The Fight to Preserve Chinese Culture

The highlight of today was a dinner together with some student activists in Kuala Lumpur. They were fighting for the preservation of Chinese culture in Malaysia, fighting against the closure of Chinese-education schools, against the unequal treatment of Chinese in Malaysia. Though it is not our fight to make, it's interesting to see their points of view, especially in sharp contrast to the apathetic youths in Singapore.

The general impression of the students is that they are not too organised, nor have they considered the bigger picture of the force of the economy and globalisation. They do not understand the point of view of the government, hence their efforts are at best ineffective to their cause. One of the major points they brought up is against the closure of the nearby Chinese-educated village school by the government. They cited many reasons why the school shouldn't have been closed, and many of them are valid indeed. Yet, the fact remains that the school has been closed since 2001, and there are little plans for the government to re-opn it anytime soon.

Their thinking was - we'll protest and continue to make noise for the government, until it takes note of our displeasure and consider our wants. This might work if you have a big majority of the public voice. But the activist community is rather tiny. They do not realise that the government has much more important things than to worry about a few dozen of people complaining about their local school. Doing what you think is right is call preserverance, but doing the same thing that has failed before, again and again and hoping for alternative reaults, is called insanity.

Perhaps they have not realised the hard fact of life. They do not matter to the government! It is no longer the age of the village head, and justice is brought forth quickly; now, it is the force of the economy and politics that drive almost everything. If we look at the problem from this perspective, perhaps the problem might be resolved more easily. The Malaysian government is probably afraid of the rise of the Chinese power, or for the further segregation of ethnic communities in Malaysia. Having too many Chinese schools around might seem to be quite a threat to the government. If they can convince the government somehow, that they will have courses to integrate the Chinese with the other ethnic groups like Malays and Indians, that they are willing to have government officials sitting on the board of directors... Or, they can even try something more extreme like getting funding from more people, and pledging a portion of the enrollment fees to the government every month to show their support of the government.

But in the end, they themselves must come to terms with their situation. Are they fighting a battle they can possibly win? Or are they like trying to hold onto their old 2-storey shophouses when HDB is clearing the land for building of flats?

They need to know where they stand, and what more they can do. Else, they could well be trying to fix the engine of a car when it has only run out of fuel.