1Sekolah Untuk Semua

Monday, May 18, 2009

1 Sekolah Untuk Semua

1 School for All. A group of pro-unity bloggers have started a campaign for Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua.

Satu Sekolah untuk Satu Bahasa, Satu Bangsa, Satu Negara.

I am going to make myself part of this group of bloggers, whether they like it or not. Because I like what they are trying to do. Mine's the 494th signature on the petition here.

I'm the product of a 1 Sekolah system. I started schooling in Singapore in 1968, a year before the May 13 racial clashes and three years after the island achieved its Independence. The government of Lee Kuan Yew went about to "integrate' all primary schools. My school on West Coast Road had a flag of blue and yellow, and for many years it was known as Jubilee Malay Primary School. By the time I went to Primary 1B, it was called Jubilee Primary (Integrated) School. They abolished the Sekolah Melayu Jubilee. Other vernacular schools around the island were systematically replaced by "integrated" schools. Singapore went for its 1 School for All and I thought that they were doing quite alright.

In Malaysia, we have let ourselves fall behind in this regards, but that gives us the benefit of hindsight. Today Malaysians regardless of race or religion (including political ideologies) want a Bangsa Malaysia. 1 Bangsa. Civil society has never demanded harder for One Race as it has been doing in the last couple of years. The government tried to lay the foundations for a Bangsa Malaysia under Wawasan 2020 and there were attempts earlier, including the Bangsa Malaya concept dreamed up by Usman Awang and his Asas 50 friends after the War and just before Merdeka.

Time to join all past and present efforts towards that. Time to walk your talk.

Start with the kids. Integrate. Lets' have 1 School.

Read and Sign the petition again h e r e.

Please also paste the logo at the top of your blogroll so that the Education Minister won't miss it! Attached here is the open letter to the Education Minister "to implore the government to seriously look at the current multi-stream educational anomaly with an eye towards forging a singular Sekolah Kebangsaan for all Malaysians".

p.s. Thank you, KijangMas for initiating the campaign. But I believe we'll need to bring this initiative out of cyberspace into the real world, too.

Must Read:
Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua: Is there a reason to say NO?