By Parliament Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 3.10.1987:
Warning that Anwar Ibrahim wil heading for a confrontation with the parent, Board of Management, PTAs and Chinese community of he remain stubborn and refuses to respect their wishes that the Education Ministry should transfer away those unversed in Mandarin promoted to senior positions in Chinese primary schools.
Education Ministry, Anwar Ibrahim, said yesterday before leaving for Labuan that the Education Ministry would not compromise and would not withdraw the directive transferring those unversed in Mandarin on promotion as assistant headmasters and senior assistants to Chinese primary schools.
I must warn Anwar Ibrahim that he would be heading for a confrontation with the parent, Board of Management, PTAs and Chinese community if her remain stubborn and refuses to respect their legitimate wishes that the Education Ministry should transfer away those unversed in Mandarin promoted to senior positions in Chinese primary schools.
The enormity of this problem is largely the creation of the Education Ministry and in particular, Anwar Ibrahim himself. The Education Ministry should have been aware that such a move, which would threaten the character and identity of Chinese primary schools dear to the heart of the Chinese community, would be met with the strongest resistance and protest.
Furthermore, Anwar Ibrahim had promised on Sept. 10 to resolve the issue after there had been a public furore over the promotions to Chinese primary schools in Penang. According to the Gerakan Youth Leader, Koh Tsu Koon, Anwar Ibrahim promised that he would resolve the issue.
If Koh Tsu Koon had not misrepresented Anwar Ibrahim, and if Anwar Ibrahim had been sincere in his undertaking to resolve the issue,
then the first thing he should have done is to stop all State Education Officers from issuing transfers to promote those unversed in Mandarin as assistant headmasters or senior assistant of Chinese primary schools.
But this was not done, and the Education Minister allowed the other State Education Department to continue to send those unversed in Mandarin on promotion to senior position in Chinese primary schools, as in Malacca and Federal Territory.
Anwar Ibrahim should respect the objections of the parent, the Board of Management, the PTAs and the Chinese community to the sending of those unversed in Mandarin to Chinese primary schools to occupy senior position, and this matter could be easily resolved by putting right the administrative transfers, by re-posting those unversed in Mandarin to other schools.