Sarawak doing right amid many missteps by the Unity Govt

Published on: Sunday, November 05, 2023

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Abang Jo: Sarawak Premier

MORE and more, it seems, that if we want to find progressive, inclusive and egalitarian Malaysia, we have to look to Sarawak and, to a lesser extent, Sabah. Both state leaderships seem to be showing more intelligence, rationality and savviness than the federal administration.

I say this after the recent perplexing episodes emanating from Putrajaya: The announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that government departments will only accept correspondence written in Malay, and his Education Ministry’s directive to all institutions under its purview to hold a Palestine Solidarity Week.

These two “developments” are the latest in a long line of missteps, including the move to restart the National Service Training programme, which was my topic in my previous column.

I really did not want this week’s column to be another rant, but I cannot ignore what’s happening and feel compelled to add my voice to the many others calling out PMX, as Anwar is popularly referred to, on these decisions.

When it comes to the English language, the government has a strange love-hate relationship with it.

I was among the last generation to be schooled in English before the medium of instruction was switched to the national language. But in 2003, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then the PM, decided that teaching science and mathematics in English was necessary for the nation’s progress. My kids benefitted from that policy.

But by 2009, the mood had changed. Then Deputy PM and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the policy, known by its Malay initials PPSMI, would be abolished in 2012. The reasons he gave were that the academic grades in the two subjects had fallen since English was introduced and students in rural areas suffered the most because their English proficiency was low.

But many believe it was a political decision with the government buckling under pressure from Malay nationalists who claimed teaching the subjects in English was at the expense of the position of the national language.

Many parents disagreed, and after strong lobbying by groups like Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE), the Dual Language Programme (DLP) was introduced in 2016 to allow flexibility to teach mathematics and science in English again. Early this year, we reprised that old, familiar feeling when Malay NGOs called for the abolition of the DLP.

Interestingly, Sarawak had no issues with PPSMI and adopted DLP full scale, and as PAGE chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim observed, “Sarawak is now a success story for PPSMI and DLP.”

How strange that Sarawak, which is the country’s biggest wilayah (region) with children studying in schools in deeply remote areas, seem to do just fine compared to the peninsula’s rural students.

Why is Sarawak able to pass this teaching strategy with flying colours, but the peninsula keeps flunking it? Are Sarawak teachers better and the children there smarter?

Or is it because their leaders are savvy enough to know the advantage English can give their people and they are less prone to flip-flopping on policies because they are not held to ransom by race, language or religion?

In August, Sarawak Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee stated in no uncertain terms that “English is here to stay as far as teaching of mathematics and science in school is concerned” and there would be “no turning back to using Bahasa Malaysia.”

He added, “I can guarantee by hook or by crook we will proceed with teaching the subjects in English.”

So when Anwar said write in Malay and not English to government departments, Sarawak again raised its eyebrow and responded, “No way, Jose.” Its State Secretary Datuk Amar Mohd Abu Bakar Marzuki told the Borneo Post that “Sarawak will not follow the reminder” from the PM.

Sarawak justifies its stand on the basis that Malay and English are official languages in the region, and the use of English language is guaranteed by Article 161(3) of the Federal Constitution, in addition to the fact that neither Sarawak nor Sabah approved the National Language Act 1963/67 relating to the use of Malay for “official purposes”.

Anwar is very fluent in English and he knows its value. He has used it brilliantly to articulate his views to reach a wider audience, raising his profile positively both locally and internationally.

But with the PAS engineered “green wave” still surging around his ankles, he might have felt compelled to show to the conservative Malays that he is a stout defender of the issues that are important to the community, namely race, language and religion.

Hence, his spirited defence of Palestine against Israel, which Malaysians, by and large, accept and support as well. To sceptics, the war there has become a useful distraction from more urgently pressing issues directly affecting Malaysians, like the weak economy that is impacting food security, prices of just about everything, and strangling the ringgit.

The distraction grew into a huge controversy when the Education Ministry came up with Palestine Solidarity Week for schools and public institutions under its purview without clear and careful thought and preparation.

The ministry claimed the programme, which was to be held from Oct 29 to Nov 3, was to teach students about humanitarian values such as empathy and concern for the suffering of others regardless of race or religion, in line with defending the rights and freedom of the Palestinian people. It also seemed in keeping with Anwar’s Madani government, in which care and compassion are among its core values.

But it became clear that for some schools, their teachers and pupils, showing solidarity involved elements of extremism.

This was simply unacceptable, and fast and thick came the condemnation from many quarters, including upset parents and political parties like MCA and DAP, which saw the programme as a way to teach young minds to hate rather than to inculcate compassion and humanity.

Again, to me, the most powerful signal of dissent and disapproval came from Sarawak and Sabah government leaders that Putrajaya could not brush aside. They shot down the week-long event, saying it was inappropriate for children in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools to be involved and declined to allow their schools to take part.

In the face of such a backlash, Anwar had to call for better control of how schools would carry out the Palestine Solidarity Week activities, and the Education Ministry had to issue a statement banning “the use of replica weapons, icons and symbols in a confrontational manner”.

Sadly the damage is done. More concerning is how it has shown the kind of shallow, unlearned, unthinking teachers we have in our schools. After this “week” is over, how about sending these toy gun-toting educators to classes on what Madani really means? The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

This appeared in the Star under “So Aunty, So What” by June Wong.