A systematic education in "multi-culturalism"

I was brought up in Malaysia. The education system pretty much drummed into my head that Malaysia is a multi-cultural society where we all live in peace and harmony.

All our essays in school usually involved a band of 3 kids. Typically it would be Ali, Ah Seng and Muthu. Malay, Chinese and Indian. Best friends of course. We never really questioned the logic of it. It just seemed to be the (politically) correct thing to do.

Looking back, it's slightly incongruous that the class would then be split up for one period a few times a week. All the Malay kids would go off to "Islamic Studies" and the rest of us (regardless of race) would have to attend "Moral Studies".

Did I have many non-chinese friends in school? Not really. Here's why...

1. Filter out the special ones
   In the transition from primary school to high school, all the school children in the public system have to take a national exam, the UPSR. This is where we get graded on 4 subjects. Malay kids that did well here could choose to go to a "Selective" boarding school where the top Malay kids got a more specialised eduaction aimed at getting exceptional results. I never knew of any Chinese kid going.

2. Mix in to balance the races
   Malaysia loves national exam and we all had to take yet another one in our 3rd year of high school. This time, it's 7 subjects. In my school, the results of this exam than strongly determines if you get funnelled into the science stream or the arts. It basically went along the lines of... "All kids with straight "A"s stand to one side".. Roughly about 20 kids.. hmmm.. not enough for a class. "All students with "A"s in science and math join the group.. still need more kids.. "ok. "A"s in science OR maths".. Class is getting full... oh no! not enough Malay kids (unsurprising given point 1 above)... "Any Malay kids with a B in science or math come forward".. about 5 more join the group. Done! This is the "Science Class". The elite of the school. Seriously...

I never really objected to any of this except in one situation...

Schools in the district and state usually send teams to compete in various academic competitions like maths, science, english, etc.. I invariably never quite made it onto many of these teams to my mother's great fury. The thing is, I might have but the team is usually made up of 4 people, of which 1 person must be Malay. I'm not a top 3 student.. more of a top 5 kinda thing? I never got a spot even though there was a kid on the team that could never beat me in any of the subjects.

Don't get me wrong. One of my good friends in school was Malay. She and I were the kids sat together at the back of the classroom because we "don't pay attention in class and shouldn't have a prime spot in the middle (under the fan)".. Yes, my class head actually said that to me. This suited me just fine (except for the lack of a breeze) as I then spent most of my final year in school napping, gossiping, snacking, looking out the window and generally avoiding any lessons.

--- to be continued ---

More in another post on how this "multi-cultural education" is carried into life post high school...