Part II of Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, when declaring open the National DAPSY Workshop at Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 11th March 1990 at 9am
Call on MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers to ask the Cabinet to issue a policy statement that appointment of Professors and faculty deans is based solely on merit and not subject to quota system
It is very sad that in the controversy over the appointment of four non-Malays as faculty deans in the University of Malaya, the MCA and Gerakan Ministers have been very silent.
They asked ‘small fries’ in the MCA and Gerakan, like political secretaries and MPs and Assemblymen, to issue statements, but they themselves stayed clear of the issue. This is most deplorable.
I call on the MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers to ask the Cabinet on Wednesday to issue a policy statement that the appointment of Professors and faculty deans in the local university is based solely on merit and not subject to the quota.
This is the time for the government to make a clear-cut policy position, as otherwise, even if there is no change in the present appointment of the for non-Malay faculty deans, their appointment is only for a few short months as they are completing the terms of office of deans who went on sabbatical leave.
Will the four non-Malay faculty deans in the University of Malaya be re-appointed when their short acting terms expire?
If these four non-Malay faculty deans are not reappointed when their short acting terms expire, then the controversy raised by the UMNO Baru MP for Marang, Haji Abdul Rahman Bakar, would have succeeded in its objective to deny non-Malay academicians in out local universities their rightful opportunities in promotions and appointments.
This is why the people must not be misled by the MCA and Gerakan ‘small fries’ to look at the controversy as a question of the appointment of four non-Malay faculty deans at the University of Malaya for a few months.
The real questions and issues are two: Firstly, whether the appointment of faculty deans and professors in the local universities is based solely on merit and not subject to the quota system.
Secondly, whether in the 1990s, the nation is adopting nation-building policies which allow all Malaysian, regardless of race, to contribute their best talents to the progress and prosperity of the country, or whether we are going to further divide and segregate Malaysians on grounds of race.
In other words, whether the policy of merit coupled with need is to replace the quota system in the 1990s!
If the Cabinet is not prepared to make a clear-cut policy statement that the appointment of Professors and faculty deans in the local universities is based solely on merit, and not subject to racial quota, and if the four non-Malay faculty deans at the University of Malaya are not re-appointed when their short acting terms expire, then the MCA and Gerakan would be proved to have failed the people once again.
Open invitation to Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to be present tomorrow when Kit Siang repeats his allegation that Election Commission has lost its independence outside Dewan Rakyat
Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was involved in a heated exchange with me in Parliament last Friday when I made the allegation that the Election Commission has lost its independence.
Anwar Ibrahim was present when the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Raja Datuk Ariffin bin Raja Sulaiman, challenged me to repeat my allegation outside the House so that the Election Commission could take action against me.
I am publicly inviting the Education Minister to come with Raja Datuk Ariffin to the DAP Headquarters at No. 24, Jalan 20/9, Paramount Gardens, Petaling Jaya at 12 noon tomorrow, where I will accept the challenge and repeat my allegation against the Election Commission outside the Dewan Rakyat.