National School

1. I came across this banner from the blog Marahku, My Anger, It May Be Yours Too... It inspired me to state again my stand on this issue which I think is long overdue.

2. Read Zainul Arifin's article in NST dated 9th September 2009.

3. Also read article by Dr. Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah in Mingguan Malaysia dated 30th August 2009.

4. Since Merdeka, Malaysians have been divided by no other than its own education system. The Malays go to National School or Religious schools. Chinese and Indians go to vernacular schools. After 52 years of Independence, we are reaping the rewards of not being able to integrate the various races within Malaysia.

5. The British came to the then Tanah Melayu and applied the 'divide and rule' concept. The concept managed to split the races. Malays are left in the villages. Chinese stayed in towns and near mines. Indians are left in the estates. Now we are seeing the same thing with our education system. At the end of the day, the results are the same. All the races are divided since they are children. So why are we surprised when there are too many race related issues lately?

6. Schools should be the first platform for our children to integrate with other races. If they don't what makes you think they can integrate at a later stage? However this has failed in our system simply when we still have vernacular schools around and they are becoming increasingly popular.

7. Now everybody is talking about 1Malaysia concept as mooted by our PM since he took over the helm. I'm just amazed that people would choose to harp on petty issues such as whether race should be included in forms as if by doing this, it will help integrate us. Look at the bigger picture please!

8. What kind of Malaysians are actually we leaving behind? After 52 years on independence, there are still people who can't speak the National Languange properly. If you can't communicate properly, how do you expect them to be united? There's where the phrase "Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa" came from I guess. There's no Bangsa Malaysia if the core values of Malaysians are not there.

9. Do away with vernacular schools if you are sincere with national unity. Don't argue that our law allows vernacular schools to exist. Even our law does not allow us to question Islam as the official religion and Bahasa Malaysia as the national language but what we are seeing these days are the exact opposite. If the very essence of our constitution can be questioned by certain quarters like what we are seeing now, why not question the existence of vernacular schools? It's for our own good anyway, that's if your are sincere of about national unity course.

10. I'm glad there are already people harping on this issue. To me, its for the nations good. The sad thing is, to date, only Datuk Mukhriz have stated publicly that he wants to see a single education system for all Malaysian. No other politicians have done that. What needs to be done now is to constantly fight for this until we have a single education system. If not, I think Malaysia will be worst off that what it is already now.

11. Find out what's wrong with the National School. If its found that curriculum of vernacular schools are better than the National School, change and absorb the better. At the end of the day, only National School should prevail.