KUALA LUMPUR – It took pressure from various quarters to force a school in Batu Pahat, Johor, to amend its insensitive policy of segregating its students’ sporting activities along racial lines.
The move by SMK Dato’ Bentara Luar drew Malaysians’ ire after its notice on the registration of Form 1 students for co-curricular activities was uploaded on social media by disgruntled parents.
According to the original notice which was shared with the parents, students could only choose to participate in certain sports clubs based on their race.
Football and sepak takraw, for instance, were marked as being only open to Malay boys, while the netball club was limited to just Malay girls.
Basketball and ping pong, on the other hand, could only be taken up by Chinese students, while only students living in the school’s dormitories were able to join the hockey club.
Other sports clubs like handball, chess, petanque, volleyball, bowling, and badminton were open to all.
The school’s principal Abdul Razak Hamid had reportedly said yesterday that the “conditions” were necessary due to the lack of sporting facilities for the students.
“We are a hockey school, so the existing field has to be used for the sport, so there is no other field that can be used for other sports. So, we have to set conditions like that to attract Malay students who are not interested in sports to join the various clubs,” he was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
Social media users were quick to slam the school for what they claimed to be stereotyping policy, with angry words such as “stupid”, “disgusting”, “unacceptable”, “unbelievable”, and “racist” being used to describe the move.
Following the brickbats, the school eventually updated the list to remove the racial requirements.
When contacted, Malaysian Indian Education Transformation Association chairman Elangovan Annamalai said the racial segregation was uncalled for, and urged the Education Ministry to take action against those who approved the initial policy.
“Sports are supposed to be platforms to create harmony and unity among all the races,” he told The Vibes.
“Students with different backgrounds have been playing together all this while. There had never been any issues. In fact, sports bring us together and make us better friends.”
Elangovan said segregating sports by ethnicity could also potentially leave deserving talents of the other races getting ignored or unnoticed.
“Who can forget Datuk Santokh Singh, Datuk Soh Chin Aun, and Datuk Arumugam Rengasamy, who played alongside Datuk Mokhtar Dahari during our greatest footballing era. They were non-Malays, and look where they brought us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Terengganu Wanita PKR youth chief Yuslaini Azmi said racial segregation of sporting activities in schools would only impede efforts to build national unity.
She expressed concern that if this matter is allowed to carry on in the future, it could create a racial monopoly in certain sports, although “sports should be for everyone”.
“I call on the Education Ministry and Youth and Sports Ministry to investigate how the matter could have happened. If it is true that there is a lack of facilities, then it is unwise to just blame the school alone.
“What is the best measure that can be taken to resolve this problem? I consider now as good a time as any to strengthen racial unity, and remember that sports is for all,” she said. – The Vibes, April 17, 2021
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