Che Ghani Che Mohd Nor used to drive 90km a day to send his children to a Chinese school. He lives in Kemaman, Terengganu.

There’s a Malay-medium national school just one kilometre from his home in Air Jernih. However he chose to enrol all four of his children in SJK (C) Lok Khoon, in Bandar Seri Bandi which is 15km away. With his children separately attending the Chinese school’s morning and afternoon sessions, plus their co-curricular activities, there were times when Che Ghani had to make six trips a day.

His eldest son Mohd Syaifullah has just entered first semester at a local public university but before that helped dad at work. Che Ghani is a freelance operator in the tourism industry; they organise river cruises to see fireflies at Sungai Yak Yah, Kemaman.

Mandarin-speaking Syaiful, 19, assisted in conducting the Chinese tour groups, including those from Taiwan. He proved so popular that he’s already been snapped up by Ping Anchorage to work with them after he acquires his professional qualifications as nature guide. Ping is the successful Chinese-owned travel agency which is largest in the East Coast.

Che Ghani, 41, tells me why he opts for the Chinese education system for his offspring. He says he is attracted by the community’s ethos, where even when the kids are at play, they have a book in hand. “That’s healthy. I also like the way of thinking … how the Chinese bring up children to respect their elders,” he adds.

He is happy with how things have turned out and the Chinese companions Syaiful hangs out with. He endorses the Chinese orientation towards productivity and is proud of how his son has never been idle during school holidays. During term breaks, Syaiful would either be doing part-time jobs, taking courses or interning.

‘Ya Allah’ they do say

In Std One, Syaiful had emerged 4th boy but by the second term in Std Two, he had topped the class beating his Chinese classmates, Che Ghani recounts. If Syaiful was an outstanding pupil, the father predicts that his younger son, 10-year-old Nizam would fare even better having already shown a great facility in the Chinese tongue.

Nizam’s brother, 6-year-old Aiman, is in the same school but their sister Nurul Akma Amira, 16, had dropped out of the Chinese stream. For some reason, Che Ghani’s boys had gelled with the Chinese environment but not the girl. I ask if his decision on their children’s schooling receives the support of his wife, who’s also Malay. Che Ghani replies ‘Yes’.

He explains that when he was working in Singapore, he had many Chinese friends. Today he has a Chinese partner in business who speaks fluent Malay. But then a lot of Chinese in the East Coast do. Kampung Chinese in Kelantan, particularly, possess native speaker competency.

Che Ghani and his Malay friends get a kick from telling feel-good stories about their Chinese chums. They are ordinary Malaysians imbued with the goodwill to see the best in other races and to appreciate their positive traits.

They like to say that if you heard the Chinese there talk (but without looking at his face), you’d mistake the voice as belonging to a Malay. One anecdote went about how a group of Malays in conversation had quoted some verses from the Quran when the Chinese guy piped up to correct the Malay individual: the verse should rightly be recited as such and such.

This is the story. Growing up, his was the only Chinese family in the kampung and when his Malay pals ‘mengaji’ (learned the Quran) he had sat outside on the veranda waiting for them to finish religious class. Through attentive listening, he had imbibed the Quranic recitations too. In fact, some Chinese in Kelantan and Terengganu exclaim ‘Ya Allah’ and ‘Mashallah’ in the same everyday intonation as their Muslim friends.

Living under one roof

I tease Syaiful that his father desires him to marry a Chinese girl, and ask what he thinks of the idea. The lad says he would wait for ‘jodoh’ or whatever will be, will be of his future romantic match. At the risk of embarrassing the modest young man, I shall employ my writer’s imagination to project a possible scenario.

In my opinion, Syaiful who is responsible, resourceful, industrious and well-spoken would make a desirable son-in-law. Pity I don’t have any daughter to betroth to him. As for the putative Chinese girl, she would be landing herself a doting father-in-law who’s already blessed the relationship and brothers-in-law conversant in Chinese and exposed to Chinese culture.

In Malaysia, the nature of things is such that she is expected to convert to Islam – something she might do for love or because she genuinely believes. Thus the ummah will gain a welcome addition through gentle persuasion rather than coercion.

On the other hand, the actions and pronouncements of some state religious leaders, for instance the muftis of Perak and Sabah, have antagonised the adherents of other faiths, as have the insensitive and intolerant Little Napoleons who have turned ‘Other’ Malaysians off Islam.

My ex-boyfriend is a Kelantanese Malay and the greetings ‘Asalamualaikum’ and ‘Walaikumsalam’ used to ring often in his family home in Kota Bharu. To wish ‘salam’ is a beautiful impulse – peace be with you.

Isn’t salam so much like the Jewish ‘shalom’, and ‘amin’ an echo of the Christian ‘amen’? Yet in Malaysia, we have race and religion supremacists who advocate divisiveness where there exists commonality.

Opening lines of communication

Language is what can draw us together. I speak proficiently enough so that when I’m in Kelantan or Terengganu, I’m able to converse wholly in Malay throughout my stay. I love the lilting cadences of the East Coast dialect. When one loves a language, how can one hate the people to whom that language belongs?

Better yet if our various languages – Malay, Chinese, Tamil and others – could be shared as one people so that we speak Bangsa Malaysia. The Swiss, for example, are famously multilingual. I’d thought our national language policy is about uniting Malaysians. Isn’t Malay already the lingua franca when a Chinese meets up with an Indian?

Nonetheless if Malay-speaking Christian Malaysians understand their God to be Allah, it’s a bureaucratic no-no. Non-Muslims are not allowed to use the word ‘Allah’ else they will “confuse” Muslims.

I don’t care to quibble over the ‘Allah’ versus ‘God-Lord’ exegesis since I’m neither Muslim nor Christian. I do take issue though with the communitarian petty-mindedness which decrees that one religion alone here has special rights-cum-privileges to professions of faith in the Almighty.

Our country, so unique among the community of nations, boggles the mind by copyrighting ‘Allah’.

Our country equally confounds the world by refusing to sanction Malays being anything other than Muslim, and making this proscription law. It is an unjust law that deprives Malays of their universal human right to faith freedom. If anyone’s at all “confused”, it is Malaysian authorities who insist on playing God.