Jufri Salim
13 April 2016 · Singapore ·
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About two weeks ago, I emailed to the Ministry of Education, with the support of concerned parents, to address the issue of propagation through the workbook 'LKY: Follow the Rainbow, Go Ride It' and the Ministry's automated reply was:
"We are looking into your enquiry/feedback and will endeavour to respond to you within 3 working days. We seek your understanding and patience should our reply take slightly longer due to unusually high email volume."
It has been 12 days since I emailed to MOE and its heads and yet no reply. Below is the letter I sent to the Ministry:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Last week on Wednesday 23rd March 2016, news about 200,000 copies of the workbook entitled ‘LKY: Follow The Rainbow, Go Ride It’ published by Straits Times Press, developed by the Straits Times School team and sponsored by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd and SP Services. These were reported in major local news outlets to be soon to be made available to schools and targeted to youths aged 13-18 years old.
We have also had regular episodes and clips shown on national free-to-air TV, and frequent mentions in our Social Studies and History textbooks about the greatness of the PAP led by Mr Lee Kuan Yew. These textbooks downplay the positive roles of of Mr Lee's major political opponents such as Barisan Sosialis' leader Lim Chin Siong, former MP Chia Thye Poh and J.B Jeyaratnem, and even in many reports, the mighty efforts by some of his own party members and ministers such as Dr Goh Keng Swee and Dr Toh Chin Chye.
This is not the first time that books for our young were used to spread this particular political message. The first book called ‘What’s Inside The Little Red Box’, also published by Straits Times, was targeted at children as young as three to seven years old.
This second book was launched at Bendemeer Secondary School and Miss Josephine Teo (Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Transportation) was the guest-of-honour.
We understand that MOE firmly ruled that institutions and schools are not to be politicised and should never be partisan in response to SDP request to hold talks in schools. In this case, we can see clearly that there there were violations of this principle by the presentation of a partisan view of history which appear to have been made and approved under MOE’s regulation.
First of all, having a PAP member to speak in school about issues from a particular political viewpoint gives the public the impression that schools are being politicised in one direction. If that isn’t enough, these workbooks seem to primarily serve the objective of propagating PAP’s interest in ensuring only one view of history is fixed in the minds of our children. This is surely counter to the basic principles of education in a democratic society.
The books, as reported by the media, mostly contain historical photos, interviews and newspaper articles extracted from the PAP government controlled media . As such, the entire idea of having these books widely circulated in schools and in the hands of our youths will give our youths a one-sided view of the ‘great values’ of the late Mr Lee: Courage, Idealism, Resilience and Tenacity.
We do agree to a certain extent that Mr Lee did his part and was involved actively in the growth of Singapore and its success but the overplaying of his contribution at the expense of others makes our beautiful nation somehow more North Korea than a democratic southeast Asian nation. This was alluded to by Professor Lee Wei Ling herself in a widely circulated facebook post.
The author of the children's books, Miss Debra Ann Francisco, a former teacher and a journalist at Straits Times, believes that our teenagers have much to learn from Mr Lee, to get students to dream big and set realistic goals. This seems to imply that someone with talent and potential needs to join PAP to become a leader of the nation. This cannot be the only way because we have witnessed the injustices committed towards many opposition leaders who opposed Mr Lee and the regime for the sake of a fairer Singapore.
I think many Singaporeans will also feel that it is timely for us to move on towards progress for a better Singapore and to tackle everyday issues instead of dwelling on the past while our fellow Singaporeans are struggling to make ends meet.
These youths are minors and we strongly feel that instead of corrupting their minds for partisan political interests, we should be providing them with the best in education, encourage them to speak up and think out of the box. This kind of critical thinking can do wonders for them and for our society.
Instead of trying too hard to make our children remember Mr Lee in this highly politicized fashion, isn’t it better for our schools and educators to focus civics and moral education, to build good character in the students while doing well in their examination subjects.
We are collectively writing to the relevant ministry to stop the propaganda to leave our children be. They need to have more time to focus on other important things in life rather than reliving the past glories of a man who cannot possibly have done it alone without a strong and reliable team of ministers, leaders, NGOs, unions, civil servants and Singaporeans in general.Yes, and even a strong opposition in the early years which forced Mr Lee and his team to take steps for the good of the general public in order to win their support.
We as parents do not wish to allow our children to go through these brainwashing exercises in school and we urge the ministry, its schools and teachers to be truly non-partisan and to give our children the freedom to find out about differing views of Singapore's history and politics so that they can make up their own minds.
Let our youths decide.
Yours Faithfully,
Jufri Salim
With the support of Surayah Akbar, Bryan Lim Boon Heng, Damanhuri Bin Abas, Mansura Sajahan and Sidek Mallek.
