The Malaysian Insight

HUMAN rights lawyer and activist Siti Kasim has branded Malaysia’s national school system as “indoctrinating factories for Malay children” and blamed the system for creating a society that was increasingly polarised.

“In Malaysia, we have institutionalised racism and Islamo-fascism from primary schools right up to university. This is why we have the problems that we have today,” said Siti.

She was commenting on The Malaysian Insight’s report yesterday that some mission and vernacular schools in Malacca have two canteens – one for non-Muslims, and one exclusively for Muslim teachers and pupils.

She has been campaigning and approaching the government to revamp and abolish the “religion-centric nature of our schools and curriculum”, which she said has affected even the teachers and teaching environment.

“They have been producing racists and religious supremacists by design for more than 35 years,” said the vocal proponent of Malaysia’s ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Citing the case of the separate canteens, Siti said the public school system is breeding a society with a myopic view on race and religion, which is detrimental to the country’s progress.

“Unfortunately, we are either governed by Islamists who only see what they want to see and apologists who cannot confront the problem because it makes them feel bad about their race and religion.

“Either way, we need a leader to emerge and say, we need a Malaysia that will progress and not one that will descend into religious and racial chaos. We need this sooner rather than later.”

Respect?

However, Islamic architecture professor Prof Tajuddin Rasdi of UCSI University said activists should not over-react to the separate canteen issue, saying that it should be seen as a form of respect for cultural and religious uniqueness.

“Just like we should all be allowed to have our own space to pray in our own way. It’s not about a halal or non-halal thing, these schools are demonstrating sensitivity towards the culture of others – in this case, Muslims who have unique dietary restrictions, and are particular about how their food is prepared,” Tajuddin told The Malaysian Insight.

“I view this as a positive thing. The schools are operating correctly within the bounds.”

Asked whether it was right for the ustaz at SMK St Francis to reprimand Muslim pupils for eating at the “Chinese canteen”, Tajuddin said the religious teacher was merely “performing the role of a guardian” and looking out for the religious interests of the pupils.

“The ustaz was just trying to defuse any potential problem… because if he doesn’t do that, some Muslim parents might be angry that there’s another canteen for their children but they’re not going there.”

Tajuddin admitted that such segregation policies would affect racial integration in the long run, but reiterated that it was important to teach students the value of respecting other cultures and religions.

“They can always eat together after school,” he said.

“Small things, slight inconveniences, for the larger purpose of racial harmony. Nothing wrong with different cultures doing certain things on their own.” – November 26, 2018.