What happened at the secondary school in Johor Bahru so soon after the launch of the new government’s Malaysia Madani (Civil Malaysia) should not have happened at all in the first place, given its new push to treat all citizens equally.
This is especially after the impassioned pledges made by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in all his campaign speeches in the last general election, declaring that all children whether they be Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban, are his children.
So, for the school to organise a special workshop for only Muslim SPM students is unbecoming as whoever decided on this is messing around with the lives and minds of the young Malaysians. To make it worse, the ministry tried to apologise by coming up with a most unacceptable explanation.
It said they were holding a series of workshops but it had to be for Muslim students first as it was during the Chinese New Year holidays. So why leave out the Indian students then? They were not celebrating the festival.
News also leaked out that the session included core subjects like Science and Maths and was not just limited to Islamic studies as claimed. In any case, the SPM exams are starting next Monday, which means the school could not have held another session for the others in the short span of four or five days. The parents also said their children have not been notified till now of any session for their children.
Education minister Fadhlina Sidek failed in her first major test when she said she would leave it to the education department to investigate. It was pathetic indeed, not to take charge of such a major problem that needed federal intervention urgently. Education is a federal matter, more so if racism has been found to have crept into the system.
Fadhlina had the power to summon the principal and the state education director immediately to explain to her why that was done. She would have won the hearts of Malaysians if she had decided to go down personally to Johor, to pacify the anger and pain the non-Muslim students and parents were going through after discovering this.
The move, which obviously was made without much thinking, will definitely plant anger and disappointment in the young minds of the students. Do you expect them to accept this kind of racial segregation and just move on? Maybe they will, but I am sure it will be hard to forget.
The anger was not only felt by non-Malays but others too, including the Johor sultan, who wanted the issue resolved as soon as possible.
So, what can the government do to ensure this does not happen again? Simple, actually.
Fadhlina should take control and issue a blanket order barring any form of academic workshops based on race and religion, unless done specifically for the subjects of Islamic Studies, Chinese or Tamil.
The government should show that there will be no mercy for people in authority who discriminate against people under their charge based on race or religion.
Other than these, examination workshops should be for all students. These non-Malay students chose to study in the public-funded government schools with hopes of finding a future for them in Malaysia. They don’t know of any other home.
Do not disappoint them as most of them will not be able to migrate for better options as they are from average families who need help from the government.
Many are saying this racist episode is unlikely to be the last, but let’s have faith in Anwar and his team to right this wrong for a better Malaysia.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.