The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) says that the 19 changes to be made to the controversial textbook, Interlok, is “not sufficient”.
KLSCAH president, Tan Yew Sing, felt that the book does not project the 1Malaysia mentality.
“This book encourages younger generation to not be proud of their forefathers. Why should we project these negative things?
“Many of them (earlier generations of Malaysians) have a lot of good characteristics, but that was not projected.
“There are five textbooks being used in the central region. All we are asking is just for them (the Ministry of Education) to use a different textbook,” Tan urged.
The LLG Cultural Development Centre, which was one of the 40 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which had jointly issued the press statement on 30 March to oppose the continued use of Interlok in schools, also supports the view that Interlok should be replaced by another more suitable book.
“The book strengthens the perception that Chinese and Indians are alien to this country,” said the senior executive of LLG Cultural Development Centre, Ng Yap Hwa.
“As long as the book promotes Malay supremacy, it should not be a textbook.”
Both the KLSCAH and the LLG Cultural Development Centre are Chinese NGOs and they clarified that they had valid reasons for choosing not to publicly comment on this issue until recently.
“We were concerned about this issue since day one, when the Human Rights Party and NIAT (National INTERLOK Action Team) came out to protest about this book. But we felt that we needed to understand, to study what is the content of this book first,” explained Ng.
“We didn’t think we should raise any comment before we read the book. It would be unfair to the writer,” he added.
“The process we have gone through shows that we are taking a very serious view and that our views are not just based on hearsay,” Tan added.
“That’s why it took us some time to respond. The issue is sensitive so it’s good to be proper and know what we’re talking about,” he explained.
The KLSCAH had previously held a forum about Interlok to discuss the issues surrounding the novel and to also seek the views of other NGOs on the matter. It was also one of the 40 NGOs which had jointly issued the March 30 press statement.
However, Dr Lim Teck Ghee, director of the Centre for Policy Initiatives, believed that there was initially a lack of understanding amongst the Chinese community on the implications of Interlok being used as a compulsory textbook in schools.
“They had seen the Interlok case in narrow communal terms in view of the misleading mass media coverage, and the initial Indian protests,” he said.
Lim claimed that they had not realised the larger national implications of the issue and hence, they at first “did not bother to go into a fuller analysis of the book and its implications when adopted as a compulsory text.”
But he believed the situation had changed now and looks forward to seeing the Chinese NGOs “lend their full and overdue support to the campaign to have the book withdrawn”.
Meanwhile, NIAT is currently campaigning for students to return their copies of Interlok as a means of protest against the use of the novel as a school textbook.
The rationale behind the campaign is five-fold. “One, it is definitely derogatory to all races. Two, it is against religious teaching. Three, it is against educational criteria and philosophy in Malaysia. Four, it’s against the Article 29 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Lastly, it is against the 1Malaysia concept,” explained Dr Bala Tharmalingam, a member of NIAT.
“Students are encouraged to return the books with the consent of their parents,” says Kishur Goonasaran, another NIAT member. “It is not illegal for students to return the book. We give the liberty to parents to decide.”
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