Baju kurung in schools: dress up for real unity

Eduction Ministry must not allow a half-hearted resolution of this wrong to stand.

COMMENT

By Scott Ng

Just as soon as the controversy began over wearing baju kurung at one school, it seems to be over and done with. Nope, no ruling banning the baju kurung for non-Malays ever existed, the SMK Seri Mutiara principal told the media: itt was all about the buttons, actually! Yes, nothing to do with exclusivity of the uniform, and certainly no racism whatsover- the students just have to button up their baju kurungs properly. After all, if the rule wasn’t enforced, imagine the chaos among the student body with all these girls running around outraging the modesty of the baju kurung by not buttoning it up to the top.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the baju kurung only has one button at the base of the neck.

That aside, Lawrence Jayaraj, the uncle and guardian of the hapless student at the centre of this controversy has made it clear that there was no misunderstanding, as the principal claims: Lawrence he told the press that the school was enforcing a ruling that was adopted in 2009 forbidding non-Malay students from donning the baju kurung.

The reason given was that the baju kurung is more revealing that a pinafore, but the ruling was also made for the sake of convenience. Lawrence does not mention whose convenience is meant, but be it far from us to suggest that such ‘convenience’ was for the teachers to easily identify Malay and non-Malay students.

As a public school product, myself, I can attest that the baju kurung can be, at times, a lot more revealing than the pinafore, but I fail to comprehend the logic given behind the ruling. It stands to reason that Malay students are expected to be more modest given their cultural and religious background: if we follow the logic, that means the baju kurung would be extremely inappropriate for them.

All things considered, a simpler solution would be to campaign for the Education Ministry to review the thickness of the material used for baju kurung school uniforms, to ensure the modesty of our young ladies is protected within the school environment.

Instead, the school has decided to implement a ruling that is as nonsensical as it is discriminatory.

Lawrence’s niece has been allowed back in school, with her baju kurung “privileges” restored, and hopefully also for the rest of the non-Malay student population of the school, but it appears nothing is being done to rectify the real situation.

Will the Ministry take a good hard look and determine who is telling the truth, the principal or Lawrence? Will they look at the legality and appropriateness of such a ruling, and take punitive action to ensure that little Napoleons in the civil service never again attempt to infringe on the rights of our students to wear a uniform approved for the entire student body by the Ministry itself?

Or will the Ministry be satisfied that a solution at the local level is enough? The Ministry can ill afford to have the little Napoleons running our public schools like personal fiefdoms, with God-knows-what agendas. The school’s ruling goes against the principle of fostering unity among young Malaysians. Allowing exclusivity of certain apparel for only one race or religion only encourages segregation among school children.

The Ministry cannot stand idle: while the schools have a certain amount of autonomy in their administration, they must follow that which has been set down by the ministry: a directive should be issued to let the school administrators know that this sort of behaviour is unwanted, unwelcome, and wrong, and that those who attempt to use their authority to further some vague agenda will be punished.

Schools must remain a common point for unity, a place not just for learning, but to establish mutual respect between all the peoples. Malaysians must speak up against such policies and bring them up to the attention of the public at large so that petty bureaucrats have no refuge.

It’s high time our public schools conducted themselves better: they can begin by pulling up the weeds that have taken root where we cultivate our greatest flowers.