The government has no legal right to close down Chinese primary schools and can be taken to court should it choose to do so, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

According to reports in the Chinese dailies today, the premier stressed that the present Education Act last amended in 1996 had abolished provisions for the education minister to shut down vernacular schools using Mandarin and Tamil as teaching medium.

"The Chinese community fears that the government may close down Chinese primary schools but this fear is baseless. The law does not permit us to do that," he was quoted as saying by Nanyang Siang Pau .

He also added the law does not forbid the setting up of new Chinese primary schools.

The premier lamented that he often comes under criticism by the Malay community whenever the government gives assurance to Chinese community about their rights.

However, he cautioned that the government may not be able to protect the Chinese rights if the voters choose a "wrong government" and thus leading to a "weak Barisan Nasional".

According to the daily, Mahathir was speaking during a special interview with seven major Chinese dailies in the country at his office in Putrajaya on Monday.

'Ultimate objective'

Asked why the government has not abandoned the 'ultimate objective' in its national education policy, the premier said the government still hoped that children of all races can learn together in order to avoid racial polarisation in the future.

The 'ultimate objective' of the country's education system, as proposed in education blueprint of the 1956 Razak Report, is to promote national language Bahasa Melayu as the only teaching medium for all schools.

Mahathir said the government had introduced Vision School a government's plan to house schools of different teaching medium each in the same compound as an alternative to cultivate racial integration among students.

He went on to say that he could not fathom why opposition parties and critics keep objecting to the proposal.

"You (Chinese community) asked for us not to get rid of Chinese schools and we are not doing that. We just want to let children of various races to come to the same school and learn to communicate with each other," he said, according to a Sin Chew Jit Poh report.

However, the government will neither encourage nor stop non-Chinese parents from sending their children to Chinese primary schools.

"If we encourage Malays to send their children to Chinese primary schools, the country will become another China," said Mahathir who left yesterday on an official visit to Russia.

The premier said he had exhausted all the avenues to explain to Chinese community the concept of Vision School but certain quarters continue to persuade the community not to support the government.

"What more can we do if the Chinese community still do not trust us? We have explained the issue many times, now it is time for the Chinese press to explain to them," he said.

More cause for concern

Meanwhile, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said Mahathir's answer to the 'ultimate objective' of the national education policy had given "more cause for concern than assurance" that the government is prepared to accept Chinese schools.

He said Mahathir by granting the "unprecedented interview" to the Chinese newspapers, had made Chinese schools and mother-tongue education the top issues in the upcoming Ketari by-election.

Lim added that the results of the by-election will therefore be a "historic national response" on behalf of Malaysians to the government's policy on mother-tongue education.

DAP's Choong Siew Onn is expected to take on Barisan Nasional's Yum Ah Ha in the by-election scheduled for March 31.

The Ketari state seat fell vacant following the death of its representative, Loke Koon Kam of Gerakan early this month.