The Question of DAP's boogeyman, vernacular schools and UEC recognition

OPINION | The Question of DAP's boogeyman, vernacular schools and UEC recognition


13 Dec 2025 • 7:30 AM MYT


Timothy
A Student who dabbles in the left side of politics

Minister of Housing and Local Government - Nga Kor Ming. Credit: Malaysiakini


After a humiliating loss for the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in the Sabah State Election, with reforms desperately needed, it seems the 'Red Faction' of the DAP has found its solution in 'bringing Chinese voters back into the fold' by pushing the contentious issue of UEC recognition. This move appears to be a strategic attempt to placate the concerns and the predispositions of the more chauvinistic members of our society by amplifying the party divisions, specifically between the chauvinistic red faction and the social democratic blue faction. To say I was shocked that the DAP had reverted to this issue was an understatement when I saw the post from Malaysiakini yesterday afternoon on my social media feed on the 10th of December; however, I was not surprised at who was spearheading this effort - Nga Kor Ming, the DAP deputy chairman and the minister for housing and local government. This is the wrong move for DAP, and I would highlight in this article three main points: Historical context up to the Sabah State Election, the reasons for my claim and the path forward for DAP.


Historical Context


This fight for UEC recognition ties into the larger issue of vernacular schools and their influence being so entrenched in our post-colonial society. When the British came to colonise our land of Nusantara, they very intelligently used the "divide and conquer" strategy to divide members of society. The term "divide and conquer" is a British term, which Merriam-Webster defines as "to make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one", and they did just that - not by class divisions because that would make it easy for the Malayans of the time rise against the British, but by racial divisions to weaken national harmony and pit people of the same socio-economic class that have more in common with each other, against each other, simply for having differing skin tones. See where I'm going with this? They primarily did this, especially in terms of education. An article by the Economic History of Malaysia states that the teachings of each school were "vernacular", and that each race created separate, ethnically-based school systems using languages and curricula to keep communities of Malaya apart. In the years leading up to independence and indeed after independence, the effects of colonisation reverberated, with those same effects still affecting us today. The vernacular education of the Indians has largely faded away, with the majority of them joining the better-funded public schools. However, there is still one community that holds on to its education so tightly to this day. The Chinese community understandably values the cultural and academic continuity offered by vernacular schools; however, this historical structure, inherited partly from colonial policies, continues to shape our racial politics today.


The Unified Education Certificate was a certificate set up by "Dong Zong", known in English as the "United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia", which sought to unify the examination standard of all the Independent Chinese-medium schools in 1975, according to the Rakyat Post. It can also be seen as a defiance against Mahathir's wishes because, as an FMT article written by Kua Kia Soong put it, the then-Education Minister told Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools (MICSS) leaders to stop this at once, "or else!" The examination carried on regardless of the warning, and ever since then, the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia have tried to get UEC recognised by the federal government. Perhaps this was the trigger point for many Chinese members of our society to fight for the recognition of the UEC from the federal government ever since, but regardless, times have changed since 1975. This historical dynamic is not just academic, but it directly influences modern electoral outcomes, as seen in the recent Sabah state election



I have already covered the Sabah State Election in my previous article entitled: "OPINION | Sabah State Election 2025: An Opinionated Analysis", which I highly recommend readers to read before reading this piece to understand my fullest thoughts, before coming back for a slightly more condensed version. DAP lost in Sabah, in my opinion, because they were not loud enough on the economic and material conditions of the average Sabahan, which made them feel elitist and out of touch. To my mind, the biggest message from the Sabah polls to DAP is that DAP needs to refocus its efforts on what former DAP MP for Klang Charles Santiago put it on X: “DAP needs to return to basics: people-centred issues, cost of living, livelihoods, governance, accountability, transparency and public service.”


The reasons for my claim


There is this age-old saying in leftist circles that if you "scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds", which means that as far as economic conditions are concerned, the liberal will side with the fascist on protecting the capital interest. I am not, however, declaring that anybody in Anwar's cabinet or in DAP leadership is a fascist because that would be wildly untrue, and quite frankly, defamatory. I'm merely saying that people like Nga are liberals who tend to side with protecting the political ambitions and rhetoric of the bourgeoisie by pushing on hot-button issues like this to appease the more Chinese chauvinistic members of society, while the far-right in our society is gathering support to push back against this initiative, gaining lifelong followers and voters in the process. Indirectly, this move can lead to a far-right takeover of Malaysia, which is something that I believe the majority of Malaysians would not want, and these claims are not unsubstantiated. The far-right party of PAS won 49 seats in the last General Election in 2022, and they made massive inroads into places like Selangor, which was previously thought of as PKR and DAP heartlands.


The proletariat is only strong if it is united. The rhetoric of the bourgeoisie and holding onto the colonial ways, that is, racial politics, will only divide the proletariat, and it has successfully divided the proletariat for more than 65 years now into their own little racial blocs. It is the age-old saying: "United we stand, Divided we fall", and clearly the proletarians are falling because the elites have divided us into neat racial blocs that they can harness their voters from. Better material conditions lie ahead, with the workers marching together in solidarity with one another, not against one another, on, quite frankly, trivial racial issues. I believe that an improvement in material conditions will eventually break through the darkness that is racial politics because a general improvement of the material conditions will beat racial chauvinism every day of the week. In multicultural societies like Sweden, initiatives like the Folkhemmet have actually improved their material conditions indiscriminately, which has led the population to reject racial and linguistic politics (e.g. Finnish Rights) until very recently. Many of my critics might argue that the question of UEC recognition, the discussion on vernacular education more broadly, is not a cultural issue but rather an essential priority in life, which I agree with. However, the fact of the matter is that it still acts as a roadblock against proletarian unity, especially amongst the Malays in our society. The question put to proponents of this is whether the unity of the Malaysian proletariat, across racial lines, is worth sacrificing for a small gain for your own race; to which I say that it is definitely not worth it at all, with no further questions asked.


The far-right feeds off racial politics. Think about the far-right parties, both historically and contemporarily, and many can notice that there is a pattern: they feed off predominantly racial politics and, to a lesser extent, deteriorating economic conditions. The National Socialists in Germany in the 30s came to power amidst deteriorating economic conditions and a very prevalent anti-Jewish sentiment, according to Britannica. An essay by Equitable Growth shows this as well, with support for the far right being driven less by materialistic conditions, hardship and more by the latent threat to social politics, which people like Nga are peddling very openly, which will draw massive support and pushback. Issues like this do not inherently impact the material conditions of the proletariat, but instead influence the social perception of the racial and cultural differences between us in this beautiful and multicultural land of Malaysia.



The Path Forward


It is in my opinion that DAP should drop identity politics and return to its roots, especially as it likes to invoke the name of the Setapak Declaration of 1967, in which it says that the party is "irrevocably committed to the ideal of a free, democratic and socialist Malaysia". Instead, it should embrace class warfare and the unification of the proletariat across racial lines to truly bring about the ideals outlined in that declaration, which they hold so dear.


On the UEC question, the party should hold onto the principles or drop them entirely to ensure that it can garner the support of the Malay proletariat, which makes up the majority of the proletariat in Malaysia anyway. By doing so, it gets rid of the "Chinese Party" narrative that has been peddled by the racist bourgeois parties historically and presently, and makes the party more appealing to the idea of voting for the Social Democratic Party across the country. Instead, it should focus on improving the economic conditions of the proletariat, engaging in the Warisan rhetoric and using their positions by challenging the government from the inside to enact meaningful reforms. Then Malaysia can fully realise the ideals of the Reformasi calls led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, more than 25 years ago.