YOURSAY 'One very clear provision of the sedition laws is that anyone who calls for the closing down of vernacular schools will be committing sedition.'

Don: Abolish vernacular schools for unity's sake

Aries46: Vernacular schools existed even before Merdeka and at no time has it been a hindrance to national unity in the past 56 years.

If Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pro-chancellor Abdul Rahman Arshad is equating national unity in terms of keeping Umno-BN in power, he is barking up the wrong tree.

Malaysians who have supported Umno-BN from Merdeka, even through the 40 years of New Economic Policy (NEP), have reached the end of their tether.

In pursuit of national unity the non-Malays have ditched the racist divide-and-rule policies and they don't have the energy to keep feeding the never-ending greed of the corrupt elites and their cronies in Umno.

And typical of Abdul Rahman, they resort to racist rants the moment they sense a threat to their plundering ways.

Abdul Rahman would do well to open his eyes and evaluate the fact that the non-Malays have embraced the Malays in PKR and the Muslims in PAS for its fair, incorruptible and non-racist form of governance.

Abolishing vernacular schools alone does not guarantee national unity. Some of the overbearing deterrents to national unity are:

1) Malaysians being divided into racial distinctions

2) Having race-based political parties

3) Racial discrimination in education at all levels

4) Racial discrimination in employment

5) Economic opportunities

6) Allocation of low-cost houses and discounts for housing

7) Stock and share ownerships

The main factors that deter Malaysians from choosing national schools are lack of educational standards and merits, the absence of a Malaysian outlook among students, teachers and support staff ratio, and heavy influence of race and religion in school activities and the curriculum.

Piecemeal solutions in order to perpetuate certain political agendas will be a waste of time and resources. Unless Abdul Rahman has the stomach to view national unity holistically, he should abstain from making statements that can offend those who are suffering in silence.

Saintonthego: Unity among Malaysians have disintegrated because of Umno's racist policy of dividing the people. Umno leaders can't even call themselves Malaysian first and Malay second. So how can they believe Malaysians can be united?

Anakmalaysia777: Abdul Rahman, you were the Education director-general. What did you do to integrate the Chinese and the Indians into the mainstream of the school system?

Will you and your kind agree to open all residential schools and all other government educational institutions that are closed to non-Malays to all races on the basis of needs and merits alone, and not race and religion?

Can the Umno government promise to the people of Malaysia that the teaching staff will reflect the national population and not exclusively Malay?

Vijay47: One very clear provision of the sedition laws is that anyone who calls for the closing down of Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools will be committing sedition.

Let us see what our IGP (police chief) and equally talented attorney-general (AG) say to squeal out of this.

Not that there is no precedent for such prosecution. One case involved a member of parliament, Mark Koding, while another involved, surprise! surprise! the editor of Utusan Malaysia .

The judge did not buy the editor's grounds of appeal where he claimed that he was such a busy bee that he had no time to go through all the items in his paper.

Fast forward to the present, there seems to be a well-orchestrated campaign to raise racial issues and incite the Malays to violence, including no less than by a former Appeals Court judge .

Considering the rejection of BN by all segments of the country in the recent elections, have these rabble-rousers been prompted by someone in power with the assurance that no one will be charged?

Mushiro: If after 56 years of independence and the various races are not united, the Malays are still left behind economically despite of 40 years of NEP then it just shows that the government has failed miserably.

Why is it that the Mahathirs, the Najibs, the Daims, the Abdullahs, the Taib Mahmuds, the Musa Amans, etc, are super rich and yet the non-crony Malays are still poor.

It just shows the failure, incompetence and self-interest of the corrupted Umno regime. The answer is a clear change of this corrupted government.

Democrat: One question: If you abolish Tamil and Chinese schools, will UiTM, and all other quota-based institutions be opened to all races, based on meritocracy?

Can places in all faculties be offered based on academic scores and not on race? Answer this and I will answer you, you bigot.

Spinnot: When Chinese voted for BN in 1999 and 2004, there was unity. When they voted for Pakatan Rakyat in 2013, there is no unity.

Almost two-thirds of Swiss people speak German, almost one-fifth speak French and less than one-tenth speak Italian, but Switzerland has four national languages - German, French, Italian and Romache.

There is no unity problem in Switzerland. Indeed, all Malaysians have accepted Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

Skong: Something very weird is happening. Three reports targeting the Chinese at the same time - abolish vernacular school, amend state law to bar non-Muslim/Malay to be MB and the comments by ex-court of appeal judge on Chinese betrayal.

What is Najib up to?

Hidup PKR: It looks like revenge.

Isn't calling to abolish vernacular schools seditious?

Parents want the best education for their kids

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