by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 26th Sept. 1981:
Support for proposal by Director-General of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka of a special Bahasa Malaysia language course for Parliamentarians.
The Director-General of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Datuk Haji Hassan, proposed in Bangi yesterday that a special Bahasa Malaysia language course to organized for Parliamentarians so that they have a strong language foundation.
I fully support Datuk Haji Hassan’s proposal, which should have been held long ago. I for one will enroll in such a special Bahasa Malaysia language course, and I am sure many Parliamentarians, whether in government or in Opposition, would take advantage of such a course.
Such a course should be extended to State Assemblymen throughout the country.
Call on Ministry of Education to direct all state education offices to stop sending out primary school students into the streets to collect donations for Education-Office sponsored activities.
When I visited Serdang Lama and Serdang New Village yesterday, I received complaints from parents that their primary school children had been compelled to go into the streets by the Selangor Education Office to collect donations for a Walkathon 1981 sponsored by the Selangor Education Office.
The 1981 Walkathon, already financed by Kentucky Friend Chicken as its advertisement is blazoned across the donation sheet, is organized by the Persatuan Sukan dan Kebudayaan Perkhidmatan Pelajaran Selangor, whose Chairman is Mohamed Diah bin Haji Nordin, the Selangor Education Officer.
The parents complain that their children were given Walkathon donation sheets to collect donations form the public in the last week or two, and were told that they must compulsorily collect donations.
As a result, the Primary School pupils went onto the streets and house to house, without any adult to look after them. There had been cases of primary school children being bitten by dogs while trying to collect public donations. There is also the danger of traffic accidents.
In any event, for the Selangor Education Office to set the bad example of sending out primary school pupils to the public to collect donations is most unhealthy and deplorable. This should be stopped immediately, and activities of the Persatuan Sukan dan Kebudayaan Perkhidmatan Pelajaran Selangor should be financed by other ways, if not with a grant from the Education Department itself.
I call on the Ministry of Education to issue a directive to all State Education Offices to stop such undesirable practices immediately.