A
National Heritage
by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad
In
Malaysia, we too have public schools such as the Malay College Kuala
Kangsar (MCKK) and its sister college, Tunku Kurshiah in Seremban
and the Royal Military College (RMC) but they are owned and run by
the government. The Tuanku Jaafar school and the Saad Foundation School
in Malacca are run by the private sector. The Saad Foundation School
was started by an old Malay collegian, Tan Sri Halim Saad, the Chief
Executive Officer of Renong Corporation. Halim is an active member
of the Malay College Old Boys Association (MCOBA). His executive office
suite is just one floor below the MCOBA penthouse at Jalan Syed Putra,
Kuala Lumpur.
My
old school, MCKK, was founded in 1905 by the British for the children
of the Malay ruling class along the lines of Eton College. It is a
new institution compared to Eton which was founded in 1440 by King
Henry VI. MCKK has since been democratised and, as a result, its students
today are made up from every stream of bumiputra society.
Anxious
old boys are worried about their alma mater because it is just one
of the many residential schools in the country although it still remains
the premier one. There are today nearly 50 state-funded and privately-run
boarding institutions. The old boys want MCKK privatised but the government
has said that it cannot be privatised because it is a national treasure
and heritage.
The
government, so it seems, has given a RM 50 million grant to refurbish
the school, but the old boys argued that it was too little as there
were no provisions for the maintenance of the refurbished buildings
and the new additions. The old boys insisted that if MCKK were a national
treasure then the government should treat it as such and provide enough
money to make it different from other schools as it once was.
The
change of status from a federal institution to a state school took
place in the sixties through a deliberately misguided policy of an
education minister with a personal latent agenda. This particular
minister succeeded in changing the name of the Malay Girls' College
(then in Damansara) to Tunku Kurshiah and had the college moved to
Seremban.
However,
he failed in his attempt to change the name of MCKK following a strong
protest from MCOBA and the personal intervention of the then Deputy
Prime Minister, Tun Razak, himself a former headboy of MCKK.
Eton
College in Windsor, Berkshire is arguably the best public school in
the world and is the most sought after by all parents around the world.
Razak sent three of his five sons - Nizam, Nadzim and Nazir - to Oundle
in Northamptonshire. Oundle was founded in 1556 by William Laxton.
My two sons, Addha and Fuad also attended Oundle.
Razak's
two eldest boys Najib, now the Minister of Education, and Johari,
a wealthy businessman and lawyer, went to Malvern College. Before
Malvern, Johari studied at MCKK making him the third generation of
his family to have studied there. His grandfather Dato' Hussein, his
father's father, was one of the early students of MCKK.
Generally,
every boy or girl leaving a public school or a boarding school should
be independent, an all rounder, well-equipped educationally and socially
to meet the challenges of the world.
The
big question being asked everywhere now is whether poor proficiency
in English is a hurdle to achieving a higher academic goal?
I
believe, in the borderless global village, those who can communicate
effectively and in impeccable English will have an edge over those
whose English is limited. I would like to hear what readers think
about this.
Public
schools smack of elitism. What is wrong with elitism anyway? In any
event, elitism is giving ground to egalitarianism everywhere, even
at the bastion of privileges, Eton. How I wish the MCKK, Victoria
Institution, Penang Free School, Sultan Abdul Hamid College, Sultan
Abu Bakar College and Sultan Ismail College and the likes of these
schools could reintroduce teaching in English simultaneously with
Bahasa.
We
are about to lose our proficiency in the English language and when
that happens, how are we to be different from other Asians and Aseans?
Old
boys from MCKK, RMC and VI should insist on standing out by using
English but at the same time, they should acquire an education which
is steeped in Malaysian culture and history. The British did teach
Razak, Tuanku Jaafar (the present Yang di-Pertuan Agong), Sultan of
Perak, Raja Azlan Shah and the Sultan of Pahang, Tuanku Ahmad Shah
and thousands of others both the English and Malay languages with
great success at MCKK. It was the same at the Malay Girls' College
(before the school changed its name in the sixties).
None
of us have forgotten our Bahasa and Agama. Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim
is a good example as is his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah, who is
an old girl of Tunku Kurshiah. So is Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir,
another old Kurshiahan and many others.
MCKK
can trace its origins to the modern Malay ruling class. It is the
genesis of modern Malay nationalism. Dato' Onn bin Jaafar, the founding
president of Umno was an old boy, as was the one-time leader of the
left-leaning Malay Nationalist Party (MNP), Datuk Ishak Mohamad (or
better known as Pak Sako).
The
MNP, like the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), was banned by the British
when the Emergency broke out in June 1948.
Dato'
Onn's grandson, Hishamuddin' Hussein (Parliamentary Secretary and
Deputy Head of Umno Youth) is also an old boy. But not his father,
Tun Hussein, the third Prime Minister. However, two of his uncles
studied at MCKK, Major- General (R) Jaafar Onn, three years my senior
and Gharib, Jaafar's kid brother.
A
grateful nation should make sure that a national heritage such as
the MCKK continues to flourish in the style it was accustomed to.
Whether one likes it or not, MCKK has its special character and individual
quality which has not changed in 92 years, and unlikely to change
for another century even if it were left to languish in poverty!
No
one can wish it away.
MCKK
is a national asset which must not only be preserved but enhanced:
its celebrated past should be recalled and valued, its present recognized
and appreciated, and its future protected and assured.