MCA will continue to defend the rights of the Chinese community in ensuring the Chinese national type school (SJKC) vernacular schools continued, said its vice president Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun.
Chew, who is also Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said MCA would not compromise on the call by Petaling Jaya Utara Umno deputy chief Mohamad Azli Moha-med Saad to abolish the vernacular school system, which he claimed was used as a tool to spread anti-government government sentiments.
"It is not right to ban the learning of one's mother tongue because this is a right under the Constitution," she told reporters after officiating the Goods and Services Tax (GST) seminar, organised by Penang MCA and Penang Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia here Monday.
In urging all the races in the country to respect the respective mother tongues, she said the issues should not have been raised as there was no problem with the operation of Chinese vernacular schools since independence 57 years ago.
She said the call to abolish the Chinese vernacular schools was not the policy or view of the majority of Umno leaders but only the stand of a small number of its leaders, who had extremist views and did not understand that the cultural, lingual and racial diversity was Malaysia's strength.
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