The Malays have been provoked into calling for vernacular schools to be abolished, said Datuk Ibrahim Ali who blamed non-Malays for constantly challenging the community’s special rights that are enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
The Perkasa president said the Malays would not be interfering in the rights of other races if they respected the Malays' special position, as guaranteed in the constitution.
"These suggestions (to close vernacular schools) are emerging because they (the Malays) feel that as Malays, their rights that are guaranteed in the constitution are being disturbed by other races.
"All this time, the position of Islam as the religion of the federation, Bahasa Melayu, the sovereignty of the rulers and the special rights of the Malays, are being challenged by certain quarters despite the fact that they are enshrined in the constitution," he told The Malaysian Insider.
MCA Youth yesterday said the rights of the Chinese and Indians to study their mother tongues in vernacular schools not be challenged, adding that the school system was not an obstacle to national unity.
MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon had said that non-Chinese students studying at Chinese primary schools throughout the country now comprised 12% of the total number of students, meaning that the vernacular schools were now more diverse than national schools.
On October 5, Umno Petaling Jaya Utara division deputy head Mohamad Azli Mohamed Saad had reportedly said that the party's general assembly next month should debate whether Chinese vernacular schools should be abolished.
This, he said, was because Chinese schools were being used by the opposition to breed racial and anti-government sentiments.
Cheras Umno division chief Datuk Seri Syed Ali Al Habshee reiterated the call on October 7, urging the government to abolish vernacular schools and to set up a single-stream school system which, he said, could help in fostering national unity in the country.
He had said that abolishing single-stream schools was not meant to kill off the mother tongue of other races, but they could also learn those languages in national schools.
Ibrahim said the proposals were raised in response to the non-Malays repeatedly challenging the constitution.
"They disturb this, they challenge it. They say we are backwards, that we should be equal in this day and change. They challenge all sorts of things.
"When they challenge us, they say it is a basic human and democratic right, even though it is in the constitution," said Ibrahim.
He said those who attempted to remind the public of the articles in the constitution were condemned and even labelled as racists.
Ibrahim said non-Malay parties were not practising what they preached on equality as they still championed the vernacular school system.
"Those who defend the constitution are accused of being racists. They say there is no more race-based politics because they wish to abolish Bumiputera rights.
"They also say they disagree with the Sedition Act, yet they lodge a report against Azli under that same act," said Ibrahim. – October 12, 2014.
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