Do national school leavers make better political leaders than their vernacular school peers?

 

IS IT true that products of vernacular schools possess lower leadership skills or quality compared to those who hail from national schools? Or is there a correlation that national schools are better breeding grounds for Malaysian leaders irrespective of one’s race?

This seems to be the point of contention raised by staunch Perikatan Nasional (PN) political activist Jauhari Johar who contended that school leavers of vernacular schools which medium of instruction is either Mandarin or Tamil are less qualified to be a leader in a plural society like Malaysia due to their lack of communication skill or Bahasa Melayu proficiency.

“As we’re aware, the non-Bumiputera community – especially the Chinese community – refuses to be with us in an effort to foster multi-racial unity through the existence of a single-stream education system under the auspices of Malaysia’s national language which is Bahasa Melayu,” he penned in the X platform.

“This raises new questions about the credibility and suitability of any Malaysian who wants to lead our multi-racial and multi-religious society.

“Who is more effective in communicating within the enlarged Malaysian society between a pupil from a national school which emphasises communication skill in Bahasa Melayu or a leaver of a vernacular school whose medium is Mandarin or Tamil?”

Jauhari who is a proponent of single-stream school system further called on Malaysians “to be honest with themselves” on the matter.

“I believe that any Malaysian who aspires to be a people’s representative sincerely wants to serve the diverse community in the area he/she represents. But we also have to be honest with ourselves,” he asserted.

“Do we deserve to lead a diverse society if people in our constituency find it difficult to communicate with their representatives?”

Despite having offered something worth pondering among Malaysians, Jauhari’s rather narrow-minded view have attracted more brickbats than anything else presumably because he has not only failed to furnish an empirical study to back his claims but more so because of his hidden political agenda:

- Focus Malaysia