In a statement recently, Pejuang President, Mukhriz Mahathir said that Malaysia should abolish its vernacular schools first before it can consider putting a non-Malay prime minister in power.
Mukhriz who is also the son of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir said before making such a radical change to its political system, the nation must work to eliminate the current racial divide-creating factors.
According to the former Jerlun MP, one of these factors was the creation of separate educational streams for young Malaysians due to the continued existence of vernacular schools.
“Our founding fathers would not have agreed to let the British-era vernacular schools continue operating well beyond Merdeka as they would have known it would create more division between the people.
“We need to allow our children to learn, play and mingle with each other so that the differences between them become celebrated rather than divisive.
“Only then can we hope to see non-Malays as nothing other than Malaysians, not differentiated by their ethnic background,” he said in a Facebook post, in response to a statement from DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.
In Malaysia, there are two types of vernacular schools – Chinese and Tamil schools – that use Mandarin and Tamil as the main medium of instruction respectively, with Bahasa Malaysia and English taught as compulsory subjects.
Mukhriz admitted that, in order to do this, the country’s educational system would have to undergo a complete redesign.
According to him, a prime minister must have the support of the majority of Dewan Rakyat MPs, which means he needs the backing of the Malays.
“As long as the Malays remain the largest voting bloc and are united, a non-Malay can only become prime minister if supported by the Malays.
“Perhaps in future general elections, Pakatan Harapan (PH) can put forward a non-Malay as their candidate for prime minister, but it remains to be seen if the people will support it.”
The prime minister’s position is not only open to Malays, Lim noted last week, though he did not anticipate a non-Malay prime minister serving during his or his children’s lifetimes.
He went on to say that Barack Obama’s election as President of the United States in 2008 had made many non-Malays wonder if one of them would ever be able to lead Malaysia as Prime Minister.
ALSO CHECK OUT:
