With regard to Muslim-Malay Academic's letter All systems go for English , I assume he meant what he said, i.e. he sincerely believes this is the right direction to go and was not writing tongue-in-cheek to challenge Umno to a dare.

Allow me to make a few comments:

  • Our current school system where Malay Malaysians attend national-type (Malay) schools while Chinese Malaysians go to Chinese vernacular schools, provides the perfect environment to foster racial segregation in the country.

    • I studied six years in a Chinese primary school in Muar before I switched to an English-medium secondary school in 1972. I feel that students of all races should attend same school.

  • There is no need to make English the national language. Just adopt the Singapore model where English is the first language for all students in school. Each student then chooses a second language of his or her own choice (a slight modification from the Singapore model).

    • If this system is adopted, most non-Malay parents will not hesitate to send their kids to these schools.