[Malaysia] Chinese Schools Spark Protest

The Straits Times, Singapore
14 March 2005

Call for more Chinese schools sparks protests
Umno opposes MCA's proposal, saying it will not help integration

By Leslie Lau,Malaysia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR - A ROW has erupted over Chinese schools in Malaysia,pitting the two main partners in the Barisan Nasional government - Umno and the Malaysian Chinese Association - against each other.

The subject of Chinese schools, which use Mandarin as a medium of instruction instead of the Malay used in national schools, remains a political powder keg in Malaysia.

And a move by the MCA last week to submit a memorandum to the government calling for more Chinese schools to be built has ignited a flurry of criticisms from Umno leaders, who say the construction of more such institutions would lead to further racial polarisation.

'Increasing the number of Chinese schools will only take us a step backwards in building an integrated society,' Umno vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin told the Umno-controlled and influential Malay daily Utusan Malaysia yesterday.

Deputy Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, also opposed the idea of more Chinese schools.

'National schools are not only for the Malays but also for Chinese and Indians. We want national schools to be the students' first choice. For this reason, we disagree with MCA's proposal,' he said.

MCA vice-president Fong Chan Onn has responded to the criticisms from Malay leaders by saying it was not wrong for his party to make the request for additional schools since they represented the interests of the Chinese community.

While there are more than 1,200 Chinese schools in the country, many are overcrowded, especially those in major cities, prompting repeated calls by the local Chinese communities for more such schools to be built.

The MCA memorandum will be presented to the Prime Minister. It was drafted as part of the party's input towards the Ninth Malaysia Plan, a government development blueprint that is put in place every five years.

Since taking over as MCA president in 2003, the Mandarin-fluent Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting has initiated closer ties with Dong Jiao Zhong (DJZ), the influential Chinese education movement, and the memorandum is sure to gain him political points among the Chinese community.

The presence of Mandarin-medium schools in Malaysia is important to the Chinese community but remains a thorny issue for the government and the Malay community.

In recent years, the government has moved to increase the popularity of national schools among non-Malays to address developing race relations problems.

Nine out of 10 Chinese children go to Chinese schools, a trend that is partly caused by the perceived Islamisation of national schools as well as the lower academic standards of government schools.

In one of the last major policy acts of his administration, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad introduced the concept of Vision Schools - multi-school complexes housing national and vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools in one compound.

The idea was to make Malaysian children 'eat, play and study together' and to break down racial barriers, but the concept was seen by the Chinese community as a move to kill off Chinese schools and was eventually put on the backburner with just a handful built.

However, Malay groups have now revived the push for more Vision Schools to be built in reaction to the MCA memorandum.

'MCA's proposal only benefits one group. They should work to strengthen Vision Schools that are more in line with national aspirations,' Datuk Suhaimi Ibrahim of the powerful Malay Students Union (GPMS) told Utusan Malaysia.

The headlines of the Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia in recent days clearly spell out its opposition to more Chinese schools, while the MCA-owned Chinese-language Nanyang Siangpau has responded with stories supporting the move, suggesting a protracted row ahead.