Recently, after the prime minister announced Malaysia’s proposed venture into Formula One racing, many Malaysians expressed their fears about going into motor racing and asked if the money should not be spent instead on projects that would benefit more ordinary Malaysians.

I am writing this letter exactly one day after the 15th consecutive successful launch of Indian’s PSLV  rocket ( Polar satellite Launch vehicle), which sent seven satellites ( one Indian and six foreign satellites) into lower earth orbit. This achievement and success was not achieved by India overnight : The very first launch of the PSLV rocket in September 1993 was 1 failure, but since then, Indian has learnt from its mistakes and all subsequent launches have been successful.

When India ventured into high tech areas such as apace exploration and nuclear weapons, many countries and many Indians also criticised the country for doing so, again arguing the money could be better apent elsewhere. Now , of course, everybody is praising Indian for its initiative.

Malaysian is certainly not a poverty-stricken country, it can afford to spend money on high tech and high tech-based ventures. I appeal to Malaysians to look at the F1 venture with optimism and with pride.

S.J.B. Jawahar

Pasir Gudang

New Straits Times

The fact is that the majority ( I believe more than 90 per cent) of Chinese send their children to Chinese schools.

Let’s go back a bit. When English-medium schools were abolished, the shift started from the national schools ( which were previously English-medium school) to Chinese schools.

Premier schools like Pykett Methodist School. which used to have six classes of each standard per year, now only has one class per standard.

Other premier schools in Penang like Wellesley Primary School and Hutchin Primary School, which are feeder schools to the famous Penang Free School, suffered the same fate.

This resulted in Chinese primary schools getting more than their normal enrolment, but the fact is that not all Chinese schools face the same situation. Some urban Chinese schools also face dwindling enrolment to be relocated outside the city.

Quality is the reason some Chinese schools are more popular than other Chinese schools. The same applies to national schools.

The ideal solution would have been just one education system but we know that, politically, it is not possible. With the teaching of Science and Maths in English, national schools would have gradually become more popular.

Sadly, the decision to abolish the policy takes us back to square one.

Zainul also asked if national schools were becoming too Malay or Islamic.

Most parents have that perception because the majority of students in the-se schools are Malays.

Lee Cheng Poh

Penang

( News Straits Times)