[The following is a MUST READ article for every Malaysian. Apartheid in schools is but a minor symptom of a gigantic cancer that has gown over the past 4 decades with no sign of slowing down. And the root cause and main perpetrator is UMNO and its racial politics.

It is clear that unless UMNO is replaced soon by more progressive forces, this Country will not develope sufficient international competitiveness to survive the imminent onslaught of market regionalisation and globalisation. -Kim Quek.]

http://www.malaysiakini.com/News/2001/12/2001122502.php3

MALAYSIAKINI
Tuesday December 25

Racial segregation a microcosm of Malaysian politics

P. Ramasamy

12:56pm, Tue: The recent exposure by the National Union of Teaching Profession of the extent and nature of racial segregation in schools should not come as a major surprise to us. Right thinking and concerned Malaysians from all walks of life have long acknowledged that something is really amiss in the country.

Of course, the real source of racial segregation in schools is not so much the action on the part of racially-minded headmasters or local educational authorities, but rather the way politics in the country has been organised and manipulated for a long time since political independence.

Very specifically, the fundamental source of the present racial disunity and divisiveness is none other than Umno itself, a party that prided itself as the real integrationist force. Equally responsible are the non-Malay representatives who have gone along with Umno on many questions just to ensure that they have slice of the cake.

Even if the government removes some overzealous headmasters or school principals for going against the national policy, it would merely have removed the symptoms of the racial disease. Racial segregation or compartmentalisation is not the sole preserve of the school system - universities, government bureaucracies and other public sectors have also been equally affected by the disease over the last three decades or so.

The prime cause of this misery is Umno, the super-ordinate racial party within the larger coalition called Barisan Nasional. It is the divisive politics of this party along with its less than equal partners, that have sowed the seeds of this present malaise in the country.

Agenda of racial politics

The party's emergence as the protector and defender of Malays rights in the heat of racial politics of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s laid the grounds for the rise of exclusive racial politics in the country. While Umno's legitimacy as the sole representative of Malays has been broken with the rise of PAS in recent years, its continuing hold on the government provides it with the political power to set the agenda for racial politics of the worst kind.

Over the years, Umno, lacking other universal credentials, has simply harped on racial politics and on the need to maintain Malay dominance over other races. This has meant, among other things, the need to maintain preferential racial policies to ensure that political power and the control of the public sector would be in the hands of the Malays.

It is this need to control and dominate the public sector that has resulted in overwhelming Malay concentration in schools, universities, the civil service and other related sectors. Therefore it should be of no wonder that in the last few decades, non-Malay participation in schools as teachers, headmasters and as government officers in the civil service has gradually declined.

The process that led to Malay domination of the public sector and the consequent decline of non-Malay participation actually laid the grounds for the development and sustenance of polices and rules in favour of one race. Thus, it is in this context that officials of schools, education departments, head of universities and others took the deliberate step to ensure that the public sector should only benefit the Malays and that non-Malays should only play a minimal role.

Intake of teachers in schools, promotion of teachers, the appointment of headmasters, the hiring of lecturers in universities, the employment trend in the civil service basically indicates a well entrenched policy condoned by the government although it only favours the Malays.

In other words, without a policy or a measure supported by the present government, there would not be any talk of racial or religious segregation in schools or universities. Therefore it makes no sense for government officials and members of the government to express surprise as to the nature of racial problems in the country.

Of course, some headmasters or principals would have gone one step further to further entrench pro-Malay policies in the way students are organised in classes, but they would not done it in the absence of larger agenda of government action.

'De facto' apartheid

It is the nature and manner of the organisation of politics in the country that it tends to favour one particular race to the detriment of others and this is the root cause of the racial compartmentalisation of the society. The former white regime in South Africa had an official policy of apartheid in terms of separating the development of whites and blacks. And now in Malaysia, we can talk about an evolving de facto apartheid policy in the realm of the public sector.

Racial segregation contributes to the racial discrimination of non-Malays and makes a mockery of the government's official agenda of racial integration and the creation of a truly multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. A closer examination of Malaysian society would easily reveal that there is no integration; merely racial groups existing side by side on the basis of limited tolerance, something brought about not so much by government policies, but by the nature of societal evolution.

Generally, it is more appropriate to talk of disintegration in the country, something that could lead to political decay sooner or later, if the present divisive policies are maintained and perpetuated.

It will make more sense to speak about the politics of muddling through by the government in power. A government based not on universal or progressive values, but operating on the basis of primordial concerns and attributes. Global developments have not to date provided any stimulus to the regime to undertake progressive reforms in the realm of politics.

There is no definitive answer from the government as to why citizens in the country have to be organised and mobilised along ethnic and religious lines. There is no answer as to why members of society have to be discriminated and marginalised simply because they belong to one particular race or religion.

Political fragmentation

For more than four decades the present government has managed the country but results of this management are hardly impressive. On the contrary, Malaysians are terribly concerned over their future and that of their children given the pernicious nature of racial politics.

Racial segregation and racial division cannot be resolved overnight. Whether the present government - headed, controlled and manipulated by Umno - can resolve the problems of social and political fragmentation remains to be seen.

But then going on the basis of its track record of nearly 40 years, there is no compelling evidence to indicate the party has the intellectual and progressive attributes to carry the country forward.

Sept 11 might have complicated matters for the opposition in the country, but since politics is the art of possible, there are new grounds for the opposition members to sink their differences so that the country and its people could be rescued from the clutches of those in power.