File photo for illustration purposes
KUCHING: Various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Sarawak will be attending an organising committee meeting here initiated by Seni Khat Action Team (Sekat) tomorrow.
Among the NGOs invited to the meeting are the Federation of Chinese Associations in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Division (Hua Zong) and Sarawak United Association Chinese Aided Primary School Boards of Management (Sha Dong Lian Hui).
Contacted by The Borneo Post today, Hua Zong president Dato Richard Wee said the meeting was aimed at figuring out whether local NGOs in Sarawak would be interested in having a similar event or congress which was held in Kuala Lumpur last year.
The event in Kuala Lumpur last year resolved, among others, to call on the government to put on hold the teaching of Jawi calligraphy in Primary Four Bahasa Malaysia subject.
The Sekat congress was aimed at de-racialising the teaching of Jawi calligraphy in vernacular schools.
The Sekat and Sarawak’s NGOs organising committee meeting is scheduled for 2.30pm at Telang Usan Hotel here.
According to Wee, the meeting tomorrow will come to a conclusion whether NGOs in the state would want a similar congress to be held in the city.
“Most probably the congress will be held after Chinese New Year,” he said. Chinese are ringing in the Spring Festival on Jan 25.
Wee, who was in Kuala Lumpur at the time of the interview, said he will not be attending the meeting but representatives of Hua Zong would definitely be there.
Also contacted was Sha Dong Lian Hui secretary-general Jonathan Chai, who said the meeting “is just an organising committee meeting” to decide whether NGOs in Sarawak wanted to have a similar congress like the one that had taken place in Kuala Lumpur.
He pointed out that neither the meeting today nor the potential congress in the near future was aimed at protesting against the government’s policy.
Chai said the meeting would focus on garnering voices of the Sarawak’s NGOs before any decision to hold a congress here.
“It is to make known our stand on the matter. The meeting shares the objective of that held in Kuala Lumpur,” he added.
He said he would try to make it at the meeting while his president Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau had confirmed his attendance.
Among the local NGOs that have been invited to the meeting are Dayak Right Action Force, Dayak International Organisation, Kuching Indian Association, Kuching Wellness Society, Dayak Nation Institute, Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration and Chinese Language Standardisation Council of Malaysia.
According to the Ministry of Education, Jawi calligraphy was to be introduced in three pages of the Primary Four Bahasa Malaysia subject.
This brought about an uproar among various groups, which prompted the ministry to first let teachers decide if they wanted to teach Jawi calligraphy before passing the decision in the latest guidelines.