Of Repentance and Penitence

by Dr. Oh Ei Sun
Sabah Times

These few weeks were indeed packed with events and commemorative days. Last week we celebrated, among other’s, Teacher’s Day, which has become a national occasion when we pay tribute to not only teachers, but indeed all those who undertake the tough and often thankless job of educating the precious minds of the country.

As the son of a teacher (my mom was a school teacher for 34 years), and as a teacher myself, Teacher’s Day is for me a day of reflection on the state and future of education, not so much for the much-vaunted national development effort, but in developing wholesome characters in millions of precious young minds. And perhaps a brief lesson in history from another part of the world could help.

In 1957, just a few weeks after Malaya attained its independence, another smaller-scale, but no less momentous event took place in the provincial town of Little Rock, the capital of the state of Arkansas in the United States. Nine young black men and women were escorted by US Army personnel to attend Little Rock Central High, a hitherto all-white school.

The past entrenched racism of the American South would be a subject for future writing. It suffices to mention here that for almost a century after the liberation of black slaves in the US, officially sanctioned racist treatments abounded primarily in the American South. The images of separate toilets for “White” and “Colored” still haunt us today. Most schools there were either exclusively white or black, with far superior teaching resources reserved for the former.

The US Supreme Court, in its landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, declared such segregated school systems unconstitutional, and ordered that schools should be integrated. Nevertheless, many local school systems and residents, mostly in the South, were still resistant to such change.

In 1957, nine black students registered for Little Rock Central High. When the news spread, some white residents organized protests near the school. Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, no friend to the black civil rights movement, ordered Arkansas National Guard to join in and block the entrance of these students into the high school. It created a national uproar and shook the conscience of a nation.

President Dwight Eisenhower, after failing to persuade Governor Faubus to stand down, ordered federal troops from the elite 101st Airborne Division to escort the “Little Rock Nine” to school everyday. The immortal image of the young men and women walking to school flanked by federal troops has since become a milestone in the American black struggle for equal treatment.

The “Little Rock Nine” saga epitomizes the “true” emancipation of black people in the American South. It crystallizes the lofty ideal that enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed… with certain inalienable rights, and among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The federal troops who performed their duties admirably were also deserving of praises, for they braved the intimidating crowds to ensure that nine fellow black citizens have their life and liberty protected, and could pursue their future happiness free of fear by receiving the same quality of education as their white brethrens.

But the American federal government, under President Eisenhower, should receive the most accolades for acting swiftly and courageously to use public tools to protect the legitimate rights of their minority citizens. It enshrines one of the basic tenets of true democracy, that the rule by the majority must be tempered by respect for the minority.

The American educational system has of course come a long way since the infamous days of the “Little Rock Nine”. In American campuses today, students from various nationalities, including those from Sabah, can be seen mingling with and learning from each others. And the American culture is one of “no shame in apology”. Most Americans today are aware of the evil of racism, of judging and treating people simply based on color, sex or religion. They repent their past, sometimes overly so, and they try to pay penitence by doing their best to right the wrongs.

Today the sculptures of the “Little Rock Nine” stand proudly in front of the Arkansas State Capitol. In 1999, they received the prestigious Congressional Gold Medals. In 1996, they appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show face to face with some of the white students who tormented them back then. The American sense of repentance and penitence is simply astounding!

The same, alas, could not be said about at least some of our local politicians. After nonchalantly offended the feminine dignity of a fellow MP, and despite heavy criticisms from all circles here and abroad, the two offending MPs meekly offered at worst “no apology” and at best only lame ones. And this only after first withdrawing and re-issuing the so-called “apologies”!

What kind of convoluted, half-hearted, excuse-ridden, blaming-others gibberish are these? Not a single word was meant to assuage the offended feelings of the victimized MP! Let me get this straight: If you insult Dr. Oh’s manhood, you should apologize to all men but not Dr. Oh in particular, is it? What kind of warped view of social discourse is this?

And it is equally cheeky and offensive of them to drag the government into the picture, proclaiming that they were merely defending the government in uttering those offensive words. O, so the end justifies the means, is it? Can you imagine Tony Blair defend his government in Parliament by making fun of his female colleagues? What kind of negative message is this sending to our young impressionable children? “Hey, as long as you think it is for a good cause, you may use offensive words, go ahead, just do it!”

I humbly submit and hope that the quality of our government does not stoop to the level of these offending MPs. I am heartened to learn that after this inglorious issue was first publicly discussed in Sabah (in this very column) last Monday, at least two female assistant ministers in the state government (led by the same coalition as that at the federal level) came out to unequivocally condemn the offending MPs.

And media and NGOs are again being made scapegoats. Is it not the media’s rightful role to report the shameful incident and to reflect the indignant views of the general public? Is it not the proper function of the women’s NGOs to advocate their related causes and to register their displeasure over such offensive acts? Some people are in serious need of lessons in democracy again, and I am willing to offer them.

In many other developed parts of the world, when people make a mistake, they admit it wholeheartedly and apologise unreservedly. Then they try to make amends for their wrongs, individually and as a society (as in the later, celebratory treatment of the “Little Rock Nine”). This kind of noble stance unfortunately has not taken roots in our local culture. We still have much to learn about repentance and penitence.