Impressed by the performance of these young refugee children, the Yang DiPertuan of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir has urged the present government to provide them with a good formal education.
It goes without saying that, according to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that:
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Yet, as it is now, such education is provided through public donations, without even a single Ringgit of grant from the Federal or State Governments.
In one particular school in Klang, for example, the children of refugees are performing even better than our local students in PMR.
The group who performed during the Human Rights Day 2022, for example, is provided free education for all these years without government funding. Many of them are very talented.
In most countries, they would absorb some of the refugee children, who are today major contributors to the country's economy.
I remember some 40 years ago while studying in Australia, many of the Vietnamese boat people who escaped the Communist regime to Pulau Bidong, Malaysia were relocated to Australia.
They came along with their children, and I had the privilege of teaching some of them. Today, they are adults holding professional jobs, and taxpayers.
It is time that we see our fellow human beings as people created in the same image of God like any of us, regardless of race and religion.
For this reason, we should give them an opportunity to be educated in the same way our children are taught in school. Education should be provided free to these children.
If the government is unable to absorb them into the school system, at least, there should be some form of funding to help these centres set up to educate the youths of today who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
Who knows when they have an opportunity to be relocated elsewhere, they may someday become the president of their host country. Would they not be grateful to Malaysia in their growing up years?
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