Malaysian education's biggest failure

COMMENT | “Gamis: Do not allow repeat of May 13 because of Dong Zong.” This is a troubling headline. These are the kinds of statements we get from those who went through our education system, especially when Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over as Minister of Education, back in the late 70s.

It has been 50 years after May 13, 1969, and we’re still reading about Muslim youth invoking that semiotic of racial violence. The word 'Islam' made synonymous with racial violence. These young people were not even born then. I have written about my experience as a child learning about race relations and the bloody episode of our history.

I was recently asked by a Facebook commentator of my piece on soulless education: how do we get non-Malays and Malays, Muslims and non-Muslims to respect one another in the process of learning and living. This is in relation to how a teacher can forge an environment of respect, so that learning can happen most effectively.

We have failed to forge respect between the major races. We are still ready to fight one another, with the internet making hate speech viral...