With regards to the debate on MCA's request for more Chinese schools, it is high time we be honest to ourselves and others. I am truly concerned about how the Chinese community is being misled and manipulated by some parties to invoke strong communal sentiments.

The MCA is a political body working in a political environment. It cannot be so naive as to claim that its request is an 'education matter' when the entire interest and intent of this request was political and communal in nature.

And since now the politicians are seeking refuge in the 'elite bargaining' process, it is the duty of the citizens to prove that they are ready to take the matters of the nation back into the public space of civil discourse.

So let's really stop politicising the issue and not make education matters bargaining chips at the political table.

The champions of vernacular education have to remember that they cannot be at one end supporting the use of language A while denying community B access to public education in their own native language too.

How about our fellow Kadazans, Dayaks, Ibans and native brethren in Sabah and Sarawak?

I am supportive of a multilingual primary education system that gradually moves towards a unified medium at secondary level. However, if I am given an option, I would prefer to see a single language medium from standard one to university levels.

The use of the mother tongue at primary level is to give these children time to acquire enough proficiency in the national language so that they will be able to keep up with the learning of academic content taught not in their own first language.

Research has shown that using mother-tongue education can help to promote better acquisition of a second language, but there is still a problem of first-language interference that needs to be

addressed.

It takes four to seven years for a child to pick up a second language - the precise time needed for primary education. Question is, are the vernacular schools in Malaysia preparing Malaysians to master Bahasa Malaysia or are they encouraging them to go down a different path altogether?

Just pick any SRJK(C) or SRJK(T) students and compare their mastery of Bahasa Malaysia with national school students of corresponding ethnicity (if you want) to measure language proficiency. You will be immediately notice the difference.

We have already embarked on the Bahasa Malaysia road. Instead of strengthening that option, we are now backpedaling on all fronts.

The truth about the 'demand' for more Chinese schools is inherently communal and there certainly is a dual education system in this country where two students might walk a parallel path without even meeting at all.

And to say that more and more non-Chinese parents are sending their children to Chinese primary schools goes against the argument for native or mother-tongue education. What about the mother-tongue education for the Indians and Malays?