The DAP Organising Secretary, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today issued the following statement (11.3.69):
In his speech at Kuala Kubu two days ago on 9th March 1969, the Minister of Local Government and Housing, Mr. Khaw Khai Boh, endorsed the statement by his MCA colleague, Mr. Quek Kai Dong, Member of Parliament of Seremban Timor, that “the Merdeka University was a political scheme to destroy the position of Malaysian Chinese.”
Mr. Khaw Khai Boh and Mr. Quek Kai Dong now want the people to believe that the sponsors of the Merdeka University, like Mr. Sim Moh Yu, Mr. Lu ting Yu, and all those organizations, associations, societies and individuals who have come out warmly in support of this educational project, are “anti-Chinese ,and traitors” of Malaysian Chinese.
Mr. Khaw Khai Boh and Mr. Quek Kai Dong should stop taking the people as feels who can be easily bluffed. Only the Tun Tan Siew Sins will believe such a preposterous statement.
Why did Mr. Khaw Khai Boh and Mr. Quek Kai Dong make such irresponsible and mischievous statements?
This is because both Mr. Khaw and Mr. Quek, and the entire top MCA leadership, cannot give a single sound reason for their opposition to Merdeka University.
The Top MCA leadership opposes the Merdeka University for no other reason than that the UMNO is opposed to the educational project. But I am convinced that apart from a handful of top MCA leaders, like Tun Tan Siew Sin, MR. Khaw Khai Boh, Mr Lee San Choon, Mr. Quek Kai Dong, Mr. Michael Chen, Mr. Chan Chong Wen, the majority of the MCA rank and file know that the Merdeka University is a worthwhile project deserving not only the people’s support, but also government support, because it can contribute to national reconstruction and development in giving more educational opportunities to young Malaysians.
Statement like the ones made by Mr. Khaw Khai Boh and Mr. Quek Kai Dong must be condemned by all Malaysian Chinese throughout the country.
By their same line of argument, it will not be long before any opposition to the Alliance government policy to close down Chinese independent schools and convert all Chinese primary schools into Malay primary schools after the next general elections, and calls for the recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications will also be branded by MCA leaders as “a political scheme to destroy the position of Malaysian Chinese.”