YOURSAY | Wasting court’s time and taxpayers’ money

YOURSAY | Problem isn’t vernacular schools, it’s the lack of meritocracy.’

Court of Appeal upholds vernacular schools' legality

Apa pun boleh: We have been having vernacular schools from pre-independence days and our forefathers stood united as a condition for independence as laid out by the British.

In fact, Umno, MCA and MIC stood in unison for an independent Malaya. Neither our beloved Tunku Abdul Rahman nor his successors ever saw vernacular schools as unconstitutional or a deterrent to national unity.

Accordingly, the Court of Appeal's decision was an expected one. So why are these Malay Muslim groups touting or peddling vernacular schools as unconstitutional or against national unity?

Why are they wasting the court's time and draining taxpayer's funds? Is it for “syiok sendiri” (self-amusement) or a two-minute sort of fame?

For their information, the closure of vernacular schools will foster other problems as national schools are seen to be run more as Malay Muslim schools where 2R (race and religion) quota systems determine exam results and access to higher education. Not merits.

Incidentally, the quota system in education as well as racial and religious discrimination of minorities is seen as the single most deterrent to national unity.

The never-ending special rights and entitlements for the majority at the expense of the minorities and Malay politicians pushing this agenda at every turn to stay relevant are seen as the single most important reason for keeping Malaysians apart.

Malaysians will never be united unless people of all races and religions are treated fairly and equally.

So for the information of the wayward respondents, the challenge to revive national unity is not dependent on closing vernacular schools.

It depends on treating all citizens - anak Melayu, anak Cina, anak India as anak Malaysia.

Are these groups that seem to climb up the wrong ladder once too often willing to take up the real challenge?

Fair Play: The Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land (Malaysia). The role of the judiciary is to make a ruling in accordance with the intent of the Constitution.

But this is far from over-knowing the intention and purpose of the vested interest groups.

They will take it to the Federal Court but it is their right until they (vested interest groups) have exhausted themselves through the legal channel.

But the most intriguing issue is this: Why is the majority group so obsessed with navel-gazing in matters relating to the minority groups that account for just some 30 percent of the population?

OCT: Schools are meant to educate our children to be successful rakyat in commerce, and politics and manage them in the best ways.

In the old days, there were hardly any religious lessons. The lessons taught make the students think, be in comprehension and their written essays.

Sports activities involve the students to be active physically irrespective of race and religion. There was close comradeship and interaction.

Every student mixed around without any thoughts about the 2Rs. Now 2R is creeping to make Bahasa Malaysia the sole language used for teaching which the Constitution didn't provide for.

The education system shouldn't be politicised to cater to 2R preference. Education should be holistic without interference from 2R.

A good example of what BM has achieved is to look at the United Nations General Assembly presentation by former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, whereby almost nobody listened to his speech, which was delivered in BM.

Picture: With due respect, I cannot figure out why this action was initiated in the first place. The vernacular schools have been in existence since before independence and have served us well.

Any theory that it caused disunity amongst the rakyat is totally unfounded.

I am a Muslim and I attended Chinese primary school before I thank my father for sending me to Chinese school.

There is also a Chinese primary school in Kelantan where the Malay-to-Chinese student ratio is about 50:50.

Diversity in Malaysia is our strength, not our weakness. Do not politicise, Treasure it.

GrizzledWarrior: I have plenty of Indian and Chinese colleagues at my workplace who speak and write fluent Malay - proper Bahasa Malaysia standard instead of the colloquial Malay that some native speakers are prone to use.

The response we often get from native speakers is "kenapa baku sangat, ni?".

Likewise, I have Malay and Eurasian colleagues who speak and write fluent Mandarin, having attended Chinese medium schools when they were younger.

So avoid painting the non-Malays with a broad brush and making wide sweeping statements on the issue of the fluency of any one particular race in a language. It only exposes you for the racist that you are.

Sang Kancil: Unesco and many other international and local organisations have been advocating multiculturalism and multilingualism as valuable assets to human progress.

They offer civilisational richness to our lives. Like biodiversity, linguistic diversity is meant to offer richness to different cultures. We have resolved the importance of our national language and it is constitutionally guaranteed. What is the big fuss?

The real divisiveness is the Malay and non-Malay categorisation in the allocation of resources through the state policies via affirmative actions, it is time for such practice to be need-based.

BusinessFirst: The court, in my view, should not only make the applicants pay massive costs for the waste of precious court resources to discourage frivolous lawsuits but also impose personal costs on lawyers.

This is unless they can show that they had advised their clients accordingly and despite their advice, their clients proceeded nevertheless. When cases have been decided an exception to legal privilege should be waivable in my view.

Toh May Fook: When a society promotes learning, advocates meritocracy, and facilitates social mobility, that society will surely progress and advance for the well-being of every member of that society.

Similarly, when even the learning and advancement of language and knowledge are suppressed with whatever concocted arguments, society will regress rapidly.

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