YOURSAY 'Come on police, show your impartiality. Show us that we can still count on you to be fair to Malaysians.'

Don: Abolish vernacular schools for unity's sake

Klangite: Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pro-chancellor Abdul Rahman Arshad may be right and this can be achieved if he advises the government to have one pre-university examinations for all students, ensure there are no racist teachers, be fair to all students, allow mother tongue to be taught with all the necessary support, and immediately allow non-Malay students to enrol in UiTM courses.

If these can be done, then his proposal should be considered as genuine efforts towards nation building. Abdul Rahman, please start with UiTM as proof that you mean what you say.

Ferdtan: The law is very clear as there had been previous cases - Melan Abdullah v Public Prosecutor (1971) where Utusan Malaysia was found guilty of sedition for its editorial, ‘Hapuskan Sekolah Beraliran Tamil atau China di-Negeri ini' and Mark Koding v Public Prosecutor where the Sabah member of parliament was found guilty of sedition when he spoke in Parliament in October 1978 calling for the closure of Chinese and Tamil primary schools." (source: Lim Kit Siang blog, dated Dec 2, 2008).

Now isn't the case of Abdul Rahman, who called for the abolition of Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools in favour of a single stream school which uses Malay-language as a medium, similar to that of BN Sabah MP Mark Koding and Utusan ?

Come on police, show your impartiality. Show us that we can still count on you to be fair to Malaysians. Show us that the laws of the country do not differentiate the political colours of the law breakers, despite that Abdul Rahman is Umno-friendly.

Quigonbond: Yes, no doubt about it. They are trying to use the same issues to stir up racial tensions ahead of May 13, and then PM Najib Razak, showing how responsible he is to preserve the social fabric of Malaysia, will clamp down on the opposition under Sosma (Security Offences Act).

As if Malaysians are stupid. But well, that's what Umno believes anyway, so they will try the same tactic even though it failed since 2008.

I would suggest people like Chinese education group Dong Zong don't say much at this hour except that the basis for the suggestion is wrong because the urban people as a whole went against BN, not just a single race, so don't blame it on education stream.

Also, Dong Zong can say we agree with Pakatan Rakyat manifesto to let various streams survive, and all receive funding as long as their curriculum is based on the Malaysian syllabus.

That way, they can't say you defy them - you're just exercising a choice based on a democratic process. Didn't Najib say we have the best democracy in the world?

Swipenter: Since GE13 and Najib's infamous "Chinese tsunami" statement, the relentless attacks and demonisation of the Chinese Malaysians by Umno and those who stand to benefit most from the latter has taken an ugly turn.

In the days to come, expect more and more such attacks to be launched by these ultra and right-wing Umno Malays on the social, cultural, economical, education spheres concerning the Chinese.

The few sane voices in Umno who dare to contradict Najib's "Chinese tsunami" would be drowned out, if not ostracise by their own party. It is so obvious these extremists are singling out the Chinese community to attack but dare not confront the reality of the millions of Malays who voted for Pakatan.

Lexicon: "Those who don't agree are anti-unity?" said Abdul Rahman.

No, those who don't agree are anti-authoritarianism. They are also independent, critical and politically aware voters.

This pro-chancellor is only interested to unify the ‘Malay vote', not the Malaysian society. Haven't you heard? Our political landscape has changed.

Thanks to Umno's corruption, poor Malaysians of all ethnic origins will no longer accept Umno's greed and corruption. The next election will see even more poor Malays voting against corruption, because Umno is simply unable and unwilling to reform and provide more equitable wealth distribution.

Kingfisher: Abdul Rahman's suggestion to unify national education is one of the best ideas to come out this forum. The severe setback to racial unity and the overall poor quality education due to polarisation into vernacular and national medium schools has been obvious the last 30 years.

But unfortunately there was no political will for reasons of race, etc, to redress the inadequacies and establish a uniform system.

One of the biggest casualties of the failure of vernacular-based education have been the Tamil school goers who by virtue of the limited educational scope and opportunities have severely lost out in gaining meaningful employable skills and language competencies, especially in English.

While many Indian Malaysian leaders knew that Tamil eduaction in Malaysia had/has no economic value, none seem to have championed any long-term intiatives to redress this unfortunate misfortune, which has led to continuing decline in economic opportunities for Tamils school goers.

Proarte: Our public universities are bastions of Malay racism and privilege. Each one of these universities, which are taxpayer funded, have Malay vice-chancellors. Even the universities in Sabah and Sarawak have Umno-appointed Malay VCs.

Talk about 'unity' and 'integration' rings hollow when government universities practise blatant discrimination and exclusion.

If there is a sincere wish for integration and unity, then our universities should stop its racism and discrimination and appoint Iban, Kadazan, Chinese and Indian VCs in at least 50 percent of our public universities.

Parents send their children to vernacular schools partly because of the ever declining standards in the national schools. Apart from keeping their respective languages and culture alive in vernacular schools, non-Malays will have more independence to organise the curriculum for the benefit of their students.

Mohd Khamis Mazlan: "Let all the students study in the same classroom, eat and drink in the same canteen and play on the same court or field, only then can there be national unity and integration," said Abdul Rahman.

Maybe we could start this with UiTM.

KTLee: UiTM only admits bumiputeras, except for preparatory programmes. Abdul Rahman is a true hypocrite of epic proportions.

And we don't need unity. It makes the world less diverse, less colourful, less humane. What we need is appreciation of differences among us.

Umno is waging politics of revenge

Parents want the best education for their kids

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