http://dapmalaysia.org  

Cabinet should officially recognize the International Mother Langue Day next Wednesday and allow parents the full freedom of choice between the best national primary schools and the best national-type primary schools for their children without stunting or obstructing the full development of Chinese and Tamil primary schools Suhakam Report by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya,  Friday): The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad yesterday reiterated that the government would not close down or stop financial support for national-type primary schools in keeping with its pledge to the Chinese and Indian communities. Speaking in a question-and-answer session for the 165 UMNO division heads and other leaders on Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) in Kuala Lumpur, Mahathir announced that the government has set up a committee headed by former Education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohd Noor to restructure the national school system to make it attractive to all the races in the country. He said that if sufficient time was allocated for religious studies in national schools, the Malays would not go to privately-run People's Religious Schools. He added: "We also do not want Chinese and Indian families rejecting national schools and sending their children to national-type schools, thinking that national schools are only for Malays and are emphasizing Islam." Mahathir said the Murad committee had submitted its preliminary report to him yesterday morning and that they would be looking at various models for the new education system. Mahathir's statement on Chinese and Tamil primary schools warrants several observations and comments. For the past year, the DAP has been calling for a New Deal for Mother-tongue education, such as the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools under the Eighth Malaysia Plan to meet the increased enrolment needs of pupils, the re-opening of the original Damansara Chinese primary school in Petaling Jaya as a "community school" for the pupils in the immediate locality, fair government allocation of development expenditures to national-type primary schools based on student enrolment and making Pupil's Own Language (POL) a compulsory subject for all pupils in national primary and secondary schools. It should be a matter of grave concern that in the past month, one UMNO Minister after another had been blaming the existence of Chinese primary schools as the cause of racial polarization and national unity, as illustrated by the following instances: The speech by UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the inaugural Penang UMNO Education Convention on 25th January 2003 based on the fallacy that the existence of Chinese primary schools is the cause of racial polarization in the country. The statement by UMNO Vice President and Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin, after attending the MCA Pagoh Chinese New Year Open House reiterating the fallacy that race relations would continue to worsen if the overwhelming majority of the Chinese pupils enrol in Chinese primary schools (Berita Harian 6.2.03). This ignores the fact that the phenomenon of some 90 per cent of Chinese pupils attending Chinese primary schools did not develop only in the past few years but went back over three decades, as in 1977, when Mahathir was then the Education Minister, 87 per cent of the Chinese pupils were already attending the Chinese primary schools. The statement by Aziz Shamsuddin 7th February reiterating that the existence of Chinese and Tamil primary schools are factors of racial polarization in the country. It is a great fallacy to regard the existence of Chinese primary schools as one of the major causes of racial polarization and national disunity in Malaysia. Have the Chinese primary schools, with the enrolment of some 90 per cent of the Chinese pupils, produced chauvinistic, anti-national and unpatriotic Malaysians? This was never the case, for in the past 30 years, Chinese primary schools had produced Malaysians citizens whose loyalty and patriotism are second to none and who had contributed more than their share to the present economic and national development of the country. Mahathir had said more than once, inside and outside the country, that he regards as his greatest achievement the peaceful development of the country contributed by all Malaysians, regardless of race or stream of education. In fact, at every general election, UMNO leaders competed to praise Chinese education, both Chinese primary schools and the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary schools, for their educational excellence, school discipline, teacher commitment and national contribution - but which are quickly forgotten after each election. DAP calls on the government to allow parents the full freedom of choice between the best national primary schools and the best national-type primary schools for their children - without stunting or obstructing the full development of Chinese and Tamil primary schools, whether from lack of new school buildings to meet increased enrolment needs, fair allocation of school development funds or adequacy of trained professional teachers. Mahathir's announcement of the establishment of the Murad committee to restructure the national school system, and that it had submitted its preliminary report, together with the disclosure by the Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin, last Friday that the second Mahathir education review committee had met three times in the past two months, are evidence of the advanced stage in the comprehensive overhaul of the national education system. It should be a matter of grave national concern that the highest-powered and most important review of the national education system in the nation's history, chaired for the first time by the Prime Minister, is based solely on the decision of the UMNO Supreme Council on Nov. 29 last year and had never been referred to the Cabinet for approval and direction in the past 10 weeks. This is most improper and unhealthy, firstly because the Cabinet is the pertinent authority to approve the establishment, terms of reference, composition and modus operandi of the most important and highest-powered education review committee in the 45-year history of the nation; and secondly, the unprecedented marginalization of the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP Ministers in being totally excluded from the education review, with UMNO Ministers and Deputy Ministers the only members of the second Mahathir education review committee. This should be rectified and regularized by the Cabinet at its next meeting on Wednesday. There is one other matter which deserves urgent Cabinet attention and DAP calls on the Cabinet to officially recognize the International Mother Langue Day (IMLD) on Wednesday, i.e. two days before February 21, the fourth International Mother Language Day. It would be too late for the government to organize nation-wide events to commemorate the IMLD this year, but its official recognition by the Cabinet on Wednesday could be regarded as a celebration of sorts, especially as Malaysia was one of the 28 countries which seconded the proposal adopted by UNESCO in 1999 to declare Feb. 21 as the IMLD. Such a Cabinet recognition is important for our national education system as one of the UNESCO objectives of declaring the International Mother Language Day is to "promote, through multilingual education, democratic access to knowledge for all citizens, whatever their mother tongue, and build linguistic pluralism". (14/2/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman