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DJians please read this
By Ern Sheong | January 12, 2010
Two years ago in 2008 there was this issue that came up among DJ alumni bloggers regarding woes allegedly happening in DJ and blame was placed on the new Pengetua. Remember that issue?
Today I went to SMKDJ to pay some teachers a visit. Many of the teachers from my time are not around anymore as they have already retired, some I met are due to retire within the year or two. It’s a joy to see all the familiar faces from the good ‘ol days. Everyone said I slimmed down a lot already, haha!
Anyways, I had a chat with Puan Mary Ann (she is now the Penolong Kanan HEM, btw) and she told me that she investigated (personally looked into to get the truth on the inside) most if not all of the issues, and she took the liberty and time to expound to me one by one how the misunderstandings had occurred.
Clearly, we students on the outside do not have the full version of the story. She touched on the Prefect issue, as well as the Christian Fellowship issue, and explained that there is no grounds that the Datin is being racist at all in her leadership, as some have claimed. There was a time when all school clubs and societies were being asked to register themselves with the Ministry or something and thus the CF had to do the same, which probably caused some to think that the CF is being threatened. The DJ CF has never been shut down, and the FELDA students who were taken in as Prefects were formerly Prefects of their former school, and hence they were given the option to continue on as Prefects in DJ (they take it or they leave it) but they were placed under the same scrutiny and training that was demanded of a DJ Prefect. Moreover, there is always a need for a multi-racial Prefectorial Board to reflect the composition of the school population. And of course, with DJ being a school with heavy Chinese student presence, it is only right that the school encourages Prefects of other races to join and be empowered to take ownership of the school together as a multiracial community of students. Hence the racist claims are dismissed.
As for the Pengetua, all the teachers I met affirmed that Datin Norizan is a very responsible lady who is doing her job well and to her best ability. Puan Mary Ann said that the Pengetua has been very proactive in ensuring a Board of School Administrators that is well-balanced among the races, and Puan Mary Ann’s appointment as Penolong Kanan HEM is itself a testimony of this. A check on SMKDJ’s website today showed that in a Board of 9 school administrators, 5 are Chinese teachers and 4 are Malay teachers. Once again, the racist claims are dismissed.
After hearing Puan Mary Ann I am fully convinced that all the hype raised by some DJ bloggers including myself were unfounded. Taking Puan Soo’s advice, I have thus removed my own post written in 2008 on the matter, as the views presented during that time are not in tandem with the truth.
I would like to exhort all DJians who have posts on the same matter to remove those posts from the face of the Internet permanently. Apparently we have all forgotten about the power of the internet and of blogs, and how such posts may influence the decisions of parents who may want to send their kids to DJ. SMKDJ has always been a school of excellence, so do your part by deleting those posts right now. Leaving these posts on the internet only damages the school’s reputation and does not do a single thing to help the SMKDJ of present day.
Please follow me and do the same by deleting those posts. The school would appreciate it very much. I would like to apologize to all teachers for posting something regarding someone else’s claim without doing any investigation of the matter, and for the fact that I have posted something about which all the basis for that post was pure hearsay from secondary and tertiary sources.
Topics: SMKDJ | 1 Comment »
January 13th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Hey Ern Sheong,
2. If you were to have read your blog post before you deleted it, you would’ve noticed that Puan Koh made a very long comment on it, when the issue was still hot. You did not publicise her comment, and therefore no one knew about it.
3. If you were to reread what both Kevin and I wrote, the links of which I include here for your convenience,
http://hamletshero.blogspot.com/2008/03/of-distracting-giant-squid-and.html
http://andrewlza.blogdrive.com/archive/360.html
you would see that we were being very rational in what we were pursuing. By no means were we 100% sure of the issue; we allowed room for debate. People were definitely welcome to write in to express their support or disagreement to the not-yet-substantiated assertion that Datin’s policies were racist. We were not sure. All we wanted to do was to get a better understanding of the situation. The school was absolutely welcome to straighten things out — in fact, Puan Koh wrote in as the voice of the school. This turned out to be a mistake because she posted on your blog — I think you might have been too busy to realise — and did not contribute to the online discourse.
4. The discussions came to the fore in March to April 2008. Now if we had known about the school’s views, maybe the situation could’ve been cooled down then. In October 2009, when I happened to stumble upon your blog post and glance upon what Puan Koh wrote, and more than 1.5 years after the discussions, I reposed the comment on my blog because I wanted to incorporate it into the discussion. It is the last comment on the page. By then, the issue had died down already; it was best to let sleeping dogs lie.
5. The point of the matter is that
a) People were unhappy about school policy, and the internet was the best avenue to express their feelings. You will definitely argue that you could’ve gone through “more appropriate mediums” i.e. the PTA, etc, but we all know that i) most parents don’t give a shit about politics ii) the PTA would not care iii) not many students have the maturity and balls to confront the Pengetua herself over the allegations. Thus they expressed themselves over the internet — something, I might add, which is not inherently wrong.
b) This was a learning experience. Everyone learnt to deal with an unhappy situation in school by firstly speaking out, and secondly the SMKDJ administration was being responsive to these concerns by arguing its case in the form of Puan Koh. The ideal situation would’ve been if people had all read Puan Koh’s defense of the Pengetua, and went away satisfied. This would’ve showcased the political maturity of both sides on the issue.
c) The fact that students, parents, and the administration understood the importance of engagement and resolving problems through whatever medium underscores the political sophistication of all parties. This is much much much better — I cannot stress this enough — than sweeping the issues under the carpet and acting like nothing happened and that all is hunky-dory, which is exactly what our nation does: Janganlah sebarkan berita buruk tentang Malaysia, nanti jatuhlah muka air negara kita di peringkat antarabangsa. No one was “flaming the Pengetua” as you imply — this is a by-product of unresolved concerns.
Do you see the parallels? The motive for the blog posts was to solve problems; the by-product of it was the “damage to DJ’s reputation;” and the ideal resolution for it would’ve been for both sides to argue their cases and come to a conclusion. The motive for airing scandals like the PKFZ and Teoh Beng Hock and church bombings through the media was to solve problems; the by-product of such news is the damage to Malaysia’s reputation, and the ideal resolution would be for the government not to fuck up any more. And until that happens the press has a right and a responsibility to hound the government, to demand accountability and good governance. In both cases, the worst possible resolution is to put a gag on the media from reporting such concerns — because then the powers-that-be can deny that such concerns exist, whether these concerns are legitimate or not. In the court of public opinion, we the people will decide which issues the press brings up are valid, and which ones are not. In DJ’s case, the concerns were definitely shared by many many people — look at how many comments our posts garnered. Without the internet, how will these concerns be known, and subsequently either 1) been shown to be false or 2) addressed? And if these concerns were left unanswered, can you imagine what kind of rumours will be spread in the long run?
6. Based on all these points, I do not agree with your suggestion that our blog posts be removed. I cannot speak for other bloggers, but on the contrary, I will forever keep mine to show that DJians are 1) politically mature to handle debate and 2) very concerned about the wellbeing of their fellow juniors. This is the point of the whole thing, not some stupid excuse like damaging DJ’s reputation. I see this is a testament to the importance of debate: of openness, dialogue, and interaction in problem solving. I thus strongly urge you to repost your blog post.
Andrew