UBF wades into ‘Interlok’ row

Literature deemed to have seditious tendencies should be banned, United Borneo Front chief Jeffrey Kitingan says.

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah NGO has called on the government to ban any form of literature that could be deemed seditious from the school curriculum.

United Borneo Front (UBF) chief Jeffrey Kitingan said that literature which could be deemed to have seditious tendencies should be banned from schools and not form part of the humanities courses as it could potentially be in breach of Sections 3 (1) (d) or 3 (1) (e) of the Sedition Act 1948.

Jeffrey, who is a former PKR vice-president, waded into the row over the Malay language novel, Interlok, which has raised the ire of the Indians over certain portions considered derogatory to them.

He said that it was for the public prosecutor to raise the matter in court and not for the Education Department to deliberate.

“Affected communities should raise the matter with the proper authorities,” he said in a press statement.
“We have to ask ourselves what literary or historical value is achieved by the study of a work of literature and whether such study could benefit all races in this country, and not only some sections of the communities.

“A comprehensive education should be relevant to all, but if the education ministry promotes works which single out studies of certain sections of our racial communities, whether based on fact or fiction, the first thing it should ask itself is whether it would have seditious tendencies which would promote feelings of ill-will or hostility among the races in this country, ” Jefffrey said.

Sedition Act
Jeffrey added that if it was “purely a question of literary artistic merit”, then the government may as well include Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s “The Malay Dilemma” as reading material in schools.
“Authors should have the freedom to write what they want, but we can’t hide from the reality that we have in place the Sedition Act 1948 to control what we say and how we say it.”

Jeffrey said that UBF continued to advocate for total compliance with the principles behind the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations to which Malaysia belongs.

“The Commonwealth of Nations has a very clear statement on educational standards which says: ‘We advocate for enhancement of the quality of education and equality of opportunities, for both boys and girls, through improved teaching and management processes.

“‘We engage in brokering for the promotion of respect and understanding and social cohesion in the Commonwealth through education’.

“If the novel does nothing to promote respect, understanding and social cohesion, it is not up to Commonwealth standards for use in our schools,” he said