By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, June 1, 1990:
Are the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers pressing for the Education Bill 1990, including the abolition of the Boards of Management of 432 Chinese Primary schools, to be introduced and implemented only after the next general elections?
From the statements made by the Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, in today’s press reports, and the remarks made by MCA and Gerakan Ministers are pressing for the Education Bill 1990, including the abolition of the Boards of Management of 432 Chinese primary schools, to be deferred until after the next general elections.
If this is true, then what the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers are opposing is not the abolition of the Boards of Management of 432 Chinese primary schools, but that this should not be announced and implemented until after the next generations, so that MCA, Gerakan and SUPP would not suffer in the coming general elections.
DAP must take it very clear that this is completely unacceptable, and if the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP think they can misled the people with such trickery and such an important issue as education, they will be sorely mistaken.
Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that the ‘major issues’ pertaining to the Education Bill 1990 have been resolved, and these ‘major issues’ include educational philosophy, educational objective, language policy, the status of Bahasa Malaysia, Islam and moral education, types and position of schools, and the characteristics of Chinese and Tamil primary schools.
Is this is the case, then Anwar Ibrahim should make public the bulk of the Education Bill 1990 which he said had been agreed upon and constitute the ‘major issues’.
Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘double standards’ on the issue of forced early retirement of Professor Syed Husin Ali
Anwar Ibrahim defended the action of Universiti Malaya which forced Professor Syed Husin Ali into early retirement on his election as Party Rakyat President.
Anwar said that ‘you can’t have the president of a party as a professor or teacher in our universities’ and that he would concede on this matter as it was clear in the Universities and University Colleges Act.
Anwar should know that Professor Syed Husin Ali is not the only active politician in the universities. There are lecturers and professors who are even more active and prominent in party politics than the average party office-holder, but because they belong to the right political party, namely UMNO Baru, they are not forced into early retirement.
I am not suggesting that university lecturers and professors who are active in party politics should be forced into early retirement, nut to point out the “double standards” of Anwar Ibrahim.
In this connection, can Anwar explain whether the Education Bill 190 will incorporate the provisions in the existing Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) – or will the UUCA be left intact, despite his personal promise for review and radical amendments to it?