An opposition leader today criticised Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for interpreting a report in a Malay-medium newspaper as reflecting the sentiments of the Chinese community instead of directly consulting community leaders and representatives.

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said Mahathir should learn about the views of the Malaysian Chinese from their representative parties within the Barisan Nasional, the community or from the Chinese press rather than from a Utusan Malaysia report.

"I do not know when Utusan became the most authoritative source on the wishes and feelings of the community," said Lim in a press statement.

In today's newspapers, Mahathir was quoted as saying the government believes that it has many silent supporters among the Chinese community for its plan to introduce English-medium teaching for Maths and Science based on Friday's Utusan Malaysia report.

Mahathir said this based on the report which stated that some 7,000 Chinese Malaysian students from Johor are continuing their middle secondary education in Singapore in order to benefit from an English-medium education.

Lack of confidence

While Lim agreed that an overwhelming majority of Malaysians (regardless of ethnic origins) are in support of the government's efforts to raise the proficiency of English, Maths and Science among students, he said this does not mean support for the proposal to switch the language of instruction for the latter two subjects.

"The Utusan report speaks volumes about the lack of confidence of Malaysians in the Malaysian education system but it does not mean support for the [partial language switch] unless Mahathir is seriously considering the restoration of full English-medium schools where all subjects are taught in English," Lim added.

In contrast to the Malaysian education system, Singapore had adopted the English-language as the medium of instruction in their national schools. All school subjects are taught in English but students are required to learn a second language which may be Malay, Tamil or Mandarin as a separate subject.

The proposal to re-introduce English-medium teaching emerged after Mahathir expressed dismay at the sliding levels of English proficiency among Malaysian students and proposed for a reestablishment of English-medium schools, if the public wanted it.

However, a watered-down version of this proposal, which was to introduce English-medium teaching in all schools but limited to only two technical subjects, was later pushed through resulting from a compromise within Umno.

Those opposing the move include vernacular educationists and a BN component party, Gerakan.

'No to 929' to go on

In a separate matter, the DAP Youth wing called for cooperation from Klang police for tomorrow's leg of the party's "No to 929" campaign which opposes Mahathir's declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

Last week, six of the party's leaders including national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu and Youth chairperson Chong Kim Seng, were arrested while distributing campaign leaflets at the Pandamaran new village market. However, they were released unconditionally after several hours.

"The DAP's campaign in Pandamaran tomorrow is not a confrontation with the police but to make an important point to preserve our fundamental rights as a political party to conduct legitimate political activities.

"Our campaign is not seditious in any nature and it is not meant to create any ill-feelings against Islam but to state our objections to any attempt to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state, the DAP Socialist Youth said in a press statement.

The party's "No to 929" campaign was first disrupted when police arrested Lim in Ipoh in May for distributing leaflets alleged to be seditious

However, none of them have been charged.