KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh has accepted a coffee talk invitation from a DAP state assemblyman to discuss issues surrounding vernacular schools in the country.
"Set the date, place and time... I will come.
"We are open to any debate or open discussion on issues related to vernacular schools.
"Please make it (the discussion) happen," Dr Akmal, who is also Merlimau assemblyman, wrote in a post on his Facebook account today.
He was responding to the invitation made by Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran who had asked the former to discuss the Umno Youth chief's proposal to review vernacular schools.
Rajiv extended the invitation to Dr Akmal following the verbal spat between the latter and former senior DAP leader Dr P. Ramasamy over the matter.
Dr Akmal on Saturday 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.
The assessment, he said, 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.
His statement did not go down well and triggered a war of words between him and Ramasamy who called the former deluded in thinking that the vernacular schools were the cause of racial polarisation, leading to disunity in the country.