The Malaysian Insight

IT was time for a different response to the Jawi controversy and to make a stand for national unity, so a Chinese philanthropic foundation decided to print calendars in the scripts of the country’s three main vernacular groups to spread goodwill while raising funds.

The Tan Kah Kee Foundation has come up with the 2020 calendar in Jawi, Chinese and Tamil to remind Malaysians of their shared national identity and to cherish their diversity.

Chief executive officer Chuang Yi Jing said foundation executives had discussed whether the calendar design would court further controversy, after months of bitter squabbling between opposing groups over whether Jawi should be taught to vernacular schoolchildren.

“However, the response was very positive and the foundation director thought it was a good thing. The calendar doesn’t highlight one ethnic group or one script only but features the heritage of the country’s three major ethnic groups,” Chuang told The Malaysian Insight.

She hoped the gesture would serve to remind Malaysians to be understanding of each other.

“There are people doing good things to spread positivity in society but this is not seen because there is too much negativity which has been amplified.”

The Tan Kah Kee Foundation is named after a Chinese businessman and philanthropist who established schools and universities throughout Southeast Asia for the Chinese diaspora. He lived from 1874 to 1961.

Same vision, different scripts

Chuang said the foundation launches calendars with different themes every year.

The plan for the 2020 calendar had been to depict artwork that represented the multicultural character of Malaysia.

But amid the raging Jawi controversy, the design team decided to incorporate calligraphic art instead for a stronger message.

The illustrations feature wise sayings and proverbs on education in the three scripts.

“The whole theme touches on how the country’s prosperity and progress depend on the development of education,” Chuang said.

“What we want to convey is that we all have the same vision even if it is expressed in a different language or script.”

The foundation printed 1,500 calendars which have almost run out of stock in less than a month.

They are available for a donation of RM10 each at the foundation’s office.

Timely issue

The government proposed to introduce Jawi lessons to year four pupils starting this year. The module was to take up six pages in the Bahasa Melayu textbook.

Following the protests that greeted the news, the Education Ministry decided to cut the pages down to three as well as to leave it up to the parents and teachers of the pupils in the individual vernacular school to decide whether or not to have the lessons taught at all.

Critics fear the Jawi lessons are a sign of creeping Islamisation and also that they will burden pupils with the need to learn a script that they will rarely use outside of school.

Malay pressure groups, meanwhile, have taken offence at what they perceive to be a rejection of their heritage and history, retaliating with a campaign to boycott non-Muslim goods as well as with calls for vernacular schools to be shut down.

Some have brought up the prospect of racial riots should Chinese educationists persist opposing the Jawi lessons.

Chuang said there is still much misunderstanding over the Jawi script and many believe it has only to do with Islam and the Quran.

“Although it is the medium used in the Quran, it can also be used to write other things,” she said.

The foundation has distributed its calendars among various organisations, including the Malaysian Islamic Innovation Council.

“The response has been good and people see that it is a timely issue.” – January 19, 2020.