Several Indian Malaysian social groups today responded differently to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's announcement this week that all primary schools, including Tamil schools, will use English to teach Mathematics and Science next year.

The Malaysian Tamil Education and Research Foundation (MTERF), which has vehemently opposed the move, said it planned to organise mass gatherings, distribute leaflets, and send Deepavali cards to rally for support next month.

"The public has been hoodwinked on the issue. What is disturbing is that the government said it would listen to our views but at the same time preparations were already underway for the shift to English.

"We went there sincerely [for a series of meetings] but now we know they were just repeating the same old trick. They were not serious about listening to us in the first place," said MTERF pro tem president M Manogar.

He stressed that the organisation supported the government's plan to improve English among students but "not at the expense of the poor Tamil school children's welfare".

Next course of action

The organisation will also seek to meet other education groups such as the United Chinese School Teachers Association Malaysia and United Chinese School Committees Association Malaysia (collectively known as Dong Jiao Zong) to discuss the next course of action, he added.

After the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Nasional MIC president S Samy Vellu had claimed that the Indian Malaysian community supports the government's move to improve the command of English among students.

However, Malaysian Indian Youth Council president A Rajaretnam said that while most parents may think a switch to English is good now, they will change their mind when the implementation produces adverse effect on their children's studies.

"The government can implement anything now because it has the power, but it would have to face the rakyat at the end of the day," he said.

He also criticised the government for desperately seeking the endorsement of Malaysians to the language switch without giving any concrete evidence on its benefit.

He cited a mass rally organised by the Federation of Chinese Guilds and coordinated by Mahathir's aides early this month as an example. He said representatives from many organisations were given RM10 each to attend the event where Mahathir had urged the public to support the language switch for national unity.

No action

Meanwhile, Education, Welfare and Research Fund president S Jambulingam said though the organisation maintained its stand on opposing the language switch, it does not see any point in doing anything as the government is adamant on the change.

"We will have to see what we can do about the problems and help the students to overcome the problems. We will deal with the situation as it arises," he said.

Malaysian Dravidian Association president RS Muthiah said the committee members will meet on Monday to discuss what they should do in response to Mahathir's announcement.

Indian Malaysians make up about nine percent of the country's 22.2 million population. It is the third largest ethnic group after Malay (about 58 percent) and Chinese Malaysians (about 28 percent).

In a previous report, the MIC education bureau said about 77.3 percent of parents of Tamil schools earn less than RM700.

The Tamil groups fear that the change will cause an increase in the number of drop-outs and at the same time affect the performance of the students in Science and Mathematics.

The proposal also met with strong objections from Chinese educationists who argued that the idea was not practical and will instead alter the characteristics of vernacular primary schools.