MALAY rights group Perkasa has issued a list of demands for education to foster national unity, calling for measures that are in conflict with demands by minority groups.
Its deputy president, Sirajuddin Salleh, urged the government, politicians and community leaders to re-examine Malaysia’s education policies so that they would “nurture and ensure national unity and stability”.
This included scrapping vernacular schools and strengthening the status of Bahasa Malaysia by abolishing the dual language programme.
Additionally, Putrajaya must also withhold recognition for the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), the standard test for independent Chinese high schools, over fears that it would segregate the Chinese from the Malays.
“Perkasa recommends the government, all politicians and races to look at this issue (education for unity) seriously. Set aside ethnic sentiments and short-term politics,” said Sirajuddin, who is also Perkasa’s education bureau chief.
The statement was issued in conjunction with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal address in Parliament on Monday, where the king called for national harmony and unity to be preserved.
UEC and the existence of independent, private Chinese high schools would threaten ethnic harmony if they are recognised by the government and if its graduates are allowed to enter the civil service and public universities, Sirajuddin said.
In the same vein, the DLP, a voluntary programme where mathematics and science are taught in English would threaten ethnic harmony as it relegates the status of Bahasa Malaysia to an optional language.
“Society will become divided, segregated and marginalised, with limited and disharmonious communications between the members, and this threatens the country’s security,” he said, adding that Malay be made the primary medium of teaching at all levels of schooling and at the tertiary level.
National schools should also be strengthened physically and spiritually with world-class facilities and human resources so that they would become the preferred school of choice for Malaysians.
The government should also reintroduce scholarships for needy and deserving Bumiputeras and stop abuse of loans given by the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN), he added. – March 8, 2018.
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2 STOP practicing APARTHEID.
3 Race based priority should be replaced with NEED BASED.
80% of the battle is won.
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