I feel quite perturbed by Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam's comment that no more Chinese-medium primary schools should be built. Interestingly, his remark was in response to MCA's call for more Chinese-medium primary schools to be built.

Such contradictory stands made by two ruling parties are often seen. They try to appeal to their separate communal-based supporters in that they fight for the rights of certain races only. This shows that our Malaysian society is still largely polarised along racial lines. No thanks to the race-based component parties of the ruling Barisan Nasional.

People's empowerment through education must be a foresight to be pursued. Education is no longer seen as a privilege of the ruling class to be manipulated for political interests. It is a basic human right to which all Malaysians are entitled. Therefore every Malaysian has a right to envisage what form of education he or she wants.

I believe education has to be democraticised by introducing into the curriculum values which will guard against corruption, abuse of power, cronyism, racism and discrimination. Socialisation of education is the next step in education reform where the people are empowered to formulate what kind of education they would want for their children.

This would be followed by a diversification of education which will allow for all forms of education to exist side-by-side using whatever language of instruction that is needed.

The misconception that diversity leads to disunity has to be stamped out. Many examples testify to the fact that diversity promotes unity in a diverse society. One of the best examples being the present South Africa which has 11 official languages and a constitution that obliges the government to provide allocation for the teaching and learning of one's mother tongue.

Globalisation will force us to adopt a more cosmopolitan approach towards our education system and this is something we can't avoid. Our country's education system has to be tailored to fulfil the needs of the international atmosphere while taking into account its responsibility to local communities, ethnic groups and national demands.

The present Malaysian education system is no more than an certificate manufacturing factory. It lacks a vision despite that fact that Malaysia is only 15 years away from the year 2020.

The writer heads the youth wing of DAP Johor.