I was sitting at my desk in the staff room while surfing the Internet when Mr. Penyelia Petang approached me and handed me a tiny white slip. A request for relief again for two consecutive days. Without having the opportunity to say 'no' I took the slip and took a short glance at it. No surprise. I had to enter the same class again - Tingkatan Peralihan. Just so you know, that class is meant for students who came from both SRJK(T) and SRJK (C) schools. Meaning, it is prerequisite for them to enroll in the transition class to enable them to so-called get used to the different curriculum in the school.

 

Well, basically I'm not going to do an explanation about the what tingkatan peralihan is all about. What caught my attention today was the sense of racism that seems to be ingrained in the students particularly the students in tingkatan peralihan. 

 

Everything went well in the beginning until the moment I asked them to form groups for an activity. I was quite shocked because at the very tender age they already have this thing called you-are-not-like-us-so-get-lost! within themselves. 

 

I noticed during the activity there's this one student who preferred to be alone and refused to join the rest. 

 

I approached this particular student and asked him, "Kenapa tak join yg lain?"

 

Then the student said, "Diorang tak suka saya".

 

"Kenapa?" I asked again.

 

 

I was stunned for a while. Suddenly another students in the class said, "Sir, masa dah habis." I looked at my watch and realized the period was over. I took my stuff on the table and walked out of the class.

My point here is, racism is not a thing that can be taken for granted. If racism is explicit at the early age of the children, it is often implicit and equally entrenched further - which is already obvious.

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