reduced and recycled

You know something’s wrong with the way people are educated in Malaysia when some members of the population - some UiTM students in particular - prefer to barricade themselves against the incursion of the “Non-Bumi” Horde ™. Yes, that proposed 10% of non-bumiputras will overwhelm the remaining 90% and will somehow cause the fall of all things Malay and such. And while these UiTM students are agitating against the “colonization of UiTM” by the other races, I think it’ll do a lot of good if we stepped back and saw the big picture.

And that would be to ask ourselves “Who in their right minds would want to study in UiTM anyway?” I mean, would you like your children to study in an exclusivist, monocultural community which either disdains or ignores your own culture and traditions, and would in all likelihood turn a blind eye to your child’s achievements?

On the other hand, I guess we’ll need to look at the intentions behind Tan Sri Khalid’s opinion on the matter. For all intents and purposes, I can only conclude that his rationale of increasing opportunities for greater interaction between other ethnic groups within campus is laudable; more non-Bumis would naturally increase the opportunities for interaction. But be “friendlier to other races”? I’m not so sure that the creation of a minority within UiTM would help bolster any efforts to make the majority more cognizant of the needs and aspirations of the ‘minority’. In fact, it might go so far as to confirm in the minds of non-Bumis that they really are uninvited in UiTM (let alone in Malaysia).

Isn’t the problem institutional? It is government policy - and probably the policy of UiTM - to restrict intake of students to members of one community only. And the faculties of UiTM are most probably, if not actually, monocultural. Everything about UiTM screams “Bumiputera”, so how is the 10% increase in non-Bumi intake supposed to change minds and opinions? I guess some might say that such an increase in non-Bumi intake is a necessary first step. There might be quite a bit of merit to this; after all, how can you change a system without expecting the same sort of protest and disagreement?

Eh, and I think it’s an important problem to consider. When the time comes for a shift from communal politics to a more egalitarian politics, there will be a need to think about how to move from entrenched, racist policies to more inclusive ones, and the people who will have to bear the brunt of the change will be Malay Malaysians - not non-Bumi Malaysians who have been left to make do with whatever they can. So how?