The Tamil and Chinese education groups will join forces in Sungai Siput, Perak, in early September to explain to people, particularly parents, the implications of teaching Science and Maths in English.

Sungai Siput is considered MIC's stronghold. It is party president S Samy Vellu's parliamentary constituency.

Scheduled for Sept 8, the joint event will revolve around concerns raised by parents whose children are studying in the country's 1,284 Chinese and 526 Tamil primary schools over the new policy slated for implementation next year.

The Tamil education group's road-show, planned simultaneously by state representatives assisted by professionals from its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, began in the northern state of Perak yesterday.

Among the Indian-based groups who have shown support for the initiative are the Malaysian Tamil Dravidian Association, Malaysian Indian Youth Council and the Group of Concerned Citizens.

A waste in infrastructure-barren schools

The new system will be implemented in stages, starting with Year One, Remove Class, Form 1 and Lower Six.

Malaysian Tamil Educational Research and Development Foundation pro-tem deputy president A Sivanesan said the aim was to defer the policy by getting the support of parents before "it is too late for the Tamil schools and our children".

He said both groups are keeping each other in the loop by exchanging feedback and ideas regularly, but have decided to go separate ways in reaching out to the public. A signature campaign has been scheduled for Sept 15.

Speaking at an education forum on the language switch organised by Keadilan on Friday night, he said the policy was "another project by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government".

Sivanesan lambasted the three Indian-based political parties the MIC, the Indian Progressive Front (IPF) and the People's Progressive Party (PPP) for failing to defend the community's rights to mother-tongue education and for ignoring the fears of Indian Malaysian parents.

"The three leaders, Samy Vellu, MG Pandithan and M Kayveas, have agreed with the policy individually, when it should have been the parents of children directly affected by it.

"In fact, none of MIC's top leaders had sent their children to Tamil schools, so they should not be the ones to talk about this," he told about 300 people who attended the talk at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur.

Putting cart before horse

Indian Malaysians comprise one-tenth of the country's 23 million population, making it the third largest ethnic group after Malay and Chinese Malaysians which constitute under half and one-third respectively.

Sivanesan, also a Parent-Teacher Association chairperson, said the government should improve the infrastructure and ensure that Tamil schools are equipped with proper facilities instead of trying to change the characteristic of the schools, mostly attended by children from very poor families in rubber and oil palm plantations.

"We did ask the government to introduce English, but from Year One and not through the teaching of Science and Maths," he said.

"Can you imagine how Tamil schoolchildren can cope with the switch when even national school pupils are facing problems in English upon reaching secondary school?" he asked, evoking a rousing response from the floor comprising Indian, Malay and Chinese Malaysian parents.

Another speaker, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia mathematical science lecturer Prof Shaharir Mohamad Zain, questioned the rationale of the new policy when the original intention was to have English-medium schools.

"The government intends to use English in the first year of university by the year 2005."

Barking up the wrong tree

Referring to world history, he said many European countries like France and Germany had tried using their own language between the Ninth and Fifteenth Century, but failed because Arabic was the dominant language of knowledge at that time.

Closer at home, said Shaharir, politicians are facing problems talking about the issue due to the lack of grassroots contact.

"They have no clue as to how effective Bahasa Malaysia has been among pupils, as a language which promotes ideas," he said to loud cheering.

During the question-and-answer session, one parent pointed out that instead of questioning the quality of education, everyone was harping on the language switch.

Citing the shortage of 4,000 English teachers in the country, he asked whether the teachers currently being trained in Bahasa Malaysia can complete their courses in English, failing which it will affect the quality and quantity.

Another raised the question as to why Umno would want to risk losing more Malay support/votes in the next general election by pushing for the implementation of the new policy.

Responding to a query on where Malays stand on the issue, Shaharir said there was a media conspiracy to black-out the fact that eight Malay-based organisations also opposed the policy and are actively seeking public support.

"Information is being denied to citizens so that they will not know what's really happening.

"I believe that 90 percent of Malays oppose the policy to teach the two subjects in English," he said, adding that he and like-minded colleagues have managed to collect signatures from 60 percent of UKM's science and maths lecturers as part of the ongoing one million-signature campaign.

More than language skills

Confucian Independent Secondary School principal Goh Kean Seng, using an overhead projector and speaking in Mandarin and English, presented the concept of a foundational education which encompasses a total of 12 years primary and secondary schooling.

Citing the example of post-World War I Japan and Germany, he said their successes were due to the great achievements in their foundational education.

"Something has gone wrong in our foundational education today. We are not achieving the aims of this concept, which is to produce a well-rounded citizen," he said.

He said mother-tongue must be the language for foundational education because it is a scientific tool, a democratic right and a thinking tool.

"Comprehensive and in-depth thinking must be in the most familiar language, which is the mother-tongue of the child. And the mother-tongue is not necessarily the ethnic group which the child belongs to.

"I know of an Indian boy who was raised by a Chinese family. His mother-tongue will be the Chinese language because he did not merely learn the language but was also educated in the cultural norms of the community."

Burden rural folks

Goh believes the implementation of the new policy will not only destroy Malaysia's future generation, but will further burden rural folks who will suffer the most due to the lack of a linguistic environment.

The debate on this policy has been raging for over three weeks now, with the ruling party and opposition grabbing the opportunity to gain whatever political mileage they can from it.

On Friday, the New Straits Times quoted Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as saying that the implementation will go ahead as planned.

But Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi seemed to contradict that stand in another report on the same day, by saying that the final decision, to be made within two weeks, will be after discussions with the Malay groups are held.

The MIC has said that Tamil schools were ready to implement the policy next year, but the MCA has yet to make a stand while the other largest Chinese-based BN component Gerakan has openly opposed it.