NON-CHINESE IN SJKC – CHINESE VERNACULAR SCHOOLS – WHERE ART THOU?

By Mansor bin Puteh


The Sun highlighted on the front-page a headline, ‘SJCK draws non-Chinese’ on 3 January, 2020 which is quite misleading to say the least. It is no more but a propaganda piece that is not worth commenting, but I do want to offer some differing views on the same matter.

One question that one wants to ask oneself is: Where are the non-Chinese with SJCK backgrounds? We have not seen any of them in the cabinet, parliament, GLCs, arts, culture, science, etc.

If there are a group of Melayu and Indians who had studied in such schools over the years since it was established, then surely the association of Chinese education called Dong Zong and Dong Jiao Zong would have easily created on and even publish the names of those former students of such schools, by highlighting their academic and also professional achievements, too, to show and prove to the Melayu and Indian communities that some of their brethren had indeed benefited from their studies in such schools.

But alas, there is no book of this type; and chances are the associations have found it difficult to even recall anyone Melayu or Indian who had studied in the SJKC to highlight his or her personal achievement.

In fact, there has not been any Melayu and Indian with SJKC backgrounds who is prominent in the community who proudly speak Mandarin in any forum in Malaysia and also abroad, especially in China and Taiwan or Hong Kong, the few Chinese countries that we have in the world today.

On the other hand, one has not yet seen any Chinese with such education backgrounds who have stood out speaking excellent Melayu and who can command the attention of the general public to express their views on various topics, other than those who are active in politics who speak good Melayu, but their views are often too stilted and biased against other communities. They are politicians of the Left, so be it.

The truth is the Melayu who studied in such schools have never been known to be expressive and outspoken and outstanding. It’s the same with the Indians who studied in the SJCKs, who also slip off into oblivion, because most drop out of school when they were in the secondary school with so few going on to finish their Form Six to enter the universities.

None of them who managed to study in the local universities have not been known to have also gone on to study in prestigious universities such as the Ivy League universities in America and the Oxbridge ones in England.

On the contrary, they have all become coy and now prefer to hide themselves and can hardly mix with their fellow Melayu brethren.

In all my life, I have not come across any fellow Melayu with SJKC background. Chances are there may be some in our formal and social groups or in the warung, but they cannot impress themselves with their presence.

They cannot speak in Mandarin with anyone and have not been known to communicate expressively in the language even with the Chinese.



In fact, I am one of the few Melayu who sometimes speak in the fractured and limited Hokkien with some strangers who wondered if I am Chinese when I jokingly reply in Hokkien that I am not; I am ‘wanna eh lang’ or a Melayu person!

It is well and good for some Melayu to admit that they are sending their children or all their children to SJKC but none of them can truly say if they had gained ample education to allow themselves to pursue further education at any of the university in the country or abroad.

Worse, none of the Melayu and Indian with SJKC background have also not been known to speak in public forums in the language with other Chinese Malaysians on some of the more petty and ridiculous issues concerning Dong Zong and if they agree with Dong Zong’s stand on ‘jawi’ education in SJKC.

All of those with such backgrounds have become mute when confronted with such issues when they are the ones who should be in front of everybody else to admit if Dong Zong is right or not right.

No, they have not said a word on the matter and left it to those where never in such schools from amongst the Melayu to debate on it with Dong Zong and other Chinese community leaders.

In fact, there has also never been any attempt by Dong Zong to invite Chinese who have learnt jawi and who support the learning of this alphabet system, so they can offer differing views on the matter, such as Teo Kok Seong and Tan Seng Giaw. Why?

Over-highlighting non-Chinese students in SJKC is nothing more than propaganda and joke because facts show that those Melayu parents who sent their children to such schools too cannot say if their children had truly benefitted from such education more than those Melayu parents who had sent theirs to Sekoloah Melayu.

Ironically, most of the Chinese reverts to Islam are those Chinese who have SJKC backgrounds and not many are those with Sekolah Melayu backgrounds.

Just check with Perkim and get the correct facts for them to verify on this.

But ultimately what will determine if SJKC and also SJKT can remain as they are today, even if the court case against them did not go as planned, then surely demography will come into play which will see the shrinking population size of the Chinese and Indians or Tamils who will make it worse for their communities the more they congregate to form small urban units surrounded by Melayu everywhere as what we have started to see happen, especially in the smaller towns which were mostly Chinese-dominated but which are not anymore.

When this happens, such vernacular schools and the poor political clout these communities have in the future will cause them to be irrelevant, the more the Melayu political clout is enhanced.