DAP today urged the government to provide more information about the new committee set up recently by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to review the attractiveness of the national education system.

Party chairperson Lim Kit Siang said it was "astounding" that the education review committee started work on Wednesday before it was properly constituted or its terms of reference defined satisfactorily.

"DAP must caution that the Mahathir education committee should not start on a wrong footing without being properly constituted and its terms of reference defined or it will be considered unrepresentative, undemocratic and even lacking in legitimacy," he added in a press statement.

Information about the committee was first revealed by the prime minister after the Umno supreme council meeting on Nov 29.

Yesterday, the New Straits Times reported that members of the committee, who are also cabinet ministers, met with education ministry authorities on Wednesday at the premier's office to devise new strategies to ensure that national schools remain a popular choice among Malaysians.

Non-Umno representation

In addition to the uncertainty over the scope of the committee's work, Lim also questioned the manner in which the committee was set up without proper consultation and participation of all cabinet ministers.

According to him, not only did the cabinet not deliberate on the proposal to set up the review committee but non-Umno ministers too appeared to have little hand in the matter.

"It is not good enough that Umno cabinet ministers had approved it in the Umno supreme council when there are other ministers like MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik, Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik and MIC president S Samy Vellu who should not be treated as 'puppets'," he said.

Lim said the public was in the dark over the actual membership of the committee because of the uncertainty over whether the committee had been properly constituted.

Those reported to be present at the meeting with Mahathir yesterday were Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak, Deputy Education Minister Aziz Shamsuddin and Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman.

"Who are the other members apart from (them)? Why is the committee basically an Umno committee and not even a Barisan Nasional committee?

"It should be a national committee representing all political parties, educational organistions and the civil society," said Lim.

Blaming vernacular schools

On the committee's terms of reference, the opposition leader expressed concern that the failure of the national education system in fostering unity may be blamed on the existence of a vernacular education system.

"In the past fortnight, the (setting up) of the review committee has brought back calls by Umno leaders and establishment educationists including former top education ministry officials for a single stream school system as the answer to the problem of racial polarisation in the country.

"It is one of the biggest fallacies in Malaysian nation-building that communalism and national disunity are caused by the existence of the multi-stream primary education system," he said.

Lim urged the committee to look at the "real question" of why national unity among students of all races failed though the majority of students from vernacular schools later continued to enrol in national secondary schools.

Previously, Mahathir was quoted as saying that the review committee was set up because of the failure in national schools to bring about better relations among the various races.