I wish to comment on what Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said about national schools being 'hijacked' on the front page of The New Straits Times and the Berita Harian (Dec 26). He made two interesting comments — stupid but nevertheless interesting.

The first point was about how non-Malays were scared from sending their children to the national-type schools simply because Muslims have 'hijacked' the school uniform policy by requiring children to wear long pants. He certainly made no references to tudung (headscarf) and baju kurung (traditional Malay costume) but I and many others know exactly what he was getting at.

It seems that the Muslim dress code is 'terrorising' the non-Muslims these days. Well, Singapore seems to be scared about it. I don't think his statement about the long pants need any serious answer as it simply insults the intelligence of anyone who understands basic cultural needs of society.

The second point which Mahathir raised was about how he thought that 'they' have cheated the Indians and the Chinese out of learning their own languages because 'they' were not prepared to take in enough teachers.

I wonder who 'they' means? The opposition? Certainly not. The last time I checked Mahathir had cut the cake on his 20-over years reign of power and that the Barisan Nasional was in full command the last half century. 'They' can only mean the people in the Education Ministry. Only 'they' have the power to train and take in new teachers. Unless I am wrong, Mahathir himself was once part of 'they' when he was the education minister.

When will Malaysians realise that it is time to put the old BN out to dry and help a new administration. My last straw was actually reading how some Education Ministry officials were saying they would equip schools with electrical generators to run the computers when before this he could not care two sens that the students were operating without electrical lights and fans. Enough is enough.