Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, on Wednesday, 13.1.1982
Datuk Musa’s meeting with MCA delegation and Datuk Lee San Choon’s MCA Presidential Council meeting both a great disappointment in failing to achieve, or even to demand, the immediate suspension of 3M implementation in Chinese and Tamil primary schools
Yesterday, the MCA Youth, Wanita and Education Bureau sent a delegation to see the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Musa Hitam, on the 3M implementation in Chinese and Tamil primary schools. The MCA Presidential Council also had a meeting on the 3M.
But both are great disappointments, for in both cases they did not achieve, or even demand the immediate suspension of the 3M implementation in Chinese and Tamil primary schools. What the Deputy Prime Minister said at the meeting with the MCA Youth, Wanita and Education Bureau delegation, in the presence of the Education, Tan Sri Murad Mohd. Noor, is no different from what the Education Minister had told the same delegation last week.
The MCA should never have agreed or allowed the 3M to be implementation in Chinese and Tamil primary schools unless its character is fully preserved and protected. It has failed in this important respect in having permitted the 3M implementation in Chinese primary schools to become a fait accompli.
Now, the MCA should join and associate itself with the nation-wide demand for the immediate suspension of the 3M system in Chinese primary schools. But the MCA, after the return of Datuk Lee San Choon from overseas leave, appears to have decided to oppose any demand for the immediate suspension of the 3M implementation in Chinese primary schools.
Datuk Lee San Choon owes the parents and pupils in the 62 Chinese primary schools selected for 3M implementation and the Chinese community at large a full explanation for this MCA position, which runs counter to the expressed aspirations of the people.
Datuk Lee said after the MCA Presidential Council meeting that the 3M implementation is a “deviation” from the Mahathir Cabinet Committee Report, but the Education Minister and the Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Hj Suhaimi Kamaruddin, had firmly declared many times that such implementation is fully in conformity and based on the Mahathir Education Report.
Datuk Lee also said that not only him, but other members of the Mahathir Cabinet Committee like the Prime Minister himself and the Deputy Prime Minister should feel “insulted and belittled” by this form of implementation. Datuk Musa did not show that he felt insulted or belittled by such implementation when he met the MCA Youth,Wanita and Education Bureau yesterday, nor did he indicate that it was a sign of disrespect to him or to the Prime Minister, as claimed by Datuk Lee as otherwise the 3M implementation would have been suspended immediately.
The DAP calls on the MCA and Barisan parties not to politicise what is basically an educational issue and to fully respect the educational rights of all Malaysian communities in the country.
In this connection, I take the strongest objection to the reported remarks by Datuk Musa Hitam to the MCA delegation warning Barisan component parties not to be “misled” by the DAP on the 3M issue.
I challenge Datuk Musa to publicly state where the DAP had misled anyone on the 3M issue. What the DAP had said on the 3M issue had been based on facts and the set of 3M materials provided by the Education Minister. If there is anyone who is trying to mislead anybody on the 3M, it is the MCA and the component parties in the Barisan.