Mandarin educationists today claimed they were singled out by the media as the sole opponent to the government's proposal to teach Science and Mathematics in English while their Tamil counterparts said their views on the matter were being ignored.

New Era College principal Dr Kua Kia Soong said the newspapers, mostly controlled by individuals close to the government, tried to portray Mandarin groups and the Chinese community as the only opposing voice to the proposal.

He said the newspapers were just taking the cue from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had recently labelled Mandarin groups opposing the Vision School as "extremists".

However, Kua said, the government should know that any attempt to victimise Mandarin education groups in the media would be seen as a "mischievous ploy" as readers were more mature now.

On its front-page today, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia quoted Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim as saying the government can use the 1996 Education Act to implement the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in all schools.

According to the report, Rais was "responding to Chinese pressure groups who have opposed the proposal in Chinese schools".

Among the groups named were the United School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), United School Teachers Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong), and the Malaysian Federation of Mandarin School Headmasters.

In recent weeks, Malay newspapers have also been quoting various ministers and government officials as asking why the ethnic Chinese was being so difficult whereas the ethnic Malay has already accepted the decision to promote English.

Hostile coverage

Echoing a similar concern, Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall president Tan Chee Seng said he noticed the "hostile media coverage" given to Mandarin education groups and said he hoped national leaders would stop fanning racial sentiments.

In comparison, he said, Mandarin dailies have been fair in presenting the views of Mandarin education groups.

Tan also questioned why only Mandarin education groups were labelled as "extremists" although there were various other groups that share the same level of passion in the preservation of their respective mother-tongues.

Meanwhile, M Manogar, pro tem president of the Kuala Lumpur-based Malaysian Tamil Educational Research and Development Foundation (MTERDF), said the views of Tamil groups have been ignored by the media.

He said newspapers have shut their minds to these voices because they consider Indian Malaysian politicians, especially from MIC, as speaking for the entire community.

"The views of parents and educationists need to be taken into consideration and a lot of us would want Science and Mathematics to be taught in Tamil," said Manogar, who is a lawyer.

Manogar lamented that, due to lack of publicity, many middle-class Indian Malaysians were misinformed about Tamil groups' struggle, leading them to believe that the two subjects would be best taught in English.

Inferiority complex

MTERDF pro tem committee member S Pasupathi said even Tamil newspapers such as Tamil Nesan and Malaysian Nanban have only highlighted the views of Indian Malaysian politicians and the middle-class.

"The lower income group who earn less than RM1,000 a month have no voice at all in the issue though they make up 92 percent of the parents who send their children to Tamil schools," he said.

"Unfortunately, middle-class Indians suffer from a high level of inferiority complex and are totally against Tamil education," he added.

Pasupathi expressed hope that the media will report more about the aspirations and wishes of the Indian Malaysian grassroots who constitute a large part of the community.

The lawyer also said the criticism in the media against Mandarin education groups was "uncalled for".

"Just like us, they are fighting to preserve mother-tongue education and we are definitely not the stumbling block to national unity," he said.

There are more than 500 Tamil primary schools in the country with over 90,000 students and some 1,300 Mandarin schools with over 620,000 students, which together make up one quarter of the total student population in the country.