OVER the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that despite our pronouncements, we are actually not really serious about this national unity business.
I came to conclude this, perhaps rather harshly, because we are not doing the most fundamental thing needed for the cause, which is getting our children to grow up together.
School is the obvious choice to get our young together. For the good part of over a decade, our children will spend their lives in the company of others in their age group. There, they make friends for life, and their values get formed and world views are shaped.
This is especially important for us in Malaysia, where racial identities are strong and championed in the social, economic and political spheres. Presumably, nothing else would further the cause of national unity than knowing our fellow citizens well.
We had it then, especially in urban centres, when schools were patronised by students of all backgrounds.
But we have less and less of that going on these days. We also used to have national sports teams to get behind, but that is a story for another day.
Perhaps, we now have tens of thousands of children, who know little of their fellow citizens’ race or faith than the generations before them. And if they did, perhaps it is via the worse depictions on social media.
These are obviously factors against nation-building, and yet, politicians and community leaders among us continue to champion a narrow agenda, which will only separate our future generations further and further away.
Some in national schools want them to be more Islamic, for instance, hence, driving others away. Some argue for their mother tongue, hence the drive for vernacular schools; or English, hence the rise of international and private schools.
Everyone is in pursuit of his own end, and is seemingly only paying lip service to the national agenda.
In an ideal world, there would be a single school system only where all children — from heirs to thrones, sons of politicians and captains of industries, all the way to the rest of us — would go to learn and grow up together.
If we were to go the extreme, and if the national agenda were to reign over all else, non-national schools would be “nationalised” and endless resources would be poured into them. There would be no international, religious, vernacular, or private schools. Just to be sure no one would try to circumvent the system, home-schooling would be illegal.
The end, which is national unity, justifies the means. The pain and anguish we feel by this will be rewarded in future.
Alas, a dictating megalomaniac policy is not the solution.
Pluralism in education is something we have subscribed to, and it shall be our guiding principle. There is no turning back to that.
We are not discussing the merit or demerit of various types of schools, for that would be another worthless pursuit.
My thesis here is that democracy in education does not serve national unity well. But yet, given the agenda, a stronger, more attractive national school system could do so.
Thus, it was with great joy and relief that I greet the statements by the deputy prime minister, as well as the education minister, on how the issue of unity could be addressed and furthered by a national education that is far-reaching in its resolve.
But, how do we go about doing so?
The desire for good education transcends all races and strata of economics. I have met many people contemplating sending their children to private or international schools when they could scarcely meet the long-term financial commitment needed.
Vernacular schools, especially Chinese schools, are prospering because of their perceived greater emphasis on the academic. Surely, these are not good for the country?
Yet, getting parents to embrace the bigger agenda of national unity is a big task, when almost all of them care about is how to get the best for their charges.
Is it English proficiency, enrichment programmes, Mathematics, the Sciences, coding, mother tongue, the arts, sports, community service, foreign language? Or all of them?
People must be won over. At the end of the day, despite all our parochial instincts, most parents are practical people. They must see that national schools are able to meet their needs, and more, to be considered for enrolment of their children.
Build swimming pools, hire foreign teachers for languages, including the mother tongue, develop life skills, introduce enrichment programmes, explore the arts, teach astronomy and gastronomy and more, perhaps.
There has to be a political resolve to push this national agenda and for us to overcome pettiness and narrow interests. We must think of how to get our children together.
If there is a bigger national agenda at stake, there should not be any limit to what we can do to make the national school the destination of choice in the years ahead. No amount of effort, sacrifice and resources is too much.
The writer, Zainul Arifin, a former NSTP group managing editor, is now a social media observer. he can be reached via zainulisa@gmail.com