Use your head, Perkasa man told

Gerakan’s Baljit Singh says Syed Hassan must decide whether his organisation is for or against the Federal Constitution.

GEORGE TOWN: A Perkasa leader’s recent statement in the scholarship row has provoked questions about his ability to make reasoned arguments.

A Gerakan leader said Syed Hassan Syed Ali, the far right Malay group’s secretary general, was not using his head when he suggested that the government deny scholarships to non-Malays who do not complete their education in national schools.

Baljit Singh, who heads Penang Gerakan’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau, said Perkasa must decide whether it was for or against the Federal Constitution, which accepts vernacular schools as part of the national education system.

Perkasa has often claimed that its fight for Malay rights is a fight to defend the constitution.

“If Perkasa is so patriotic in protecting the Federal Constitution, it should also protect vernacular education,” Baljit said.

A spokesman for the Malaysian Indian Forum, M Arivananthan, said Syed Hassan lacked knowledge about vernacular education and why some parents chose it for their children.

He said some Indians and Chinese preferred mother-tongue education for academic as well cultural reasons.

“Non-Malays were just asking for what they were entitled to and not questioning anybody’s rights or privileges” when they called for fairness in scholarship distribution, Arivananthan said in a media statement.

.Both Baljit and Arivananthan called on the government to tame Perkasa, saying its extremism and racist propaganda were endangering peace.

Baljit called on Syed Hassan to open up his mind and consider the feelings of taxpayers who felt that their children were being sidelined because they came from the wrong racial community.

He also proposed that the government implement a “balanced scholarship policy” to benefit both bright students and those who are needy and have “reasonable” academic merit.

He suggested that the Public Service Department (PSD) reserve 500 awards to the most academically qualified students regardless of their ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds.