The Malaysian Insight

PAKATAN Harapan won’t emerge from the khat controversy unscathed as how the government mishandled the whole issue has left a bad taste in the mouths of non-Muslims, its core supporters, said political analysts.

PH can’t U-turn on this policy as it will lose more support among Malay-Muslims, they said.

But whichever way the government goes, the disenchantment the issue has caused will still carry over to the next elections, said political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat.

“This is even if measures are done to appease parents who send their children to vernacular schools,” he said.

Universiti Malaya political scientist Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said a policy reversal now would offer the strongest proof to its critics that the PH ruling coalition is being led by the Chinese-majority DAP, whose members oppose the move.

And the biggest loser will be DAP, said Prof James Chin of the University of Tasmania (UTAS).

DAP is made up of the Chinese and Tamil educators and parents opposed to including a section on khat in the textbooks.

The opposition to khat is driven by deep suspicions that Education Minister Mazlee Malik is attempting to spread Islam to non-Muslims by introducing a script that has been inextricably linked to the Muslim faith.

“There is a lot of suspicion that Dr Mazlee and the Education Ministry are trying to Islamise schoolchildren,” said Chin, who runs UTAS’ Asia Institute.

“DAP is now caught up in the MCA scenario,” said Chin, referring to the Chinese party of former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), which enjoyed solid support from the community since Merdeka. 

One of the main reasons Chinese voters started ditching MCA since the 2008 election was because they felt the former did not stand up to its Malay nationalist political ally Umno, said Chin.  

“DAP used to blame MCA for not standing up to Umno over Islamisation and now DAP is facing exactly the same accusation,” said Chin.

“The issue is now so politicised that I doubt there can be a compromise.”

Grassroots revolt

Starting next year, primary four pupils in all vernacular schools will get Bahasa Melayu textbooks with six pages that will introduce them to “khat” or Islamic calligraphy.

The lessons are brief and contain exercises for only five words and terms which must be written out in Jawi or Arabic letters that have been used for centuries as the writing script for Malay.

Pupils will not be tested on whether they master the lessons but this has elicited a storm of protests from vernacular school administrators and parents.

The suspicion that it is a form of Islamisation while experts have shown that Jawi is a religion-neutral script.

The opposition should be seen in the context of a more important policy failure by the PH government – the recognition of the United Examination Certificate (UEC), said Wong of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia (JCI).

While campaigning for the 14th general election, PH promised that public universities would recognise the UEC, a school graduation certificate used by independent Chinese secondary schools.

“DAP is severely damaged already by the grassroots revolt. They feel that the status quo has been changed at the non-Muslims’ disadvantage,” said Wong, a JCI senior fellow.

“Before the UEC is recognised, Chinese and Tamil schoolchildren are required to learn Jawi. Many Chinese feel that they have been taken for a ride after voting solidly for PH,” said Wong.

Wong said the ministry would have faced less resistance if it had balanced out the plan by also teaching Chinese and Tamil calligraphy to national primary school pupils.

Instead, it came out with a statement that gave the impression that the government is pushing through the subject despite all the opposition.

Prime Minister and PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad was also seen as bulldozing the move.

Losing seats

“Even if this episode is over, the bad after taste will dampen Chinese voters’ enthusiasm in GE15,” said Wong.

This will cost marginal seats not only for DAP, but PKR, Amanah and Bersatu, its partners in PH, he added.  

“Many are reading Dr Mahathir’s latest non-negotiable stand as a signal that Pakatan or at least Bersatu is very confident of Malay support and that Chinese support can be taken for granted.”

But if PH capitulates to khat’s detractors, it will be the biggest gift the coalition hands to its political rivals Umno and PAS.

“Dr Mahathir needs to increase Malay support and if this policy fails, more Malays who are on the fence and who voted for Pakatan in GE14 will return to BN,” said Awang Azman of UM.  

JCI’s Wong warns that the fallout from khat could make Pakatan easily lose more than the 29 marginal seats that a think-tank, Institute Darul Ehsan projected.

This is especially if PH can’t get the solid backing of the 7.8 million voters added after the voting age was lowered to 18.  

“The six pages of calligraphy exercises and the one page MoE statement may go down in history as the seven pages with the strongest electoral impact in Malaysian history,” Wong said. – August 6, 2019.