Tuesday, December 04, 2007

De-Cristianising Mission Schools?

Here's just some excerpts from a blog post by a self-confessed drama queen currently studying at one of our local "mission" schools i.e., a "Sekolah Kebangsaan Convent" over recent comments by a few honourable Members of Parliament on such schools. The rather over-the-top post has been circulated widely over the Internet and has received the attention of our Parliamentary Opposition leader, Sdr Lim Kit Siang. ;-)
Apparently in the Parliament, some exceedingly brilliant gentleman, the representative of Parit Sulong (where?) have nothing to do with his time and nothing to do in his community that he had to point out that mission schools in Malaysia, such as Convent, La Salle and Methodist have crosses and statues representing the Christian faith in them. These crosses and statues must be demolished.

Also he pointed out that these schools have strong Christian influences and apparently sing "church songs" during school assembly.(FYI: Those are hymns, not songs). And shock and horror!!- apparently Malay-Muslim parents send their children to these school as well!! What is the world coming to?!!

Then his sidekick, an even more incredible genius of a man, the representative from Sri Gading (bitch, again - from where?) have to butt in and mentioned that apparently "a father have alerted him that these missionary schools are not close during Raya". Raya is Eid Mubarak; as in the main festival celebrated by Muslims. Bear in mind, Malaysia is an Islamic nation.

Not close during Raya? Right....

Ok listen up geniuses, I am a Malay woman. A Muslim-Malay woman and my parents sent me to be educated in SRK. Convent Klang and then, oh nooo they didn't stop there. They then sent me to my high school: SMK. Convent Klang. That's right bitch, I'm a Convent girl. A Muslim-Malay woman educated the Convent way.

When I went there, there was never a moment where we were made to sing...what did you called it again...right "church songs" during assembly. We did read prayers but it was the Islamic prayer that we read weekly at the assembly while the other students who weren't Muslims stood in silence of respect to it. Did they other students have parents alerting the Parliament members about how the have to stand in silence when the Muslims were saying their prayers? No. Perhaps its a little thing called religious sensitivity or maybe because they were shit scared of idiots like you who are in the Parliament talking about Islamic supremacy.

Also calling into the demolishing of the crosses and Christianity artifacts. Where I went to school, we no longer have a church in it. The church have been converted into the hall and where the altar where the people used to pray, a stage have built over it. There were no crosses at all though on the walls where they used to hang, one can see the outline of Jesus Christ. When the school was repainted, all that gone missing. So what is there to demolish? We do have a giant cross in front of the school but it never bothered us. It is a part of the British/Malaya heritage, it is a part of Malaysian history. Demolish that? Demolish a part of our country's history just because you are an uneducated prick that have no religious tolerance?

[...]

Religion is a set of beliefs. You choose what to believe. Just because you think your religion is better than other peoples' does not give you the right to condemn and push your religion onto them.

Last time I checked, we promote this country to the outside world as a country where people of different races live harmoniously and without conflict. Last time I checked, we are a country that is proud of our religious diversity and sensitivity. Last time I checked, this country wasn't run by a bunch of idiots with the Taliban-mentality.

Sdr Lim Kit Siang followed up in Parliament yesterdy by raising several supplementary questions to another genius, Datuk Noh Omar, the Deputy Education Minister, and as per usual, no satisfactory response obtained.
The loyalty of mission schools was questioned, with the baseless allegation that they refuse to observe Aidilfitri public holiday and close the schools. There was even the preposterous accusation that the mission schools were administered by churches outside the country, including the Vatican.

I asked Noh Omar whether he is aware that the extremist demands by the two BN MPs have created a furore, particularly on the Internet, and why the Education Ministry was condoning such extremism by its silence when such statement should be denounced without equivocation.

I also reminded the Deputy Education Minister that it is wrong and mischievous to assume that Muslims studying in mission schools are potential apostates, when mission schools had made great contributions in nation-building and produced many Malay leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Education Minister himself, the Perak Raja Muda Raja Nazrain Shah and the Sultan of Selangor who had been products of mission schools.

There was no satisfactory reply from Noh Omar.
Will you be willing to bet your bottom dollar that we haven't heard the last of this issue and the highly intelligent Members of Parliament will continue to raise this issue to stir religious fanaticism leading one day, to the renaming of all national missionary schools from SK Convent Klang to SK Tan Sri Zakaria Mat Deros?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahahha..
this lady can write
..simply take readers breath away .

Anonymous said...

What is becoming of our nation? It is becoming zero tolerance far from the magnificient Tunku Abdul Rahman's days who is a pacifyist.
Indeed Tunku is a Great Statesman, A man of All times and truly a Malaysian at heart and in action.
I do hope that the " Man with the BIG years is listening and even if it is hurting for him to hear"

We need a great Prime minister whom we can trust and lead the nation and understands the nation's woes close to his heart!

It is so heart wrenching to see the nation being broken down into pieces by petty things which with reasons and tolerance one can create much happiness instead of unsettling unhappiness and suspicions between one another!

Anonymous said...

"It is a part of the British/Malaya heritage, it is a part of Malaysian history. Demolish that? Demolish a part of our country's history just because you are an uneducated prick that have no religious tolerance?"

Well said, indeed!

Just like what the Taliban did to their Bamiyan Buddha statues. They destroyed it without any appreciation that they were destroying a part of their national history. The Taliban showed no tolerance for mere pieces (large, no doubt) of crafted stones - that is how blinding religious fervour can become.

And what did Buddhists worldwide do as a reaction to that? NOTHING. Simply because Buddhists understand that those are just pieces of stones, and you simply dont take it out on living people (valuable lives, Taliban or otherwise) over pieces of stones which, in any event, belonged to them.

It is my view that a people who do not value their own history cannot nurture any semblence of a culture, and a people without a sense of culture are clearly pariahs and riff-raffs. Please let us not head in that direction.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

In the first place, MPs with such such "calibre" make the Malaysian Parliament the laughing stock of the world. How could such "well-educated" person become an MP in the first place? Instead of serving the people, these MPs are tearing the very fabric of our society...the Malaysian society. They claim to be moderate Muslims but look at what is coming out of their mouths? To the MPs (esp Pak Lah), please walk the talk. So far, it's all air that's coming out...and it does not smell particularly good either...

Anonymous said...

Me wonder when Malays go to Universities in UK or other european countries whether the gomen complain if crosses and crucifixes are in their buildings and academic halls? And me wonder how silly it would be if everytime a Malay driver avoids the \ cross roads' as it symbolises the cross?

Anonymous said...

"And me wonder how silly it would be if everytime a Malay driver avoids the \ cross roads' as it symbolises the cross?"

What a silly question! Simple solution, to be implemented in due course - just censor all dictionaries to remove the word "cross". Thereafter we call all those cr..s roads as "Crescent Road", like The Red Cr..s has became Red Crescent. Malaysia manyak-manyak boleh, mah!

Then, for example, in our angkasawan books, we can refer to the Southern Cr..s which appear on the Australian flag as the Southern Cresent. Immediately, PM will be appointed to be the leader of Muslims of the whole world.

Then he can really sleep well. In between making more meaningless speeches in Bahasa which the entire Arab world would not understand. Of course.

"Me wonder when Malays go to Universities in UK or other european countries whether the gomen complain if crosses and crucifixes are in their buildings and academic halls?"

Another silly question!

Ask the SIL, lah! Oxford got plenty of cr..ses what, got so many Christian based colleges there.

Anonymous said...

While the powers that be are so fixated on the Cross, The Star at page N50 mentioned that the World Bank says our higher education is at a critical stage.

Can Kian Ming or Pua please look into that report.

Anonymous said...

"And me wonder how silly it would be if everytime a Malay driver avoids the cross roads' as it symbolises the cross?"

That's a good question. Maybe our defacto law minister nazri can answer your question.

Let us suggest to s vellu to change all junctions to crescents. another world's first, which suits the malays' tastes.

Anonymous said...

Doesnt AAB islamic Hadari concept allows greater freedom for non muslim and more tolerance by muslims for their non muslim neighbours
Logically if this logic is continued it will be a matter of months when its deemed its haram for muslims to allow open house for their hari raya festivals and for muslims to visit their non muslims during their religious festivals
The way i see it, AAB is in a deep quagmyre to solve this problem. He keeps hearing and say it ' pains and hurts' his big ears listening but he never said " I will act or solve it" Very belit belit statements!
yet he keep asking the tourists from europe or other christian countries to visit malatsia!
Haiyaaa! Banyak pening gua punya kelapa lah,, tak bolih terima akal!
AAB cannot keep digging a bigger hole to cover a smaller hole. He is in a quick sand syndrome, the more he moves the deeper he sinks.
Its time he sacked all his dim wit BN members for making dumb statements and speaking on his behalf. Time to sack those half past six "monkeys"

Anonymous said...

And we cannot have school names after Cristian saints in the like of SAINT JOHN, SAINT PAUL, La SALLE, METHODIST BOYS OR GIRLS SCHOOL, ASSUNTA or whatever!....hehehe

milleu87 said...

Oh come all having cross wouldn't hurt anything.It is after all a missionary school. Having different surrounding enriches you.

You fear what you don't understand. I have to confess I am Malay as well and I did go to convent since I was kindergarten until I was form 3. There's nothing wrong having all these around you. You learn about you friends culture and they learn about yours as well.

My school celebrate Easter as well as Eid. They're fair and we're tolerant of each other. Whenever I am still in Malaysia I still go visit my friends regardless their races. Have lunch at their home.

These school promotes tolerance since there is no restrictive identity forced upon you. You don't have to be Malay,Chinese or Indian.

This is very disappointing. I hate to see my school identity replace.

Anonymous said...

I still remember in the Sixties a Malay friend of mine taking Bible studies as a subject for his MCE.
He passed his subject with credit and is still now a devout and good muslim who even completed his Haj
The point is going to missionary schools or schools taught by Christians and the halls bedecked by Crucifixes does not convert you to become a Christian. Those missionary run schools offer good education.
Sometimes I feel there are people and certain politicians who are purposely playing these issues up for their gain. Its the rakyaat that will be ultimately losing. Gone will all the goodwill that has been built between all the races and replaced by hatred and distrusts.
Do we all need these negative things to happen?
The politicians should be more responsible and have moral values and should be shameful of playing these things up.
After all the non malays dont complain if they bought 'halal' chickens from the supermarkets?

Anonymous said...

GREAT !!