Perkasa claims Malays will shun MIC in polls over Interlok axing

Perkasa predicted today that Malay voters will reject any MIC candidates in the coming polls, saying the Barisan Nasional (BN) party was responsible for scrapping the controversial Interlok novel from the school syllabus.

The government has decided to withdraw Interlok from the Form Five syllabus when the new school year starts, with MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel saying yesterday that the Cabinet had reached the decision last week.

The novel by national laureate Datuk Abdullah Hussain is part of the literature requirement in the Bahasa Malaysia syllabus for Form Five students. It was published in 1971 and is set in Penang at the turn of the 20th century during the colonisation of Malaya by the British.

MIC: Let us see amended Interlok first

The MIC wants to view the amended version of the controversial literature novel “Interlok” before it is reprinted and distributed to the schools.

MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel said that this was the agreement made at the special independent panel set up to look into the issue earlier this year.

In a statement today, Palanivel said that he had spoken to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak after a local English daily on Tuesday reported complaints from teachers who had to paste the corrections manually on nine pages of the book.

Palanivel said he was informed by Najib that the Education Ministry will reprint the novel but stressed that MIC wants to look at the amended version before it is reprinted.

“We do not want another mess,” he said, referring to the flap over the final recommendations from the special independent panel to look into Interlok issue, which had disregarded many of the modifications recommended by the Indian community representatives.

NGO plans events to seek Interlok withdrawal

The National Interlok Action Team (Niat) will launch a nationwide campaign on Sunday to seek the withdrawal of the controversial novel.

Isu Interlok bukan hanya isu kaum India

Members from the education ministry's panel (below) to review the novel 'Interlok' say that apart from the passages referring to the term 'pariah' that have caused offence, they have found others that they claim to be "misleading" and "humiliating" to the Indian community.