WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MERDEKA: Issues of Educational and Women's Development in the Malay/Muslim Community Nur Hikmah Md Ali (NUS)
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WHAT IT MEANS TO
BE MERDEKA:
Issues of Educational and Women’s Development in the
Malay/Muslim Community
Nur Hikmah Md Ali (NUS)
THE MEANING OF MERDEKA • Underlying issue of what constitutes development in society – development for whom? • “Pada tahun-tahun 50-an, sasterawan berkomited menentang penjajahan, menggalakkan manusia supaya ingin merdeka, kerana dengan menghapuskan penjajahan, kita mengharapkan manusia akan lebih maju, tidak tertindas, hidup lahirnya dan tidak tertekan kebebasan berfikirnya. Jadi komitmen setakat di situ sahaja. Selepas itu komitmen itu meningkat sedikit, komited kepada perubahan-perubahan sosial, menentang penindasan ataupun ketidakadilan dalam masyarakat. Lahirlah sastera yang dikatakan kritikan sosial, mengkritik pihak yang tidak adil…. Komited kepada idea hendak menegakkan keadilan, kebebasan dan menghapuskan kezaliman penjajahan.” – Kassim Ahmad (1997) on the involvement of ASAS’50 in Singapore
THE MEANING OF MERDEKA (CONT.) • Translation: “In the 1950s, writers were committed to resist colonialism, and encouraging people to desire independence [or merdeka], because by eliminating colonialism, it was hoped that humanity could advance, would no longer be oppressed, that throughout their lives their thought would never be unencumbered. Our commitment was to that only. Afterwards those commitments expanded, to include social change as well as resisting oppression and injustice in society. Thus, were born literary works that can be described as social critiques, criticising unjust parties… committed to the idea of upholding justice, freedom and elimination of colonial cruelty.”
ISSUES IN EDUCATION • Not enough to acknowledge colonialism without acknowledging its psychological and sociohistorical impacts, lasting long after colonialism • Problem of educationism – a trend of thinking that denies the need or the value of recognising other socio-economic/socio-historical problems of the community, even as problems which might impede education - assumes all problems are “educational” and “education” is the prescribed panacea (Shaharuddin Maaruf, 1996)
ISSUES IN EDUCATION • We cannot understand educational underdevelopment without understanding poverty and inequality, how it is reproduced and sustained • It is not enough to offer piecemeal solutions, we need to look at structural gaps and issues when addressing educational inequality • If our meritocratic systems provide equality of opportunity for all, surely it is the children who are lazy or the parents who are not doing enough or don’t care • “These perspectives are not wrong per se, but they are insufficiently precise…. The logic goes that if our systems are fair, then surely, they fail because parents are not doing what they should be doing. To understand why kids from low- income households do poorly in school… we must also step back and situate their lives in the broader social context [which includes] trying to understand what material conditions are like for parents, what school experiences are like for kids, and finally and least often done, what higher-income families are doing for their kids. It is when we do all this we can have a more complete and accurate understanding of how kids from low-income families, within this system, are compelled to play a game they cannot win because someone else is setting the rules.” – Teo You Yenn (2018: 117)
WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT IN
MALAY/MUSLIM COMMUNITY
• Is gender a priority in our development as a community?
• Glaring lack of women’s activism in the Malay/Muslim community; most
women’s groups tend to focus on the family and welfare matters
• “The lack of priority placed on addressing gender issues in Singapore is
not unique to the Muslim community. Campaigning for gender equality
remains a struggle for women’s groups here. However, the problem is
more acute within the Muslim community… in large part this is
because there is far less organized activism and awareness on gender
issues within the Muslim community. …Without awareness about
gender and without proper representation, women continue to remain
silent on matters which directly affect them.” – Suzaina Kadir (2005),
When Gender Is Not a Priority’
• Women need effective representationISSUES OF DEVELOPMENT • Questioning development requires an insight into one’s values – Development for whom? • Denis Goulet (1968: 301) : “However it be defined, development is a normative experience: it involves, for those who propose it as for those to whom it is proposed, central value choices about the meaning of life. Development is always experienced as good or bad, usually as both, but never as neutral.” • To help individuals live “fully human lives” or “the good life” and accelerates the advent of the “good society” (Goulet 1968: 308) • Building for the future requires a critical reflection on our community’s values – what kind of society do we envision to be
UNDERSTANDING OUR PAST,
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE (1)
• To uphold justice and freedom for all (Merdeka), we need to
look at structural issues, and not just piecemeal solutions
• There is also a need to critically evaluate our values and
attitudes towards development and social justice
• There needs to be a sustained critical effort at critiquing
institutions, values and attitudes, and structures
• Building the future as an active endeavor at upholding justice in
society
Image credit: Kawah BukuARE WE TRULY MERDEKA? “... the progress of any community depends also on its humanism, or in other words on its conception of the human personality and its capacity for self-determinism. There must be respect for the human will to take charge of his life and existential conditions.” – Shaharuddin Maaruf (Feb 1996) in The Deeper Roots of Educational Problems. Published by AMP Karyawan.
REFERENCES
• Alatas, H. (1974). Biarkan buta: sekitar perbahasan ilmiah mengenai derma cornea-mata dengan Majlis Ugama Islam, Singapura, 10
Ogos-7 September 1973. Pustaka Nasional.
• Alatas. S. H. (1971) Thomas Stamford Raffles, 1781–1826: Schemer or Reformer? Singapore: Angus and Robertson
• Alfian Sa’at, Faris Joraimi, Sai Siew Min. “Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History.” Singapore: Ethos Books.
• Goulet, D. A. (1968). Development for what?. Comparative Political Studies, 1(2), 295-312.
• Kassim Ahmad. (2020). An Autobiography of a Rebel. SIRD.
• Rahim, L. Z. (1998). The Singapore dilemma: The political and educational marginality of the Malay community. Oxford
University Press, USA.
• Shaharuddin Maaruf (Feb 1996). The Deeper Roots of Educational Problems. Karyawan: Singapore
• Suzaina Kadir. (2005) When Gender is not a Priority: Muslim Women in Singapore and the Challenges of Religious
Fundamentalism. In Norani, O., & SIS Forum (Malaysia) Berhad. (2005). Muslim women and the challenge of Islamic extremism.
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Sisters in Islam.
• Teo, Y. Y. (2018). This is what inequality looks like. Singapore: Ethos BooksYou can also read
