Just when we thought that our national day celebration was the perfect occasion to showcase our unique diversity to the world and foster unity in our country - as often painstakingly reminded by our wise Rulers; lo and behold, there comes yet another blow to our hopes and aspirations!
The recent controversy over the purported ban on the wearing of traditional attire in a school event here in this country has certainly left many people tied up in knots - yet, sadly, the perpetrators seem not in a hurry to say “sorry”!
According to a local news report several students were allegedly disciplined for wearing the Indian traditional dress “saree” for a national day (unity) event in a school in Kajang, Selangor recently.
However, according to an education ministry source, the matter was being investigated and the school involved has taken proactive steps by discussing it with parents and students.
It added that improvements to the organization of planned activities have been made by the school and the matter has been resolved. However, there were no details provided by the school on the so-called "improvements"!
In spite of that, a student claimed that those wearing sarees were instructed to report their names to the discipline teacher to be recorded in their Student Discipline System (Sistem Sahsiah Diri Murid or SSDM)!
Apparently, some Indian students were also previously told to remove their religious “holy thread” and those who wanted to wear it had to get permission from the school.
But, surely there had to be more to this whole sorry episode, right? Well, thanks to some impressive investigative journalism by another news website what actually transpired has been duly exposed.
Here it is…
Apparently, it had started out controversially enough that the students via a text message were reminded by the school authorities to don traditional dresses according to their own ethnicity.
But this enraged parents who felt that banning children from wearing the traditional dresses of other ethnic groups in the country smacked of racism! After all, wasn't the event meant to foster unity in conjunction with the recent National Day celebrations?
But what exactly had triggered it? Or as is common in Malaysia - was there an underlying religious or racial twist to it? Perhaps, the authorities were afraid some students might choose to wear sarees and end up looking like sexy Bollywood actresses.
Then, when pressed to give an explanation for their mind-boggling instruction, the school authorities clarified that it was in sync with the school's theme for the year; but then, can a school's theme override the national theme?
Anyway, after much-impassioned pleading by the parents, the school finally agreed that the students may wear whatever traditional attire they chose. Ahh! So all's well that ends well, right?
Well, not quite.
For some peculiar reasons apparently, those students who wanted to wear saree had to write a special report; but on what exactly? The origin of saree! Truly mind-blowing!
Anyway, it was mentioned in the same news report that previously the school had also called out non-Muslim students for wearing religious necklaces and strings.
In fact apparently a teacher had once asked a Christian student why she was wearing a cross; when ironically the school itself was a convent!
Then, earlier in the year another school had also reportedly stirred up a controversy when they barred saree from being worn by students for their Teachers' Day function.
Apparently, the reason given was that it was due to the “hot weather” back then. Sounds very considerate indeed. But wait, strangely the same school had also required students who opted to wear cheongsam to wear leggings and slacks underneath!
Actually, we can bet our last ringgit (while it still has some value!) that this won't be the last time we hear of such ridiculous happenings; regardless of whether it's in a school, police station, government department, or even the local zoo!
As such, as crazy as it might sound, maybe the country should have a “standard”, national dress code/guidelines after all - applicable to visitors at all official government events and government departments.
They may also add the caveat that it comes with some restrictions, such as - no sleeveless, no showing too much of the midriff (especially the controversial belly button), no slits above the knee, nothing tight-fitting, nothing transparent, etc!
Furthermore, since PM Anwar seems to be busy fighting “bushfire” all the time - both inside and outside the parliament - shouldn't the National Unity minister intervene to offer appropriate advice and clarifications on such a sensitive issue?
There is a saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Given the serious nature of the reported incident, clearly, it cannot fall under the purview of MoE solely, can it? After all, it touches on the important issue of national unity.
This brings us to the final question - is the National Unity minister even aware of this “unity-threatening” incident?
JK Joseph is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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