I refer to the letters Teras penyatuan bangsa bermula dari sekolah by Dr Mana and Vernacular education has kept Malaysians divided by K Narayanasamy.

It seems that every time national unity issues pop up, contributors to this forum almost invariably direct the blame to our current education system which allows for the existence of vernacular schools.

I am a product of these vernacular schools, receiving both primary and secondary education in Chinese vernacular schools. Not surprisingly, I did not have the chance to be exposed to non-Chinese cultures during my school years.

Therefore, I have to admit that I had a culture shock when I first enroled into university. Though I had no difficulty in understanding Bahasa Malaysia, I felt out of place as the majority of people around me were Malays, and I couldn't relate myself to the different styles in which everything such as administration, organisation of activities and food preparation was performed.

Determined to make good the chance of attending an institution of higher learning, I persevered and forced myself to adapt to the situation. I decided to prevail and after a few months started to endear the truly multiracial environment to my heart.

By understanding how things were run in the university (and considering how a university reflects actual society), I felt more 'integrated' with the general Malaysian public and thus decided to discard my mild 'Chinese-chauvinist' attitude.

I would dare to conjecture that many of my ex-classmates from our secondary school who subsequently progress to private or foreign universities (many fell victim to the quota system) would never had the chance of going through my experiences, thus minimising their chances of understanding other cultures and integration into the multiracial society of Malaysia.

For a person who has supported vernacular education since young, I am making a rare concession here by saying that racially segregating our children in different schools is indeed harmful to national unity. Dr Mana's grievances are not unfounded.

However, while Mana and Narayanasamy have stated that to promote racial unity we should abolish vernacular schools, I reckon we should dig deeper beyond the surface as things are certainly much more complex than they appear.

The question to ask is: why are Malaysian parents still supporting vernacular schools despite the fact that they do not promote national unity?

To answer that question, the book The Chinese Dilemma by Ye Lin-Sheng provides a profound insight. Though written from the viewpoint of a Chinese-Malaysian, I reckon that there is a high possibility of generalising his views to that of other non-bumiputeras.

I quote: 'Fighting to safeguard Chinese-language education is fighting for residual rights in another guise.'

These residual rights are the vestiges of what solidarity the Chinese community had after the perceived encroachment on their rights by the bumiputeras due to the NEP. Generally, no one can dispute the fact that many non-bumis who are not rich were affected negatively by the NEP. Ye sums it up pretty well when he says that the Chinese community (and through simple extrapolation, other non-bumis) is a community on the defensive.

On the political scene, the non-Umno parties in the Barisan Nasional coalition merely exist to placate their constituents. They do not play an effective part in determining national agendas. Their politicians can only be depended to stand up for the residual rights of non-bumis, nothing more.

Thus, as long as vernacular schools are supported, non-bumis will always feel that all is not lost. Seeing their children preserve their cultural identity somewhat alleviates the pain of not having equal rights in the only country they have ever called 'home'. To put it in another way, unequal rights reinforces the notion of 'us' and 'them'.

Before anybody sets the ISA hounds on me for questioning Malay supremacy, let me express my support for the NEP. Personally, I do feel that the NEP is somehow justified.

Something just needs to be done to adjust the gross imbalance in socio-economic conditions amongst the different racial groups post-Merdeka. I sincerely believe we would have been worse off without the implementation of the NEP.

What I am saying now is that further polarisation of the Malaysian people along racial lines is an inevitable side-effect of the NEP. This is indeed a Malaysian dilemma. This side effect transcends across all sectors, not only education.

Even if the government one day chooses to heavy-handedly abolish vernacular schools (which I pray, will never happen), racial disunity would only manifest itself in other forms if there is no level-playing ground. Our unity would only be superficial at best.

As long as unequal rights exist, communal politics will remain relevant. As long as communal politics rule the day, vernacular schools will be used as political pawns to garner support, and as such will continue to remain relevant.

My suggestion? Let us do away with communal politics. Let the politicians serve Malaysians of all races regardless of their racial group.

Let all Malaysians be a real part of the country. When everybody feels that they are wanted in this country, man-made barriers like vernacular schools and special rights will cease to exist automatically.