A Study on the Roles of Dong Jiao Zong and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in the Management and Development of Mother Tongue Language Education Peranan Dong Jiao Zong dan Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka dalam Pengendalian dan Perkembangan Pendidikan Bahasa Ibunda

Abstract

Dong Jiao Zong (DJZ) and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) are two organizations which are founded to maintain and preserve the importance of their mother tongue language and education. These two organizations have similar functions and roles in maintaining their ethnic’s identity, such as upholding and improving their mother tongue language and education, contribute to the mother tongue language education system and literature, inherited the traditional values and culture, etc. Generally, the DJZ and DBP have different stance and propositions. DBP is a government statutory body that represents the majority group in Malaysia and playing the role to strengthen the political and cultural hegemony of Malay ethnic by shaping the national language and developed it in line with the government’s policies. Instead, DJZ is a communal, non-governmental organization (NGO) and non-profit organization (NPO), established and funded by Chinese community, representing the minority group in Malaysia. For DJZ, its objective is to fight for the use of Chinese language in learning among Chinese students by assuming that the values of Chinese culture and the ethnic identity can only be inherited through the learning of Chinese language. Due to these different roles, discrepancies between DJZ and DBP certainly exist. DJZ demands for equal rights for the mother tongue education, to maintain its ethnic identity and try to curb the rise of political and cultural hegemony of the governing party at the same time. As a result, the demands of DJZ are often described as “chauvinism” and deliberately destroying government's efforts in uniting people from different ethnic groups. This paper compares the roles and challenges of DJZ and DBP from two angles: (1) the management of the mother tongue language education, and (2) the development of the mother tongue language, by both DJZ and DBP. This paper found that the development and progress in Chinese education is the result of the encounter and responses to the National Education policies that threatened the development of Chinese education. Under the political pressures and the challenges from National Education policies, DJZ had to cope with these pressures step by step to ensure the sustainability of mother tongue education. Under the leadership of DJZ more than 60 years, the Chinese education system in Malaysia nowadays is the most complete Chinese education among the countries in Southeast Asia.

Keywords: Dong Jiao Zong (DJZ), Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Bahasa Melayu, Mother Tongue Language Education, Chinese Education Movements