Playing Chess

When I was in primary school I learnt the game of chess. I enjoyed playing the game. My classmates and I would make up the rules when we came to points where we could not agree on what was to be done. We had fun! It never became a serious thing for me. I still however play it recreationally – my record on “Yahoo Games” is a miserable average of two losses to one win.

Over the years as I grew up, I’d see that chess was a game that was played by generals, spies, politicians… anybody in a leaders position. The TV portrayed the game as a thinking man’s game. The players used it as tool to measure the competence of the opponent. Usually the smarter man won – the one who was able to read the opponent better.

While I remember playing the wonderful game in school, I also remember the not so wonderful aspects of what Malaysian government schools had to offer in the teaching department. But before I go on to say what I am about to, I must add that I am NOT generalising my critique on teachers because I do remember having the honour of being thought by gems as well.  

When I was in school we were made to memorise all the patriotic songs, we sang them at every assembly, which usually happened on Mondays. We also professed the “Rukun Negara”. We were thought to respect others, to understand the races that made up this great country. We would dress up in the traditional garments of our classmates when we collectively celebrated festive occasions.

One day I noticed that some pieces of the chess set that was kept in the school resource center were broken. I never realised before that all the “King” pieces were broken. We had 3 sets in school and all the “kings” had the crosses on the crowns snapped off. 

It was about this time that I also noticed that some of the students in school being referred to as “Kafir” which translates to “heathen”.

I noticed too that the traditional costumes that we were made to wear for special occasions were always the “Baju Melayu”.

Eventually I also understood why some teachers always referred to Christmas as X’mas. I had thought that Christmas was a long word, perhaps they had a problem spelling it so they abbreviated it. I was wrong. Articulating “Christ” in Christmas must have made them feel like they were saying a bad word. Perhaps it was the same for tiny crosses on the little chess pieces. Maybe they were afraid if they looked at it long enough, some form of exorcism would happen to dispel the demon of bigotry. 

This trend of discovery continues till this day. In fact it’s  become more blatant. 

I’m sure this flawed system was well in place before I began school and I know for a fact that it is worse now. The students that were in school with me have since left, having graduated from years of bigot infested teachings and now know no better.

These students have themselves become teachers. They have retained what was well thought to them and have let less “important” learnings like the English language decay.  Each batch of educators that come into the market amplifies this phenomenon.

Today we have teachers that can hardly speak English but have no problems referring to Indian students with the derogatory – Kelling!

This is a brief look at what most of our teachers are made of. This problem becomes amplified when you see that our new political leaders also went to these same schools. These politicians are now taking up offices in youth wings of parties.   

Change needs to happen now. What we experience today is the fruit of decades of either cleverly planned diluted ethnic engineering or utter callous oversight by the government. Either which way enough is enough!

I want to say this again, while my last few years in school were not the best, I did have a few teachers that I will remember for life. All of them spoke perfect English, they thought me chess and were all heathens.