November 2, 2012
FMT LETTER: From
Sharmalan Thevar, via e-mail
Tamil schools have been in existence before independence. The main
purpose is so that children of Tamil background get to learn in their own
language. Those days, most of the English medium schools under the British were
managed by Christian missionaries.
Some parents wrongly assumed that sending their children to missionary
schools will get them converted. So they preferred Tamil schools. Besides, it
is often the nearest to their homes in the kampungs and estates.
Back then and even now, Tamil was never made a mandatory subject in
Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan (SRK) and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK).
Although SRKs and SMKs offer People’s Own Language (POL) classes for
Tamil and even have Tamil language associations, the majority do not learn the
language in these schools. Hence, you see most Tamils from SRKs and SMKs are
unable to read or write in Tamil. Nowadays, it is even rare to hear them speak
Tamil.
A few of us are exceptional. Some of you are probably the few odd ones
from non Tamil schools who have some sense of ‘Tamil patru’ left in us. We grew
up that way and learned Tamil on our own.
We make the effort to learn its history and be connected. However, we
cannot expect everyone to be like us because most children need to be pushed to
learn something. Only few will learn on their own.
This then makes everyone feel that one should go to Tamil school if they
want to learn Tamil. Perhaps this is why people get emotional when speaking
about Tamil schools. The schools are seen as the last bastion to defend Tamil
language in this country. Many even think that if we abolish Tamil schools,
Tamil language will be dead in Malaysia.
This can be solved if Tamil is made mandatory in every SRKs and SMKs. If
that is done, then Tamil schools will no longer be needed.
The majority of Indians in this country are Tamils. The Ceylonese are
also Tamils. It is just that these two groups with the same mother tongue came
from two different countries, India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Hence, Indian and
Ceylonese which were originally terms for nationality got carried on as race in
official documents.
To add salt to the wound, we do not identify ourselves as Tamils in
official documents. Therefore, there is a tangled situation here. Since we do
not identify ourselves as Tamils, we cannot demand for Tamil language to be
made mandatory for every Indian student in Malaysia. Because, not all Indians
are Tamils. Most non Tamil Indians are not interested to have Tamil language
made mandatory for their children.
Many may argue with me saying that Chinese are also divided on languages
as in Hokkien, Cantonese, etc. yet they can unite and learn Mandarin. The
Chinese have many languages but Mandarin is a common language for them. Unlike
the Chinese, we Indians do not have a common language or even a common writing
script.
Looking at this situation, we can only make Tamil as an optional subject
in schools. Which means students can choose if they want to skip it. If we make
it optional, then majority will not learn it. Keep in mind that we are living
in an era where most parents feel that it is okay not to learn Tamil.
It is also not right for us to force the Malayalees or Telugus to learn
Tamil if they do not want it. I will be most happy if they change their mind
and say “Let Tamil be the common language for all Indians in Malaysia”.
If they do not agree for Tamil to be made mandatory despite it being the
language of the Indian majority in Malaysia (over 80%), then I think the only
solution is to demand for a separate race identity called Tamil instead of
Indian or Ceylonese in all official documents.
With a Tamil population of almost 1.5 million, we can then look at the
government and say “Okay folks, we will convert our 523 Tamil schools into SRKs
nationwide, but make Tamil language mandatory for all Tamil children in every Malaysian
school”.
Our aim is to preserve Tamil language and to prevent it from becoming a
dead language. Until we can make Tamil mandatory in every SRKs or SMKs, we have
no choice but to let Tamil schools to exist.
