Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr Lim Kit Siang, to party members in Muar on 23rd December 1972 at 8 p.m.
UMNO-PAS Coalition and the recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees
When UMNO and PAS leaders discussed, negotiated and decided on a coalition government at the national and state levels, neither the MCA nor the MIC leaders were consulted or asked for their views.
When the UMNO-PAS Coalition was announced, the MCA and MIC leaders not only dutifully agreed to what has been decided by UMNO leaders, but publicity announced their support. It was obvious to all that they would have no other choice.
I do not wish now to talk of the wider and long-term implications of the formation of the UMNO-PAS Coalition Government, but only confine myself to the what effect such a coalition between UMNO and PAS would have on the struggle for government recognition of Nantah and
Formosan degrees and qualifications.
It is clearly that this is a crucial stage in the long struggle for government recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications.
Although this issue has been long outstanding for over a decade, there is no more critical a time for this issue than at present.
From the public pronouncements and open policy positions of PAS and its leaders over the years, it is self-evident that beginning from January 1973, when the PAS officially enters into Federal Coalition, the struggle for government recognition for Nantah and Formosan degrees is going to be even more difficult.
All organizations and persons interested securing justice for the 8,000 Malaysians who hold Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications must concentrate and double up their energies and pressures at this crucial juncture to secure a just from the government before the situation takes a drastic turn for the worse beginning next year.
When Tun Tan Siew Sin, MCA President, welcome the UMNO-PAS coalition government, I wonder whether he was at the same time welcoming a change of situation which would make the struggle for securing recognition for Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications even more difficult.
The struggle for government recognition for Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications is part of a larger struggle to ensure that Malaysia is a country where all groups, sections, and races have a equal state. It is to ensure Malaysia is a nation which is fair and just to all. So long as the Malaysians who hold Nantah and Formosan degrees are discriminated against by being treated by the Malaysian Government as inferior Malaysians, so long will the Alliance slogan to build a ‘Just Society’ an empty and meaningless slogan.
The government attitude towards the Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications will reflect the things to come in the Seventies. If on such a matter as mere recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications to permit 8,000 Malaysians to play a full part in Malaysian development and progress the government cannot act justly, fairly and reasonably, then the Seventies will be a dark decade for Malaysians.
Finally, the people must not compromise on anything less than unqualified recognition of Nantah and Formosan degrees and qualifications. The DAP, on our part, will not be satisfied with anything less.