YOURSAY | ‘It does appear that many DAP politicians lately have been transformed from lions into lambs.’

Guan Eng says Chinese daily raised fear over khat

Wira: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, it's very BN-like to blame the media for a government policy which the community disapproves of.

Most Chinese don't read Sin Chew Daily (I don't), and yet they are against the introduction of khat into the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus.

The only face-saving action you can take now is to discuss this in the cabinet and have khat learning and appreciation be taught instead in art lessons in vernacular schools, since this issue has also been politicised within the Malay community and media.

After all, the argument by Malay politicians in and out of government has always been that khat calligraphy is an art and has nothing to do with the Islamisation of vernacular schools.

Ranjit Singh Malhi: Lim, please get your basic facts right. Khat is Arabic calligraphy and Islamic in origin. Jawi is an Arabic script for writing the Malay language.

Hence, it is erroneous to state, as you have done, that "seni khat or Jawi is the source of the language of Bahasa Malaysia."

Bahasa Malaysia has many words borrowed from Arabic, Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese and Dutch.

It does appear that many DAP politicians lately have been transformed from lions into lambs and are not willing to uphold the truth. May God bless Malaysia!

Anonymous_1548240224: I had always respected the DAP as staunch defenders of the letter and spirit of the Federal Constitution as promulgated by our founding fathers. But sadly, after entering the government, this no longer seems to be the case.

Let us look at what the Federal Constitution says about the national language. Article 152(1) says that the national language shall be the Malay language and in such script as the Parliament may by law provide.

This Parliament duly did under the National Language Act 1963/1967. Article 9 of the National Language Act says that the script of the national language shall be the Rumi script.

So Lim, all those who are opposing the introduction of khat as part of the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus are defending the Federal Constitution and the National Language Act.

If the government wishes to make the Jawi script part of Bahasa Malaysia, then they should first in the spirit of competency, accountability and transparency (remember CAT, Lim?) go first to Parliament to amend the Act instead of trying to sneak it in via a policy directive from the education minister.

At least, that it what the law means to me as a layman or loyar buruk.

If the idea is to make students appreciate the beauty of the Jawi script, then, by all means, include it as a component of the Art syllabus together with Chinese calligraphy and the Tamil script, not as part of the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus.

Looking at the statements from the defenders of khat as part of the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus (for example, the statement by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang), I do not think that they intend to make students aware of the beauty of traditional scripts.

However, if they remove it from the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus and put it as part of the Art syllabus together with Chinese and Tamil scripts, then I will be the first to admit that I am wrong.

Please, Lim, as the secretary-general of the DAP, please make sure that DAP remains as the defender of the letter and spirit of the Federal Constitution.

After khat and other controversies, Harapan told to vet policies before rollout

Sleepy: This is a multiracial country, in which Pakatan Harapan must gain trust first.

Implementing such 'sensitive' national issues in such a manner is counterproductive, even though such issues may look 'innocent'.

Retnam: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia principal research fellow Denison Jayasooria, Harapan works on the basis of one person deciding everything.

They will have committees discussing matters, and recommendations sent to this one person.

He doesn't like to be told what to do. And he will give these recommendations a hard kick. Then he will go ahead with his dreams. Everyone else will have to follow suit.

PB: It is called having an overarching and strategic communications strategy. One that oversees the output of all the ministers’ communications department.

Unfortunately, none appear to exist and government officials act independently of each other as though they were still opposition MPs.

Mechi: Committees don't work. They are politically chosen and tainted with bureaucracy. I would rather have focus teams and industry experts without fear or favoured opinions.

It appears that most Bersatu ministers are inept, especially Education Minister Maszlee Malik. He has to go, and that could be Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Waterloo.

Mandatory khat policy brings out worst imagined fears of non-Malays

Kural: Some fundamental questions perhaps should have been debated extensively before the adoption of such a policy, including what is the intellectual, economic, national unity, cultural and competence-enhancing value inherent in this adoption of khat.

Any claims that it is linked to national heritage and national identity should have been well-researched and made available in the public domain. There are much confusion and suspicion.

Anonymous_1371475682: We need reforms in our country’s education system urgently. That is the most important.

I’m not against any form of calligraphy learning. This can be discussed after the education system reform takes place.

Frankly speaking, after implementing reforms, the Education Ministry has much to do because no system is perfect.

They need to further fine-tune the new system and this takes time to improve. The Education Ministry should know the priority for our future generations.

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