Malay rights pressure group Perkasa has deemed it an ‘insult to Malay teachers’ that education group Dong Zong has demanded the transfer of teachers not literate in Mandarin, out of Chinese-medium schools.

NONE Perkasa secretary general Syed Hassan Syed Ali (left) said Malay teachers are posted to Chinese-medium schools to teach Bahasa Malaysia and, as such, it is unreasonable to expect them to speak Mandarin.

“If a Chinese child goes to the United Kingdom to study English, would we expect the teacher to be able to speak Chinese?” Utusan Malaysia today quoted him as saying.

Thousands of people had joined the Dong Zong-organised rally last Sunday to protest the government’s failure to address the acute shortage of Chinese-educated teachers for Chinese schools.

A scuffle broke when a man tried to punch Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong, who had made a surprise appearance at the rally.

The would-be assailant was stopped by a Wee's police escort, and the deputy minister escaped unhurt. He later ‘forgave’ the individual involved.