UMNO was the biggest objector to the formation of the Malayan Union and that was why the ruling Malay party was the focus of a Merdeka school competition, the Malaysian Historical Society Kuala Lumpur (MHSKL) said today, amid a public furore over schoolchildren being made to wave the party flag and sing the party anthem for a visiting cabinet minister recently. 
 
MHSKL chairman Dr Mohd Emil Azril Bahari said the highlighting of Umno did not mean parties such as MIC and MCA were not part of the Malayan independence story.

Many factors led to the start of the struggle for independence, he said, but the raison d’etre for Umno was the rejection of the union of the Malay states and Straits settlements, otherwise known as the Malayan Union, he told The Malaysian Insight.

Emil was commenting on SK Putrajaya Presint 14 (1)’s competition that had the theme “Umno and Independence’”, which had sparked accusations of brainwashing and early indoctrination.

Emil said history showed that MIC and MCA were established for other reasons before joining Umno on the independence agenda.

“MCA and the MIC did not object to the proposal of the British to institute the Malayan Union Constitution.  Bear in mind that MIC was established to fight for India’s independence and MCA was established to cater for the social welfare of the Chinese in Malaya.

“Only later did the forefathers come together and agreed to the British assertion that for self-determination to happen, Malaya must accept all as its citizens by way of jus soli,” he said.

“Jus soli’ is Latin for “right of the soil”, the principle that a person’s nationality is determined by where he is born.

Emil said MHSKL did not choose the theme of the competition and that it was engaged to “provide the parameters” for the event.

He said it was up to the school to decide how the competition’s theme should be expressed.

“It is up to the school or students to come up with ideas on how they would like to present, elaborate or interpret the theme that will ultimately manifest in how the school decorations are done.”

The decorations and performance in the competition were the responsibility of the Federal Territories Ministry, Putrajaya Education Department, Putrajaya Umno division education bureau, and two civil society groups.

A video clip showing Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor visiting a primary school in Precinct 14, Putrajaya recently raised public ire.

In the video, Tengku Adnan is seen touring the school while the pupils sing the Umno song and wave the party flag. He also hands out prizes for a competition called “Umno and Independence”.

The Umno minister was also reported to have invited the teachers to join the ruling party in his speech.

The school authorities have refused to respond to The Malaysian Insight’s request for comment.

DAP and youth activists said the incident showed that schools were being turned into indoctrination camps, while former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said only dictators would make schoolchildren wave party flags.

The school parent-teacher association chairman, Mohamad Sahar Mat Din told Malaysiakini that the PTA was not involved in the organisation of the competition. He said it was undeniable that Umno played a role in Malaysian history, but conceded that “different people would interpret it differently”. – October 5, 2017.