Umno seemed to have embarked on a media assault against its Barisan Nasional ally MCA after the Chinese-based party, together with three others, showed its reluctance in supporting the proposal to teach Science and Maths in English in all primary schools.

English daily New Straits Times, often seen as the barometer of Umno's stand on issues, in an opinion piece on the editorial page said MCA's stand was a "shrewd" and "selfish" political decision.

The article, written by Shamsul Akmar, said MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik's statement a day after the BN supreme council meeting over the issue should "make him quite popular among the Chinese educationists and those believe in the superiority of Mandarin in the teaching of the two subjects".

Ling had said the four Chinese-based parties wanted mother-tongue to be retained for the two subjects in Chinese primary schools and suggested that the students could attend extra classes in English after school hours.

Selfish decision

Shamsul wrote that the party president was hoping to regain some lost ground since his political standing had been diminished due to the conflict between Team A and Team B in MCA and the acquisition of two Chinese newspapers last year.

The writer said the "selfish decision" was especially true when component parties representing the other races and communities are ready to adopt the policy.

"Take Umno for example. It is ready to face the backlash from other Malay political parties like PAS and Keadilan which have decided to use the issue to whip the sentiment of supporters of Bahasa Melayu," an Umno supreme council member was quoted as saying in the article.

A Wanita MCA member was quoted as saying that "Dr Ling and many other top MCA leaders are not Mandarin-educated. They send their children to study in the US and the UK as they were all English-educated.

"To me, because of their selfish political interest, they do not mind sacrificing the generations of ordinary Chinese by not making the effort to explain to them the significance of the government policy."

Emphasis on 'chineseness'

The article also said the political implications of MCA and its allies asking for exemption for Chinese schools is viewed by most Malays as "refusing to be part of the national policy".

Meanwhile, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia in its weekend editorial said the problems in the implementation of the language switch would not have arisen had the Chinese-based parties not emphasised on their "chineseness".

"They (the parties) dare to take a firm stand against the policy because they think Umno is not as strong as before. They also assume that Umno and PAS will not cooperate again. They are actually testing the Malays," wrote Awang Sulung.

He said if the parties continue to oppose the switch, the Umno-led government should "just do what is necessary implement it and face whatever that happens" since the education minister has been given full authority to make decisions on vernacular schools.

He added that Chinese Malaysians have an air of superiority complex because they have managed to excel in all fields, especially in the economic sector although they were not given special privileges of the Bumiputeras.

"This success has made them feel that they are strong and can reject any government policy which is perceived to be reducing their 'chineseness'," the article read.

Playing 'yes-man"

Several commentaries on Umno-online.com, the party's official website, said the delay of a final decision on the language switch was due to MCA's failure to explain the policy to Chinese organisations.

"MCA prefers to take care of its political standing in the eyes of the Chinese community as it fears losing support in the coming general election," one Zulkifli Ibrahim wrote in his article.

He said both MCA and Gerakan were merely playing pak turut (yes-man) to the Chinese organisations which are clearly against the language switch.

Zulkifli went on to urge the Chinese BN parties to give "100% support" to the switch and place national interest above "matters which may cost them a small price".