MCA central committee member Datuk Ti Lian Ker wants police to investigate UMNO Petaling Utara deputy division chief Mohamed Azli Mohemed Saad over his call to debate the abolishment of Chinese primary schools at the UMNO annual general meeting.

“Not only has Mohamed Azli challenged the rights of all Malaysians to study their mother-tongue language, but he has also questioned the legitimate rights of the Chinese community to education, and his careless call is liable to create racial tension,” Ti said in a statement today.

He said such a call contravenes the Federal Constitution and BN’s spirit of inclusiveness.

He also reminded Mohamad Azli where in Oct 1978, a Sabah UMNO MP, Mark Koding was charged for sedition for advocating the call to abolish SJKC and Tamil schools.

“The rights of all races to teach and learn their mother-tongue language cannot be denied, and national-type primary schools are a part and parcel of our nation’s mainstream education and cannot be denied,” he said.

The MCA religious Harmony Bureau chairman said it has been the BN’s policy since Independence to defend the rights of all Malaysians to learn their mother tongue languages.

“And if Mohamad Azli disagrees with this, he is very much welcomed to leave BN,” he added.

Mohamad Azli was quoted in the New Straits Times saying that the UMNO AGM should discuss whether the vernacular school system should be continued.

He said the assembly should also debate if Chinese vernacular schools should be abolished and whether the intake of Malay and Indian students and teachers to such schools should be 60 per cent.

He also said that such schools should be under the Education Ministry’s jurisdiction as this would eliminate all forms of racial sentiments.

The assembly will be held from Nov 25 to 29.