Tragic Convent unease

PETALING JAYA: THE mounting row between the Catholic owners of the 112-year-old SMK Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN) and the Education Ministry over the controversial appointment of its new principal reeks of misguided defensive mentality.

The spirit of Christmas has been dampened by this dispute, now that a giant vampire squid taking the form of narrow-mindedness and intolerance has been unleashed to steadily suck the life out of an insensitive society until it is a husk.

A dynamic school has now shackled itself to a corpse - the rot of racism that sits snugly on a moribund national education system.

Sunday services yesterday were gripped by harsh refusal by parishioners to detach themselves from a sclerotic mindset that has caused a raging loss of respect and forbearance.

Once again, it has pitted Christians against Muslims.

Earlier this month, policeimposed extra conditions for carolling permits on two churches in Klang while earlier this year, a national uproar erupted over claims that churches were proselytising to Muslims.

Then, allegations of a plot to install a Christian prime minister in the next general election emerged.

So, we can't really blame Christians for thinking such issues are an attempt to grind down their religious rights in the country.

They can't be blamed either for thinking as the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam said in a media statement: "The appointment of theprincipal of CBN is not only contrary to the government policy of maximum consultation but has given the impression that it is the government's strategy to take over the mission schools in total disregard for the status, ethos and special character of mission schools, especially CBN."

Clearly, the controversy surrounding headmistress Datin Seri Zavirah Shaari was triggered by lunatic rigidity on the part of the ministry.

Her appointment contradicted the government's maximum consultation policy.

Simply put, consultation and transparency would have set matters right.

The ministry failed to do so, adding to an irritating litany of incidents in which the ministry had acted without consultation when Zavirah arrived unannounced at the school's doorsteps on Dec 7.

Twelve days on, the ministry has not offered any explanation on Zavirah's appointment, making suspicious motives difficult to cast aside.

The Infant Jesus Sisters order, as the school's owner, was entrusted to ensure the school head abided by its founding ethos even though the operations were now managed by the Federal Government.

The order had never been against the race or religion of the principal posted to mission schools. To be sure, Zavirah was not the school's first Malay principal, or the order's first non-Christian school head.

The disappointment stemmed from omission of all its nominees by the ministry.

Unlike her five predecessors, Zavirah was not included in the list of candidates submitted by the mission school to the ministry.

One cannot blame the owners for wanting principals who know what the mission school is and stands for.

Pakiam, who waded into the row, rationalised the matter in a statement published earlier this week in Catholic paper The Herald.

Pakiam said the appointment was in breach of a previous government policy in the 1970s for "maximum consultation" with Christian mission schools nationwide in a revised report by the Royal Commission on the Teaching Services, West Malaysia.

He said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was the education minister in 1976, had repeated and affirmed the pledge in 1998 in a trip to Kota Kinabalu, to consult mission school authorities over the choice of school heads and teachers.

The archbishop appealed to the Director-General of Education, Datuk Seri Abdul Ghafar Mahmud, to reconsider this decision and "graciously appoint an appropriately qualified principal who is nominated by the school owners".

Personally, it's not about Zavirah's ability to lead the school; it's not about her qualifications; and definitely it's not about her race or religion.

Sadly, to many it is about race and religion. There is talk that the sanctity of Catholicism and mission schools' values built on the faith were in danger of being violated by Muslim school heads.

There is fear what's left of schools that are Catholic in character would erode further. They ask: "Would Catholic symbols and school ethos be compromised?"

Then there are suggestions that if the government goes ahead with Zavirah's appointment, the Catholic Church should push for this top government-aided school to go private.

They pointed to the success of Stella Maris schools, at Jalan Robertson off Jalan Pudu, that come under the aegis of the Yayasan Tan Sri Dominic Vendargon, the former Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur.

The desirable and sociallybeneficial pluralism is lost. Many celebrated events of pluralism happened in my growing years.

A standout was the annual trooping of Christians hand-in-hand with non-Christians - Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists - to the midnight service on the eve of Christmas at the Church of Visitation in Seremban.

In and out of church, we knelt in rows - if only to show the belief that the existence of different types of people within the same society is a good thing. And we, Christians, never hesitated to return this warm gesture at their respective places of worship.

Looking back, I marvel at the young and old who were spectacular in their commitment to social equality and pluralism. It was all about understanding and appreciating each other's religion better.

It was the perfect setting for a tolerant society, respectful of an individual's beliefs. Regrettably, that was in the past.