Khat should be an arts subject taught as a hobby

LETTER | The khat debate has now stirred another round of polemics in the country already saturated with misgivings and grievances about the politics of race and religion, further complicated by socio-economic and political shortcomings since the Pakatan Harapan government took over.

Khat, or Jawi script, is seen as an attempt of Islamisation of Bahasa Malaysia in our often criticised educational system. It is also seen as an element in the increasing Islamisation of the country that has the non-Muslims worried and apprehensive about the future direction of education here. 

Frequent calls to abolish the Chinese and Tamil schools have made it worse.

Khat calligraphy should not be forced on 10-year-old children, in the national or vernacular school, who have no idea about the beauty of any calligraphy. 

Making it an elective subject is not the right way to solve the controversy. 

Calligraphy is a beautiful art form and in the case of khat, it is infused with Islam as one can see khat only on the walls of mosques, palaces of Muslim rulers, Islamic institutions and sometimes in mamak restaurants.

Students can learn all kinds of calligraphy -khat, Chinese and others- in their free time when teachers are available after the exams such as UPSR, PT3 and SPM. Students young and older can be grouped together to learn calligraphy as an art. 

As is well known, the majority of students in the country are poor in art. Calligraphy can improve handwriting and drawing can enable them to appreciate various styles and artistic features. 

Learning something new will be beneficial even if it has no short term value.

There are lots of benefits in learning calligraphy as a hobby if the government can allocate enough resources. Calligraphy can become popular if one is learning it as a hobby if there is free time after exams are over.

This will be a better solution than making it an elective subject as part of the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus to appease various factions. More importantly, the khat issue should not split and divide Malaysians.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.