COMMENT | Schools in Malaysia are starting their new academic year. I thought that by the end of the year, we would once again hear about ethnic minority students not getting their desired course or scholarship they want and the ensuing - often polemical - debate about preferential treatment to enter matriculation and public university.

It turns out we did not have to wait long. The academic year 2024-2025 kicked off with Umno Youth calling for a “review” of vernacular schools and introduction of a single-stream education system.

Their statement ended with an almost noble call for diversity, “the time has come for Malaysia to end the separation and isolation”.

But who is separating and isolating themselves? If we are honest...