Fortunately we have someone like Subramaniam to defend the Chinese education in this country.

S. Subramaniam is MIC's sole representative in the Cabinet, our only Indian minister.

Although he doesn't speak Mandarin, he is not to be outperformed where the defence of Chinese education is concerned.

At least, he is well ahead of Cabinet representatives from both MCA and Gerakan.

The Cabinet has given him full authority to square off the controversy of SPM Chinese and Tamil subjects with the education ministry.

Of course, Subra is also fighting for Tamil language at the same time, but take the ratio of candidates taking Chinese and Tamil papers in SPM as well as the number of Chinese and Tamil primary schools, it is obvious that the former carries a much bigger weight.

If Subra eventually succeeds, he should be hired by Dongjiaozhong as a consultant, and Chinese associations in this country should advertise on newspapers to thank him profusely for his great work.

There are a total of five Chinese Cabinet ministers, four from MCA. If they all voice up in the Cabinet meeting, they should be a whole lot louder than Subramaniam.

I suspect whether these Chinese ministers have ever talked about this thing among themselves.

Will they ever open their mouths in the Cabinet?

Or rather do they have any idea what the whole thing is about?

Simple computation from newspaper reports shows that at least three of these five ministers have not expressed their stands, one being ambiguous and confusing, while the other making only irrelevant talks after a whole week.

Previously they turned a deaf ear on the BTN controversy, and now they are equally indifferent to the issue of Chinese education. It seems that they take great bliss in staying out of business!

What kind of ministers are they? And what kind of representatives for the Chinese community?

Perhaps their boss understands they have party crisis and their own futures to take care of, and should therefore excuse them from handling such national issues.

From BTN's racist inclination, the status of Chinese papers in SPM, to the marked increase in the number of Malay periods in Chinese primary schools--one bomb after another has been hurled towards us.

Our esteemed ministers are seeing them as a dodgeball game, avoiding as best as they can, better still if their "comrades" are smashed so long as they remain safe and intact.

If it goes on this way, even fresh elections will not mean anything now.

Probably they should just sign their resignation letters and promise not to run again in elections, so that they won't squander their positions at the expense of other more capable people.

And Chinese community already has some idea how to put down their KPI scores! (By TAY TIAN YAN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)