Umno Youths threat unreasonable: Chinese education groups

comments     YS Tong     Published     Updated

Two Chinese education groups said Umno Youth's warning last week that they would face possible hostility similar to what lobby group Suqiu had suffered was a result of the public pressure that the party's wing was facing lately.

"We noticed that Umno Youth had been criticised regularly in recent weeks and this is perhaps why they chose to target Chinese newspapers and other similar organisations.

"We regret that Umno Youth had to make such a remark about us," said United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) and United Chinese School Teachers Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong) in a joint statement.

It was issued by Dong Zong chairperson Quek Suan Hiang and Jiao Zong chairperson Ong Chiow Chuen.

In recent weeks, Umno Youth chief Hishamuddin Hussein had suggested that private colleges impose a 10 percent bumiputra quota in their students intake, and this had sparked off strong debate between those who were for it and against it.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad — who had earlier called for bumiputra students to buck up — however put a stop to the debate when he said there was no need to impose such quota in private colleges.

Last Friday, at the Umno annual general assembly, Youth exco Dr Zamri Abdul Kadir accused the two influential Chinese education groups and Chinese dailies for forgetting that "they are also Malaysians" and acting as a "stumbling block to national integration".

Stern actions

Zamri also warned that Dong Zong and Jiao Zong may face stern actions like those directed against Suqiu, or the Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals committee, which had called for the removal of the distinction between bumiputra and non-bumiputra before the 1999 general election.

In 2000, hundreds of Umno Youth supporters led by its deputy chief Aziz Sheikh Fadzir demonstrated outside the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall which housed Suqiu, and threatened to burn down the hall if Suqiu refused to retract its appeals.

Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, who is also Umno Youth exco member, was reported to have said then that the Malays were willing to "bathe in blood" to defend their privileges.

Quek and Ong in their joint statement said it was "unreasonable" for Umno Youth to threaten them.

"Our stand reflects the wishes and aspirations of the Chinese community. We do not oppose racial integration but we do not agree with the implementation which requires minority races to abandon their culture and language," they said.

They added that "mother-tongue education in a pluralistic society like ours is a basic human right".

At loggerheads

The two educationists also said Mandarin education is part of the national education system as it uses the same syllabuses like other schools, but a different teaching medium — Bahasa Melayu in national school, and either Mandarin or Tamil in national-type schools.

"Mandarin primary schools do not get support from just Chinese parents but non-Chinese parents as well," they said.

They said there is an estimated 65,000 non-Chinese students who constitute 12-15 percent of the total number of those studying in Mandarin primary schools.

"If the government keeps accusing Dong Zong and Jiao Zong of opposing racial integration, it is tantamount to denying the reality of the 1,284 Mandarin primary schools in the country," they said.

Dong Zong and Jiao Zong are known to have been at loggerheads with the government over several education issues, most notably the vision school project — a government proposal to place primary schools of different teaching mediums each in the same compound.

The education movements claimed that vision school aims to gradually achieve the government's 'ultimate objective' of a monolingual education policy.



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