Education Minister Musa Mohamed's recent press conference really upset me with regard to the latest development over Chinese national-type primary schools.

The minister blasted the Chinese media as not being fair to him, by not reporting the good work he had done for Chinese education over the past four years. The Chinese community has been ungrateful villains, as he had approved the relocation of 24 primary 'micro' schools where there were few pupils enrolment. In return, all he gets are endless complaints!

The minister suggested the closure of more Chinese primary schools that have less than 10 pupils. That caused a furore and discomfort among the Chinese community. His deputy Hon Choon Kim and MCA chief Ong Ka Ting was forced to quickly clear the air. On Sunday, Ong said the prime minister had agreed not to close any of the micro schools.

The university administrator-turned-politician arrogated that his fine work included the new schools built in Johor Jaya, Bandar Utama at Damansara, and Pooi Chai 2 at Petaling Jaya. Well, the Chinese primary school built at Johor Jaya was one of the 'promised' gifts from BN two elections ago when our friend was no minister at all then. The Damansara primary school has a sob story to tell - it was one of those forced to relocate.

A reporter asked: "Under the principle of govenment's willingness to help the Chinese primary schools, will the authorities build more Chinese primary schools since there are about 10 percent non-Chinese in the respective schools?"

The minister blew his top, showed his displeasure and his true colours in his response: "Will you stop creating more problems and thus complicate the matter! I'm here to explain matters regarding the closure of the primary schools with less than 10 pupils enrolment, as for other issues I'm not interested. "

Gavin Gomez of The Star reported otherwise, that Musa denied that the government is trying to limit the number of national-type schools. He went further to say that if there is a need for new school in an area, the government will open one. If the report is true, this would be big news and the Chinese press would have presented it as headlines!

We know that for years there has been an unofficial (or was it official but not announced) gag order over the government decision that it will not build national-type Chinese schools under normal circumstances. Last month, one newspaper called for the lifting of the ban.

Areas in the Klang Valley that need Chinese national-type primary schools desperately are Puchong, Cheras, Jinjang and Kepong, PJ, Subang Jaya, and Wangsa Maju. For heaven's sake, build the schools fast, BN will then receive overwhelming support.