(NIAT) Datuk Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim berkata Free to Be.. Not Anymore Pelajar Kaum Melayu memaksa seorang Pelajar Kaum India cakap 'Keling Babi'

Novel Interlok, yang menjadi komponen sastera tingkatan lima dan kini melalui proses pindaan bahagian-bahagian yang sensitif terus dilanda kontroversi dan dikatakan memberi implikasi perkauman yang serius.

Pengerusi Pasukan Tindakan Interlok Nasional (NIAT) Datuk Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim berkata terdapat beberapa kejadian kurang menyenangkan berlaku terhadap pelajar India sejak novel itu dijadikan bahan teks sastera di sekolah.

“Seperti di sebuah sekolah menengah di Sungai Buloh, dalam rakaman Youtube, kami dapati terdapat sekumpulan pelajar kaum Melayu memaksa seorang pelajar kaum India cakap 'Keling Babi'.

“Inilah punca kenapa kami mahu Interlok dihapuskan. Interlok tidak sesuai dijadikan novel pelajar sekolah,” katanya pada sidang akhbar kepada TV Selangor, semalam.

Sehubungan itu, Thasleem berkata NIAT akan bermogok lapar sekiranya kerajaan tidak memansuhkan novel yang menimbulkan pelbagai kontroversi itu.

Langkah itu bertujuan membuktikan bahawa pihaknya benar-benar serius dalam pendiriannya menuntut novel tersebut digugurkan. 

“Saya ingin memberi amaran kepada kerajaan, jangan memandang rendah terhadap suara rakyat. Mereka tidak tahu apa kita boleh lakukan walaupun jumlah kita sedikit.

“Kita sanggup lakukan mogok lapar. Kami bukan berpuasa, tetapi berlapar. Tidak makan berhari-hari. Kita akan berjuang habis-habisan sehingga kerajaan menghapuskan novel Interlok ini,” katanya.

Bagaimanapun, katanya, bila mogok lapar itu bakal diadakan akan diberitahu kelak.

Dalam pada itu, Thasleem turut mencabar Timbalan Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yang juga Menteri Pelajaran agar berdebat dengan pihaknya.

Beliau berkata, dirinya tidak gentar untuk berhadapan dengan Muhyiddin semata-mata bagi memastikan Interlok edisi murid itu dapat dimansuhkan

“Saya mencabar TPM untuk berdebat dengan saya bercakap mengenai novel Interlok, adakah ia bagus untuk negara dan bagus dari perspektif Islam,” katanya.

Pada masa yang sama, beliau turut menggesa Presiden MIC Datuk G Palanivel dan timbalannya Datuk Dr S Subramaniam meletakkan jawatan berikutan kegagalan mereka memastikan Interlok dimansuhkan.

Tambah Thasleem, pihaknya kini giat menjelajah ke seluruh negara bagi memberi penerangan kepada orang ramai mengenai Interlok.

“Ramai lagi yang tak faham mengenai Interlok ini. Jadi kami akan jelajah negara untuk memberi penerangan kepada mereka,” katanya.

Muhyiddin yang juga menteri pelajaran sebelum ini berkata, novel Interlok akan kekal digunakan sebagai teks komponen sastera mata pelajaran Bahasa Malaysia tingkatan lima dengan pindaan dibuat kepada bahagian yang dianggap sensitif.

Katanya, pindaan itu dibuat selepas panel bebas mengkaji novel Interlok telah mengenal pasti bahagian yang dianggap sensitif itu.

Novel karya Sasterawan Negara Datuk Abdullah Hussain itu menimbulkan kontroversi berikutan keputusan Kementerian Pelajaran memilihnya sebagai teks sastera Tingkatan Lima tahun ini kerana didakwa terdapat perkataan yang menyinggung perasaan masyarakat India di negara ini.

Just how many dead teenagers, driven to end their own lives, is it going to take for adults to stand up and say, What the hell is going on? There was a time when the words "Free to Be" embodied a hope that whatever a kid was, was good enough. But "freedom" doesn't describe the world of this generation. Or of their parents. One of those parents wrote to me on my Facebook page.

"Hi, Marlo," wrote Kevin Jacobsen of New York. "Our son Kameron was bullied relentlessly and committed suicide on January 18th. He was 14. In lieu of flowers, we asked for donations to go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, my mom's favorite for decades. I know you're busy, but just wondering if you could take a look at our son. We have nothing else to lose."

He then posted the link to a website he'd built to honor his son, calledKindnessAboveMalice.org. I logged on, but could barely look at the child's face. He was beautiful.

Thirty-seven years -- and two generations of children -- after the creation of Free to Be... You and Me, I can't help but remember the beautiful words lyricist Bruce Hart wrote that anchored the opening anthem:

"Every boy in this land grows to be his own man,
In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman."

Kameron will never grow to be his own man.

For all the walls we thought we'd broken down with Free to Be -- and all the stereotypes we thought we'd shattered -- children today are not free to be anything they want to be, nor anything they are, and they are dying for it. And no beautiful lyric can fix that.

According to current statistics, one out of every four teenagers across America is bullied in their neighborhoods and schools; 160,000 students stay home from school every day because of their fear of being bullied; and each month, nearly 300,000 students are physically attacked inside their secondary schools.

Online, things are even worse: 43 percent of kids are cyber-bullied, while 53 percent admit to having said something mean and hurtful to another kid online.

Then came that tragic September -- 2010 -- when over a period of just three weeks, nine gay or questioning youths -- all male, average age 15 -- were "bullied to death," committing suicide, no longer able to endure the never-ending harassment from their peers.

Like many people, much of what I know about bullying is what I read in the headlines: 15-year-old Irish migrant Phoebe Prince of Massachusetts, hangs herself in the stairwell of her family apartment, after yet another day of relentless bullying. The harassment continued on her Facebook memorial page. Or just this month, 14-year-old Ambriel Bowen of York, Pennsylvania, commits suicide at home when the daily terrorizing by bullies -- which included two black eyes and a broken nose -- becomes too overwhelming to bear.

Reading the horrid accounts of bullied kids is devastating. But hearing the voice of a bereaved father brings tears to your eyes

I called Kevin Jacobsen after I read his Facebook post and my heart broke as he recounted his son's tragic story.

"Bullying is not the same old issue it used to be," Kevin said, softly. "With cell phones and social networking, it's turned into an around-the-clock problem that our kids cannot escape from. And the other thing that's different is that the bullies can be anonymous. And without that face-to-face encounter, it's impossible to stop them."

When I hung up with Kevin, I re-read his post, and seeing his mention of St. Jude made me think about how different the children are there. I've seen compassion, not cruelty, for each other. I've seen four- and five-year-old girls and boys offering hugs and giving comfort to two- and three-year-olds, telling them that they understand the pain they're going through, and that they will be alright.

So the idea that healthy children should die, not from an errant cancer cell, but because of the abject malice of another child, is something we need to take on. And stop.

Kevin Jennings, the assistant deputy secretary at the Department of Education, told me that most parents of bullied children have no idea about the anguish their sons and daughters are enduring, because the kids aren't talking. They're ashamed to admit it, because they think it's a sign of weakness, and they want to handle it themselves.

But if more parents would get into the game, Jennings said, we might be able to turn things around. He told me that the majority of parents haven't been trained to look for signs of bullying in their child's life. But they need to. And they can start by asking themselves a few questions:

• Does your child not want to ride the school bus any more?
• Does your child often wake in the morning complaining about stomach aches and asking to stay home from school?
• Are your child's friends not coming around so much any more?
• Has your child stopped receiving invitations to parties?

Most important, said Jennings, is if you suspect your child is being bullied, you must become proactive, and try to get that child to talk.

And I think we all have to start to talk.

If there's one thing I've learned over the years about tackling problems, it's that the first thing you need to do is spark the conversation. So let's start talking about bullying. With our neighbors. With our friends and family. With fellow parents at PTA meetings. And with each other -- right here. Let me hear what you think. It's time to take bullying down.

In the meantime, if you're worried that a child in your life might be a victim -- or is, in fact, the bully -- there are some helpful thoughts at such websites as stopbullying.gov. I'm sure there are countless other sites, and I'd like to know about those, as well. We don't have the time -- or any more kids' lives -- to waste.

It's been nearly four decades since the debut of the Free to Be message. But I 'm hopeful that, together, we can realize that place that Bruce Hart imagined where:

"Every boy in this land grows to be his own man,
In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman."

Anwar Ibrahim was right in calling Ibrahim Ali - the worst kind of politician in Malaysia. The same term can be used for all other politicians who continue to choose to “endorse” Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa and their brand of confrontational politics.

Ibrahim Ali is not only the worst kind of politician but he is also not very adept at being one too. And that should be applied to anyone who agrees with his assertion that a plot is underway to install a Christian Prime Minister and that the position of Islam as the official religion will be threatened.

Ibrahim can scream all he wants, cursing the air that he breathes and rant till the cows come home - statistics will prove that it would take a miracle of epic proportions for a Christian prime minister to be installed in Malaysia.

Fact one, the Christians really do not care if the Prime Minister is Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Christian - as long as the Prime Minister of the day safeguards the interests of all Malaysians.

The only people who seem to be hyper-sensitive to the religious beliefs of the Prime Minister are people in Perkasa and Ibrahim Ali especially.

Fact two, a census conducted by the Malaysian Statistics Department in 2000 showed that Muslims account for 60 per cent of the households in Malaysia. Muslims account for more than half the majority of Malaysian households and that is a huge number.

Unless, the Muslim themselves choose to install a non-Muslim Prime Minister and amend the constitution to reflect that, then Ibrahim Ali is merely living in his own nightmarish bubble.

Fact three, Malays make up 50 per cent of the population in Malaysia. Perkasa which touts itself a champion of the Malays should know this, or maybe they don’t? Since it seems that Perkasa thinks that the Malays cannot think in a logical manner - unlike itself - it will only use scare tactics to bring them to their senses.

Being the majority population also means that the Malays enjoy greater representation in almost all strata of society thus there is no question of how much "rights" the Malays enjoy. No one has questioned this except UMNO, Perkasa and Pembela. Whatever they say, the Malays will always get a bigger slice of the cake with or without any form of governmental or constitutional help.

Of Lee Kuan Yew and the failure of 1 Malaysia

So what is Perkasa screaming and calling for holy wars, blood and dead bodies for?

Could the truth be that Ibrahim Ali is actually a deep-embedded mole for the Singapore secret police? And all this, a diabolical plot of the most devious order by Chinese-chauvinist leader Lee Kuan Yew to create a bad image for the Malays worldwide? No wonder Ibrahim Ali was chosen - who else can do a better job than him of making fools of his own race!

The fact of the matter is, Perkasa is irrelevant to the Malays and all it can do is scream and scream and scream some more. That is their whole agenda. That is how they keep themselves breathing.

Perkasa is a tool not so much as to keep the Malays scared of the other races, but also to provide Najib Razak a convenient excuse for the failure of his 1Malaysia plan.

Who else has been singing Perkasa’s tune? The person who claimed he is “Malay first, Malaysian second.” Malaysia's deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Muhyiddin's statement contradicted his boss’s 1Malaysia slogan. The contradiction has indeed helped in the efforts to keep UMNO's totalitarian hold on government by confusing the people. So now, shall we all be Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Dayak or Eurasian first or second?

And 1Malaysia itself is a slogan with a wishy-washy political agenda. A poor stance by someone trying hard to leave his mark as a popular Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who is brave only when it comes to changing colors like a chameleon or when there are opportunities to crystallise his image as a popular leader.

Najib Razak. Now the 6th prime minister and previously the same person, who as UMNO Youth Chief, had claimed that he wanted to bathe a “keris” in Chinese blood. And all for the sake of helping another prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, to launch Ops Lalang and throw political rivals and activists into jail.

Any wonder why 1 Malaysia is a failure?

If Malaysian politicians have any substance or sincerity, they should not be chucking "clowns" like Ibrahim Ali under the chin and telling critics to let him be. If Malaysian leaders have any decency in them, they would be busy drafting laws that punish hate-crimes.

Anwar may be right and Ibrahim Ali could be the worst kind of politician in Malaysia. But the really evil ones lurk not too far behind.

It is reassuring for Malaysians to have outstanding law academics like Abdul Aziz Bari and Azmi Sharom speak up on issues affecting the nation. We may not agree with all of their views but they bring scholarship and intelligence to the public discourse.

Views expressed by people like Pembela's Yusri Abdullah, Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali, Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria and now Gaps leave us gasping in horror and incredulity, and we are fortunate to have these views off set by the learned opinion of these experts.

Positions taken by the so-called champions of Malays and Islam are expressed as if we are all engaged in a zero-sum game where the winner takes all. That is not how a nation is built and how a civilisation advances.

Gaps is wrong in their interpretation of the constitution. The constitution does not say that non-Malays will not be given scholarships. It specifically says that Malays will be entitled to special assistance to secure their position in the country and some of the ways would be through scholarships and quotas for civil service appointments.

One must remember the context in which these provisions were negotiated and agreed upon. The non-Malays were then about equal in number to the Malays. The Malays were mainly rural dwellers and did not have the same access to English language schools that the more urban Chinese and some Indians had.

And the fear was that the Malays, without protection, would be excluded from everything. These provisions were not meant to exclude the non-Malays. It was to address the handicap the rural Malays faced.

Groups like Perkasa, Pembela and now Gaps will have to face up to the fact that non-Malays are equal tax-paying citizens of Malaysia. Many prominent Malay academicians have already accepted that there has been an evolution of 'Malay special position' to 'Malay special rights' to 'Malay special privileges' and now to 'Malay supremacy'.

Abdul Aziz is just one amongst the Malay intelligentsia who have accepted that this is blatant discrimination against the non-Malays and they are trying to help Malays see that the continued denial of more equitable rights to non-Malays will eventually lead to Malays losing out as the country suffers a rapid increase in brain drain of not just non-Malays but also good Malays as well.This is a hopeless cause. It's like reading the constitution based on Article 153 alone, while ignoring every other clause. And many Malays seem to buy this idea. To many non-Malays, this is just disheartening.Frankly, I guess the brain drain will just keep happening till the day where there are few non-Malays left. By then, I hope all Malays out there are happy because they will be 'supreme' in this country alright, 'supreme' over no one else. I really believe that our lawmakers must be given a thorough lesson in the constitution for some of them appear to have a gift of making up their own versions. Sad.

Big gap in Gaps' logic on scholarships

Isn't it time the Malays learn to stand on their own two feet? Why indeed should our tax money go only to scholarships for the Malays? This is ridiculous.

If so, I agree with a comment to have separate income tax so Malays can pay their own and non-Malays likewise. Taking non-Malays' money to pay for the Malays is like 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'.

We are all Malaysians. What we want is fairness and a Malaysia for all. Is that too much to ask? We have every right to be here as anyone else. Enough of double standards.

The more the Malays are protected and spoon-fed, the more helpless they will be. They must learn to fish and not be given fish daily. Remove the crutches and they will be strong.

Don't underestimate their strengths. Treat them like invalids and they will stay invalids forever.

 While the 'special position' of the Malays/bumis was mentioned, I don't believe that was meant to be carried out at the expense of those who do well, be it academically or otherwise.

The 'special position' is not a licence for the Malays to lord it over the non-Malays. Neither is it a licence to oppress/suppress the non-Malays who have worked hard. The hardworking Malaysians deserve their dues, regardless of their ethnicity. Gaps, go get some education. By begging for out-right cash assistance, this is prided as 'maruah' and 'ketuanan' as defined by Gaps.Even as a reader, I feel ashamed. It only reflect how far down the Zimbabwe way we have gone. Remember the police officer who was jailed for using Robert Mugabe's loo. This appear the very thinking of such characters, and we all know the leadership behind this.If the majority of this nation still support such people, then this nation deserves to go down the road that Zimbabwe has taken. Gaps and Perkasa is making the Malays malu (embarrassed) by their demands, even though majority of Malays are not associated with them. They are telling the world that because they are Malays, they are entitled to this and that.Unless they say 'tak nak' to these groups and reject them openly, they will never be respected in the world for what they have achieved.

 If really the Umno government follow Gaps' suggestion of giving all scholarships to Malays only, I am pretty sure that the non-Malays will immediately stop paying taxes to the government.

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The Methodist Church in Malaysia believes private schools are a solution to the declining academic standards in public schools, and have begun building them in areas where there is an absence of government schools.
The Methodist Church, together with other Christian denominations, has been involved in education since the 1800s when the British first came to the Malay Peninsula. The Church has 26 secondary and 42 primary schools assisted by the government, six private schools and a private college.
Bishop Dr Hwa Yung said the Methodist Church’s mission now was to build a “string of private schools” so that Malaysian youth would have the best possible education.
“We have now also begun building private schools which seek to contribute towards raising academic standards in this country, something which unfortunately seems to have gone into freefall in the last few decades,” Yung said in his foreword of the Methodist Boys’ School Penang’s 120th anniversary souvenir programme.
The Penang school celebrated its anniversary yesterday in a dinner attended by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Hwa Yung lamented the fact that most mission schools were now under government control and run according to policies which were not too “sympathetic” to this category of schools.
However, he said the Methodist Church had begun setting up schools for rural folks who have no access to government schools, and that one of these “private schools” has been recognised by the local education department and its students have been allowed to sit for year six and form three exams.
“We are seeking more human and financial resources to begin work in other areas of special needs, whether they be poverty, physical or developmental disabilities,” the bishop added.
According to the Church, its sixth-form college, the Methodist College here, is aspiring to reach university college status by the next decade.