FEB 12 — Education is supposed to stick to the principle of neutrality and free from political interference. However, since politics is a “matter for all”, education is unable to completely get rid of politics. In Malaysia, freeing education from politics has always been only an ideal.

As the Kajang by-election is looming, United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) president Dr Yap Sin Tian took the opportunity to put forward a number of demands, including full recognition for the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC); land allocation for the reinstatement of the Yu Hua Chinese secondary school; and help to resolve the donation issue of a 100-acre campus land in Sepang to New Era University College which has been delayed for 14-years.

These demands have actually been repeatedly made but were usually neglected. They become the subjects of concern and might achieve certain results only when there is an election. Take the situation in Johor Bahru for instance, The Southern College, now upgraded to Southern University College, was approved during the Johor Bahru by-election in 1988, while the Foon Yew High School campus in Kulai and another campus still in the planning stage are election “gifts”.

Once education is held hostage by politics, it tends to become a political sacrifice and prey. It is a frustrating pity for education.

In such a political environment, grasping every opportunity during election and timely make demands have thus become an important strategy and means of Chinese education to fight for breakthrough. It is also an inevitable reality.

However, Chinese education groups and activists should not be satisfied by such kind of short-term breakthrough. What they should do is to look wider and farther, develop a long-term strategy, and fight for a once-and-for-all, and comprehensive solution. To achieve the ambitious goal, the first required condition is the unity of all. All Chinese education groups must unite and build consensus, so that they can have consistent goals, as well as actions.

Dong Zong, the United Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiao Zong) and the MCA used to be the “three bodies” working well in opposing against unreasonable education policies. Over the past few years, however, the MCA and Dong Jiao Zong have been walking farther and farther away from each other due to different ideologies and views in education. They have even lost trust in each other, and started to point fingers at each other.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Dong Zong, Jiao Zong and the Lim Lian Geok Foundation have also changed. They stick to their views and stands in many issues and take their own way. Such a splitting phenomenon will not only make their friends sad and their enemies happy, but also deeply upset and disappoint the Chinese community.

Could the Chinese education team afford a split? How to find common ground in differences, how to re-integrate the Chinese education team, and how to unite the Chinese community, as well as all forces outside the Chinese community that can be united should be the biggest challenge for all Chinese education groups in the Year of the Horse. It is also the Chinese community’s highest expectation on them.

Of course, in the long run, we hope that someday, our education can get back to the essence of education, restore cleanliness and quality, so that it can become more professional, more fair and more reasonable without the interference of politics!

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.