THE Kota Baru High Court's decision on Sunday that vernacular schools are not unconstitutional should serve as a firm, and official, assurance on the right to non-Malay-medium education in this country.
This is the second High Court to do so, after a similar decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court (KLHC) six months ago, and secures the position of vernacular schools, which have existed in Malaysia since before it became a federation, and before the enactment of the Federal Constitution itself.
And, by extension, it also secures the rights of all Malaysians to their ethnic culture and language. And while Article 152(1) of the Federal Constitution specifies that the Malay language is the national language, it also states that except for official purposes, no person should be prohibited or prevented from using or from teaching or learning any other language.
The two judges came to their conclusions through different interpretations of where vernacular schools fall on the official scale, but applied the spirit and the historical perspective of the Article to arrive at their decisions. The judges also ruled that vernacular schools did not infringe on fundamental liberties.
Both cases came about as a result of suits being filed to the courts by various Malay or Muslim groups. The KLHC's decision is being challenged through appeal, and this latest decision probably will be, too.
Quite what the intention behind the suits is unclear. If it were a matter of upholding the position and honour of the national language, good sense would have it that the suits ought to have been brought by more inclusive groups so that the public interest issue is clear, and to preserve ethnic harmony.
If the objective was to bring all children back to the Malay-medium national school system, a court decision, no matter how favourable to the plaintiffs, would not solve the real issues underlying why such schools are not popular with non-Malay parents — ethnic polarity being the main one. If that issue can be fixed, and all parents assured that their children would get a good education in national schools, the issue of vernacular schools would not be so politically charged.
This newspaper is of the opinion, and we say it again, that for the purposes of nurturing national unity and multicultural integration, there should be just one type of national school, which is inclusive, yet secular, and over which no ethnicity has cultural dominance (the national language as the medium of instruction notwithstanding).
The teaching and learning of ethnic languages and religious knowledge should be extra-curricular, held outside of official school hours. In the same vein, therefore, religious schools should also not be the primary centre of education.
During formal school hours, let the national schools concentrate on educating and nurturing all children to be good Malaysians.
And this should be uniform across the board, regardless of the ethnic proportions of the student population. If or when Malaysian society is mature, perhaps it would become possible for all students to study comparative-religions, and to require all students to learn another Malaysian language other than the national language, or their mother tongue.
Would such social engineering run counter to the rights assured to vernacular schools? It doesn't need to be. All that is needed is to make national schools so attractive to all that it becomes the school of genuine choice for all schoolchildren.