KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — Umno’s Khairy Jamaluddin said that vernacular schools such as Chinese or Tamil national primary schools (SJK) were part of the country’s education system and their rights needed to be protected.

“Today there are Chinese students in the Malay national schools, and Malay in the Chinese national schools, and this is what makes Malaysia unique.

“And all vernacular schools are within our education system,” the Barisan Nasional’s candidate for Sungai Buloh said during a fundraising event at SJK (C) Sungai Buloh, last night.

In his speech, he pointed out that Chinese schools are not just an asset of the Chinese community but also part of the country’s education system, which aims to be inclusive towards all citizens.

“Malaysian citizens have the right to worship different religions, and they also have the freedom to learn different mother tongues.

“The most valuable thing is that our children are multi-lingual, they can speak Malay, Chinese and English,” he was quoted saying by Chinese daily Sin Chew.

On a side note, he added that although Malaysia had achieved a 14 per cent growth of Gross Domestic Product in the third quarter of this year, the country should focus on creating more job opportunities and increasing commercial development to strengthen the citizens’ purchase power.

He also pointed out that Malaysia sorely needs to tackle the high inflation rate and the falling currency value.

Khairy is currently contesting Sungai Buloh in a seven-cornered fight against candidates such as Pakatan Harapan’s Ramanan Ramakrishnan and Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin.