CLOSING down vernacular schools will not guarantee the success of national schools, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

The main issue, he said, is to improve the quality of government schools.

“Chinese or Tamil schools cannot help our success. If they exist, we will not succeed. If they do not exist, we will also not succeed,” the former prime minister said during a question-and-answer session at the “Rebranding the Malay Political Narrative” round-table conference in Seri Kembangan this morning.

“What can be made a priority is that we improve our education system in national schools.

“Whether or not there is a Chinese school and so on is not our priority. On the contrary, it will cause all sorts of political problems.”

The Langkawi MP asked to comment on whether there is any justification for vernacular schools to be abolished.

It was in response to Dr Mahathir’s speech earlier where he urged Malays to evaluate and change before urging others to change.

“It’s not easy to do that (close vernacular schools), but if we ask ourselves where we went wrong, it’s easier to correct ourselves first,” he said.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Pejuang chairman, said if the national schools have high-quality education, non-Malay students themselves would be interested in joining the institutions.

“If we focus on improving the national education system, I am confident that we will produce students who are not only knowledgeable but also know how to use knowledge,” he said.

“We can close Chinese schools, but if our schools are not good, it is still not good. We are still at that level, while they have a way to continue their studies in their language now that they can go to China to study there.

“If we close them, it does not mean that they have lost to us. What can give us victory is to improve our education system.”

He said to make one important decision, a political party must get the support of the majority (voters), which he said is difficult for any political party to obtain now.

“In democracy, we are constrained by the people because the people decide who will rule,” he said.

“If we are not liked by the people, we will not be the government and will not be able to do what we promised.”

In Malaysia, he said, although the Malay majority is 70%, it is divided among four or five parties, each of which is small and cannot get the support of the entire community.

“If we get the support of the 70%, we are not afraid of being ousted. But we don’t get the 70%. We get between 30% and 20% support, because the support of the Malay people is divided among four to five parties, so we deliberately weaken ourselves,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said this in response to another question

On vision schools that combine the three types of schools in one location, he said it is a good start as the students can be together during assemblies, listening to the same topic.

“If this national school is good, I’m sure the Chinese will attend,” he said. – July 28, 2022.