I refer to the Malaysiakini report Muhyiddin denies making 'ungrateful' remark .

Muhyiddin Yassin, the newly-minted deputy prime minister and education mister, has quickly begun to show his colours. They're the colours of arrogance.

He has been quick to hit back at the (Chinese) media over their carrying his comments of Chinese ingratitude towards government after the latter has done so much for them. He also fired back at reporters for pressing him on his earlier comments.

Malaysians ought to worry that he has been made the education minister. After the bungles by the last education minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, Muhyiddin may not do a better job.

If the style is telling, so is the policy. And not just education policy. That'll be the old one, of course - the carry-over from 1969.

Nobody in their right mind seriously expects Najib Razak to reform the government, much less policies - unless of course he's prepared to lob his head off and place it on a platter to racist nationalists within Umno's rightwing camp.

Muhyiddin says the Chinese media distorted his comments. He says he didn't say ‘ungrateful' but ‘unappreciative'. He says they took him out the context - as if somehow that would absolve him of his own stumble.

Either Muhyiddin has a loose lip or a big mouth. As Malaysia's number two point man, he should have chosen his words carefully, more so as education minister in this all-sensitive portfolio.

As he tripped over himself, he started to backpedal straightaway. In the process he has made things far worse. First things first: If anyone has put him in a ‘bad light', it's him.

He says he didn't say ‘ungrateful' but ‘unappreciative' in Malay or Bahasa. And if anyone should challenge him, they should learn Bahasa. "If you don't understand Bahasa," he said, "I can send you to school to understand it."

Perhaps Muhyiddin does not understand English. He should be sent back to school to learn English, as well as (common) civility.

Because even in Malay, as in English, ‘unappreciative' is a synonym of ‘ungrateful'. If he really wants to push the case, ‘ungrateful' is a synonym of ‘unappreciative'. They are not antonyms.

Look it up, Mr Deputy Prime Minister.

I, for one, would not want Muhyiddin as education minister for even Bahasa is proving gobbledygook for him. And he's Malay.

Imagine Muhyiddin giving a speech or a press conference to an international audience or the international media. Since his English if so poor he would have to speak in Bahasa. And then...