"Actually, it's the Chinese and Indians that's giving me problems! The Malays don't as they're wearing tudungs! It's you Chinese and Indians!"
an educator commented on the school girls' hair. Like seriously, seriously? My jaw opened wide as I doubted what I heard.
All the money poured out into 1Malaysia campaigns, but still the people that's expected to lead our generation into a bright future still posses such nature. Two horribly wrong aspects are in that statement. Firstly, you shouldn't even be mentioning about race. Where does racism come about? The identification of race, which is so obviously pointed out here. If race becomes a reference to a certain group of people every now and then, or even worse, insults - then how do you expect a "1Malaysia" environment? (not that I think that it actually helps :P)
Secondly, are there seriously only these 3 races in Malaysia? By referring people as "Chinese and Indians", are mixed excluded from this racial segregation? The country is definitely not made up of only certain races. When the goal of achieving a multiracial country was first set, obviously we can't refer people as the 4 tick spaces you find on a form but rather as a Malaysian. Disgusted when educators use such references. And do all Muslims wear tudungs? Does this educator accuse all of them to be innocent of hair issues? And all "Chinese and Indians" to be guilty of such?
Seriously, if this environment of racism exists in OUR schools, then campaigns are definitely useless. A school is meant for education and fostering, not making students into parrot soldiers. Heck, if such references above are done by educators then students will end up following them!
Bottom line is, not every educators can be viewed as these "holistic" people and assume they follow every aspect of being a good citizen. The education system is crafted as such that these people have no supervision if STUDENTS DON'T SPEAK UP. And when they do, they say you talk back. Cases such as this are rarely found out about.
Recently, I also had an input where online activities will be punishable by the school. Goodness, is the virtual realm in the jurisdiction of the school? The logic they have - you write bad about the teachers = you don't love the school = you get out of this school. Teachers definitely DO NOT equate to a school. The school is formed by STUDENTS. We definitely have the right to say. The solution to tackling rants like this is NOT by suspending the student -.- Listen to the frustration!
Rawr.
