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Malaysia: Mahathir Slams Chinese Over Vision School
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - This weekend, Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad slammed Chinese extremists over the Vision School project, which observers say is very dear to the Malaysian government.
The rejection of the Vision School by the Chinese community at large and the wide reports given to it in Chinese local dailies in Kuala Lumpur has caused a chill in relationships between Mahathir and the community.
"When we brought up the idea of Vision School, the main idea was to educate our children to be able to live in a multi-cultural and multi-racial society. We never stopped the Malays from sending their children to the Chinese schools.
"However, there are the educationist extremists who always bring up these issues, especially during elections." said Mahathir.
Mahathir said that in the past, the government has amended the Education Act to the extent of taking away the Education minister's right to convert vernacular schools to national schools, but still the educationist extremists are not satisfied.
“We thought it was over. But the extremists are not satisfied, they want more. So what's the problem with Vision Schools? It is just a concept of three types of schools combined together so that pupils can learn from each other and live in a real multiracial society.
“Don't tell me the Chinese want to segregate themselves. In that case, we can no longer allow Malays to send their children to Chinese schools,” he said.
The Malaysian Prime Minister appealed to the Chinese community not to listen to extremist groups fighting on the premise of applying pressure on the government.
“Friends can pressure me, but I will never bow down to extremists' pressure.”
“And I have the right to criticize anybody I like. When I criticize the extremists, I hope the Chinese community will not think that I am attacking them.”
In Malaysia, Chinese schools are free to teach in Chinese using it as the medium of instruction. Some national level Chinese schools also teach in Malay and English, depending on who the students are.
Malays and foreigners also send their children to Chinese schools, some of which are given high ratings in the country.
Besides Chinese schools, Malaysia also has its national standard schools, which caters to primary and secondary education. These schools use the Malay language as the medium of instruction.
Talking about extremist Chinese, Mahathir was possibly referring to Dong Jiao Zong, the influential Chinese educationist group said to have rallied behind the opposition.
They incurred the prime minister's wrath at their "ingratitude", causing him to label them a "group of Chinese extremists".
"There is no other country in which the Chinese can live as peacefully as here. In U.K. and U.S., they have many Chinese, but they do not have Chinese schools," said Mahathir.
Mahathir said that his opponents played up the "extremist" label that he used in his Independence speech, specifically targeting the Suqiu, a Chinese lobby group that produced a controversial 17-point election appeal, which was rejected by the government, but was initially agreed to in principle by the cabinet before the general elections last November.
Deputy Education Minister Hon Choon Kim on Sunday reiterated Mahathir’s criticism. He said the Vision School concept has become a major sensitive issue among the Chinese community because there are groups spreading falsehoods that its implementation will result in Chinese schools losing their identity.
The identity of Chinese schools is protected under the Education Act of 1996 with Mandarin as the medium of instruction. "This is clear," the Minister said.
Malaysian Chinese Association Vice President Chua Jui Meng later commented and proposed that the concept be discussed once more. However, Choon Kim said what should be done now was just to address implementation guidelines.
He, however, said that at present there were no clear guidelines as this concept was not contained in the Education Act and hence it was just a program to bring the races closer.
Choon Kim said the two new vision school projects approved by the Cabinet recently would be built as soon as possible.
The projects would serve as examples to the Chinese community that their schools would not lose their identity, he said.
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