THE Federal Court has thrown out a lawyer’s application to question the existence of vernacular schools in Malaysia as he claims to be unconstitutional.

Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed this morning dismissed Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz’s leave application on grounds that it is within Parliament’s power to form such schools.

Khairul’s application is to challenge whether Parliament has the authority to pass an amendment to Sections 17 and 28 of the Education Act 1996, which are on matters of language.

He argued that since Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools used their own language as the medium of instruction, it went against Article 152(1) of the federal constitution, which states the Malay language as the national language.

Azahar, however, ruled Parliament has clear power in terms of education and matters auxiliary to it, such as languages used as mediums of instruction.

The leave from the Federal Court is necessary for Khairul to challenge the competency of the Parliament to pass laws.

With the rejection of the leave today, he has no further avenue for the case to proceed. – November 11, 2019.