Only in KL can a post dinner debate can be this enthralling. This was a panel on the Linguistic Politics of Independent Chinese Schools organised by the Allianz Centre for Corporate Governance at Universiti Malaya (my PhD School) at a coworking space. The boisterous Professor Wong Chin Huat laid out a case for the UEC schools marshalling evidence from the scriptures to the ethic of diversity. He was on point when he said that this is a case for ‘culture wars’. It is a divisive topic, a site of politicking more than politics as Mr. Eddin Khoo mentioned in final take on the matter as the chair of the UEC taskforce, which is about to submit its report.
Eddin Sir, as i call him laid out the complexities of Malayness and the parallel impoverishment of the language under a certain conservative gaze. His anecdotes of the hybridity of language learning and identity revealed more pressing issues of the education system beyond the medium of instruction, namely the mediocrity and instrumentalist notions of learning. The Singapore centric nature of the UEC is unwanted for. There are five states in Malaysia which allow the UEC as a university entrance criterion for certain courses such as Chinese Studies undergraduate programs, as is Singapore apart from Taiwan which is the main target of UEC students.
Race as a defining force in Malaysia, is a lived reality and can be gauged through these language debates.
Change Thinker 