Teacher Lau Chooi Lan leading Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Chong Hwa pupils back into their class in Setapak, January 2, 2014. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Perkasa Youth condemned Putrajaya’s decision to exempt Chinese independent high schools from the goods and services tax (GST) yesterday, questioning their allegedly special status compared to public high schools.

The wing of the Malay rights group said this exemption was proof Putrajaya has failed to “learn their lesson” when the United Chinese School Committees’ Association (Dong Zong) protested against National Education Blueprint.

“How many more privileges should be given to Dong Zong? Is it not enough, the millions of ringgits allocated for Dong Zong?” asked Perkasa Youth secretary Ruzainie Reezman in a statement.

“Why is the government helping them by giving facilities towards their financial administration?… What they did before should have been made a reminder and lesson, but the government is now weak in tackling a small issue such as this.”

Ruzainie further said the exemption was an indication of Putrajaya’s failure in managing the coordination and implementation of GST, as it does not bring any positive effect towards national economic and social development.

Yesterday, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong said the Customs Department has decided in general that any education expenses will not be subjected to the GST.

Subsequently, the Unified Examination Certificate fees for the Chinese independent high schools under Dong Zong will be exempt.

The high schools’ examination fees were originally not GST-exempt as the institutions were not registered under the Ministry of Education, he said.

Defenders of Bumiputera special privileges regularly target vernacular schools to deflect demands for equal treatment of the country’s races after decades of race-based affirmative action.

Despite this, vernacular schools continue to grow in popularity, with an increasing number of non-Malay parents preferring to send their children to Mandarin- and Tamil-language schools over the Malay-language national schools.