MCA slams UMNO for suggestion to abolish vernacular schools

KUALA LUMPUR, - MCA president Datuk Ong Tee Keat has wasted no time in condemning Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir's suggestion to abolish vernacular schools.

"Mukhriz is just one of the many who are now repeating the same polemics that are a few decades old, simply because of the advent of their party's poll," the Transport Minister said.

"It is saddening because politicians cannot think out of the box," he wrote in a blog posting.

In a press conference in Parliament today, the candidate for Umno Youth chief in the March party elections said that all schools should teach subjects in Bahasa Malaysia except for language subjects.

He said the proposal to have one unified school system could help address the problem of non-Malays misunderstanding the concept of "Ketuanan Melayu," or Malay Supremacy, which has become a source of tension between Malays and non-Malays.

Mukhriz argued that such misunderstandings were a result of a lack of national unity, which he blamed on the existence of vernacular shools.

Also in Parliament, MCA vice president Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said there was no reason to change the education system as the current one was accepted by all.

"The present system is still the best to ensure unity and harmony in our multiracial country," the Health Minister said.

He added that it was an old fallacy that vernacular primary schools caused unity problems.

He reasoned that at secondary level, the students were still able to integrate.

"He might not understand that teaching in your mother tongue is more effective at the primary level," Liow added.