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Axing vernacular schools sends wrong message to Chinese: Najib

KUALA LUMPUR — Calls to shutter Chinese vernacular schools send the wrong message of Malaysia’s largest party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and undermine the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s efforts to regain the support of the community, Prime Minister Najib Razak said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says current UMNO leaders must engage with Malaysia’s youth and embrace party renewal as an investment for the future. Photo: Reuters

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says current UMNO leaders must engage with Malaysia’s youth and embrace party renewal as an investment for the future. Photo: Reuters

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KUALA LUMPUR — Calls to shutter Chinese vernacular schools send the wrong message of Malaysia’s largest party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and undermine the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s efforts to regain the support of the community, Prime Minister Najib Razak said.

Noting that Chinese support is gradually improving, the UMNO president said such calls were undermining the efforts to regain the backing of a group that is vital to the party’s electoral performance.

“It is simply not possible to gain support from the Chinese community if we are also seeking to close Chinese vernacular schools in the same breath,” he said in an interview published by Mingguan Malaysia yesterday.

Mr Najib’s remarks were made ahead of the party’s general assembly this week, when the hot-button issue of vernacular education is among the topics expected to be debated.

The growing popularity of Chinese- and Tamil-language schools over Malay-language national institutions had led Petaling Jaya Utara UMNO deputy division chief Mohamad Azli Mohamed to call for a debate on whether to abolish the vernacular schools, claiming they were hotbeds for racism and anti-establishment sentiment.

Mr Najib said vernacular education was a part of the BN’s election manifesto, adding that continuing to target vernacular education would create a “lose-lose” situation for UMNO and BN at the ballot box.

Yesterday, a coalition of Malay rights groups called for all vernacular schools to be abolished as they were impeding national unity, suggesting instead that they be replaced with single-stream schools.

In a memorandum issued following the gathering of 300 Malay non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at their National Unity convention yesterday, the groups said the government could seek to silence any “radical” education groups that opposed such a move through the threat of deregistration.

“This firmness is needed because the multiple streams of schools that have existed all this while are not conducive to efforts to promote and strengthen national unity in Malaysia,” read the memorandum, which was drafted by a committee chaired by Malay rights group Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali.

The memorandum would be submitted to Mr Najib at the UMNO general assembly this week.

Mr Najib yesterday also said the current crop of UMNO leaders must engage with Malaysia’s youth and embrace party renewal as an investment for the future.

“We must find leadership that is considered to be capable ... UMNO must be seen as modern, dynamic and progressive,” he said.

Mr Najib’s call for renewal echoes the position taken by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who earlier said UMNO would remain consigned to defeat so long as its current leaders refused to make way for a new generation of members.

Meanwhile, in an apparent swipe at the BN and UMNO, the opposition Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) secretary-general Lim Guan Eng yesterday said a government worth its salt would not rely on extremism or racism in its rule, but would instead provide better facilities and living standards for the population.

In his speech at the opening of the Penang DAP state convention, the Penang Chief Minister said the people could eventually see for themselves which government possessed true merits based on the work it did without undue inflammatory rhetoric.

“What is the use of rhetoric from an extremist or racist government when the people still live in deprivation? Let the people themselves see the changes brought about by the state government,” he said.

Agencies

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