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Malaysia says secular education 'vital to nation's future'
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said that secular education forms a significant part of the school curriculum and is vital for the country's future. While maintaining that having secular education was important to make Malaysia more competitive, he was quick to add that the curriculum also provided Islamic teachings for Muslim pupils. That's the most important part, of course... Speaking at an interview with CNBC TV on Thursday, he said that secular education was very significant. 'We have a tough time trying to convince people that we must do this for the sake of the future... to be more competitive. We have to, we cannot just ignore,' he said. Oh, why not? If your citizens are going to be good for nothing more than cannon fodder, why would they have to know how to add and subtract? Doesn't Malaysia have a Chinese minority to do that? So all real Malays need is the Koran, and lots of it. When asked if secular education should form the majority of the school curricula in Malaysia, Abdullah said the Muslims did not like the idea of anything that was secular. 'I am telling you that it is not secular. It is not secular in the sense that in our schools we do provide teaching of the Quran and Hadith and other subjects,' he said. "More religion, by Gawd! That's what we need! The world's too damned secular." According to the deputy premier, there had been a lot of arguments that Malaysia's education system was not Islamic enough. 'My reply and Prime Minister Mahathir's reply has been... it is not an Islamic system and if it is an Islamic system, non-Muslims will never go to school,' he said. "Not that we need them, mind you. Except for when we have to add and subtract thing..." 'We cannot make everything compulsory,' he said. "No matter how much we'd like to..." Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-02 |
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