by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 16th August 1990:
DAP will decide whether to join the Consultative Council on Education Bill 1990 after receipt of invitation.
Education Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, announced, yesterday that some 70 organisations, including teachers’ unions, political parties, interest groups, religious and youth associations, would be invited to sit on the Consultative Council on the Education Bill.
The DAP will, decide whether to, join the Consultative Council on the Education Bill after
we have received an official invitation.
The questions uppermost in the minds of all Malaysians are:
Firstly, why did the Cabinet establish a Consultative Council on the Education Bill at this late
stage, after the government had spent four years on drafting the new Education Bill, and when
a Cabinet Committee had been set up to finalise all details on the Bill to purportedly present
it to the Dewan Rakyat last June;
Secondly, as there is a very great likelihood that Parlia¬ment would be dissolved in less than
two weeks in early September, and general elections held to elect a new Government, is the
formation of the Consultative Council on the Education Bill just a ruse for the Barisan
Nasional to have an excuse why the Education Bill could not be made public before the
general elections?
If the Consultative Council on the Education Bill is just a Barisan Nasional general elections
trick to avoid having to make public the contents of the new Education Bill, why should the
DAP and other Opposition parties give respectability to such a Barisan Nasion¬al ruse.
Thirdly, as Parliament may be dissolved in two weeks time in early September, is it proper
for the Barisan Nasional Government to set up such a Consultative Council on the Education Bill.
Is Anwar Ibrahim suggesting that during the general elections campaign period, the
Consultative Council on the Education Bill would also be holding meetings and discussions?
Fourthly, how can the Barisan Nasional government be sincere in wanting to have a
meaningful Consultative Council on, the Education Bill, as the Consultative Council members
would be bound under the Official Secrets Act, have one month or six weeks to deliberate
the Education Bill proposals (not to mention to thousand-odd memorandum which Anwar
said he had received) as Anwar is talking about presenting the Bill to Parliament in October.