Chinese Schools again!

This is part 2 of what was posted below. Since the topic actually got some hangat response (dah lama blog kita tak de comments macam tu!!) I decided to post the follow up. But DO DO go to the blog yourself because there are lots of comments there from ANGRY people who will probably be royally pissed at some of your IMHO patriotic comments! hahahaa... feel free to go to this link: http://www.sangsuria.blogspot.com/ and post them and fight for your Malaysian identity! hahahah


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Chinese school non-arguments


I see now, why Chinese school debate is "sensitive," It's actually not sensitive, it's just that people don't understand what the other side is saying.

Four people wrote back to me.

Three lambasted me for

1) wanting to ban Chinese schools
2) being an American and have no roots
3) accusing me of not honouring Chinese culture and history.

The other one asked for evidence that national schools are being Islamised.

First of all, I never agree to the banning of Chinese schools.

Secondly, I value culture and history and learning of civilisations. And if you don't think national schools do enough of that, than push to have electives so that our children have choices. And if you still don't think that is enough, than send them to Chinese schools. The people who are pro-Chinese schools say that it is not just language but Chinese culture that is important, Chinese history, Chinese civilisation... etc. I truly support your right to study Chinese culture and history.

But no one has addressed my biggest concern. IS IT HEALTY THAT OUR KIDS STUDY AND GROW UP IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF MONOCULTURE, WHEN THE REALITY IS THAT WE LIVE IN A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY?

nd why are national schools so unattractive? Why are we paying tax money to support an institution that is not attractive to a majority of Chinese? Shouldn't we do something about it? Shouldn't we be a part of nation buidling and make sure that it represents our needs too? Afterall we are citizens of this country.

I think if someone had addressed my primary concern, we would actually get somewhere. Like how about Chinese schools try to increase their percentage of non-Chinese to make sure that kids of different ethnicities mingle?

And, let's really advocate for a better kind of national education that can cater to the needs of different ethnicities. Let's find a common shared goal.