Extremism the cause of national disunity, not vernacular schools

ADUN SPEAKS | Racism and religious extremism are the root cause of disunity among Malaysians, not vernacular schools.

Bersatu Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal must be out of mind to think that vernacular schools in the country fail to produce students who are not nationalistic.

Anyway, he is not the first person to open his mouth on this matter of vernacular schools and he is definitely not going to be last.

As long race and religion are going to dominate the political thinking of race or religious-based political parties such as Umno, PAS or Bersatu, vernacular schools will be targets of attack.

Of course, questioning the existence of vernacular schools is both seditious and unconstitutional. But alas, will the authorities act on this matter?

Vernacular schools have been in the country even before independence, not something that cropped up recently.

There is no need to explain that the root cause of instability is not the vernacular or national schools, but the nature of divide by the ethnic and religious champions mainly found in Umno, PAS and lately, Bersatu.

Even if you remove vernacular schools, nationalism leading to national unity might not emerge.

If vernacular schools are that bad, Wan Fayhsal (above) should explain why nearly 20 percent of the enrolment in Chinese vernacular schools are Malay students.

Surely, if Malay parents are aware of the divisive nature of the Chinese schools, they wouldn’t send their children to these schools.

Both Chinese and Tamil schools adhere to the national curriculum of the Ministry of Education.

The question of these schools teaching subjects outside the mainstream curriculum does not arise in the first place.

Wan Fayhsal, by trying to be a racial champion, has got his facts wrong. He doesn’t understand that national unity or nationalism cannot be derived automatically by abolishing vernacular schools.

He cannot defend language nationalism in the country when certain universities and colleges are still using English as the medium of instruction, something contrary to the promotion and propagation of Malay as the national language.

Maybe, if he is smart enough, he will venture to find out why non-Malay students prefer to attend vernacular schools, rather than national schools.

Is there something wrong with these schools?

National unity is not a simple matter that can be derived mechanically by closing down vernacular schools, but a complex matter.

I suppose Wan Fayhsal, given his narrow-minded views, cannot be expected to have wisdom on the subject of national unity nor the intellectual ability to think through this elusive subject matter.

The easiest way is to take a popular route by engaging in populist racist politics.

It is strange that Bersatu leaders like Wan Fayhsal are making such remarks at a time when his party is seriously considering opening its membership to non-Malays.

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P RAMASAMY is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister (II) of Penang. - Mkini