Racial polarisation in the country is not caused by the country's vernacular school system but more by the government's discriminative education, economic and political policies, an educationist said today.

"If the different language mediums have caused racial polarisation, how about the Mara colleges which only accept Malay students? Have they caused racial polarisation too?" asked Chinese educationist Dr Kua Kia Soong.

He was commenting on a statement by the premier yesterday that the nation's current multilingual education system should be re-examined in light of racial polarisation in the country,

Kua, when contacted by malaysiakini , described the matter as 'an old issue'.

He said the right to mother tongue education should not be seen as the cause of racial polarisation but instead as a basic human rights that should be respected.

Kua also said that the government could gain a clearer perspective of Chinese education issues by meeting with the Chinese education movement, Dong Jiao Zhong.

The Dong Jiao Zhong is the umbrella group for two organisations in the country representing Chinese schools and teachers with the aims of upholding mother-tongue education and preserving the institution of Chinese schools, two issues which it claims have been sidelined by the government.

Culture separation

Kua, who is principal of the New Era College established by Dong Jiao Zhong, said that the country's previous administration had not sat down and discussed education issues with Chinese educationists during its 22-year reign.

"Dong Jiao Zhong is an important body in the Chinese education movement and the government should have had a meeting with them by now," he said

Echoing Kua's opinion of Abdullah's statement was Malaysian Tamil Educational Research and Development Foundation (MTERDF) committee member K Arumugam.

"The government should reduce discrimination in all areas before the problem of racial polarisation can be solved," he said.

He quoted a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report which he said showed that racial diversity was not a threat to national unity and that the problem of polarisation arose due to a suppression of different cultures.

Arumugam said since Science and Mathematics were now being taught in English in all schools, there was now no difference between vernacular schools and national-type schools.

"In fact, with this move, the government has damaged the institution of vernacular schools," he said.