No room for “Separate but Equal” policy in Malaysian schools

In 1954 in the Brown vs Board of Education in states in southern USA, in a landmark decision, the American Supreme Court ruled that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional as they clearly were discriminatory against non-whites.

Unfortunately, such “Separate but Equal” policies appear to be emulated in 21^st century multiracial Malaysia where pupils from SK Taman Puteri have been instructed to label, wash and store their cups according separately according to “Muslim” and “non-Muslim”, whereupon “Muslim”-labelled cups are placed on the higher tier (reported and photo from Free Malaysia Today, 10 Aug 2017).

School children do not know racism. Every other classmate irrespective of skin colour or religion is a friend. Such prejudices are inculcated by adults along a child’s formative years.  As a school head, the former HM of SM Taman Puteri should be setting a positive example by imparting among his pupils, teachers and staff, the values of 1Malaysia, unity in diversity and not racism, religious superiority over others.

While SK Taman Puteri has a sizeable proportion of non-Muslim pupils totaling close to 40% with 219 Malays and 145 non Malay pupils, irrespective of the ethnic composition of its pupils, schools must never introduce such “Separate but Equal” policies as such scenarios will leave an indelible erroneous impression among young minds that race/religious hate and domination, disrespecting and trampling others of a separate creed is justifiable and acceptable when definitely, such xenophobia must be rejected and nipped at the bud at all cost.

As the issue here involves drinking cups, the crux being water consumption, did the HM compel separate washrooms or canteen utensils for Muslim and non-Muslim pupils and staff? Is the Headmaster even aware that all of us Malaysians are breathing in the same oxygen be it fresh mountain springs or polluted carbon emissions?

While it has been reported that the Headmaster (HM) who implemented this discriminatory and inflammatory practice has been transferred to another school, education authorities must now probe the school where the said HM is posted to, to check and put a halt if such bigoted practices are enforced there too. If necessary, suspend him/her from all duties that involves interaction with the public and relegate to a desk job. The Education Ministry must immediately instruct the current head or administrator of SK Taman Puteri to withdraw this polarizing practice, apologise to all students and parents and commence teaching the values of multiculturalism and friendship irrespective of faith.

The HM must also be probed in terms of staff appraisal, if there is a marked noticeable higher points awarded for teachers and staff who share the same faiths as opposed to others who profess a different religion. Likewise with pupils, what is the ratio of Muslim vs non-Muslim prefects?

Dato’ Sri Ti Lian Ker
MCA Religious Harmony Bureau Chairman
MCA Central Committee Member
MCA Kuantan Division Chairman

-MCA online-