KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — The Chinese education group Dong Jiao Zong should respect the decision of the Cabinet to retain the approval for the learning of the Jawi writing in the Bahasa Melayu subject including in vernacular schools.

As such, Youth and Sports Minister, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman suggested that the Chinese education group did not pursue its desire to carry out the congress to protest against the issue on December 28.

‘’I feel we have sought a compromise, a middle path in the matter, because it had been discussed at great length in the Cabinet and we have achieved a consensus.

‘’Most importantly, we must look forward because there are four major issues which Malaysians want involving the economy, cost of living, housing and employment. Please focus on these four matters because they are most important,’’ he said.

He said this to the media after launching the 2019 eUsahawan Young Heroes Summit organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Facebook Malaysia at the Malaysian International Trade Exhibition Centre (MITEC), today.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed gave his warning on the consequences if the group continued with the congress it planned, maybe resulting in the Malays also organising their congress to discuss effort to close Chinese vernacular schools.

The prime minister also advised every party to be considerate of the sentiments of others.

In August, the Ministry of Education confirmed that it would still implement the introduction of calligraphy (Khat) in the Bahasa Melayu Year Four subject next year as scheduled.

Despite protests on the teaching of Jawi writing in vernacular schools, last month the High Court in George Town, Penang decided that the teaching of the Jawi writing was part of Bahasa Malaysia and could be taught in Chinese and Tamil schools.

Meanwhile, commenting on the 2019 eUsahawan Young Heroes programme, Syed Saddiq said it was among the pro-active steps of KBS to encourage innovation, boosting talents and honing the skills of the young generations.

"They (young entrepreneurs) are indeed trained to become young entrepreneurs specifically in digital so that they will know how to promote products using high technology in the globalisation era,’’ he said.

Also present were the Communications and Multimedia Ministry’s secretary general Datuk Suriani Ahmad and MDEC chief executive officer, Surina Shukri.

The 2019 eUsahawan Young Heroes programme succeeded in training 20,653 young people nationwide involving an overall sale value of RM52.4 million.

Through the programme, the young were trained to become entrepreneurs, specifically in the digital sector, on how to promote products using high technology in the globalisation era.

Since it was launched in 2015, the programme had successfully trained 328,948 micro entrepreneurs nationwide with transactions in excess of RM668 million. — Bernama