KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has clarified that he did not call for vernacular schools to be closed down.

"I said the system should be one. I don't think the issue of closing schools arises. That is the last thing I want," he said when commenting on the flak he received after it was reported on Monday that he had called on the Government to abolish the vernacular school system to enhance unity among the people and that a single school system was the only way to check racial polarisation.

"The school remains the same physically and it is the system that needs changing where the medium of teaching would eventually be one, which is Bahasa Malaysia, except for Science and Mathematics," he said, adding that it would include religious schools.

On the Opposition saying that he was trying to win votes, he said there were certain statements that went against BN's position, such as the issue of ketuanan Melayu.

Many political leaders from the Opposition and Barisan Nasional had hit out at Mukhriz for blaming the vernacular school system as the cause of a polarised Malaysian society.

MCA vice-president Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said the present school system was still the best and such methods had been accepted quite well by all races.

He added that the multi-streaming school system didn?t stop students of various races from mingling together as Malaysians.

"It's old thinking that the multi-streaming schooling process will cause issues concerning racial unity," he said.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said: "Language alone cannot be deemed as the main factor for national unity. It should entail mutual understanding, sincerity and respect among all races."

Dr Wee also expressed his regret over Mukhriz's proposal to have a single stream school system and pointed out that many non-Chinese students were studying in Chinese primary schools.

MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said Mukhriz had violated the provisions in the Constitution, which protected the position and rights of vernacular schools.

He said that with Malaysia being a liberal country, he would expect a modern mind and right thinking to prevail.

DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang said Mukhriz had committed a seditious offence by questioning one of the four sensitive issues entrenched in the Constitution and he could be disqualified as an MP if convicted.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said; "It is not right for him to fish for votes to win the Umno Youth Chief seat."

PAS deputy president Nasaruddin Mat Isa said it was the right of each race to be educated in their mother tongue.

PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Mukhriz wanted to appeal to the extreme Malay views to win the Umno election.