PETALING JAYA, July 30 — Yet another incident of alleged racism in schools, this time in SK Alam Megah in Shah Alam, shows educators are “fuelling the fire” which is burning attempts to foster harmony in the country, former Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said today.
Yesterday, reports surfaced that the headmistress of the Shah Alam school had lashed out at non-Malay students for being unruly during an assembly, allegedly telling them to “Balik India dan China” (Go back to India and China).
“We are patriotic and loyal Malaysian citizens and Malaysia is our home. Where else can we ‘balik’ to?” Wee (picture) asked pointedly in a statement.
Noting that the latest incident occurred despite the previous furore over similar cases in Johor and Kedah in 2010, the MCA Youth chairman said the principal “exposed her prejudices and has let down the community as a whole.”
“When will it all end?” he asked
The case in Shah Alam also follows closely on the heels of an earlier row at another school in Selangor, SRK Sri Pristana in Sungai Buloh, after pictures were distributed online showing non-Muslim students there taking their recess in a bathroom during the fasting month of Ramadan.
“This recurring theme of targeting students who are not of the same ethnicity is disappointing.
“[Schools] are expected to inculcate mutual racial respect for one another irrespective of ethnicity and creed, rather than polarise friendships as not only are the students offended, the multiracial teachers too are likewise affected,” Wee said.
Following the Sri Pristana incident, DAP lawmaker Tony Pua had also pinpointed a need for the Education Ministry to set clear guidelines to avoid a repeat of such incidents in the future, saying that failure to reverse the tide of “religious hardline” schools would make racial polarisation in Malaysia irreversible.
In 2010, the headmistress of Sekolah Menegah Kebangsaan Bukit Selambau in Sungai Petani, Kedah accused Chinese pupils there of being insensitive towards their Muslim peers by eating in the school compound during Ramadan, before ordering them to “return to China” if they could not respect the culture of other races.
The same year, the head of a school in Kulai, Johor had labelled non-Malay pupils “pendatang” (immigrants).
Although both school heads later apologised, the incidents and others in the same vein led to accusations of perceived tolerance for racism within the government and the civil service that some blamed on programmes conducted by the National Civics Bureau (BTN).
