A game of hide-and-seek unraveled at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur this evening with leaders from four Chinese-based Barisan Nasional parties, who were meeting to discuss modifications to the controversial language switch, gave journalists the slip.

About 20 journalists staked out a function room in Hotel Nikko where the Chinese leaders were meeting long before it ended at 6.30pm

However, when the door was opened by a hotel staff, what greeted the journalists were 14 empty mineral water bottles on a table, with pens and notepads scattered all over.

The leaders were nowhere in sight.

Determined to solve the mystery, journalists began inspecting the interior and chanced upon a door that connected the room to the kitchen, where refreshments for the meeting were prepared.

This is believed to have been the getaway route.

However, it could not be confirmed whether the alternative exit was a mere coincidence or otherwise.

Venue changed

Earlier developments clearly suggested that the leaders were bent on avoiding the media.

Even the venue of the meeting was changed at the eleventh hour. The meeting was to have taken place at the nearby Equatorial Hotel, where scores of journalist had flocked to.

The leaders were scheduled to arrive at 4pm but when nobody tuned up, journalists grew suspicious and later learnt through their contacts that the venue had changed.

Since Tuesday's BN supreme council meeting which decided to implement the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in all schools starting next year, the spotlight has fallen on these four parties MCA, Gerakan, Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

The parties had asked that Chinese primary schools be exempted from the switch. However, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there will be no exemption.

Instead, the four parties were given one week to decide on a different model of implementation for these schools.

Earlier today, the United Chinese School Teachers Association Malaysia and United Chinese School Committees Association Malaysia (collectively known as Dong Jiao Zong) had urged the four parties to tell the public "the truth".

Yesterday, Sin Chew Daily had quoted MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik as saying that Chinese primary schools will be exempted from the language switch, leading to confusion among the community.

The new policy will affect Standard One, Form One and Lower Six students. The switch was suggested as a remedy to arrest local students' declining proficiency in the English language.

However, this met with strong protests, especially from vernacular education movements who wanted to retain the mother-tongue medium of instruction.