I was quite intrigued by the righteous wrath of S Samy Vellu, president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), last week when he lambasted the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) for de-recognising medical undergraduate programmes offered by the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU) in Ukraine.

This audacity of Samy Vellu to confront the abrupt and arbitrary decision of the MMC has clearly put the leaders of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in a difficult position, considering the fact that the entire controversy surrounding the quality of the CSMU came just after scores of top Chinese students had failed to be granted scholarships by the Public Services Department (PSD) to pursue their tertiary education.

The last thing that the MCA leadership, currently preoccupied with the party elections scheduled to take place in the coming September, wants is any untoward incident that could make all the competitors' path to power more hazardous.

Ask an ordinary Chinese person on the street, and don't be surprised if he or she tells you Samy Vellu should now be made the president of the MCA, representing the Chinese community. Such psychological projection would embarrass the MCA leadership, which has long been seen as tame and timid before Umno, its political patron, when it comes to policy making.

This peculiar dilemma faced by the MCA leadership is also reflected in the unwillingness of the Chinese press to probe deeper into the issue. Compared to the outburst of emotion in the Chinese dailies over the plight of the best-performing Chinese students, it may not have been coincidental that the so-called commentators have chosen to be restrained, if not muted, on the CSMU. By saluting Samy Vellu, one shames Ong Ka Ting, president of the MCA. Given the symbiotic relationship between the Chinese press and the MCA, a seasoned editor should know what is best for all.

One of them from Sin Chew Daily has even gone as far as to justify the decision of the MMC, writing that such criticism is unfair as the MMC is duty-bound to ensure the quality of medical professionals in Malaysia. Parroting the MMC, the senior journalist argues that the CSMU's medium of instruction, which is Russian rather than English, is a cause for concern.

Forgive me, I nearly laughed my head off when I read this shallow mind of the journalist: would one doubt the standards of medical schools in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and even China, simply on account of the fact that students there are taught in the language of the country?

Of course, the journalist would have taken an entirely different position if the same fate befell a large number of Chinese students, or if Indians made up a huge chunk of Sin Chew's readership.