Statement by Lim Kit Siang, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Bandar Melaka
DAP condemns Police banning of DAP having a dialogue with parents on the mass failures in Std.V Assessment Examination 1971
The DAP condemns in the strongest possible terms the police interference with the activities of the DAP and DAP Members of Parliament to seek the views of the parents and the public one the educational question concerning the low quality and standard of education of our children in primary schools of all language streams.
The DAP was carrying out its political duty when it invited parents and the member of the public to give their views on the grave question, which will affect the future livelihood of the next generation of Malaysian.
Unfortunately, the Police has seen it fit to interfere with the work of the Party and DAP Members of Parliament, for I am scheduled to raise the question of the mass failures of primary school students in an adjournment speech in Parliament on Tuesday, and I had hoped to get some views of the parents.
This is an interference with an M.P.’s right to consult the views of the electorate.
This country, under the Alliance government, is becoming more and more repressive, and more and more of a police state.
When the police fears a political party seeking the views of the parents as to why their children are failing en masse in schools, something is definitely wrong with the entire political system of government.
The Alliance and MCA has become so weak and infirm that it fears the parents and the public giving their views, not on political questions, but on educational standard of schools.
I have said elsewhere that there is a campaign to hide the shocking failures in our schools from public knowledge, and today’s Police unreasonable ban of the meeting with parents is another proof of this. Why the government does not want the parents and the public to know about the true facts of the high rate of mass failures, I would like Tun Ismail and Inche Hussein Onn to explain.