GEORGE TOWN: A former DAP leader has asked if it was necessary for police action against academician Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr Teo Kok Seong over his statement allegedly criticising vernacular schools
Dr P. Ramasamy said, instead of police action, the authorities should engage Teo rationally and intellectually.
"Is there a necessity for police reports against Teo, leading to investigation papers being opened against him?
"Police action against Teo will not solve the question of hostility to vernacular schools in the country," he said today.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told Parliament yesterday that police had opened an investigation paper into Teo over his statement allegedly criticising vernacular schools.
He said the investigation was opened under Section 505 of the Penal Code for public mischief and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Teo is being investigated for saying in an interview with Merdeka Times recently that the Chinese vernacular schools were the source of racism towards the Malays.
The schools, by enrolling mediocre Chinese students, end up not facilitating integration between students of different ethnicities.
Ramasamy said, in short, Teo said that Chinese vernacular schools were against national unity.
"The statement by Teo is not the first time somebody said unsavoury things about the vernacular schools, particularly Chinese schools.
"From the time of political independence until today, vernacular schools have been targeted by Malay nationalists for their closure.
"Since the vernacular schools are seen as an aberration to the national schools system, with Malay as the medium of instruction, their existence cannot be justified.
"It is not just the Malay nationalists who are opposed to the vernacular school but some non-Malays, particularly those who are English or Malay educated," he added.
Teo, Ramasamy said, was an example of non-Malay Chinese Peranakan from Kelantan, who disagreed that vernacular schools, both Mandarin and Tamil, served the role of unifying Malaysians of different races and religions.
Ramasamy said DAP's member of parliament for Seputeh, Teresa Kok, was terribly upset with the statement by Teo in the interview.
He added that rather than logically and rationally countering the invalid arguments of Teo, Kok asked the police to take action against Teo for spreading false news about Chinese vernacular schools — a typical DAP response of non-intellectualism.
"Alternatively, I countered the arguments of Teo by saying that it is wrong and intellectually incorrect to say that vernacular schools are the sources of disunity in the country.
"In fact, the vernacular, national and religious schools are not the primary sources of the disunity in the country. The primary cause is the political system anchored in race and religion. It is the divisive nature of politics that is the cause of national disunity and not the vernacular or national schools.
"Furthermore, the ethnic and religious discrimination of the non-Malays in the public sector employment, admission to public university and matriculation programmes and others that seem to justify the existence of vernacular schools.
"It is this reaction to ethnic discrimination of the non-Malays that indirectly contributes to the preservation of the vernacular schools," he said.
Teo, Ramasamy added, might be a former academic but this did not mean that we agreed with him.
"His remarks about the Chinese vernacular schools might be offensive, but he has the right to offer his opinions. Those who are opposed to his views must take the opportunity to counter him in a rational, logical and in an intellectual manner.
"The DAP, one time champions of the vernacular schools, seems to take the easy way out by asking for police reports against Teo.
"Maybe rather than condemning him, Kok should have asked him to explain the growing enrolment of Malay and Indian pupils in Chinese schools. If these schools are so offensive, how come over 20 per cent of students enrolled are Malays, those of whom come from regular Malay families?
"If these families can appreciate the value of vernacular education, what is the problem with Malay nationalists?" he further asked.
Ramasamy said Saifuddin and Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek might want to defuse the polarised situation in the country in regard to the vernacular schools by emphasising police investigation and that these schools had a constitutional basis as per the court decision recently.
"Maybe the DAP leaders like Kok or others might find the time to call for a debate about the relevance of vernacular schools in the country.
"Maybe they should ask Teo for debate. I am sure, Teo might oblige," he said.