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PETALING JAYA: The Kota Bharu High Court today allowed a request to reinstate a lawsuit filed by a group of Muslim teachers to challenge the existence of vernacular schools in Malaysia.
Lawyer Shaharudin Ali, who is appearing for Ikatan Guru-Guru Muslim Malaysia, said Judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh allowed the application to revive an initial subpoena that was overturned on October 25 last year.
“The court set February 28 for the next handling of the case on the request of the Chamber of the Attorney General to transfer the case to a judge of the Kuala Lumpur High Court,” he said.
The intent of the request is to consolidate all those cases before a Kuala Lumpur judge.
Shaharudin said his client would oppose the government’s request because “we take the position that the Kota Bharu judge has jurisdiction and is competent to determine the constitutional issues raised to the court.”
The plaintiff, Mohd Azizee Hasan, the group’s president, filed the lawsuit on behalf of his organization in February last year. He is challenging the constitutionality of articles 17 and 28 of the Education Law. He named the minister of education and the government as defendants.
The MCA and the Malaysia Association of China United School Committees (Dong Zong) have been allowed to be parties and defendants. The Chinese Language Council, the Tamil Language Association and the Confederation of Alumni of the Tamil School have also requested to become interveners.
The Malaysian Student Union and the Islamic Education Development Council filed similar lawsuits in Kuala Lumpur in February last year. Ikatan Muslim in Malaysia (Isma) also presented a similar cause of action in Kuala Lumpur in March.
Isma President Aminuddin Yahaya is seeking an order that the two provisions of the Education Law, which allow the use of Chinese and Tamil languages as a medium of instruction in vernacular schools, go against Article 152 of the Constitution. Federal.
Article 152 establishes that Bahasa Melayu is the national language of Malaysia.
