21 February 2020

Ikatan Guru Guru Muslim Malaysia’s lawsuit challenging the existence of vernacular schools in Malaysia is a challenge against Constitutional safeguards

MCA is saddened to learn of a new lawsuit by Ikatan Guru Guru Muslim Malaysia which was filed on the evening of 20 Feb 2020 in the High Court at Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

This is the third such lawsuit filed in the nation since Pakatan Harapan, a political collation that supposedly seeks to root out racism from Malaysia, took over in 2018. What was once an unprecedented occurrence, has now become a norm for us.

There was a time when everyone accepted the rights of the minority communities in Malaysia to teach and learn in their own vernacular language.

In fact, vernacular schools enjoy protection by the highest law of the land whereby Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, which, among others, states that while the Malay language should be the national language, no person shall be prohibited from using other languages for teaching or learning.

However, with these court suits challenging the Constitutionality of vernacular schools, this suggests more proof of Malaysia’s impending slide into an age of extremism and radical rhetoric.

This comes just after the filing of a separate lawsuit in December last year by Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS) and the Islam Education Development Council (Mappim) which also questioned the constitutionality of vernacular education in Malaysia.

In the suit on 20 Feb 2020, Ikatan Guru Guru Muslim Malaysia is raising a constitutional challenge to Sections 17 and 28 of the Education Act. This would mean that it is likely to be consolidated with the action filed by lawyer and Putra vice-president Mohd Khairul Azam last year,  which also claims Sections 28 and 17 of the Education Act to be invalid due to inconsistencies with Article 152 of the Federal Constitution. MCA has already been joined as an intervener in both Mohd Khairul Azam’s lawsuit, as well as GPMS and Mappim’s lawsuit, and will therefore take both challenges by the horns.

If, however, Ikatan Guru Guru Muslim Malaysia’s lawsuit is not joined by the courts, and remains a separate legal proceeding, MCA will not hesitate to apply to intervene in that suit as well.

MCA has always upheld and protected that continued existence of Chinese, Tamil and Malay medium national schools. The recent trend to get the Courts to shut some of those schools down is disappointing as it shows that we have yet to grow as a nation, despite 63 years of nation-building.

Datuk Chong Sin Woon

MCA Secretary-General

-MCA online-