Years later, Sarawak woman still remembers subtle attempts to convert non-Muslim students

Attempts to convert non-Muslim Sabah and Sarawak students studying in peninsula schools have been going on for years, claims a former student. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 16, 2014.

When Doris R read a report of a Christian student from Sabah who was forced to wear a "tudung" (headscarf) by a primary school in Negri Sembilan and to join a nasyid group, it brought a wry smile to her face and a flood of unwanted memories.

“Those things are nothing new. Attempts to convert non-Muslim Sabah and Sarawak pupils (here) and those studying in the peninsula have been going on for years,” the 40-year-old Iban mother of one from Kuching, Sarawak, said.

Reading The Malaysian Insider report yesterday of the 12-year-old Sabah student who was also forced to join a Muslim prayer session reminded Doris of her own experience as a student at SK Dato Haron in Tanjong Karang, Selangor, from 1985 to 1989.

She was there as part of a student exchange programme under the Sarawak Foundation.

Doris, who hails from the rural town of Lubok Antu some 150km from Kuching, was one of seven students – five Dayaks and two Malays – who were sent to the peninsula to continue their secondary school education.

The exchange programme had noble aims – to expose bright, young Sarawak students to the culture and life of their peers in the Peninsular.

“It was an exposure all right, but not what we were made to understand.

“For those placed in the wrong school like the seven of us who were sent to SM Dato Haron, they'll have experienced what the young Sabah girl (in Negri Sembilan) experienced,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

“When we, the Sarawak students, reported for school, on the very first day, one of the Dayak girls in another class was told in no uncertain terms that she could not wear the pinafore and she must wear the baju kurung.

“When she protested, the female teacher banged her hand on the table and pointed a finger to her face threateningly and told her to do as she was told," said Doris.

She said it was especially bad during the fasting month.

“The few of us who are non-Muslims also had to wake up before dawn and join in the 'sahur', the last meal before dawn.

“We were not forced. But if we didn't do that, then we would have no food to eat until the breaking of fast.

“The school made no allowance to cater to non-Muslims. So for us, it's either eat at sahur or go hungry the whole day," she recalled.

But what made Doris seethe with anger in her five years of secondary school was the fact that she was forced to attend the "agama" or Islamic religious class.

“I was the only non-Muslim in my class. I was not exempted from the class and was not allowed to go to the library to sit out the class.

“Until today, I still remember the name of that ustazah, Saaodah Sulastri," she said, referring to the religious teacher who was a woman.

“For the last two years of my time in the school, I had to listen to her belittling Christianity in the 'agama' class.

“The harder they tried to brainwash us to get us converted, the more hardened we became,” she said.

Doris said she doubted the denial by the headmaster of the Negri Sembilan school in the recent case.

“He can deny that the 12-year-old student was forced to wear the tudung or say that she had voluntarily joined the nasyid group.

"The reality is, she probably didn't have any choice," said Doris.

The school headmaster, Yunus Ismail, when contacted by The Malaysian Insider, had said that the student wore a tudung "willingly" and that she was not forced to join the nasyid programme either.

Doris said when she and other Dayak students were asked if they wanted to continue their Form 6 in Selangor, all of them rejected the offer.

“One of the compulsory subjects was 'tamadun Islam' (Islamic history). We didn't think they were trying to teach us Islamic history.

“We believed it was a front to subtly brainwash us to get us converted. I personally have no objection in learning Islamic history if its academic.”

Doris returned to her hometown and studied Form 6 in Bandar Sri Aman, a town some 60km away from her home.

- TMI