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Malaysian Chinese Will Not Be Encouraged To Send Their Children To Government National Primary Schools When UMNO MP Threatening Non-Malays By Waving May 13 Racial Riots Book Are Considered By The Government To Be Conducting “A History Lesson” Press Statement by Lim Guan Eng (Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had expressed concern at the state of national unity in Malaysia when he observed that students of all races do not mix with each other and the Chinese only 2% of the student population in government national primary schools. There are three principal reasons why national unity has not progressed but instead deteriorated to a state of grave concern to the Prime Minister that he had to revive the National Unity Advisory Panel to search for ideas to revive national unity.  One, is the failure by the government to forge a truly Malaysian identity. For example the emphasis on bangsa, agama dan negara is given only to one particular race and religion not, for all Malaysians. By allowing racial parties like UMNO, MCA and MIC exclusive only to one race,  BN perpetuates such racial and chauvinistic elements.  Second the failure to adopt a Malaysian approach to our problems. For example, problems relating to education are looked at from a racial perspective and not on the basis of educational needs. Building Chinese primary schools should be the government’s primary responsibility. Instead the government refuses to fund such educational needs despite 60,000 non-Chinese students studying in these schools. Clearly the government sees a racial perspective when Chinese schools sees itself as serving the educational needs of all Malaysians regardless of race.  Another controversial issue is quota policies for university entrance despite the government’s claims of adopting a meritocratic system. Higher Education Minister Dr Shafie Salleh's extremist remarks in the UMNO General Assembly that as the Higher Education Minister, he will never allow non-Bumiputera students to enter UiTM and  that the number of Bumiputera students in public universities will always exceed the given quota. For example, he said in 2002, there were 69 % Bumiputera students, while the quota was only 63%, while in 2004, there were 64 %  Bumiputeras (the quota was only 53%). Clearly meritocracy in our education system is a sham for political propaganda.  The third and final reason is allowing extremist UMNO politicians to make threatening remarks against non-Malays wihouty being punished whether by questioning their loyalty or their obedience to the Malays. Many Malaysians were shocked that Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar regarded the act of an UMNO MP using a book on May 13 racial riots to threaten the non-Malays during the recent UMNO General Assembly as a “history lesson”. Such “history lessons” will not encourage Malaysian Chinese to send their children to government primary schools. The status of some MCA leaders’ having Permanent Residence in a foreign country does not help, but UMNO must be reminded that not every non-Malay is like the MCA. Sadly MCA was never attacked by UMNO MPs but non-Malays who have never had a foreign PR had been scolded and threatened.  The government must start by forging a truly Malaysian identity, take a Malaysian approach towards nation-building and problem-solving and punish BN politicians who make threatening  remarks against another race. Otherwise even if the government organises one thousand unity meetings, national unity will still not be achieved. (5/10/2004) * Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General