The story of a nation is seen in the lives of its people. The Malaysian Insight speaks to citizens who were born in 1957 and are as old as Malaya’s independence. Their stories are a glimpse of what being Malaysian means to them.

OW ​Yong Kean Guan has spent 30 years in Malaysia’s education system, part of it as a school inspector, and has seen enough of its inner workings to know that he would ​later ​put his own children in private schools.

The Penang boy from George Town had his primary education in Francis Light School and secondary education in George Town Secondary School.

Graduating from Universiti Sains Malaysia with a BSc in education and double majors in mathematics and biology,  he then won a scholarship to do his master’s in Japan in 1989.

“I have to say this was the most memorable incident in my life. I was in Japan for 3½ years under the Monbukagakusho scholarship, which is a scholarship under the Japanese Education Ministry.

“I was lucky because it was not easy for a non-Malay to be granted the scholarship,” he said.

Ow Yong later became a school inspector after stints as a lecturer at various branches of Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB), the Education Ministry’s training institute, and as a trainer at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (Seameo Recsam).

“I decided to come out and see how my trainees performed in schools, so I joined the Malaysian school inspectorate.

“My role was to observe them, write reports and advise them on areas they can improve. It was like doing quality assurance for the management of teachers.”

As a federal school inspectorate, Ow Yong first started as an inspector in Penang. He was then promoted to chief assistant director and was based at the headquarters in Putrajaya for three years before returning to Penang as the state’s head of school inspector for another three years. A stint in Perak followed this period.

“So it was almost close to 10 years that I served as a federal school inspector trying to uphold the quality assurance of Malaysian schools from Perlis to Sabah.

“I have seen quite a fair bit of happenings during my various school inspections – the whole spectrum from the best to the worst with regard to principals’ and teachers’ performance, as well as pupils’ behaviour.

“We wrote reports the way we were trained, to report what we see.

“The school concerned gets the inspection reports besides the relevant district and state education offices. The gist of school inspections goes right up to the education minister for further action if he deems fit,” said Ow Yong.

In comparison to UK school inspectorate, where our system originates, there are significant differences, he said.

UK school inspection reports are uploaded online for all to scrutinise. Inspectors there are truly independent, acting without fear or favour, as their appointments are by the Queen of England. The chief inspector reports to the UK Parliament.

“Compared with the British system, our Malaysian school inspection reports are generally private and confidential under the Official Secrets Act.

“Unfortunately, as school inspectors, we have seen things that are not right but yet, not corrected.”

Ow Yong left government service after 33 years to joi​n a private school as a counsellor for three years, before calling it a day.

A pensioner now and living in Kuala Lumpur, he said his experience in the government sector had an influence on his choice of education for his children, two boys aged 15 and 17.

“I planned my retirement (to be) in KL as I knew my kids would probably end up here for education and work.

“I took them out of government school because I have seen enough of government schools and decided to put them in private school.”

He stressed, however, that his actions did not mean all private schools were better than government ones, but that it was his personal choice for his children.

Born on July 4, Ow Yong said it is easy to remember his birthday as it fell on the same day as Independence Day in the United States, while his birth year 1957 was the year of Malaya’s independence from Britain.

He remembers his childhood growing up in government quarters on Penang island, as his father was a civil servant.

There was no racism back then and everyone mixed around easily.

“When I was a kid, I remember running around and going to each other’s house and sharing meals without any problem.

“However nowadays, because of the environment, we become a lot more conscious, which I think is not a good thing as we are no longer free to interact with one another.”

Ow Yong said there was now a sense of caution in the way people interacted today for fear of offending those of other races.

“You wonder if you have done something wrong, or if you offended anybody. You see segregation among the races. Even with adults, if you let people choose who they want to eat with, they will choose to go with others of their own race,” he added.

His hope for Malaysia is for the country to retain its peacefulness and freedom.

“I hope Malaysia will be a peaceful country, a place where there is freedom and no suspicion towards each other.

“(Our) fears are the same – fear of death, illness and loss of loved one. We have the same human emotion​s, so why distinguish among ourselves?

“If we have so much in common, why emphasise on the differences. I hope Malaysians will treasure our common heritage and we will become more united as a nation.” – September 4, 2017.