Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, when speaking at a Rembau-Tampin Parliamentary by-election public rally at Rembau on Tuesday, 4th July 1972 at 7.30 p.m.
DAP calls for immediate government recognition of Nanyang and Formosan degrees and qualifications
In the 1964 General Elections campaign, the present Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Ismail, promised that when the Alliance is returned to power, the Government would immediately study the question of the government recognition of Nanyang and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
About ten years have passed, and the fate of Malaysians who hold Nantah of Formosan university degrees and qualifications is still ignored.
The MCA, which claims to be the champion of the interest of the Chinese community, and is a partner of government for the last 15 years, have failed to secure the government recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications. This is proof of the impotence, ineffectiveness and powerlessness of the MCA in the Alliance government.
As a result of repeated pressure put on the government by Opposition parties like the DAP and the Chinese educational bodies, we are now told that the government is studying the question of the recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
We in the DAP hope that this is not one of those delaying tactics of the Alliance Government and the MCA. As I had announced at public rally in Teluk Anson in April this year, the DAP will continue to raise this question of the recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications at every sitting of Parliament until we succeed in our objective.
The next meeting of Parliament will be next month, and we in DAP will again take up the question.
If the MCA had been an equal partner in the Alliance government, there is no doubt that this question of recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications would have been solved long ago.
However, the people should remain firm in their fight on this issue, so that the 8,000-odd Malaysians who have graduated from Nantah and Formosan universities will be accorded the recognition and their place in society which is their rightful due.
If the government is sincere, and the MCA is an effective partner of the Alliance government, I call for the immediate government recognition of the Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications within this month itself.