Talk all you want but Chinese schools here to stay, MCA’s Wee says of Umno meet

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — MCA deputy president Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said today the Umno general assembly is free to debate over vernacular schools, but maintained that Chinese education is here to stay.

Wee said vernacular schools are already entrenched in the country’s education system, after Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that “sensitive” issues like vernacular education and the Sedition Act 1948 could be discussed rationally at the Umno general assembly later this month.

“The most important (thing) is, after the general assembly, life must go on. This is a multi-ethnic society,” Wee told a press conference at the MCA headquarters here.

“The Attorney-General said something to the effect that it’s protected under the Federal Constitution,” he added.

MCA has previously cited Article 152 of the Federal Constitution as protecting the right of the local ethnic Chinese and Indians to education in their mother tongue.

When asked how Umno can discuss the abolition of vernacular education when MCA is the Malay nationalist party’s ally in Barisan Nasional (BN), Wee said: “When you believe in freedom of speech, every party is entitled to their views”.

Petaling Jaya Utara Umno deputy division chief Mohamad Azli Mohemed Saad was reported by dailies Mingguan Malaysia and New Sunday Times last month as saying that the Chinese vernacular school system should be abolished as it purportedly promotes racism and anti-establishment sentiments.

The same month, Cheras Umno division chief Datuk Seri Syed Ali Al Habshee also called for vernacular schools to be done away with, citing such a system as being the reason for societal disintegration and disunity.

Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced during his 2015 Budget speech that Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools have been allocated RM50 billion each, a move that is seen to ensure that the schools are here to stay.

On October 12, Najib also told MCA members at its 61st AGM that his government will continue to uphold the right to mother tongue education, saying that Chinese vernacular schools or SJK (C) are “already enshrined in the Constitution and the law” and is part of the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025.