Monday, September 24, 2007

The battle over Tamil schools

The battle to win the hearts and minds of the Indian community has erupted big time between PPP president M Kayveas and MIC, the party that claims sole ownership to work hard for the community.

It started last week when Kayveas was quoted in Malaysia Nanban as saying that the Tamil language would survive better if it was taught in all national schools as a compulsory subject.

In Tamil Nesan, this was quoted as a suggestion by him to close all Tamil schools.

The battle cry was then continued by Tamil Nesan (owned by the family of the MIC president, the Great Leader) which lambasted Kayveas as a community traitor for making such a suggestion.

On Saturday a coterie of MIC leaders and the Great Leader’s backers ganged up in Tamil Nesan not just to criticise Kayveas but also to question his contributions to Tamil schools and estate workers in general.

Much of their remarks were “hitting below the belt” kinds.

And today Kayveas responded – in Malaysia Nanban. He said he was willing to debate with anyone on the status of Tamil schools. He also said that he had NOT asked for the closure of Tamil schools, blaming Tamil Nesan for misquoting him!

And then he made his attacks. He said that MIC should answer why some 800 Tamil schools have been closed in the past 20 years. Ouch!

There are slightly more than 500 Tamil schools today, most of them in deplorable conditions and dwindling student population.

(A quick comparison with the Chinese schools will never be fair. A recent survey showed that 95 percent of the Chinese community sends their children to Chinese schools.)

My fear is that the battling parties would eventually side track from the cause of their fight – the plight of the Tamil schools – and start defending their inflated egos.

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