The Independent Committee on Segregation in Schools (ICSS) disclosure that only 2.1 percent Chinese and 4.3 percent Indians account for the two million total enrolment in national primary schools hardly comes as a surprise. The seeds of their increasing alienation had already been sown by an opportunist way back in the aftermath of the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

The then education minister, Rahman Yaakub, had acted on his own initiative to announce that all English-medium primary schools would be converted to the Malay (read national)-medium beginning in primary one from 1970, a move whose disastrous consequences are evident for all to see today.

However, it was to be many years later that Umno leaders, including Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself came to acknowledge that the educationally disastrous decision to convert all English-medium primary schools was "politically correct" then.

Umno and the Alliance had lost a lot of support going by the unprecedented reverses suffered in the 1969 general election. They needed to win back Malay support fast, and the only way to do so at a time when feelings were running high to topple former premier Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra was to exploit something sensitive Vision 2020' and the growing demands and challenges of increasing globalisation and competition.

With poor input from the national primary schools, the standards in the secondary schools and the local universities are also naturally low. Students in form five can't even write a simple essay of 300 words in correct English. For all their vehement and public support of the national education system, many Umno leaders actually prefer to send their children to overseas universities for the simple reason that they themselves lack confidence in the educational system they have created.

The Chinese and Indian Malaysians naturally felt alienated from such a racist mainstream educational system, and most of them opted out by sending their children to vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools. That explains why today the two communities account for less than 10 percent of the total enrolment of national primary schools nationwide.

Even some Malay Malaysian parents prefer to enrol their children in Chinese schools because they lack confidence in the national primary schools to teach mathematics, science and English to their children. They also feel that Mandarin would be useful for their children in anticipation of the day that in a globalised environment of the near future, China would be a main player.

Malay and Indian Malaysian students currently account for some 10 percent of the 600,000 students in Chinese primary schools. Allowing for the smaller percentage of Indian Malaysian students, the number of Malay Malaysian students enrolling at Chinese primary schools would be closer to 60,000 nationwide, which is much higher than the 29,000 stated by Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein who had accused certain quarters of questioning the high standards set by national primary schools.

Many people are sceptical over Hishammuddin's assertion that the national primary schools produce students of high calibre some of whom have gone on to become national leaders. It is common knowledge to all and sundry that many national primary school students cannot even speak and write proper English but are also weak in mathematics and science.

No wonder the decreasing numbers of non-Malay students and the increasing tendency of the national primary schools to become Islamic have prompted the independent committee to recommend some form of measure calling for an integration of Malaysia's multi-racial primary school students such as wider usage of English which would hopefully attract more Chinese and Indian Malaysian students.

Unfortunately, these measures are too little and come too late. It is like trying to bring back to life the sacred cow of national integration which one had deliberately killed earlier. The chairperson of the independent committee, Prof KJ Ratnam, should know.

It would not be wrong to say that Prof Ratnam, an eminent social scientist, shares the widely-held view of Prof Silcock that the English primary (and secondary) schools in the then Malaya prior to 1969 not only produced the best brains for the country, but also the arena where national integration where students of all races interacted freely through the medium of a common language — English.

There was confidence in the then English-medium national education system with its multi-tier structure of primary (six years) secondary (five years), post-secondary (two years) and at its apex the University of Malaya. The standard of English in the country was then high, and Malaysian students going overseas had no problem with the English language. MU degrees were recognised internationally then.

The close ties and friendship, which many Malays, Chinese and Indians, now in their 50s and above, regarding themselves more as Malaysians than as members of their respective ethnic communities, have forged in school, remain to this day — a stark contrast to the present situation where many Malay and non-Malay students have come to regard each other with suspicion because of the divisive tendencies of racial discrimination as reflected in the national primary schools.

One should also not forget that a victim of the conversion of English-medium primary schools to the Malay medium was the mission schools, both the Christian brothers schools and the convent schools. Over a span of 30 years, they have lost their heritage altogether.

Where they once were the pride of the nation in securing excellent SC and HSC results, they are a sorry sight today. The symbols of Christianity like crucifixes have been removed from many of these schools. Where hooded teachers in the convent schools used to be the Catholic nuns prior to 1969, they are likely to be the ustazah (religious teacher) in her tudung , today. In short they are no different from the national schools except in name only.

The only mission school in Malaysia which has been able to preserve its heritage and identity is the St Xavier's Institution in Penang because it is located in a Chinese-majority city like Georgetown. But there is nothing to stop the government from undermining its heritage in the long run to make it eventually appear like any other converted mission school.

The findings of the report of the independent committee also show that there is a demarcation between Malay national primary schools and Chinese primary vernacular schools. This division between the two different media of schools will become sharper in future as more Chinese enrol in the Chinese primary schools.

Although the Malaysian constitution has stipulated that Chinese vernacular schools will not be abolished, many Chinese Malaysians continue to feel uneasy that their character may be altered in time through a concept like the Vision school where their fear lies in the Malay schools absorbing the Chinese and Tamil schools.

That Mahathir has frowned upon more and more Malay parents enrolling their children in Chinese schools citing the reason that Malaysia may become another China — he says the government neither encourages nor discourages them — is a stark reminder that the Umno-led BN government will continue to use education to divide Malaysians into "bumiputras" and "non-bumiputras" and actively discriminate in favour of the former against the latter, rather than integrate students of different races into a genuine Malaysian society.