#2. A Truly Malaysian Education Experience

I am wary of our current national education philosophy, as in our national political philosophy. For a long time, we have a term for this problem, as this mentality is inherited since the Dutch-British colonial era—divide and rule, it is a colonial baggage that is yet to be shaken off and disposed of. It should be clear that those who graduated under the blessings (or curse?) of our national education system will one day be the leaders of tomorrow. Hypothetically, they will also carry this "colonial baggage".

Regardless of ethnic identities, the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia are reluctant to reach a middle ground on their separately managed vernacular schooling system. Regardless of language groups, a significant fraction of those graduated from the vernacular system carries certain degrees of "pigeon-holed worldview". They began to question that life is unfair to their "own people", they participate in activities related to only their "own communities", they are keen on solving problems related to only their "races and religious groups", and they are eager to classify people's identities based on their almost impossible perception and narrow worldview.

However, those who have seen and experienced the education systems in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Canada or New Zealand would know that education should not be viewed as a zero-sum game. In fact, education is not a tug-of-war, it is never meant to be a game. Ultimately, it is the the future of the sons and daughters of Malaysia which is being exchanged for in this never-ending ideological war.

First and foremost, Malaysians have to return to the fact that they inherited the multicultural roots and have to recognise that their identities have always been blurring, overlapping, intersecting and multi-layered. This is true as most Malaysians born today are not purely Malay, Chinese, Indian, Aslian, Dayak, Thai, Dutch or Portuguese. Their ancestries have intersected and crossed path with each other at one or multiple points in time, including my own family.

For the sake of our future generations, Malaysia needs to formulate a comprehensive solution for our education system.

A solution?

Round table meetings should be organised between the elected representatives of all ethnicities in Malaysia, each equipped with the best wisdom of education expertise and cultural background. Inter-ethnic dialogue is an ideal way to start with when discussing what kind of national education philosophy Malaysians want for their future generations.

The education system in Malaysia is designed in accordance to the Greek education philosophy where mind is thought to be superior while body and flesh are thought to be inferior. Hence, Western classes are always quiet and students are encouraged to detach their bodies from books and whiteboard. It is even better for them to read silently with only their mind or listen obediently to the teachers so the process of learning is not interrupted. Many cannot cope with the Western education philosophy due to its monotonous teaching style, they either choose to read comics "undercover", "telecommunicate" using cell phones during lessons, fall asleep in class or just simply play truant. Western education philosophy greatly contradicts with its eastern counterparts.

For thousands of years, Indians have emphasised on the importance of education through practice, the importance of searching for inner wisdom as well as learning through rasa or the five senses of humans (taste, sight, touch, smell, hearing) and sixth sense (rasa also carries the connotations of thoughts, feelings and predictions). The Malays have placed emphasis on apprenticeship, ancestral teachings through pantun, peribahasa and cerita dongeng (poems, idioms and epics) as well as penjelejahan or travel before adulthood. The age-old wisdom of Aslians and Dayaks are passed down verbally, focusing on observing, experiencing, understanding and working harmoniously with nature and the unseen realm. Chinese education tradition hinges on Six Arts from the Spring and Autumn Period till the collapse of Song Dynasty, which are 禮樂射御書數 or rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy & mathematics. Rites as in moral rites, music to denote the importance of sense and sensibilities as well as art, archery to indicate the importance of defense skills, charioteering is understood as sports. Interesting, ancient Chinese placed calligraphy, which represents worldly knowledge gained from books, second last out of all six arts, as opposed to the Western education Malaysia inherited today, which place immense emphasis on reading, writing and mathematics. To the ancient Indians, Malays, Dayaks, Aslians and Chinese, without wisdom, the wonder and magic of humanity cannot be nurtured and their well-being cannot be guaranteed. To them, knowledge is a double-edge sword. Without wisdom, knowledge can be used for the wrong purpose, inflicting immense harm on nature and humanity.

Again, I should emphasise that education is not a zero-sum game. Undoubtedly, there are merits in Greek education philosophy, which places a lot of emphasis on hypothetical research methods, critical analysis, nomenclature and evidence-backed arguments. However, in the purview of searching for a truly Malaysian education philosophy, the more relevant question to ask is 'How do we combine the current western education philosophy with the long forgotten eastern education methods?'

The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) as well as the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Malaysia have much work to do for the coming decades.

#Education #Nationalphilosophy