the destruction of our Tanah Air during our vulnerable, embryonic hour, a nation that harboured the CPM murderers of our troops and innocent civilians for decades, but now don a plasticky façade of laissez-faire trade and commerce to shroud a ruthless intolerant one-party regime. This is the same intolerance, the grotesque chauvinism infused into these Mandarin-centric SJKC products.
The segregationists would parrot the need to protect Chinese "culture and heritage and identity" in their opposition to unified schools.
What is heritage anyway?
What exactly is the heritage of Malaysian born and bred ethnic-Chinese? Are these peoples' love for sambal belacan and durian and kari kepala ikan and empat nombor ekor part of their heritage? Or does "heritage" means assuming thick, imported cultural markers from China that was never part of the adat and kebudayaan of the local Cinas of Malaysia? For a start, come on lah people, Mandarin is NOT a heritage of Chinese Malaysians on the same basis Hindi is not a heritage of Indian Malaysians and Indonesian-mutilated Bahasa Indonesia is not a heritage of the Malays here. And if these defenders of the phantom "bahasa ibunda" took the trouble to read and understand the SSS Memo to the DPM cum Education minister, it was explicitly stated that the minorities should attend compulsory "bahasa ibunda" classes at the Sekolah Kebangsaan.
Why so susah one?
And still on this "heritage" poser, hey Dong Zong, what about my Kelantanese heritage? And the Kedah, Johor, Trengganu, Perak, et. al. heritage of the others? And of course the Iban, Kadazan, Melanau, Bajau, Kelabit, Penan and Murut heritage of our Borneo brothers? I don't see our heritage being eroded by our attendance in the Sekolah Kebangsaan? On the contrary, my Malaysian "heritage" was enriched by my appreciation of the cultural specificities of my Hakka, Hainanese, Cantonese, Tamil, Punjabi, Minangkabau, Javanese and Bugis buddies in my old hyper-cosmopolitan SK. BUT according to the SJKC-huggers, their kids' Chinese heritage would be lost if they attend half-day of SK five days a week during the school term.
Betul ka? Boleh pakai punya cerita ka?
Hey Chinese Segregationists, you saying that your culture and heritage would be lost, obliterated from the face of the earth merely by your kids' attendance in a unified school for all? What kind of culture and heritage is this? So weak, so fragile, so vulnerable to external exposure and stimuli? Hey, I thought we are talking about a dominant state of being here? What happened to the thousands of years of civilization? So effortlessly obliterated by the Sekolah Kebangsaan cikgus ka? So the simple SK Cikgu achieves what the Mongols, Manchus, Japanese and others over thousands of years could not do? Astonishing.
Why so susah one?
Tapi ini betul ka? Atau mungkin ini lagi wayang dongeng punya cerita?
I thought schools are for learning and for students of various ethnicities and backgrounds to commingle and interact as the Anak Bangsa Malaysia in a common language for all?
No?
You mean to say that you people learn your lion dances and who-knows-what-else exclusively in the SJKCs and nowhere else? Hence, if the SJKCs (and SJKTs) get absorbed as SKs, there will be no other platform and avenue to partake in your culture and heritage? So this explains your stubborn defense of vernacular schools as the primary medium to preserve your apartheid inclinations, as exemplified by this Leng Chai's incoherent ramblings, complete with inalienable rights under the UN Charter! I sure would like to upheld this "right" to a Kelantanese mother tongue education for my countrymen in Los Angeles. What dayya think? Would Herr Gov. Schwarzenegger oblige, even as he himself had to forego his native
Why so susah one?
Ini macam boleh tahan ka? Boleh benarkan ka?
Look, vernacular schools are not simplistic institutions for the learning and preserving of “mother tongues” and “cultures.”
Not that simple.
This phenomenon is the root cause of the worsening ethno-social fragmentation afflicting our nation today. You see, when you adopt a foreign language as the anchor of your inner soul, you’ll be immersed in the mindset and values spawned and shared by purveyors and practitioners of that foreign tongue. Indeed, language is the key determinant of social-group identity and the whole ecosystem of culture, values, aspirations and group cohesion, and these transcend man-made borders and geography. The Mandarin supremacy agenda of the SJKCs are relentlessly pursued at the expense of our national language and English. The pupils are immersed in a thick Mandarin-centric universe of foreign books, literature, arts, culture, philosophies, historiographies, values and self-image totally alien and incompatible with our national aspirations.
Indeed, the essence of Malaysian nationhood is subordinated to a Mandarin-laced China-centric paradigm as these SJKC products find it hard, if not impossible, to reconcile their foreign-sourced attitudes and outlook with Malaysia's national narrative. Hence, the creation over the past three decades of a new generation of re-alienised Chinese Malaysians stuck in their angry little cocoons estranged from the social-cultural mainstream, as typified by the bucketful of belligerent under-40 politicians in our midst elected solely on a toxic, race-based agenda by their alienised constituents. Yes, I'm talking about re-alienised Malaysians such as this and this. Come on lah people, after 52 years of Merdeka, we are still producing these kinds of ethnocentric little monsters attacking every single symbol and instrument of our Negara in their eloquently mimicked Beijing Putonghua Mandarin?
Why so susah one?
What about the government? Has PM Najib Razak's administration done anything to address this societal decay?
Yes? No?
What?
They themselves add to the pile via financial support of these unconstitutional schools?
Apa?
Using my tax money?
Like this how?
So PM Najib is condoning three Malaysian school systems (yeah, in congruence with Yap Sin Tian's nation-states within our nation looney fantasy) while inundating us with his 1 Malaysia pipedream? Can someone enlighten my simple Kelantanese peasant mind how the production of three distinct, mutually antagonistic groups of Malaysians out of 3 school systems fit into Najib's 1 Malaysia?
How?
Got formula ka?
Is it 1+1+1=1 or is the 1 in 1 Malaysia a cumulative derivative of some weighted fractional aggregation of the 1+1+1?
Or is it in reality three 1 Malaysias in a sort of parallel universe right out of The Twilight Zone, with 1 Malay Malaysia occupying the same plane but in a different dimension from the 1 Chinese Malaysia and 1 Indian Malaysia realities?
Why so susah one?
Well, PM Najib did say that he will leave it to the Rakyat. What does it mean, people? "Leave it to the Rakyat" to decide how? In pitched battles accross the land? Let the court jesters, clowns and village simpletons in Parliament debate it out with their wrong facts and incoherent expectations?
The "Rakyat decides" based on what basis?
Majority rules?
Consensus?
Can any society reach consensus on anything? Can we reach consensus in our neighbourhoods, our streets? Heck, what about in our immediate families where even the weekend outing can be subject to tempestuous debate among siblings and parents? Yeah, where can find consensus in life? Some souls out there cannot even find consensus within themselves!
Isn’t this where Leadership comes in? To forge a united stand towards a common goal? To seek the best solution prescription? Couldn't this be PM Najib's finest hour? His long-lasting legacy? At last reining in the ethnocentric excesses of the past half century starting with his push for a single school under one roof for young Malaysians?
Or are we still captive of the easy-way-out Melayu mentality? The way the Tunku dealt with Singapore's PAP politicians? Or a grotesque manifestation of the obscene Kaw Tim culture?
Why so susah one?
Remember my call for a Referendum? Is there a better way, short of forcing people at gunpoint or via the painful end of the bamboo stick the Field Marshal Phibun Songkhram way?
Or are we still captive of the easy-way-out Melayu mentality? The way the Tunku dealt with Singapore's PAP politicians? Or a grotesque manifestation of the obscene Kaw Tim culture?
Why so susah one?
Remember my call for a Referendum? Is there a better way, short of forcing people at gunpoint or via the painful end of the bamboo stick the Field Marshal Phibun Songkhram way?
No. There is no way around this except via a Referendum of the Rakyat. One Rakyat One Vote, fair and square, adil dan saksama, tunggak kesamarataan demanded by these SJKC products all these years. Lets now practise this kesamarataan with a Referendum.
Apa? Tak mau? Tak boleh? Apasal?
So now Referendum also cannot ah?
Why so susah one?
So you demand democracy and equal rights BUT reject and condemn the very embodiment of these principles when you sense potential "loss" of your interests? Haiya, you treat democracy the way you conduct your business ka, where you deal only when you have overwhelming odds of obscene gains enabled by various shades of legality?
How now people?
Can a selfish segregationist minority hold the rest of us captive? To our national detriment? Until when? Until the majority conducts its own "referendum" on the streets?
Actually, it is not the government’s business to seek consensus on matters of strategic national interest. You don’t seek consensus at times of national emergencies, at times of social conflict, at times of war. And yes, we are at war. At war with ourselves. A war of attrition between forces of unity and a resistant group whose mindset is clouded by a different narrative of the very essence of this nation.
It seems the ever benevolent Malays are eager for unity. The others are adverse to it and are hell bent on segregating their social universe from the mainstream even as they loudly advocate kesamarataan and keadilan when it exclusively suits them.
Listen people. Humans migrate from one end of the earth to another BUT a feature inherent in the act of migrating and resettlement in another land is the immersion of the newcomers into the lingua-cultural essence of the host land. Malaysia should be no different. Unless of course these re-alienised descendants of migrants intend to preempt and usurp the status quo and plant their own linguistic-cultural markers on this land.
How now people?
Can a selfish segregationist minority hold the rest of us captive? To our national detriment? Until when? Until the majority conducts its own "referendum" on the streets?
Actually, it is not the government’s business to seek consensus on matters of strategic national interest. You don’t seek consensus at times of national emergencies, at times of social conflict, at times of war. And yes, we are at war. At war with ourselves. A war of attrition between forces of unity and a resistant group whose mindset is clouded by a different narrative of the very essence of this nation.
It seems the ever benevolent Malays are eager for unity. The others are adverse to it and are hell bent on segregating their social universe from the mainstream even as they loudly advocate kesamarataan and keadilan when it exclusively suits them.
Listen people. Humans migrate from one end of the earth to another BUT a feature inherent in the act of migrating and resettlement in another land is the immersion of the newcomers into the lingua-cultural essence of the host land. Malaysia should be no different. Unless of course these re-alienised descendants of migrants intend to preempt and usurp the status quo and plant their own linguistic-cultural markers on this land.
That I don't like.
As for vernacular schools, these incubators of re-alienisation -- no matter how they cut it -- will not and cannot last in this country for the simple reason that the fabric of Malaysian society itself could not cater to this alienising medium much longer. It's no more a matter of what Dong Zong or Chinese Segregationists want; it's a matter of what Malaysia will accept.
