WITH the High Court declaring that vernacular schools are constitutional, a DAP veteran urged the groups that launched the legal challenge to withdraw their appeal against the verdict.
“I urge the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS), the Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim), Confederation of Malaysian Writers Association (Gapena) and Ikatan Guru-Guru Muslimin Malaysia (I-Guru) to withdraw their appeal.
“Let us work together to reset Malaysia’s direction and work towards making our nation great in terms of international competitiveness, good governance, respecting rule of law and become corrupt free,” Lim Kit Siang said, in a statement.
Yesterday, Free Malaysia Today reported the Kota Bharu High Court as ruling that the existence of vernacular schools in Malaysia was constitutional.
Judge Roslan Abu Bakar, in his verdict, said that the existence of vernacular schools must be read in the historical context.
“The intention of the framers of the Federal Constitution was to preserve that as part of the education system. The wishes of our forefathers were that we live in harmony,” Roslan said, in dismissing a suit brought by the Muslim teachers’ group, I-Guru.
The president of the association, Mohd Azizee Hasan, had filed the suit on its behalf last year, challenging the constitutionality of Sections 17 and 28 of the Education Act.
On Dec 30 last year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Ghazali also threw out a similar suit brought by GPMS, Mappim and Gapena.
In his written judgment, Nazlan said vernacular schools have long been recognised in the legislative framework of the national education system, even before Independence and the framing of the Federal Constitution.
Nazlan said this was evident in the Education Ordinance 1952 and the Education Ordinance 1957.
GPMS, Mappim and Gapena have since filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal on the verdict.
Heading in the wrong direction
Touching on the matter, Lim said that both high court’s decisions should be taken as a sign that Malaysia has taken a wrong direction over the past decades and the people must return to the nation-building ideals as expounded by the founding fathers.
“The first three Prime Ministers; Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and Tun Hussein Onn would have been shocked to see that our country had deviated from our founding principles.
“To our dismay, we even have ministers who do not adhere to the Rukunegara principles. We even have leaders who are proud that Malaysia is notorious in the world as a kleptocracy,” he stated.
The Iskandar Puteri MP remarked: “We must return to our basic nation-building principles as enshrined in the Federal Constitution and Rukunegara; and respect the constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, rule of law, separation of powers, good governance and accept Malaysia as a plural society. – May 31, 2022
