I refer to the Malaysiakini report MIC also wants Science and Maths in mother tongue .

MIC seems to be championing the issue of Tamil for English and Science, but where were they when Dr Mahathir Mohamad implemented the English language policy for the two subjects in all schools? That was when Tamil schools needed someone to campaign against the policy.

During the period of introduction, most parents, children, activists and teachers were worried about the ability of the students to cope and have the required fluency in the English language to understand the teaching of science and maths.

Statistics may be lie, but then again, the MIC has got an educational wing and even employs experts to conduct studies on Indian education. However, it is amazing to see their inability to decipher the data given by the Education Ministry.

The statistics, courtesy of Sin Chew Daily, show that more than 50 percent of Standard Six students chose to answer Mathematics and Science UPSR papers in English.

But on a closer look, the report revealed that 37.66 percent of national school (SK) students, 2.86 percent of Chinese national-type school (SJKC) students and 62.76 percent of Tamil vernacular school (SJKT) students answered in English for the science paper.

It clearly shows that Tamil school students and ‘sekolah kebangsaan’ students used English to awnser UPSR exam papers. Instead of joining some Chinese education movement bodies and blindly opposing the policy, the MIC should be strengthening the usage of English in Tamil schools, and possibly look into getting the figure of 100% for English usage for UPSR.

Today, Tamil schools are no longer shun upon and the disparity among their students with other schools has narrowed. More Indians from all walks of life are sending their children there. So the quality of education imparted by Tamil school teachers should be the main concern.

The MIC should also look into the reasons behind Chinese community's strong support to teach maths and science in Mandarin. It’s no wonder that Chinese schools are private and the methods used to teach and govern their schools are a benchmark for others to follow.

The schools are accountable to the parents and the community. The MIC should study and look into the reasons behind strong support for teaching in the mother tongue and not just simply jump onto the bandwagon to ‘look as if championing rights of Indians’

The MIC has always been heading in the wrong direction. When the currently banned Hindraf championed Indian rights , the MIC were against the community’s wishes and did not even help one ounce in the cause to alleviate the plight of the Indian community.

When the Hindraf 5 was detained under the ISA, it took a while before the impact of the situation dawned on the MIC and once the BN components demanded Hindraf 5 to be released, MIC, too, wanted them to be released.

To date, the MIC has not taken to task the BN government and IGP Musa Hassan for framing the Hindraf 5 as LTTE militant terrorists. But the MIC was quick to jump up in support of the LTTE in the war in Sri Lanka by organising a rally in KL to show support!

Get your act right, MIC. This is not the time for two grandfathers to decide on the future of Indians. Your time is up!