The Malaysian Insider

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 – Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dismissed today an online campaign for Malaysia to abolish vernacular schools, by refusing to back the “One School for All” petition by a group of bloggers aligned with Umno.

The online campaign describes vernacular Chinese and Tamil schools as a cancer and impediment to national unity.

Backed by a number of pro-Umno bloggers, the campaign appears to mirror remarks made by Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir during his failed campaign to become Umno Youth chief.

Mukhriz, the son of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has consistently called for vernacular schools to be abolished and for there to be only one single school system.

Muhyiddin told reporters today that the country already had a national education policy and that there was no need to change it.

He said the education system, which guarantees the existence of Chinese and Tamil primary schools which follows the national syllabus, has existed for a long time and nobody had previously complained about it.

“It is not wrong for people to have many opinions but they must understand that our national education policy has existed for a long time. This is what has driven our education system,” he said.

Muhyiddin said he welcomed different opinions but stressed the government would not be changing the education policy.

The DPM appeared to take pains in not backing the campaign.

Muhyiddin, who is also deputy president of Umno, had come under heavy criticism for his remarks after a recent by-election which suggested some Chinese voters were not grateful to the Barisan Nasional (BN).

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