Using Tamil, Mandarin in vernacular schools constitutional, rules court
Published on: Thursday, November 23, 2023
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
The Court of Appeal says vernacular schools are not a public authority, and therefore, the use of a non-Malay medium of instruction for teaching is not for official purposes.
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed an appeal by four Malay-Muslim interest groups seeking to declare the use of Mandarin or Tamil in vernacular schools as illegal under the Federal Constitution.
Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan said vernacular schools have long been recognised in the legislative framework of the education system even before Malaya’s independence and the existence of the 1957 constitution.
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“A contextual construction of the constitution did not support the appellants’ appeal that the existence of such schools is inconsistent with the supreme law of the land,” said Azizul, who read the broad grounds of judgment.
He said that, unlike a university, a vernacular school is not a public authority and, as such, the use of a non-Malay medium of instruction for teaching is not for official purposes.
The three-member Court of Appeal bench was chaired by Justice Supang Lian and also comprised Justice M Gunalan.
No costs were ordered as it is a public interest case.
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The Islamic Education Development Council (Mappim), the Confederation of Malaysian Writers Association (Gapena), Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) and Ikatan Guru-Guru Muslim Malaysia (I-Guru) had filed the appeal from two separate High Court judgments.
They are seeking a declaration that Sections 2, 17 and 28 of the Education Act 1996, which allow for the setting up of vernacular schools that use Mandarin and Tamil as the main languages, are inconsistent with Article 152(1) of the constitution.
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They also want vernacular schools to be converted into national schools within six years, and for the pupils in these schools to learn Tamil in Year One and Two, Mandarin in Year Three and Four, and Arabic in Year Five and Six.
Azizul said that soon after the constitution came into force in 1957, independent Malaya continued to “preserve and sustain” the teaching of Tamil and Mandarin in these schools.
He said the federal government had also recognised the constitutional duty to continue to preserve and sustain the use of these languages.
The judge also said the existence of these schools and the relevant provisions in the Education Act did not offend any of the fundamental liberty provisions in Part 11 of the constitution.
The bench also affirmed the findings of Justice Nazlan Ghazali, then a Kuala Lumpur High Court judge, that these schools were not a public authority.
Nazlan had distinguished the present case from that of the Merdeka University case, where the Federal Court held that a university had public elements and was therefore a “public authority”.
In his judgment delivered on Dec 29 2021, Nazlan, now a Court of Appeal judge, had dismissed the suit filed by Mappim, Gapena and Isma.
Justice Abazafree Abbas of the Kota Bharu High Court had also disallowed I-Guru’s suit on May 30 last year.
Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin represented the government in the present appeal. Lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla appeared for Mappim and Gapena; Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz and Shahrudin Ali represented Isma; and Ramesh NP Chandran represented I-Guru.
Several interest groups, including the Malaysian Chinese Language Council, the Tamil Language Association, the Confederation of Former Tamil School Pupils, MCA, and the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia, were named interveners in the suits.
Haniff, who spoke on behalf of the four appellants, say they have 30 days from today to file a leave application to appeal before the Federal Court.
“We will discuss and frame novel legal questions for the court to hear the merit of the appeal,” he said.
Lawyer Bastian Pius Vendargon, who appeared on behalf of the Malaysian Chinese Language Council, the Tamil Language Association, and the Confederation of Former Tamil School Pupils, said what happened next would be based on questions of law presented in the apex court.
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