Single School System – Scrap National Schools And Promote Vernacular Schools To Foster National Unity & Racial Harmony

 Every time politicians want to become a hero of their community, vernacular school will become the punching bag. We have lost count how many times UMNO-Malay leaders have been shouting till their face turns blue about wanting to shut down Malaysian vernacular school – a unique type of primary school where either Mandarin or Tamil is the medium of instruction.

From Mahathir Mohamad to Abdullah Badawi, and from Najib Razak to Muhyiddin Yassin, all the past prime ministers had played the favourite card, one way or another, to project their respective administration as the defender of Malay and Muslim. Malaysia is perhaps the only country in the world where Malay – the largest ethnic group – keeps crying about dubious threat of minority Chinese and Indians.

The game is simple. Derived from “Ketuanan Melayu”, an ideology of Malay supremacy espoused by UMNO (United Malays National Organization), the game plan is to create a narrative that the second-class citizen, especially Malaysian Chinese, are the source of all problems. It’s the greatest invention since sliced bread – all Malay problems will disappear by diverting attention to blaming the Chinese.

Blame the rich Chinese for Malays being poor. Blame the hardworking Chinese for Malays being uncompetitive. Blame the agile Chinese for Malays being left behind in the business. Blame the creative Chinese for Malays being unable to progress. And don’t forget to blame the Chinese schools for a weak grasp of Malay language, deteriorating racial harmony, poor national unity and whatnot.

The latest clown trying incredibly hard to copy his past predecessors to become a Malay hero is UMNO Youth leader Akmal Salleh. The name does not ring a bell because unlike Najib Razak, Hishammuddin Hussein, Khairy Jamaluddin and even current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, all of whom were once UMNO Youth Chief, 35-year-old Akmal is unknown and still wet behind ears.

Failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election in 2018, the same election that saw UMNO-led Barisan Nasional ruling government lost power for the first time after 60 years, Akmal was downgraded to contest in the Melaka state election in 2021. Since he became UMNO Youth Chief in 2023, this Chinese-hater beats even Donald Trump in criticising everything related to ethnic Chinese.

He had previously condemned Anwar government’s allocation of RM15.7 million for 63 Chinese independent schools, but kept silent over a whopping RM150 million for Islamic “tahfiz and pondok schools”. He had opposed a proposal for Chinese New Villages to be recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site, spinning that it touched on the sensitivities of the Malays.

The moron had even called for Tiong King Sing to be sacked for declaring “bak kut teh” as national heritage food, only to be lectured by the Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister that the traditional Chinese herbs and spices can be boiled with any types of meat – not necessarily pork. And now, the UMNO racist scumbag wants vernacular schools to be abolished so that a single school system can be introduced.

The UMNO Youth demands a comprehensive assessment of the syllabus of vernacular schools, including the level of mastery of Malay language. He also argued that to strengthen racial harmony and national unity, a single school system is the solution. Therefore, the Chinese and Tamil schools must be scrapped. He falsely claims that Malaysians had been divided from a young age because of vernacular schools.

As a start, vernacular schools cannot be closed down just because some racist like Akmal hates the Chinese – not only the schools have the rights to use Chinese and Tamil to teach students, the existence of such schools is protected under the Federal Constitution. Did he know that vernacular schools using Tamil or Chinese had existed before the existence of the Federal Constitution, or even before he was born?

In fact, the clueless man should be investigated and charged for having violated the Sedition Act 1948 because according to the Article 152(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution – no person shall be prohibited or barred from using (other than for official purposes), or from teaching or learning, any other language. As ruled by the Federal Court last month, vernacular schools are both legal and constitutional.

Now, having established that vernacular schools cannot be shut down, let’s look at the syllabus of the SJKC Chinese or Tamil schools. The only problem with their syllabus is they are so comprehensive and high quality that Malay parents scramble to send their children to Chinese schools every year, overcrowding classes to an unhealthy level. Even Akmal’s predecessor, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, sent his children to Chinese school.

SJKC schools adopt the same national syllabus used by national schools, which by the way have plunged into a deplorable and pathetic state. Students took the same now-defunct UPSR examination. But there are more. For example, students in vernacular SJKCs are exposed to computers, robotic, abacus and Olympiad Math, just to name a few. National schools, meanwhile, have become religious schools.

There are about 100,000 non-Chinese students in SJKCs nationwide – about 10% of the total number of students in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC). They choose to send their children there to learn the discipline and ethics of the Chinese culture, not to mention the opportunity to learn a third language – Mandarin- which is gaining importance due to China’s rapid economic influence and global presence.

So, don’t be surprised when a Malay employee of Dunkin’ Donuts or a Malay doctor at the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital spoke fluent Mandarin. It’s very easy to prove that the quality of vernacular school education is superior to national school. Just send your children to different schools and see the results of the experiment. Crucially, you don’t hear cases of sexual harassment, rape or bullying in Chinese schools.

Unlike in national schools, SJKC teachers were more dedicated and skilled, and don’t sleep on the job. Instead of reciting religious text, students in vernacular schools are made to recite the “times table” to enhance memorization skills, which is essential to mastery of mathematic subject. Not all national schools are bad though – there is a huge gap in the quality of education between urban and rural areas

After primary schools at SJKCs, many parents actually choose to send their kids to Chinese Secondary Schools (SMJK), which uses Mandarin as medium of instruction in subjects such as Mathematics, Science and Geography compared to Government Secondary Schools (SMK), which uses Malay. Those who can afford higher school fees would choose Chinese independent schools or international schools.

Again, SMJK students follow the same syllabus and sit for the same examinations as SMK during now-defunct Form Three (PT3), Form Five (SPM) and Form Six (STPM) – except that Chinese subject is compulsoy in SMJK. In fact, even Chinese independent schools teach Malay language and offer SPM to their students on top of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), even though it is not compulsory to do so.

It is worth to note that not all students attended Chinese independent schools will continue to UEC Senior Three (equivalent to Form 6 in national schools). Some decide to study and register as SPM candidates there because the Chinese independent schools possessed outstanding educators and quality education system, unlike government schools, which have turned into politicians’ playground.

Hence, it’s false to say vernacular school is a bad influence to national unity. In truth, Chinese schools are more multi-ethnic than national schools. Parents, regardless of race and religion were fighting tooth and nail to enrol their children there, despite limited schools as well as classrooms. On the contrary, both non-Malays and Malays are avoiding national schools like a plague due to declining quality of education.

The reason why people like UMNO Youth Chief Akmal Salleh, and other Islamist extremists who are in the same time zone like him, desperately wanted to destroy vernacular schools is because the Malays who send kids to the Chinese schools have become smarter. And when the Malays become cleverer, they don’t need UMNO’s crutches or protection as they can compete with other races – the recipe for UMNO’s demise.

It’s not rocket science why national schools are unpopular. You have religious teachers telling Muslim students not to “friend” with their non-Muslim classmates. And you have students coming home and tell their parents that their teachers are lazy. Worse, the students at primary level speak better English than their English teachers. It was shameful that a sister at Chinese school had to teach her older brother at Malay school about Math and English.

More importantly, Malays do not experience any form of discrimination in Chinese schools (even though they are the minority in such schools), unlike in government schools where non-Muslim students were forced to eat in toilets because of Ramadan. The vernacular school also does not stop Malay students from practising their Islamic faith. They are allowed to go for Friday prayers and religious classes.

Exactly where is Akmal, or other UMNO leaders, when fellow PAS extremists demanded that all schools’ canteen be closed down during the current Ramadan, denying non-Muslims of basic human right called food? Clearly, the stumbling block to racial harmony and national unity isn’t the vernacular schools. Thanks to Chinese and Tamil schools, pupil get quality education and no students go hungry or suffer sexual harassment or even rape.

If Akmal insists to have a single school system, he should consider revamping the entire education system by scrapping the low-quality national schools and promote vernacular SJKCs as the model to achieve national unity and racial harmony. He should have the balls to explain why a jaw-dropping 100,000 Malay parents have had enough of clowns and monkeys running the public schools. - financetwitter

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.