Speech by DAP Organising Secretary and Parliamentary Candidate for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the first National DAP General Elections public rally at Mountbatton Road Taxi Stand, Kuala Lumpur, on 6th April 1969 at 8.30p.m.
The Alliance and the MCA have launched their ‘Grand Deception’ campaign to mislead and deceive the voters to support and vote the alliance candidates in the general elections.
Those who have been appointed the chief executioners of the ‘grand Deception’ campaign in the MCA are the so-called intellectuals of the MCA Maju Ward.
In the last one week, the two MCA Maju Ward candidates, Mr. Lew Sip Hon candidate for Bungsar, and Dr. Teh Hock Hin, candidate for Setapak, who had never been known to show the least concern for the fate of Chinese education, language and culture in Malaysia, began suddenly to show interest in the problem, and even made some sympathetic noises.
The MCA propaganda machinery virtually presented Mr. Lew Sip Hon and Dr. Teh Hock Him as the sole saviours of Chinese education, language and culture in Malaysia.
The newspapers reported that the Maju Ward wants the Government to recognize the Nanyang University science degrees, and that the Maju Ward will give expert advice to the sponsors of the Merdeka University project.
Those statements and gesture have been greeted universally with contempt, because they are seen for what they really are: cheap propaganda stunt to deceive the people of Malaysia.
Firstly , even assuming that Mr. Lew Sip Hon, Dr. Teh Hock Hin and other MCA Maju Ward officials are genuine in their concern for the fate of Chinese education, language and culture, they can do next to nothing to stop the UMNO policy to impose a ‘one nation, one language, one media-language school, one culture’ Malaysia, for the Maju Ward does not run the MCA, and the MCA does not run the Alliance. It is the UMNO which runs everything and decides every policy in the Alliance, including who should be the president of the MCA!
Secondly, if Mr. Lew Sip Hon, Dr. Teh Hock Hin and other Maju Ward officials are genuine in their concern for the fate of Chinese education, language and culture, although they are in the wrong part, I would be the first to welcome their support for the cause of language, cultural and educational equality and freedom.
But I am convinced that Mr. Lew Sip Hon, Dr. Teh Hock Hin and their like in the Maju Ward are not genuine concerned about the fate of Chinese education, language and culture in Malaysia.
They are more concerned about winning votes through deception and dishonesty.
Otherwise, why did they keep silent when in December last year, the MCA President, Tun Tan Siew Sin, issued a directive to all MCA members to resign from all protem organisations of the Merdeka University project, or face party discipline?
If in December last year, no Maju Ward official was prepared to defy Tun Tan Siew Sin and flout UMNO policy of opposing the Merdeka University, is it likely that the same Maju Ward officials are now prepared to defy Tun Tan Siew Sin’s directive last December?
It is clear that the Maju Ward officials have been allowed to make vague promises of support for the Merdeka university, so as to confuse voters and get their votes- and that after the general elections, they will all forget about their campaign pledges and promises, as happened in previous election campaigns.
Again, why did Maju Ward officials keep silent when their national vice president, Dato Chua Song Lim, denounced Nanyang University degrees of ‘low standard’ of and not deserving of government recognition?
Could the Maju Ward explain why three months ago, they supported Dato Chua Song Lim, but today they have changed their mind? We know that in 1964, an Alliance Cabinet Minister promised in the general elections campaign that after the elections, the government would set up a committee to lock into the problem of recognition of Nantah degrees, but after the general election, the pledge was forgotten.
I would have given the Maju Ward officials the benefit of the doubt and allow more time to see whether they are genuine in their concern for Chinese education, language and culture, if I have no other ground to believe that they are insincere. But I have.
No person who has the cause of Chinese education, language and culture at heart, would ever drafted and presented the Aziz Education Report, which is a death blow to Chinese education in Malaysia, for it want 20,000-odd Chinese school teachers to be dismissed if they failed to pass the School Certificate of Education or F.M.C within three years, although these teachers are educated in Chinese language, and teach in Chinese language, and does not need to use the English language at all.
The Aziz Report is the culmination of the Alliance Education policy, started with the Razak Education Report and followed by the Abdul Rahman Talib Education Review Report , which had as their purpose the complete elimination of Chinese education in Malaysia.
Who was one of the main authors of the Aziz Report? None other than Mr. Lew Sip Hon, Chairman of MCA Maju Ward.
The people are not going to be deceived by the sweet wards of Maju Ward candidates because they have proved to the people that they are mere puppets of the UMNO bosses.