yschia
29-01-2003, 03:44 AM
Media Conference Statement (2) by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang at
DAP Penang hqrs on Tuesday, 28th January 2003 at 12 noon:
Call on MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers to stop "sleeping" in Cabinet and to
wake up and rectify at its meeting tomorrow the fallacy that Chinese primary
schools are the cause of racial polarisation as well as to give proper
authorization on the term of reference and modus operandi of the second
Mahathir education review committee
===========================================
The speech by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at
the inaugural Penang UMNO Education Convention on Saturday is a most
disturbing one as it is based on the fallacy that the existence of Chinese
primary schools is the cause of racial polarization in the country.
Warning that racial polarization will become the order of the day if the
various races go their own way, especially in education, Abdullah said this
was a frightening possibility that should be addressed in the light of few
non-Bumiputera students joining national schools.
The premier-to-be in nine months' time said four distinct ethnic groups
might emerge, with a fifth division among the Malays in terms of different
religious leaning. Stressing that this was unhealthy, he said: "What
happened in Yugoslavia should be a lesson to us on what can happen if racial
polarisastion gets out of hand."
He said that public confidence in national schools must be restored and that
Malaysians should embrace national schools as their educational institution
of choice.
I am surprised that the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, who
attended the Abdullah's opening speech for the education convention, did not
point out the fallacy of this argument as with his Dong Jiao Zong background
before entering politics through Gerakan in 1982, Tsu Koon should realize
the fallacy of Abdullah's speech.
It is not Malaysian-centred mother-tongue education which is the cause of
racial polarization but divisive national policies which continue to
segregate Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras instead of
treating them as one Malaysian people.
There are other fallacies in Abdullah's speech, as implying that Chinese
primary schools have become nurseries of Chinese chauvinism, when they have
always been Malaysian-centred and Malaysian-oriented schools using the same
national syllabus as the national primary schools, and with a multi-racial
pupil population, with some 10 per cent of the Chinese primary school
enrolment of over 600,000 who are non-Chinese - Malays, Indians, Ibans and
Kadazans. Before every general election, Chinese schools are praised by UMNO
leaders for their good school results, student discipline and the
commitment of the teachers - but which seem to be easily forgotten after
each election.
A more serious fallacy of Abdullah's speech is to regard the phenomenon of
the overwhelming majority of Chinese pupils enrolling in national-type
Chinese primary schools as a recent development.
The phenomenon of some 90 per cent of Chinese pupils attending Chinese
primary schools did not develop only in the past few years or in the past
decade, but went back for three decades in the early seventies when there
was a sudden education policy change in the shutdown of all English-medium
primary schools.
In fact by 1977, when Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was then the
Education Minister, 87 per cent of the Chinese students were already
attending the Chinese primary schools, as 478,849 out of a total of 550,545
Chinese primary pupils were in Chinese primary schools. These data are to
be found in the Mahathir Cabinet Education Review Committee Report which was
made public in November 1979, and there was a parliamentary debate on my
motion on the Mahathir report in June the next year.
This was also the situation when Abdullah was the Education Minister from
1984 to 1986.
Did the Chinese primary schools, with the enrolment of some 90 per cent of
the Chinese pupils, produce chauvinistic, anti-national and unpatriotic
Malaysians? This was never the case, for in the past 30 years, Chinese
primary schools had produced Malaysians citizens who had contributed more
than their share to the present economic and national development of the
country, and Mahathir had said more than once inside and outside the country
that he regards as his greatest achievement the peaceful development of the
country contributed by all Malaysians, regardless of race or stream of
education. In his recent visit to India, for instance, in answer to a
question by an Indian journalist on his legacy, Mahathir said he regarded
forging closer race relations in Malaysia's plural society as his most
important achievement in his 21 years as Prime Minister.
It is not right to blame racial polarization on the existence of Chinese
primary schools. This is because in the ensuing five-year secondary
education, the overwhelming majority of Malaysian students, regardless of
race, undergo the same schooling in the national secondary schools .
The 60 Chinese Independent Secondary School enroll only some 10 per cent of
the Std. VI pupils - which means that some 90 per cent of the Std. VI
Chinese primary school students continue their studies in the national
secondary schools.
The more pertinent question to be asked is why after some 10 to 11 years of
schooling under the same roof, comprising five years of secondary education,
two-years of pre-university and three or four years of university
education, the educational and socialization processes have failed to foster
greater national integration among the new generation of Malaysians of
diverse races?
The MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers should stop "sleeping" in Cabinet and
wake up and rectify at its meeting tomorrow the fallacy that Chinese primary
schools are the cause of racial polarisation as well as to give proper
authorization on the term of reference and modus operandi of the second
Mahathir education review committee.
It is most shocking that some two months after the UMNO Supreme Council
meeting on November 29 to set up the most high-powered education review
committee in the nation's history, headed by the Prime Minister, with
far-reaching education and nation-building consequences, MCA, Gerakan and
SUPP Ministers have not raised the subject in the Cabinet.
If the second Mahathir education review committee is to result in a national
education system which will overcome its historic shortcomings and
weaknesses and be a genuine instrument of national integration of the
diverse races in the country, then it must itself be a model of national
integration whether in composition, terms of reference or modus operandi -
and not just be a committee representing UMNO as is the case at present.
If the second Mahathir education review committee is not going to start on a
right and proper footing by being fully representative of all political and
educational views and opinions and representing the full spectrum of the
Malaysian society, then it will only sell itself short - as it would be
regarded merely as a narrow and sectional endeavour to advance UMNO
political interests and not a truly national effort to reform education to
be a genuine instrument of national integration and nation-building.
- Lim Kit Siang -
DAP Penang hqrs on Tuesday, 28th January 2003 at 12 noon:
Call on MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers to stop "sleeping" in Cabinet and to
wake up and rectify at its meeting tomorrow the fallacy that Chinese primary
schools are the cause of racial polarisation as well as to give proper
authorization on the term of reference and modus operandi of the second
Mahathir education review committee
===========================================
The speech by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at
the inaugural Penang UMNO Education Convention on Saturday is a most
disturbing one as it is based on the fallacy that the existence of Chinese
primary schools is the cause of racial polarization in the country.
Warning that racial polarization will become the order of the day if the
various races go their own way, especially in education, Abdullah said this
was a frightening possibility that should be addressed in the light of few
non-Bumiputera students joining national schools.
The premier-to-be in nine months' time said four distinct ethnic groups
might emerge, with a fifth division among the Malays in terms of different
religious leaning. Stressing that this was unhealthy, he said: "What
happened in Yugoslavia should be a lesson to us on what can happen if racial
polarisastion gets out of hand."
He said that public confidence in national schools must be restored and that
Malaysians should embrace national schools as their educational institution
of choice.
I am surprised that the Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, who
attended the Abdullah's opening speech for the education convention, did not
point out the fallacy of this argument as with his Dong Jiao Zong background
before entering politics through Gerakan in 1982, Tsu Koon should realize
the fallacy of Abdullah's speech.
It is not Malaysian-centred mother-tongue education which is the cause of
racial polarization but divisive national policies which continue to
segregate Malaysians into bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras instead of
treating them as one Malaysian people.
There are other fallacies in Abdullah's speech, as implying that Chinese
primary schools have become nurseries of Chinese chauvinism, when they have
always been Malaysian-centred and Malaysian-oriented schools using the same
national syllabus as the national primary schools, and with a multi-racial
pupil population, with some 10 per cent of the Chinese primary school
enrolment of over 600,000 who are non-Chinese - Malays, Indians, Ibans and
Kadazans. Before every general election, Chinese schools are praised by UMNO
leaders for their good school results, student discipline and the
commitment of the teachers - but which seem to be easily forgotten after
each election.
A more serious fallacy of Abdullah's speech is to regard the phenomenon of
the overwhelming majority of Chinese pupils enrolling in national-type
Chinese primary schools as a recent development.
The phenomenon of some 90 per cent of Chinese pupils attending Chinese
primary schools did not develop only in the past few years or in the past
decade, but went back for three decades in the early seventies when there
was a sudden education policy change in the shutdown of all English-medium
primary schools.
In fact by 1977, when Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was then the
Education Minister, 87 per cent of the Chinese students were already
attending the Chinese primary schools, as 478,849 out of a total of 550,545
Chinese primary pupils were in Chinese primary schools. These data are to
be found in the Mahathir Cabinet Education Review Committee Report which was
made public in November 1979, and there was a parliamentary debate on my
motion on the Mahathir report in June the next year.
This was also the situation when Abdullah was the Education Minister from
1984 to 1986.
Did the Chinese primary schools, with the enrolment of some 90 per cent of
the Chinese pupils, produce chauvinistic, anti-national and unpatriotic
Malaysians? This was never the case, for in the past 30 years, Chinese
primary schools had produced Malaysians citizens who had contributed more
than their share to the present economic and national development of the
country, and Mahathir had said more than once inside and outside the country
that he regards as his greatest achievement the peaceful development of the
country contributed by all Malaysians, regardless of race or stream of
education. In his recent visit to India, for instance, in answer to a
question by an Indian journalist on his legacy, Mahathir said he regarded
forging closer race relations in Malaysia's plural society as his most
important achievement in his 21 years as Prime Minister.
It is not right to blame racial polarization on the existence of Chinese
primary schools. This is because in the ensuing five-year secondary
education, the overwhelming majority of Malaysian students, regardless of
race, undergo the same schooling in the national secondary schools .
The 60 Chinese Independent Secondary School enroll only some 10 per cent of
the Std. VI pupils - which means that some 90 per cent of the Std. VI
Chinese primary school students continue their studies in the national
secondary schools.
The more pertinent question to be asked is why after some 10 to 11 years of
schooling under the same roof, comprising five years of secondary education,
two-years of pre-university and three or four years of university
education, the educational and socialization processes have failed to foster
greater national integration among the new generation of Malaysians of
diverse races?
The MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers should stop "sleeping" in Cabinet and
wake up and rectify at its meeting tomorrow the fallacy that Chinese primary
schools are the cause of racial polarisation as well as to give proper
authorization on the term of reference and modus operandi of the second
Mahathir education review committee.
It is most shocking that some two months after the UMNO Supreme Council
meeting on November 29 to set up the most high-powered education review
committee in the nation's history, headed by the Prime Minister, with
far-reaching education and nation-building consequences, MCA, Gerakan and
SUPP Ministers have not raised the subject in the Cabinet.
If the second Mahathir education review committee is to result in a national
education system which will overcome its historic shortcomings and
weaknesses and be a genuine instrument of national integration of the
diverse races in the country, then it must itself be a model of national
integration whether in composition, terms of reference or modus operandi -
and not just be a committee representing UMNO as is the case at present.
If the second Mahathir education review committee is not going to start on a
right and proper footing by being fully representative of all political and
educational views and opinions and representing the full spectrum of the
Malaysian society, then it will only sell itself short - as it would be
regarded merely as a narrow and sectional endeavour to advance UMNO
political interests and not a truly national effort to reform education to
be a genuine instrument of national integration and nation-building.
- Lim Kit Siang -