From an outsider's perspective, the fact that the Malaysian government allows Malaysia's three languages, Malay, Chinese and Tamil, to coexist already appears impressively liberal. But it's no surprise that after a century of friction over education, and in view of its importance in establishing values and sense of identity, it is still an intractable issue in which politics and ethnicity are inseparably intertwined.
以外人眼光來看，容許馬來文、華文、淡米爾文（印度文）三語共存的馬來西亞政府，實已展現泱泱大度，然而，教育攸關認同與價值觀建立，難怪歷經百年拉鋸，迄今仍是一個與政治、種族糾葛交纏，「剪不斷、理還亂」的敏感議題。