by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 31st October 1991:
DAP welcomes final Cabinet decision on 4Az-2Cs, which illustrates that without the tremendous pressure of DAP inside and outside Parliament, MCA leaders would have again deceived the people
DAP welcomes the final Cabinet decision on 4As-2Cs. This incident illustrates that without the tremendous pressure of the DAP, both inside and outside Parliament, the MCA leaders would have again deceived the people and compromised in the way they had done over the 6As issue last year and a whole string of such other betrayals and lies in the past.
With the tremendous pressure applied by the DAP both inside and outside Parliament on the issue, the entire MCA leadership was made to be aware that it stands to lose total credibility if they could not even sustain a Cabinet decision which had been taken way back in May.
This tremendous pressure had also compelled the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to think of the larger political consequences no only to the MCA but to the entire Barisan Nasional Government if a Cabinet decision on 4As and 2Cs taken in May can be overturned by Education Department officials.
It is nonetheless sad and shameful that so much energy and controversy should be expended on whether the Cabinet had taken a decision on 4As-2Cs – for it is totally inconceivable that his could have happened to any issue which is close to the heart of any UMNO Minister.
What is even more disappointing that is that in the entire controversy, there was total silence form the four MCA Ministers, who adopted the ambivalent stand and ‘safe’ attitude that ‘silence is golden’ on the ground that the 4As-2Cs decision could be overturned by the Cabinet – and they want to spare themselves the embarrassment of taking the wrong public stand.
Since the Cabinet decision in May, the MCA Ministers should have spent the last five months to get the Cabinet to build on the 4As-2Cs decision, to allow all students who pass the national primary school UPSR Bahasa Malaysia with 2Cs to be promoted directly to Form One, provided they pass in the other subjects, as the whole purpose of Remove Class is to improve on the proficiency and command of Bahasa Malaysia and not in Chinese, English or mathematics.