news feature
At first glance, Maahad Darul Quran in Kuala Terengganu is just another secondary boarding school. Students here stay in dormitories, attend classes from 7.45am to 1.10pm, and sit for examinations every term-end.Except that instead of swotting to become engineers, scientists, lawyers, doctors, or accountants, the students, all Muslims ranging from the age of 13 to 19, are here for seven years of education that should ideally prepare them to be a member of the ulama (religious scholars) one day.
Their syllabus gives weight to religion and Arabic, but this does not mean their studies are any easier than those designed for national schools.
Here, they have to study more subjects than kids of their age, you know, said Hamzah Ngah, the assistant headmaster of the school.
The subjects, he said proudly, are modelled after and acknowledged by Al-Azhar, Egypts leading university for Islamic studies which enjoys a status among Muslims that Harvard or Cambridge has among the Western-educated.
For the first three years known as Idadie , students study a total of 18 subjects, six of which are in accordance with the national syllabus; namely Bahasa Malaysia, English, mathematics, history, science and geography.
As for the subsequent four years known as Senawi , the subjects increase to 22 but the common ones are reduced to only two Bahasa and English. The rest are all related to the study of the Quran , Hadith and Arabic language.
Terror schools
Maahad Darul Quran is the only private secondary religion-based school in Terengganu. Since it was founded in 1985, the school has sent hundreds of its graduates abroad to study Islam in Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The government has, however, not been happy with private madrasah (religion-based schools) like Darul Quran. These schools are run by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS). Leaders from the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) have overtly labelled them as terror schools which are said to fan anti-government sentiments and poison the young minds with radical ideas .
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also expressed his worries that the students, not being integrated into the proper education system, may be narrow-minded and proven handicapped in the countrys long-term development.
The government had warned that it would impose more stringent checks on these madrasah and close down those which are found involved in radical activities. The Education Ministry has also recently introduced the Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia, a certificate issued only to those who pass the official religious examinations before going abroad.
My son, the ulama
Yet, despite all these and even the occasional police arrest of .madrasah teachers, parents are not intimidated and continue to send their children to the schools.
And the madrasah continue to proliferate. The Terengganu governments information unit chief Zakaria Dagang said PAS runs only one secondary school in the state, Darul Quran, but the party also manages five other primary schools with an average of 500 students each besides at least 200 kindergartens and nurseries.
It is good to have one of my sons as ulama , said a father whose third son is studying in Darul Quran. The others sons can be lawyers or architects, but one must work to serve God.
The number of students in Darul Quran has soared over the years. There are now 1,145 students, 55 percent girls and the other 45 percent, boys. They attend classes separately and are taught by some 60 teachers, many of whom are overseas graduates who once studied in Darul Quran.
The classrooms and administrative office are in a four-storey building attached to the Kampung Rusila mosque in Marang, and the school is closely linked with the local community. Some students stay in the dormitory in the building while the rest stay in wooden houses behind the mosque.
Last Saturday, on Hari Raya Aidiladha, while students were packing up to return home for the holidays, five alumni in their early 20s came to visit their teachers at their alma mater . The five young men, now studying in Pakistan, were on their semester break.
As they walked past the children, one could not but notice the admiration and respect shining in the youngsters eyes for their seniors with full-grown beards complete with Pakistani attire.
A 14-year-old boy, who only wants to be known as Muhammad said, When I grow up, I want to be just like them.
Pondok roots
It is easy to dismiss the schools as a training ground for fundamentalists and not look at the history and economic background of how these schools were conceived in the first place.
Prior to the countrys independence in 1957, the British government had set up schools catering for the children of aristocrats and urban Malays to groom them to become civil servants. The Malay peasant community in rural areas were largely ignored both economically and politically.
Concerned individuals, mostly religious teachers, in the less progressive east coast and northern region states then resorted to using pondok or wooden huts to teach the children of this marginalised community and ensure a minimum literacy.
After independence, the pondok system did not die out but flourished into what is known as madrasah today. It was this bifurcated education system that had partly contributed to the intense disagreement between Umno and PAS on a wide range of issues.
As it is, PAS still subsidises the education of these madrasah students. For Darul Quran, students only pay RM80 every month for lodging and studies. And primary pupils pay a nominal fee of RM15 per month. The maintenance, electricity, water and other expenses are paid out of the partys coffers.
Darul Quran will move into four new multiple-storey blocks in a compound near the mosque soon.
Observers of the PAS-Umno ideology debate say a pressing issue is how to bridge the gap between the educated haves and the marginalised have-nots whose world views are way apart.
Is there a solution to the problem besides constant monitoring, control, curbs and clampdowns? The answer may well be encrypted in history itself.
This is the third of a five-part series on PAS in Terengganu: three years after. Malaysiakini s full interview with Hadi can be found in the Opinions/Features section.
