MCA’S Mental Revolution – A Few Initial Questions

Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at a DAP Public Rally at Bukit Pelandok in Linggi State Constituency, Negeri Sembilan on Friday, 27th Oct. 1972 at 8 p.m.

MCA’S Mental Revolution – A Few Initial Questions

In the past weeks, the Chinese Press has been full of pages after pages of speeches and statements by the MCA leaders about the need for a mental revolution among the Chinese in Malaysia.

However, despite all the words and ink which have been spilled on this subject, it is impossible to find out the true intention and objective of the MCA’s Mental Revolution from the public speeches and statements of the MCA leaders

For instance, the MCA’s Mental Revolution proposes the adoption of a simplified Chinese writing system.

What is needed in this case is not mental revolution among the Chinese, but a mental revolution among the MCA and Alliance leaders for they are the ones who are chiefly responsible for blocking the adoption and spread of the use of simplified Chinese writing in Malaysia.

Thus, students who write in simplified Chinese in examinations lose marks and many bookshops in the country were penalised by the Alliance Government, of which MCA is partner, for selling manuals or guides to simplified Chinese writing.

A revolution in Chinese writing has been carried out. What is left to be done in Malaysia is for the Alliance and MCA to stop standing in the way of this revolution in the Chinese script.

The true intention and objective of the MCA’s Mental Revolution is unstated and unspoken. However, before I speak publicly about the ulterior I will like to ask a few initial questions to the MCA President, Tun Tan Siew Sin, his deputy Mr. Lee San Choon, or the leader of MCA’s Mental Revolution, Dr. Lim Keng Yak, to answer or evade them.

These initial questions concern some recent developments, and their answer or evasion will throw more public light as the true nature of the MCA’s Mental Revolution.

Question One:

1. It is the stand of MCA’s Mental Revolution that every Malaysian Chinese must unquestioningly and unswervingly pledge loyalty to the MCA and MCA President, Tun Tan Siew Sin, to show prove that he is a progressive, modern-minded Malaysian Chinese, regardless of the political, economic, cultural, social and educational polities pursued by the MCA and the Alliance?

2. Yesterday, the press reported of an inspection visit to Mr.Lee San Choon’s parliamentary secretary, Haji Ramli bin Omar, to the Selangor Emporium in Kuala Lumpur on public complaints that the staff could not converse in Bahasa Malaysia and that it did not reflect the racial composition of the country. Inche Ramli said that under the Alliance and MCA Government’s policy, the labour force should compose between 40 to 50 per cent bumiputras, 30- to 40 per cent Chinese and between 15 to 20 per cent Indians.
Is it the objective of the MCA’s Mental Revolution that the Chinese in Malaysia should without complaint or question comply in the Alliance and MCA Government’s policy and that all shops, firms and enterprises in the country should ensure that their racial composition of their work force meets Inche Ramli’s requirements?

3. This year, commercial vehicles were required by the Transport Department to remove Chinese characters from their vans if they are to renew their licence.
Is it the objective of the MCA’s Mental Revolution that the Chinese in Malaysia should accept without complaint or question this new policy of the Transport Department?

4. A few days ago, the police banned the University of Malaya Chinese Language Society from hosting a seminar on the future of Chinese education in Malaysia.

Is it the objective of the MCA’s Mental Revolution that the Chinese should cease to concern themselves with the future of Chinese language and Chinese education and will accept the Alliance and the MCA Government’s ban on the University of Malaya Chinese Language Society’s seminar?

I await the answer or the avoidance of these questions, so that the public will have another insight into the true purpose and intention of the MCA’s Mental Revolution.