It is also said that when Musa Hitam, the promoter
of the New Malay concept, became Education Minister he instructed the
Ministry of Education to down-play the role of the MCKK. The purpose of this was to break
the elitism that was emerging. At the rate things were going, in no time at all the entire
government would have been filled by old boys. What Musa Hitam was probably
worried about was that he was not an old boy of the MCKK and there was no way he could
stay in power if the power base of the government was the old boy network. The result
of this policy can be seen today. MCKK stood still while the other schools developed into
premier schools. The MCKK is now a dilapidated old building. What was once the pride of
the Malays now stands as a reminder of what used to be but is no longer there. For that
matter, the last time we won a rugby match against Vajiravudh College was in 1963;
32 years ago. The MCKK was given a slight reprieve when the Queen (of England that is)
visited Malaysia. She only wanted to visit the Eaton of the East and no
other school. This forced the government to spruce up the College building a bit; at least
the parts where the Queen would see. Unfortunately the toilets were never done up. It
would have helped if the Queen had needed to take a pee (or whatever they call it in
palace language). Maybe then the toilets would have some doors on them. As it is now the
whole school would know whether you had fish head curry for lunch.
Anyhow, the MCKK can be said to be a great contributor in bringing the Malays out of
the kampongs into positions of authority in the government and business. Initially this
worked fine. Then the politicians ran out of slogans. In the early days after the war (the
Second World War that is) the slogan was Merdeka. After that it was Bahasa
Kebangsaan. |