I totally agree with the observations of Just A Malaysian . I, too, know of many parents who nowadays send their children to Chinese primary schools.

If they had a choice as in the 1960s, they would have sent their children to English medium schools where Bahasa Malaysia is a compulsory subject. At that time, it was not important if the children learnt to read and write Mandarin.

Why do these parents send their children to Chinese schools now? The reason is obvious and simple - except for a few good schools in major urban centres, the rest of the national schools are poorly managed.

The quality of the administrators and teachers are mediocre at best. On and off, there would also be some racial or religious issues. I remember reading about the school which did not allow non-Muslim students to bring food from home to be eaten in canteen because of the 'halal' requirement.

Anyway, Just A Malaysian has three choices. He can:

1) Send his children to a national school and expose them to 'real life' at a young age or send them to a Chinese school to shield them from the reality until they are older. Just A Malaysian can continue to write letters to malaysiakini but nothing will change.

2) He can join political party. Preferably the multi-racial and multi-religious one led by a Malay which has a long-term vision of transforming Malaysia society. Or,

3) He can emigrate.