YOURSAY | Articles on Chinese schools’ truth or fictitious?

YOURSAY | ‘Two students quoted named after military legends appear suspicious’.

Police: Articles on Chinese schools not seditious, but titles alarming

Mishmash37: Nothing wrong with disliking a subject, and reporting on that is not in itself seditious if the intent is to call out a trend. Even if it's on the sensitive topic of Bahasa Malaysia.

What is suspicious, and possibly seditious, is whether the two students quoted at the end of the article were really students at the Masai school and are coincidentally named after Zhang Fei and Guan Yu – the two legendary military generals serving under Liu Bei of China's Eastern Han Dynasty.

That'd be a mighty huge coincidence to randomly interview two students in the same school named after two heroes of the same saga, and bearing two-word Chinese names, which is a rarity in Malaysia. This calls to question whether what is reported is the truth or fictitious.

As a former SJKC (Chinese vernacular school) student, I'm not surprised that Chinese vernacular students are not keen to learn the Malay language as it's not often used in their social circles, and they can often get by without it. Similarly, many Malay students might not be keen to learn the English language as they get through life in Malaysia well enough with just BM.

So, I don't doubt the headline, but people familiar with Chinese literature and Chinese history will be quick to notice the oddity of the two students interviewed and question the motives of the article.

What was the story they wanted to pursue when handing out the story assignment? If it's merely to call out this trend and highlight the difficulties faced by SJKC students in mastering the language, then the story could have been structured better and provided comparative context to bring that to the fore, instead of leading readers to draw their own conclusions about Chinese students' lack of interest in BM interpreted as being less patriotic or whatnot.

If those seditious conclusions were the aim, then they should be charged, though I suspect it's most likely the former.

Hanlon's razor comes to mind: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." And boy is this often true here in Malaysia.

Looks to me like the two students' quotes were haphazardly added at the end to provide both the teachers' and students' perspectives for the story, and perhaps some liberties were taken then to meet deadlines.

On the off chance that the students are real (just check the school's enrolment register), imagine going through life with the expectations of these two legends thrust upon you.

Observing the Nation: Ask anyone to learn three languages at the same time (excluding family dialects) - BM, Mandarin, Tamil, and English, all from totally different cultures and different ways of construct. See if it is common for all students to excel in all of them.

It very much depends on the environment. Most people around you talk in BM, then BM it is that you may be proficient. If most around you are of Chinese descent, then Mandarin would be the main language.

Not surprising at all.

Not everyone is interested in languages or proficient in them, and not everyone learns BM, Mandarin, Tamil, or English easily or at the same rate.

If a person cannot see from this perspective, then either in the past they only need to commit to a few languages at school and becomes ignorant of the difficulties, or they know but just want to cause trouble.

Vijay47: Sentul district police chief Beh Eng Lai (Wow! What a cute title!), your statement should be preserved in the National Museum – otherwise posterity will never believe that there once lived a learned being who could produce such a gem.

So according to your logic, which no doubt Einstein, Aristotle, and Mat Kilau would envy, the two articles were not seditious, it was just that the title would cause something called “kegusaran” or public alarm.

And as we all know, causing public alarm is just another day at the office. You then helpfully proceed to warn against writing about articles that could cause “kegusaran” otherwise known as the public alarm would themselves “lead to public fear, which can threaten inter-ethnic harmony”. It is the articles in response that would be wrong!

Maybe I will next write 10 articles, all consisting of just titles, which might or might not cause “kegusaran” or public alarm.

Only in Malaysia, folks, only in Malaysia.

Kilimanjaro: To the author who wrote that piece, may I ask, if my son is fluent in BM, can he be appointed as the vice-chancellor of one of the public universities? At the end of the day, it still boils down to race, isn't it?

So, you can force them to study but for the love of it, that is not going to happen. It may be a bridge for them to cross but they would not like to sit on the bridge and hold it tight - they will move on.

The author is not intelligent enough - while he popped the question of not being keen, did he find out why? That could have been interesting. Maybe, he knows the answer but may have just wanted to avoid asking it. Hypocritical - maybe?

Travis Bickle: "The council also noted that the article cited two persons with the same names as key characters in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"

I read the articles. It quoted two standard six pupils ostensibly with the names Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are famous characters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

It is quite unlikely that Chinese parents would ever give these names to their kids.

Furthermore, it is unusual that the reporter spoke directly to these standard six kids, instead of their parents. Standard six kids are not able to consent, and good journalists would usually speak to the parents rather than to the kids themselves.

I am sceptical of the veracity of the article.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. In the past year, Malaysiakinians posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.