Between Che Mat, Che Puan And Che Guevera

Ask any young Malaysian whether they know anyone mentioned above. The answer would definitely be Che Guevara.
Ask the same group of young Malaysian about Sambathan, Cheng Lok, Boestamam and Che Guevara. I guarantee they’d be able to give Che’s home address but they don’t know where Sambathan, Cheng Lok and Boestamam were buried.
So what’s wrong with this scenario? Is this something that we should worry? Do you blame these young Malaysians, teachers or parents?
Did the family institution or education system fail us? Did the parents or teachers failed to instill patriotism sentiment into young Malaysians? If not parents and teachers, so who’s responsible to do this?
I remember Cool Hand Luke’s “What we got here is failure to communicate…” very clearly. In this case, “…failure to communicate…” is akin to failure to communicate with young Malaysians.
We failed to share with them about our forefathers. Hence we can’t blame them if they knew more about Che Guevara than our own freedom fighters.
What should we do to correct this? Should we go back to basics? Or leave as it is? Can you imagine Che Guevara getting famous and worshipped by children who’ve never heard the word ‘revolution’ or experience anything like it?
I’m not surprised in 100 years time; Che Guevara is bigger than Tun Dr.Mahathir. How often do you see someone wearing t-shirts with Mahathir’s face on it? And compare this scenario with thousands of Che Guevara’s ‘merchandise’ available locally. So, who is more iconic among young Malaysians?
Are we likely to see our future youth turning into ignorant Malaysians? A strong nation is a nation which is deeply rooted to the ground. A well grounded Malaysians will always remember its forefathers and will always remember their sacrifices.
The education system needs to be amended. Today we need to move away from exam oriented education system. What we see today are students who absorb what they’re learned like sponge and later squeeze it out during examination. In the end what’s left is just feather weight sponge with nothing inside.
The children and students alike need to participate in education. They should be taught to use all their senses while in learning environment. Hands, feet, mouth, ears, nose and eyes need to work together with the brain. They shouldn’t be mere listeners and jot down what the teacher have said.
Same goes with our forefathers. Let young Malaysians go out and find about these forefathers. And later let them explain their findings. The times where teachers giving out facts are over.
So in a nutshell, our outlook on education needs a makeover. We need to get the parents to participate too, not leave it to the teachers. Hopefully with these small changes, might be able to make young Malaysians remember more of Che Mat and Che Puan than Che Guevara.