Sept 11, 2000 

EYE SPY 
Dina Zaman

The factory 

My youngest sister's honeymoon with a matriculation college somewhere in this country lasted a week. Truly it was a tale that angered the family, but could be common among young Malay students at post-SPM residential schools.

It was a shock and rude introduction to "asrama" life, after being in a multi-racial day school. My parents wanted her to pursue her Science matriculation courses at this college, as they believed it would toughen her up and expose her to lifestyles other than urban teenage life.

There were other students from KL, but fate chose her. It was a good thing the school made it mandatory for the girls to wear the mini-telekung, for not only did Islam require it of the female followers, but also had they seen my sister's streaked flaming purple hair, life would have been worse for her.

It began with principal and wardens ridiculing her application for a weekend away, "... I would like to attend my sister's wedding..." in public, at assembly. The students were told that they could only go home only if one of their parents died. This was of course a small issue and should not have even been brought out here, but why was she singled out when others had applied for weekend leave too?

One night, a female warden came into the room my sister shared with three other girls, and woke her up. My sister had committed blasphemy for sleeping in a tee-shirt and her Tweety Bird shorts. "REAL Muslim girls don't wear heathen clothes to bed," she intoned.

In Islam, as long as a woman does not fully expose herself to her female friends, a little bit of flesh in a contained room filled with women, would hardly cause ripples in hell. Besides, the kid was fully covered - she had a blanket over her. 

None of the other rooms were searched or entered by any warden that night. Only my sister's was. And only my sister was stripped and made to wear "proper" bedclothes.

On her third day at this place, a senior asked where she was from. Kid sister replied, "KL, kak." She was beaten up and when she came home for my wedding reception, she brought home the bruises. I believe there are more stories, but she did not bring them up, because remembering them hurt her.

Non-Malay students and teachers were ridiculed and verbally abused at assemblies, as they were "kafir". Because they were not the premier race, they were condemned to hell and that Malaysia has no place for them. My sister saw a young non-Malay boy weep. "He had no choice, because his family is poor, so he has to stay there," my sister recounted.

Regimented life

All the students at this college are Science students and preparing for a future in medicine. In addition to the four core Science subjects, there are another six, none related to medicine or a science related major. Speaking English is not encouraged, though most of the students are bound for degrees overseas.

They are not encouraged to leave the place for visits home and frequent or long visits by parents and friends are frowned upon. Students also had to buy uniforms and girls are not allowed to wear printed or flowered baju kurungs; instead they had to wear plain kurungs, which they are only informed later. 

Many of the female students came from less well off families, and as my sister noted, they all had brought hand-me-downs to wear. Upon arriving at the college on the first day, all the young women were told of the uniform regulation. 

My sister and her roommates fretted over the extra expense their families would have to fork out. We're talking shoes, clothes - clothes for classes, sports and leisure - there are different clothes for different activities. For a government college, it's pretty expensive. 

These students are at the threshold of their lives, their futures. They all have completed their secondary schooling and are now entering a new phase of their lives as students and productive citizens. Yet they are treated as though they cannot think for themselves. 

How is a young adult to learn and grow in such a restricted and sheltered environment? Is it any wonder, when they go overseas, many Malaysian students tend to stay in packs, instead of exploring new worlds? Maybe this is the true intention of this institution: to nurture sheep.

Everyone gets ragged at university but whatever else had been occurring to my sister and the "selected" others cannot be constituted as clean harmless fun. Suppose a senior male student had made advances at young naïve female students, would this be considered as part and parcel of university life? There's a fine line between ragging and plain bullying.

My old friend, who had taught, and became a de facto warden at one of these colleges a year ago, told me that these incidents were common. "You can't really blame the kids for beating up any kid. In such an environment, they become hostile, frustrated ... a gentle kid may just snap and lash out at a junior. It could be the girl who hit your sister was either genuinely a sadistic bully or that she's trying to cope, but not very well." 

She then told me how once the college refused to allow a student to seek treatment at the nearby government hospital as they thought it would be a waste of time and it was "only a fever". The student had meningitis.

Are bullying, fascism, bigotry and social myopia the new values that educationists want to impart to our young then, as long as they (the students) do well academically and are obedient and do not question authority? 

Hostile behaviour

With ethnocentrism ingrained in these impressionable youths, how will they work and cooperate with colleagues from other races, countries and backgrounds? I do not deny that we must be proud of our culture, religion, traditional values and racial make-up, but to condone hostile behaviour to a person of a different colour or beliefs is wrong. The world is not made up of one race or religion. Even during the Prophet Mohammad SAW's time, Muslims lived side by side, in tolerance, with the Jews. 

The religious doctrines expostulated at the college have nothing to do with Islam. To say such backwardness is cultural would also be insulting to the Malays. But the truth hurts: it is the Malays at this school who are giving the Malays as a whole and the religion bad press. 

We, the relatives and siblings of so-called "victims" talked of taking action. We did not, foolish us, because our cousins, sisters, brothers didn't want added emotional stress and psychological grief. To bring this up with the Ministry would mean having to deal with red tape, bureaucrats more keen to hear the sound of their own voices, and having to go through the ordeal all over again, as the "victims" would be relentlessly questioned. In the end, as always is the case, it is the college's word against the students.

What we do know is that other matriculation colleges do not engage in such harassment. Maybe there is, but we have not heard of any. It is only with this particular one. The straw that broke our parents' back was the fact English was taught only one hour per week. My parents did not want her English language proficiency hampered, and really, the other classes have no bearing on pre-medical students. 

My sister told the principal she was offered a very glamorous scholarship (which existed only in the realms of her imagination) to ... Singapore. She is now pursuing sixth form and plans to enter UM or UKM. She is lucky. She has and can make choices. 

My other sister and I had attended Malay residential schools before. It was tough, but after hearing the youngest's tale, we thought to ourselves that we had been treated well. We weren't popular or smart, but the two of us had not been beaten up, or stripped off our pyjamas because we were from "the city". 

No peachy ride

Life in a residential school in Malaysia is not like boarding school in England or the States; it's no peachy ride, for sure. But living and studying there have made us, the older sisters, more independent, wiser and stronger. I've heard of brutality in boys' residential schools but I've never heard of anything like that happening to a girl. What our kid sis had to go through was obscene.

Her former classmates will probably survive their ordeal at the college. Maybe a small number will suffer, but in the end come out none the worse for wear. They may end up becoming prominent citizens. 

Yet for the very few, knowing his or her race, religion and culture are not tolerated by his or her fellow citizens or even as simple as being different from his or her own kind, may become bigots too, and view life and their neighbours with skewed eyes.

DINA ZAMAN begins her new monthly column Eye Spy with malaysiakini today. It will have nothing to do with dating, marriage and being single.