Unwise for Soi Lek to blast Nazri for backing Chinese educationists

If you can't beat your enemy, join them. The irony is BN should get as many votes as possible to win the coming general election with all cost.

It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice, it's a good cat. 

BN is at all the gain by supporting the demands of Chinese-language educationists to get a good number of Chinese votes.

Strategically, it’s unwise for MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek to blast Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz for supporting the demands of Chinese-language educationists although MCA is loggerheads with vocal vernacular education lobby groups.

"Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz seems to have said that the demands of Dong Zong are fair and let us hope that he will not sing a different tune in Cabinet.

"Nazri is forever playing to the gallery and is fond of commenting without understanding the real issue contained in the memorandum," Dr Chua said in a scathingly-worded media statement.

Yesterday, more than 1,000 members and supporters of the United Chinese School Committees Association (Dong Zong) — had demonstrated outside Parliament while it was in session to push for eight demands it said must be met to resolve the long-standing state of vernacular Chinese education in the country.

Nazri, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, had met with the group and accepted their memorandum, remarking that the demands were "not wrong" as Dong Zong was fighting to protect their mother tongue but which had raised the MCA's ire.

The de facto law minister who is also in charge of parliamentary affairs had also pledged to raise the subject at the next Cabinet meeting.

The Dong Zong demonstration yesterday — codenamed the ‘926 rally’ — appeared to be the culmination of a long-standing stand-off between educationists fed up with the MCA's failure to resolve various education issues central to the Chinese community.

In their memorandum, Dong had highlighted staffing shortage in Chinese schools, namely teachers proficient in the Chinese language; the government's chronic failure to accredit the globally-recognized Unified Examination Certificate (UEC); the difficulty faced by Chinese school board members seeking official registration and the lack of funds to develop Chinese schools.

The clash over vernacular education appears to have hurt the party's standing with Chinese voters crucial in the next general elections due soon.