Debate On Education and Malaysian Identity
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s latest opinion pieces on the history and identity of Malaysia are wrongly premised as well as targeted (see NST 11 May and The Sun, 15 May 2008). If he is truly concerned about empathy and rapport amongst the various communities, then he should do a better job of identifying those that are deliberately falsifying history and the role of the different communities in the making of the country as well as those inciting racial hatred and intolerance. Railing against non-Malay Tan Sris and Datos and their lack of appreciation for the Malay origin of their titles may score a petty debating point but it distracts from a clearer analysis of how we have arrived at this point in our history and who are the opportunists and enemies of “justice … and genuinely non-ethnic motherland for all … citizens”.
The late Rustam Sani – a true Malaysian intellectual had written - “There is so much of our culture today that are pushing us away from those requirements of a “true” society built on trust toward a world of fast paced isolation and fantasy. There is no institution or force on the horizon – including the leaders of the government (many are conspicuously intellectual imbeciles), their inadequately socialised and ill-schooled apparatchiks and the greatly debased social and government institutions – to pull us in the other direction. All have but become part of the vortex of self-serving insincerity and pretense, all under great pressure to conceal or defend their crippling intellectual and moral inadequacies”.
Within his lofty perch in a position subsidized by Malaysian tax payers, Dr. Chandra is in a privileged position to conduct research into the way in which state institutions such as the schools and universities are providing fair and unbiased accounts of Malaysian history on all the major pivotal points and events identified by Chandra in his writing.
What has Dr. Chandra to say about the compulsory Race Relations foundation module course being offered by Malaysian universities? Most Malaysians will also welcome his analysis of what is propagated by ‘greatly debased social and government institutions’ referred to by Rustam Sani; and this would include the Biro Tata Negara (BTN).
I am sure there are many well-wishers and benefactors – assuming state funds are not available – that would be happy to fund Dr. Chandra and a team of researchers of his own selection in analyzing the content, ideological underpinnings and scholarly integrity of these and other important channels of education and propaganda that are currently shaping the consciousness of young Malaysians.
Kuala Lumpur
20 May 2008
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