YOURSAY | 'Stop racial discrimination so that we can move forward.'

Will my daughter be a racist if she goes to national school?

Anonymous #07988903: Citing vernacular schools as the reason for national disunity is just playing stupid to the glaring national political landscape.

I came from a vernacular Chinese school and went on to a ‘kebangsaan’ (national) secondary school when the medium was English then. All my very close secondary school friends were Malays. We had no problem integrating.

Go look at the condition of the national schools nowadays and look at the history textbooks. See what the education objective has become. How can this nation have national integration when race and religion continue to be played up by politicians to remain in power?

It takes political will and honesty to do the right thing. All these Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) dialogues are just hogwash.

Aries46: Those from national schools in the 50s to 80s had the best education, and vernacular schools were mostly unheard of at the time, and confined largely to new villages and estates.

Integration was never an element as all students were treated equal, and learnt and played without divisions. The schools had a multiracial outlook. This is the reverse of the national schools of today.

Many are perceived as the hotbed of race and religion. This could also be the reason the non-Malays shun these schools.

So, regardless of vernacular or national schools, if we desire that our children shed racism from their formative years, we must have the political will to treat national schools solely as a place of education, with equal educational opportunities for all.

Are Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and his ilk up to it?

NNFC: Is the proposal by Khairy going to improve the level of education among Malaysian children? No. So Khairy should go and think again what they should do.

Also, if you talk about racism, are we not being taught that we are different, Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc? Stop this racial discrimination, and we will move forward.

Anonymous #33457332: As long as discrimination exists in educational opportunities, jobs, housing, scholarships and public services, there will never be racial integration.

Just abolishing vernacular schools and putting all the children in the national schools while maintaining racial segregation is not going to bring the races together.

Stop harping on the vernacular schools alone. Look at the anomalies of the policies of the Umno-BN government to realise why the problems of unity arise.          

Nil: If the demographics of national schools consist mainly of Malays "everywhere" in the country, then there is a serious problem therein.

Maybe the national school environment is not conducive for students of other races (are the schools too 'Malayised', for example, the canteen serves Malay food only... and with religion creeping in (the canteen closes during Ramadan...)?

National schools should have a racially and religiously neutral atmosphere or be truly 1Malaysia Malaysian; then there will be racial integration. In Bolehland, this is never ever going to be.

Luke: Just make national schools the best schools around, with good facilities (they have probably already, compared to purposely-made-poorly-funded vernacular schools), and more importantly, the best student achievements. Then the customers (students) will come naturally.

Trying to hard-sell this by enforcing it by duress or by law will only push potential customers (students) away. To be honest, parents who really sweat for their children's future will, above all, first consider a high performing school that can better help their children to be high achievers.

Also, would national schools give children, other than Malays, a guaranteed equal chance to learn their mother tongue, which is a vital component of the unique mixed culture of Malaysians?

Without this final point, our unique multicultural society, which supposedly we are so proud of, will very quickly vanish.

Fair Play: Sad, so sad. After almost 60 years of independence as a nation, this question still crops up. The answer is so huge that nobody could see it.

If Malaysians don't see a shared destiny (not mother tongue or religion), there will be no unity. Period.

Salleh: Preserve the greatness of the Malay diaspora

Newday: I am still trying to do the maths on this one. Five hundred million bumiputeras across the globe versus 33 million at home. Considering we were only 15 million about 40 years ago, that is some impressive reproduction numbers to get to Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak's estimated 500 million.

It's amazing that there's anybody else left.

AJ: Is Salleh talking about the Malay who needs more than 15 crutches provided by the failed government just to stand up? Is that really glocal?

Tikusmati: Malays can be 'created' (constitutionally) - that's how great it is.

Oscar Kilo: We have more than enough racism in Malaysia. Please do not export your racism to the rest of the world. Malays elsewhere can think for themselves.

What makes you think that every 'Malay' in the world wants to be defined according to the Malaysian Federal Constitution?

Fair&Just: Greatness? Then follow what former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein said about special privileges lasting for only 30 years. Now it's already going into 60 years.

Responsible Malaysian: Salleh, yours is a great race and so are all the other races. But to remain great, you have to get rid of extremism and corruption, at the very least.

Fair&Jus: We may now have real greatness, but infamous greatness, yes. Which is, being the world's No 1 in kleptocracy.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.