YOURSAY 'The message to the deputy education minister is that his ministry, and the MCA, have just not done enough, and they must pay the price.'

your say Cala: Was Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong rightly booed? Correct me if I am wrong, my understanding is that close to 2,000 temporary teachers in the Chinese schools are having some problems with respect to their teaching tenure.

They face uncertainty of enrollment in formal training before qualifying as competent teachers. But the Education Ministry appears oblivious of their predicament.

What exacerbates the situation is the said ministry regularly sent teachers who are not conversant in Chinese to the Chinese schools. If this is a fact, would you say MCA has been discharging its duties?

If at all former finance minister Daim Zainuddin's prophesy turns out to be true and the corrupted, morally sick, unprincipled Umno-led BN regime is defeated in the next GE, let that be a lesson to them for all the sins committed.

It is not a matter of Chinese Malaysians abandoning the regime; it is a matter of choice when the regime is becoming more and more evil as seen from its conduct.

The Chinese may not be familiar with PAS' concept of Islam. Still, between the two, the Chinese want to give PAS a chance.

Shanandoah: The treatment Wee got at the Dong Zong rally is a forerunner of what is to come for the MCA and its leader Chua Soi Lek.

The heavy police escort for Wee is testament to the anger the Chinese have towards the BN and in particular, the MCA.

If the Chinese want to remain as a force to be reckoned with, then the state of Johor must fall into Pakatan Rakyat hands.

Like Penang in the north, Johor must lead the way in the south, being so close to a rich and successful neighbour.

Appum: How do you solve a long-term problem (decades-old to be exact) with a short-term solution mainly because election is round the corner?

Swipenter: Is it a deliberate act on the part of the Umno-led government to stifle and slowly strangle vernacular schools in the country?

This is the burning question that the Chinese community has been asking themselves for decades and had to put up with little government funding, hardly any new schools being built and being blamed for national disunity by Umno.

It is not just the shortage of Mandarin-educated teachers but also shortage of such schools. The answer is quite obvious, notwithstanding what the constitution guarantees regarding education in one's mother tongue.

If the Chinese vernacular schools are so useless and a cause for national disunity, why are there so many thousands (70,000?) non-Chinese children studying in such schools?

Disbeliever: We can't deny that MCA may have done some good for the community, but unfortunately the good they have done have been lost by its 'sister' party in the BN - none other than big bully Umno.

The problem is aggravated further by many MCA leaders whom I would consider 'chicken' as they seem to only kowtow to Umno as they are afraid of their political positions being taken away from them.

One good example is the former MCA chief, Ong Tee Keat, who we all know was the man behind the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) expose.

Trying to play the hero, he found himself not only sidelined by Umno, but his own people in MCA played him out.

The way I look at it, MCA has become irrelevant. In my opinion, even the PM has given up on the Chinese and is desperately courting the Indians and trying his best 'to marry' PAS and Umno for the Malay votes.

This is obviously the sign of a desperate man who is afraid that Umno-BN may be washed out if the 13th GE is played on a level-playing field.

Onyourtoes: How come Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng did not get that kind of police protection during the anti-Lynas rally in Penang?

MC: In the 60s and 70s, we have no problem finding a good school for our children. Now, I see all my younger relatives worrying and searching high and low for a good school.

Whenever they meet up, the conversation always centres around which school to send their children to.

Most schools these days are not up to quality and parents would not want to sacrifice their children's education if they can help it. Our politicians have definitely failed miserably in their job.

Anonymous: A Chinese leader being rejected by his own community. A Japanese leader, if faced with such rejection, would have committed harakiri.

Anyway, the writing is on the wall for MCA to see for itself if it has any chance of winning any seat at all in the next general election.

Do you think the situation would be any different had the MCA president made the appearance?

Yum: Folks, I don't know how you felt when viewing the Malaysiakini photograph of Wee coming down the steps surrounded by non-Chinese "bodyguards" in a sea of Chinese protesters?

It is a telling picture, isn't it, of what is so wrong about MCA.

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