We have contacted our students in Indonesia to ask them if they were still comfortable there. Was there any social pressure due to nationalism or latent bias within the University walls. The answer was no more than usual.
It seems that there are certain newspapers in Indonesia like the Tempo that keep publishing negative views on Malaysia. They try to stoke fires perhaps to sensationalize or politicize the issue. It may trickle down to some of the citizens but no evidence of that yet to our students. The current views of our politicians are distorted and viewed as arrogant, no one is holding the olive branch on both sides of the issue.
Funnily most of our Indian and Chinese students are automatically presumed to be from India or China but our students, full of the 1 Malaysia spirit, correct them. Our most powerful strength as a country is our unity. To our students the divisions of Malay, Chinese or Indian seem to dissipate when they are there [apparently at all overseas universities]. There they are just Malaysian and damned proud of it!
Most Indonesians tell our students that issues between them and Malaysia stop at the doors of our government and not its people. So overall things are still going well for our students in Indonesia. But we will always keep tabs on them and wish them well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment