Lim Kit Siang calls MCA Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Members of Parliament to resign for their failure to secure government recognition for Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
I, like the majority of thinking Malaysians, was shocked and dismayed to hear of the announcement by the Minister of Education, Datuk Hussein Onn, that the Alliance Government has refused to adcord recognition to Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
The country was led to believe in recent months that at last, after over a decade of injustice and discrimination, Malaysians who are graduates of Nanyang University and Formosan colleges and universities would be given their rightful place in the development and progress of Malaysia.
For the 8,000 graduates of Nantah and Formosan colleges and universities, and their families and kin, the Alliance government’s decision to continue to discriminate against Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications must have come as a very deep personality blow.
The Minister of Education talks about ‘national interest’ which prompted the decision of the government, which is constituted of the UMNO, MCA and MIC, to refuse to recognize Nantah and Formosan degrees.
This is merely the latest and most recent example of the abuse of the term ‘national interest’ , which is freely used by the Alliance, UMNO and MCA politicians to justify the vested interests of one section, group or class of the people.
To the Alliance, ‘political interest’ is not the greatest of the maximum number of Malaysians, but only of a group or section of Malaysians.
The government’s refusal to accord recognition to Nantah and Formosan degrees should open the eyes of Malaysians who are under any illusions about the true intentions of the Alliance Party.
The MCA is a government party, and is therefore a co-author of the latest Alliance government decision to continue to discriminate against the Nantah and Formosan degrees, although they are of international repute and standings.
The MCA Ministers, Assistant Minister and Members of Parliament have failed to live up to the expectations of the people, and should resign for their failure to secure government recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
The DAP will continue to press for the government recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications, inside and outside Parliament, until success.
The refusal of the government to accord recognition to Indian degrees is also another matter for grave regret. Recently, the government accorded recognition to degrees and qualifications from Indonesian universities. Why should the government continue to perpetuate such discrimination?
The educational groups and graduates concerned should all make their voices heard and pressures felt, to compel government recognition of all degrees and qualifications which are of international standing and repute, the Formosan colleges and universities.