Press Statement by Lim Kit Siang, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Bandar Melaka on 27 March 1973:
I have given notice to Parliament that I will move the following motion in connection with the disastrous M.C.E. results when the Dewan Rakyat meets on April 17:
That this House, reflecting and registering the dismay and shook of the country at the high rate of mass failures in the 1972 M.C.E. examination merely because of failure in Bahasa Malaysia although these unsuccessful candidates did very well in other subjects, including many with a string of distinctions;
RESOLVES
1. That a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a parliamentary committee be established to inquire into the causes and reasons for this shockingly high rate of M.C.E. failures in Malaysian schools, including the leading schools in the country, and to propose remedies;
2. That conditional M.C.E. pass certificates should be issued to all these who sat for the 1972 M.C.E. examination and would have passed if not for the failures in Bahasa Malaysia paper subject to the proviso that they repeat the Bahasa Malaysia paper;
3. That those candidates for the 1972 M.C.E. examination who would have qualified to proceed to Sixth Form if not for their failure in Bahasa Malaysia paper, be given Sixth Form places subject to the proviso that they repeat the Bahasa Malaysia paper;
4. That the proposed introduction of Oral Test for the M.C.E. Bahasa Malaysia paper be postponed indefinitely until the publication of the findings of the proposed Royal Commission of Inquiry or a parliamentary committee into the reasons for the high rate of failure in the M.C.E. Bahasa Malaysia paper.