Wednesday, December 05, 2007

De-Cristianising Mission Schools? (II)

Here are some follow up reports on the blog post with regards to calls by Members of Parliament to remove all traces of non-Muslim symbolises and influence our national schools.

Parliamentary Opposition leader, Sdr Lim Kit Siang has received reports of such actions in the following schools, and is awaiting reports of more. He has also called for the Minister of Education, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to respond as to whether such actions are encouraged by the Ministry, tacitly or otherwise.
  • St. David High School, Bukit Baru, Melaka, the cross had been replaced by a crown.
  • Convent Girls School in Muar, Cross was replaced with a cresent moon on badge.
  • Methodist Boys Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur
Here's also the full text from the Parliament Hansard of the speech made by the two honourable members of parliament from Parit Sulong and Sri Gading, both of which are adjacent to my hometown. Sigh.
Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: …Tuan Yang di-Pertua, saya ingin menyentuh satu perkara tentang Kementerian Pelajaran iaitu sekolah-sekolah mubaligh seperti Convent, La Salle, Methodist dan sebagainya. Saya difahamkan Lembaga Pengarah di sekolah-sekolah ini
sebahagiannya ditadbir dari gereja-gereja di luar negara seperti di Vatican City. Saya juga difahamkan permohonan untuk membina surau di sebahagian sekolah-sekolah ini terpaksa mendapat kebenaran daripada Lembaga Pengarah yang mana Lembaga Pengarah ini sebahagiannya ditadbir oleh gereja.

Jadi amat memalukanlah, bagi diri saya, tentang pentadbiran sekolah-sekolah ini yang masih lagi dikawal oleh pihak gereja. Begitu juga saya difahamkan tentang iklim sekolah-sekolah tersebut, banyak ibu bapa Islam menghantar anak-anak mereka ke sana, mereka kompelin sebab ada kalanya sekolah dimulakan dengan lagu-lagu gereja. Ini saya tidak tahu benar atau tidak, tetapi ia apa yang saya dapat daripada ibu bapa sendiri tetapi yang jelas di sekolah-sekolah ini terpampang simbol-simbol agama. Saya rasa kecewa di dalam negara Islam, Malaysia ini, kalau saya pergi ke sekolah convent, ada terpampang patung St. Mary di depandepan sekolah convent...

Datuk Haji Mohamad bin Haji Aziz [Sri Gading]: [Bangun]

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: Silakan Yang Berhormat bagi Sri Gading.

Timbalan Yang di-Pertua [Datuk Dr. Yusof bin Yacob]: Ya, Yang Berhormat bagi Sri Gading.

Datuk Haji Mohamad bin Haji Aziz [Sri Gading]: Bagi saya sudah tidak terkejut, Yang Berhormat bagi Parit Sulong, cerita ini... [Disampuk] Bukan soal biasa. Soalnya kenapa boleh berlaku seperti ini? Satu. Hari Raya yang lepas, saya diberitahu oleh seorang bapa, waktu Aidilfitri disambut, sekolah jenis-jenis ini tidak ditutup. Terima kasih.

Tuan Syed Hood bin Syed Edros [Parit Sulong]: Bukan sahaja patung, tetapi Ahli-ahli Yang Berhormat pergilah, tengoklah salib Kristian diletakkan di depan-depan sekolah. Saya tidak faham Kementerian Pelajaran, adakah pegawai-pegawai tidak nampak atau memang dasar kita
membenarkan perkara ini. Walau bagaimanapun, saya sebagai orang yang bertanggungjawab kepada diri saya, agama, bangsa dan tanah air ini, saya menyatakan pendirian saya bahawa patung-patung ini hendaklah dirobohkan, salib-salib ini hendaklah dimusnahkan dan pengaruhpengaruh gereja di sekolah-sekolah ini hendaklah dihentikan. Begitu juga dana yang dikumpulkan di sekolah-sekolah ini. Adakah kita mendapat laporan? Kalau boleh kementerian mendedahkan dana sekolah-sekolah ini. Saya
difahamkan ada sekolah-sekolah ini juga ditaja oleh pihak-pihak gereja. Dana-dananya datang daripada gereja-gereja dan adakah pihak kementerian pantau sumber-sumbernya? Adakah audit-audit dilaksanakan?

As some readers have suggested in the comments, the MPs should possibly call for the Government to stop sending scholars to foreign schools, particular those like Oxford and Cambridge as practically all of their colleges have a chapel within its compounds.

13 comments:

fiona said...

The "de-Christianizing" of former missionary schools has been in gradual effect for years, as some of the comments on Lim Kit Siang's blog attest. An important question to ask is, why are these MPs raising this issue now? Is this an attempt to incite/stoke some kind of resentment between Muslim-Malays and non-Malay Christians for some kind of political gain?

Anonymous said...

Soon you Cristians cant celebrate your Krismas! Adoihhh!
Mana pergi itu Islam Hadari?

Life in the fifties and sixties were far more pleasant and tolerable. No one complaint when Rose Chan's picture ( censored at the right spots) appeared in the newspapers.
What kind of narrow minded tunnel visioned politicians do we have now?

Shawn Tan said...

"Saya rasa kecewa di dalam negara Islam, Malaysia ini, kalau..."

Isn't this a bigger issue? Since when has our country become a "negara Islam"? I wonder if our MP is going the way of the Taleban. I think our dearest MP is rather ill-informed. He has misplaced his religious convictions. I'd like to remind him to go forth and read, educate himself on our constitution and laws and learn the truth of it.

"Bacalah dengan menyebut nama Tuhanmu yang menciptakan manusia dari segumpal darah. Bacalah, dengan nama Tuhanmu yang Amat Pemurah, yang mengajar manusia dengan perantaraan (menulis, membaca). Dia mengajarkan kepada manusia apa yang tidak diketahuinya."

Anonymous said...

Shawn are you a "muslim"?
Have soonat oredi?
At your age cannot see the traditional tok mudim cos you are old and have high content of fibrous tissue.
You need to soonat at a sawmill,they got big blades...

Anonymous said...

There is no need to be disrespectful towards others.

My school cross was replaced by star. That's fine I guess.

Before all these board wants to say something about replacing St Mary statue or crosses they should think giving money to these school.

Hello? These board doesn't gives money to missionary schools. They claim these school achievement as theirs since missionary school tends to be the best in the state.

I know my school was in a state of ruin and has to call for help from alumnae to survive.

So where is the board of education during these difficult times? Do they have any right to say about having all these if they in the first place didn't bother to help school survives?

Oh come on stop your pretension that you care when you actually don't.

Anonymous said...

It's utterly disheartening to see how insensitive our politicians are. Their choices of words are a clear reflection of their blatant disrespect for others.

From the way Tuan Syed Hood has structured his thoughts
"...bertanggungjawab kepada diri saya, agama, bangsa dan tanah air", it can be concluded tanah air comes last in his list of priorities. "saya" seems to be his main concern. And all this while, i thought that our leaders are supposed to serve the people before themselves.

sigh

Anonymous said...

Nelson Mandela once said :" Education is the most powerful weapon that can change the world."

We are living in a peaceful country which allow us to live with other races, work with other races and even celebrate with other races.

Education is very important. I do not mind anything will be changed, but pls focus on our next generation education. They are our hope, in order to transforming human spirit, from a culture of violence to a culture of peace, education is needed.

Politicians should not use education as their tools to attract more ppl vote them.

In every religions, they are sharing the same teaching, :"Pls love ur friends/ neighbors like your family, do not hurt them, pls give them your hand when they need help. "

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agreee above.

That is what we call Malaysia is stupid!!! real stupid

Just look at neighbour country, sinagpore, top 50 with just 2 main uni.

malaysia many uni, but none in top 200.

Terima Kasih...

Anonymous said...

I noticed that the YMCA in Brickfields is being staffed more by Muslims than Christians. Where was the saying that they should not be near infidels now? In fact they are converting Christian establishments more and more so now. It has been a slow process since the M administration to slowly eliminate all semblance that there are and exists other religions and faiths. But know M was insistent to have his way and now his admirers and fans are doing the same. Pretty soon we will have to have a beard just like Afghans, but what happens if you don't have much facial hair, are you going to be discriminated too? Or are you suppose to say at least you are not going to ape an ape?

Anonymous said...

...hehe, soon you are all going to face Tok Mudim's knife and have that little piece of foreskin or prepuce removed!

Anonymous said...

i studied in methodist schools for my secondary education and a-levels (abroad). i may not be a muslim, but i'm not a christian either. the choice of schools were mine, and not my parents.

my sec. school was multi-cultural with excellent malay, indian and chinese teachers. my friends came from all backgrounds. if parents are not happy about the schools being christian, they would not send their kids there in the first place. politicians should not try to stir up new bullshit to gain attention.

Anonymous said...

OFF TOPIC

Read "CHANGING CARDIFF" in today's THE STAR education section about how the university achieved its high ranking in research

Jci said...

if a cross and singing a few songs will change a faith of a person, i believe Malaysia will no longer be the Islamic country that it is today. and its after all religious symbols only. my point here is ITS JUST SYMBOLS! something that has been passed down for generations that helps one society being identified as them. it is jus oddly ironic that our fathers' and mothers' time that people can be so open minded even with minimal education compared to us, while in our era ppl are finding fault with the slightest pathetic reason. it all comes back to... the '1' concept and 1 Malaysia we're aiming for is jus a gimmick/ hoax. yeah.... go malaysia politicians.... tsk tsk tsk