Speedy education reforms needed to address problem of racism, says academic

The panellists at the Sabah Forum on Institutional Governance and GLC Reforms in Kota Kinabalu today.

KOTA KINABALU: An academic has called for speedy education reforms to address the problem of racism, religious extremism and corruption.

Sharifah Munirah Alatas, who specialises in geopolitics, said there has not been any significant reform in the education system since Pakatan Harapan took over the government.

Sharifah said the PH government has not made much progress except to highlight the faults of the previous administration.

“If we are to address racism, religious extremism and corruption in society, we should channel this narrative towards our school system,” she said at the Sabah Forum on Institutional Governance and GLC Reforms.

In the peninsula, Sharifah said, everything is turned into a racial or religious issue when the problem is simply a human problem.

For example, when seven Universiti Malaya students held a peaceful protest against former prime minister Najib Razak and a scuffle ensued between them and a group of men, believed to be Najib’s supporters, social media commenters “immediately turned the whole episode into a racial problem”.

“The media has a role to play in this, to correct and analyse the situation. But the university and the school systems also have to reform and I don’t think the current administration has paid enough attention to address this,” she said.

She praised Sabah and Sarawak, where such extremism is not an issue, but warned it could seep into the society here if the school system is not reformed.

“While Sabahans and Sarawakians do not think in terms of race or religion, the Malayans do not think in terms of Malaysia first.

“I am not being disrespectful but I want to highlight the issue that the governance has been going downhill because we have not addressed the problem of how to put aside racial extremism.

“No race should feel supreme over others, be it the Malays, Chinese, Indians or others. I am not highlighting just one particular race, I am highlighting the concept of extremism.

“We can have hundreds of seminars and forums but once they are over, they are not revisited. They just go into a file in a bookshelf and are put away and the same problem will come up again,” she said.

Sharifah said while there has been “some reform of sorts” since the new government took over, the education reform has not picked up yet.

Having been in education for 20 years, she said she personally felt the change in the system with segregation of students taking place without any reason.

“I engaged some of the students and asked ‘Why are you sitting separately’? They can’t answer. They don’t understand it.

“Why is it not ok to talk critically about a certain ministry or the governance of a certain ministry? They just kept quiet.

“I encourage discussion but there is an element of fear among students and that is not right. How can we progress if students are consistently in fear of saying what they feel?

“Of course, they have to say it politely, and not in a ‘samseng’ manner, but highlight the issue, encourage free speech in the university,” she said.

Sharifah said racism and religious extremism are due to the “politicisation of everything” and there are individuals, including those in the government, who have managed to manipulate the people.

This constant manipulation, she said, has caused society to regress in their thoughts despite the wider access to information.

For this reason, she urged those who have made mistakes to admit to it and move aside for others who can deliver to take over.

“I am not saying politicians should step down and let somebody else take over. What I am saying is to let somebody who is competent to be in charge,” she said. - FMT