The Malaysian Islamic Consumer Association (PPIM) and 120 Islamic NGOs alleged that in order to achieve the unity of various races the government should close all vernacular schools and standardise the textbooks of private (independent) vernacular school. I do not think this recommendation is correct. PPIM executive secretary Datuk Nadzim Johan also said that 50 years of racial divide remains significant. The biggest reason is that the education system can not be unified, vernacular schools have become the stumbling block to national unity. I totally disagree with this statement. In fact, language and education have never been the root causes of conflict in any country in the world. Lets take a look at the struggles that happened in monolingual countries such as Saudi Arabia, and the conflict between North and South Korea which are all caused by the differences in political ideologies. All these prove the fact that differences in political ideologies, personal interests, power struggles or problems caused by various religious factions are the causes of conflict. One such example is Turkey where controversy arised because of political differences. The obsession for power would only divide human race. In this advanced and competitive century, our thoughts should be more all-rounded and positive, and open to the idea of multi-language and multi-religion society, rather than continuing our narrow vision and mentality, in assessing the positive impact of mother-tongue education to our country.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 13:41:06 +0000