KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Groups threatening to organise a vernacular student boycott of khat lessons are behaving with irrational arrogance, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman said.

Commenting on a news report of the warning, the minister pointed out that Putrajaya has already compromised heavily in the matter following public unhappiness.

“Wiling to prevent children from receiving their education simply because of three pages on jawi that are not tested and already made optional.

“You cannot get more bodoh sombong than this,” he wrote on Twitter last night.

The Education Ministry’s plan to introduce Year Four students in national schools to khat, a form of jawi calligraphy, next year met with heavy protests from the country’s minorities.

The ministry initially said it would proceed despite this but eventually relented and made the lessons entirely subject to the agreement of parent-teacher associations at vernacular schools.

However, some groups continue to oppose the lessons entirely including some that planned an abortive protest in Brickfields over the weekend.