Leaders of two Chinese education groups today questioned the motive of one of the association's former chairperson who criticised them for opposing the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English.

The United Chinese School Teachers Association Malaysia (Dong Zong) and the United Chinese School Committees Association Malaysia (Jiao Zong) collectively known as Dong Jiao Zong have been vehemently attacked by various quarters for their stand.

Adding salt to the injury, was Dong Zong's ex-chairperson Dr Too Chee Cheong who yesterday accused the education movements of crippling the Chinese community.

Leaders of the two movements have questioned the timing of this latest assault from a former office bearer.

Polarisation

Jiao Zong honourary advisor Sim Mow Yu said Too's assertion only served to deepen the prejudice among those who were against the two groups.

"He (Too) left us for more than 30 years now. It seems like he has misunderstood us and our work.

"I think many have doubts about why he chose to make his statement at this juncture in time. I have my doubts about that too but I would not want to speculate," he said.

Sim, 90, was the chairperson of Jiao Zong from 1966 to 1994. He was an MCA Youth vice chairperson but was sacked by the party in 1967.

He had urged the government to accept Mandarin as an official language just before the National Language Act was enacted in 1967.

The veteran educationist was also detained under the Internal Security Act in the 1987 Operasi Lalang which saw the arrest of more than 100 activists, educationists, religious workers, environmentalists and laypersons.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Too criticised the two education groups for causing the polarisation between the "English-speaking Chinese" and "Mandarin-speaking Chinese".

The 78-year-old doctor, who runs a clinic in Kuala Lumpur, said this was because the two groups insisted on using only mother tongue as the teaching medium in Chinese schools.

He added that this attitude "crippled the community as it has resulted in a generation of Chinese Malaysians who are not bilingual".

Too also said he left Dong Zong in 1967 after he failed to convince his colleagues then to accept bilingual teaching using Chinese and English in these schools.

Poor memory

However, when contacted, Jiao Zong vice chairperson Loot Ting Yee dismissed this claim as "nonsense".

"Maybe he (Too) has suffered from poor memory but he did not leave Dong Zong because the reason he cited.

"It was because he had lost his position as a chairperson for a Chinese school committee at that time," he said.

Loot also said it was inaccurate for the former Dong Zong chairperson to accuse the two education groups of propagating a monolingual education for the Chinese community.

"Our stand is clear. We are not against Bahasa Melayu or English. What we want is that school children learn in their mother tongue during the formative years but at the same time master other languages," he said.

He said this was evident in Dong Jiao Zong's repeated request to the government for approval to teach English in Standard One instead of Standard Three as it is now in Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

Loot added he could not understand why Too had chosen to criticise the two groups so harshly but remained silent when they were subjected to unfair media coverage in recent weeks.

"The media called us extremists, chauvinists, and other bad names. Our statements were twisted in the Malay newspapers particularly, to mislead their readers. Why didn't Too say anything about this?" he asked.

The state-run Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) has recently started airing a multi-part, five-minute segment entitled Bahaya Cauvinisme (Dangers of chauvinism) during prime-time news on its two channels.

DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang described the broadcast as a "blatant political propaganda" that depicted Dong Jiao Zong as "anti-Malay, anti-national and unpatriotic".

Protest letter

Last week, the two education groups sent a protest letter to Malay dailies Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian for their controversial frontpage headings regarding the language switch issue.

Utusuan 's headline read 'Chinese chauvinists reject new formula' while Berita Harian said 'Two Chinese NGOs object'.

They were published a day after Dong Jiao Zong met to discuss the government's decision to teach Science and Maths in both English and Chinese in Standard One in Chinese primary schools next year.

In a press statement earlier today, Dong Jiao Zong expressed "shock" and "confusion" over Too's statement.

"We are confident that the Chinese community knows the problems Chinese education faces for decades and the role of Dong Jiao Zong in solving these problems.

"We also trust that the community is wise enough to judge between truth and lie and make a right decision," it said.