Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, at the DAP Anniversary Dinner of Jenjarom DAP Branch, Selangor on Saturday, 21st May 1994 at 8 p.m.
DAP calls on the Government to proclaim in Parliament in July a National Charter on Chinese Education which gives full and formal government recognition to Chinese primary schools, Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and Chinese education in Malaysia
Just before the 1986 and 1990 general elections, the Barisan Nasional Government played the ‘Chinese education’ card, with Ministers – and even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad himself – visiting Chinese primary schools and even Chinese Independent Secondary Schools announcing financial allocations and grants.
The coming general elections, which is expected in the next few months, is no different. Already, Barisan Nasional Ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, have started playing the ‘Chinese education card’.
DAP welcomes all allocations and grants which the government can give to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and Chinese primary schools just before general elections, as up to now, this seems to be the only occasion where the Government, is prepared to loosen its purse strings to allocate funds to Chinese Independent Secondary Schools.
However, the Barisan Nasional government cannot claim to have adopted an open, liberal and enlightened approach to Chinese primary schools, Chinese Independent Secondary schools and Chinese education in Malaysia if it is only prepared to allocate funds before general elections or by-elections.
This is why the DAP’s slogan in the next general elections will be to demand for major liberalisation of nation-¬building policies and not just minor and limited liberalisations.
We do not want the government to allocate funds to Chinese primary schools and Chinese Independent Secondary Schools only in the few months before a general elections. We want the government to give full and formal recognition Chinese primary schools, Chinese independent secondary schools and Chinese education in Malaysia, together with regular annual government finan¬cial allocations to all Chinese primary schools and Chinese independent secondary schools.
So long as the Government is only prepared to give ad hoc financial allocations to Chinese independent secondary schools if this serves its political purpose, as to fish for votes in general elections or by-elections, so long will the government’s seriousness and commitment to Chinese education be doubted.
It is for this reason that the DAP calls on the Gov¬ernment to proclaim in Parliament in July a National Charter on Chinese Education which gives full and formal government recogni¬tion to Chinese primary schools, Chinese independent secondary schools and Chinese education in the Malaysian national education system.
The National Charter on Chinese Education should also spell out the short-term, medium-term and long-term Government financial commitments for Chinese primary schools and Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and the national strategy to pro¬mote and develop Chinese primary schools, Chinese independent secondary schools and Chinese education in Malaysia.
DAP MPs changed the hostile parliamentary culture in the 1970s which regarded Chinese primary schools and Chinese education as illegitimate subjects for discussion in Parliament
Last week, the Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Fong Chan Onn, said in Butterworth that with 21,000 non-Chinese pupils – more than 10,000 of whom are Malay pupils – studying in the Chinese primary schools in the country, the Chinese primary schools have become assets of the nation.
This is of course a far cry from the 1970s, when I first entered Parliament in 1971. I can still remember the sense of outrage of UMNO MPs and Ministers when I spoke in Parliament in the 1970s demanding that Chinese primary schools and Chinese education must be accorded the rightful place in the mainstream of the national education system – as if DAP MPs had committed a heinous crime when we spoke about Chinese education.
This was where I gained the reputation that unlike other Opposition MPs, I am completely unacceptable even as an, Opposition MP to the Barisan Nasional Government – because I kept espousing the cause of Chinese primary schools and Chinese educa¬tion in Parliament.
It was clear that by that time, there was already a parliamentary culture among UMNO, MCA and Gerakan MPs that Chi¬nese primary schools and Chinese education are not legitimate subjects for discussion in Parliament. They could be discussed in the coffee shops but were not fit subjects to be even mentioned in the halls and chambers of Parliament.
However, DAP MPs changed this ‘parliamentary culture’ over the years, and although we faced outright hostility at the outset, we have now created a situation where more than two decades later, Fong Chan Onn could talk about Chinese primary schools have become assets of the nation.
If the DAP MPs had not fought for Chinese primary schools and Chinese education in Parliament in the last quarter, of a century – and with a great cost to many DAP leaders, several of whom had to pay the price of detention under the Internal Security Act – there may not be any Chinese primary schools left today.
One of DAP’s greatest contributions is to help Chinese primary schools and Chinese education survive the ‘ultimate objective’ of the national education policy in the seventies and eighties
The seventies and the eighties were the most dangerous years for Chinese primary schools and Chinese education, when efforts were made to implement the ‘ultimate objective’ of the National Education Policy, together with other policies like ‘One One Language, One Culture, One Religion’.
DAP fought relentlessly for the cause of Chinese primary schools and Chinese education in Parliament since the early 1970s – voting against the 1972 amendment to the 1961 Education Act to abolish the Boards of Managements of Chinese primary schools, moving a private member’s bill to repeal Clause 21(2) of the 1961 Education Act, championing the proposed Merdeka University and calling for the abolition of the ‘ultimate objective’ of the National Education Policy.
The DAP was completely alone in Parliament in the seventies and eighties in the fight for the the cause of Chinese Primary schools and Chinese education.
The MCA and Gerakan not only did not render any support, but actively sought to sabotage the DAP’s fight for Chinese primary schools and Chinese education in Parliament.
In 1972, for instance, Gerakan voted in full support for the 1972 amendment to the 1961 Education Act, while in 1983, as MP for Tanjong, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon played a key role to help UMNO to ‘kill’ a DAP motion in Parliament to repeal Clause 21(2) of the 1961 Education Act.
If the DAP had not played our critical role in Parliament to change the Parliamentary culture in the 1970s where Chinese primary schools and Chinese education were regarded as ‘haram’ subjects, and continuously exposing the Barisan Nasional Government and UMNO Mps to the legitimate aspirations of Malaysians, Dr. Fong Chan Onn would not be talking today about Chinese primary schools being assets of the nation!
However, it is still to be seen whether Chinese pri¬mary schools have actually been regarded as the “assets of the nation” by the Cabinet, or whether this is only the playing of the ‘Chinese education card’ by Barisan Nasional for the forth-coming general election!
I would regard DAP’s role in helping Chinese primary schools and Chinese education to survive the ‘ultimate objective’ of the National Education Policy and the dangerous decades of the 70s and 80s as one of our greatest contributions in our political and parliamentary struggle in the last 25 years.