LETTER | There are now litanies of issues being raised, but these are hardly concerned with national development, quality of life, our environment or national competitiveness.

Instead, they are essentially dealing with parochialism, populist tendency and politicking.

Sometimes I wonder why and how we could spend so much time debating and arguing on unnecessary issues when the nation is faced with grave problems that need urgent attention.

I could only think of politicians wanting to appeal to sectarian support for their own survival, notwithstanding the adverse consequences they may cause this country.

Today I will name two whipping boys, namely the Chinese vernacular schools and secondly, using English words to name places.

First, the vernacular schools. Yes, the noise is getting louder and bolder – shut these schools as they are the cause of our national disunity.

Everyone knows this is not just a lie but a blatant and hypocritical lie. For goodness sake, don't be destructive out of spite. Shutting down the vernacular schools may just be like "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs". Let's be rational, who is providing the bulk of the nation's skill manpower for commerce, industries and international trade?

We have been promoting the usage and proficiency of our national language since I was in primary school. Fair enough, maybe those from the vernacular schools are not as proficient in Bahasa Malaysia.

But are those from the national schools more proficient in terms of vocabulary and proper grammatical usage? A rotten educational system cannot produce anything good, not just the inability of vernacular schools in producing BM proficient students.

Cultures and languages are "living things". To me, they are constantly evolving and changing. The most important thing is functionality and acceptance.

Why do we use English sounding words to name places, as lamented by some politicians? I don't know. Maybe it is more fashionable and acceptable to the people.

In the past, the government has changed the names of many roads, buildings and places to try to erase our colonial past and to substitute them with names that reflect local personalities, heroes and cultures.

However, have we really achieved anything substantive out of this? Have we grown taller and better in the sense that our country is now better managed? Singapore has kept all the names, be it English, Malays, Chinese and Indian. Has it become worse off?

For goodness sake, let's be rational in our approach. The whole world knows we are side-tracking out of expediency and politicking.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.