GEORGE TOWN: Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Salleh is barking up the wrong tree in examining the racial polarisation in the country, former senior DAP leader Dr P. Ramasamy said.
Ramasamy said Akmal seems deluded in thinking that the vernacular schools are the cause of racial polarisation, leading to disunity in the country.
He said this was the reason why Akmal proposed to the government to undertake a review of the vernacular schools, with the aim of strengthening the Malay language.
"I am not sure what he meant by reviewing the vernacular schools?
"Is he suggesting that the vernacular schools in the country be done away with?
"Or, is he equating vernacular schools with the ethnic and religious polarisation in the country?
"Just because national schools are publicly funded schools, they, by definition, are not schools of excellence.
"These schools leave much to be desired for in terms of promoting national unity in the country," said Ramasamy.
He said schools, whether they are vernacular or national, were not the primary cause of national unity.
They merely reflect the politics of ethnic divisions in the country, he said.
Yesterday, Akmal called for a reassessment of the vernacular education system amid growing concerns over the polarisation and lack of cohesion among the country's multi-ethnic population.
He said the assessment needed to be conducted as the escalating tension stemmed from a system of separation and segregation implemented from the most basic levels of the society, starting from schools.
Ramasamy, who is the current chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council, said Akmal, as an Umno politician, should know that his party had a role in messing up the political system with its brand of racial hegemonic politics for decades after political independence.
He said instead of focusing on vernacular or national schools, Akmal should find out what really ails the political system in the country today.
He said if only politicians were prepared to move away from the straight jacket of divisive politics, there was no way that the schools system can be reformed for the better.
"What is the use of faulting the vernacular schools, if the real source of ethnic and religious polarisation is in the way politics is organised in the country?
"Is Umno prepared to move away from the confines of ethnicity? Is Umno prepared to admit non-Malays in the party?
"Umno had a wonderful chance in the past to rectify the political system but the party failed miserably."
He said it was "too late" for Umno to think of changing the system when its support base has eroded among the Malays.
Vernacular schools are not the cause of ethnic disunity, but rather, a reaction to ethnic and religious discrimination in the country, he added.
Ramasamy said the near exclusion of non-Malays in the public sector, discrimination in admissions to university and pre-university programmes had basically fuelled the existence of vernacular schools in the country.
He pointed out that the non-Malays, the Chinese and Indians, were simply trying to defend the existence of vernacular schools from the threats posed by ultra nationalists.
"Given this, how could the existence of vernacular schools be interpreted as the primary cause of disunity in the country?
"There is a difference between an independent and dependent variables. Clearly, the vernacular schools are not the independent variable.
The vernacular schools, faced with an existential threat, are forced to survive and perform.
"This would explain why the enrolment of students in Mandarin and Tamil schools have increased over the years.