By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, November 19, 1991:
Four MCA Minister should collectively ask the Cabinet tomorrow for disciplinary action to be taken against top Education ministry officials who had questioned and challenged the Cabinet’s 4As-2Cs decision in May.
It has been reported that even up to now, top Education Ministry official are questioning and challenging the 4As-2Cs issue.
The Four MCA Minister should collectively ask the Cabinet tomorrow for disciplinary action to be taken against top Education ministry officials who had questioned and challenged the Cabinet’s 4As-2Cs for Chinese primary schools students to be promoted directly to Form One.
If the MCA Ministers are right that the Cabinet had decided in May on the 4As-2Cs issue, then all those top education Ministry officials who had openly questioned this decision last month had committed gross insurbordination and breach of discipline.
What they did should be regarded as sabotage of the Cabinet decision and the government’s education policy.
Two questions remain unanswered if the Cabinet had really decided on the 4As-2Cs issue in May:
Firstly, why the same issue had to be raised in Cabinet on October 30; and
Secondly, why education officials are allowed to commit gross insubordination and breach of discipline in openly questioning and challenging the Cabinet decision in May.
MCA Ministers should get Cabinet to modify the 4As-2Cs decision with a fairer 4Bs-2Cs decision
Before the schools opening at the end of the month, the MCA Ministers should get the Cabinet to modify the 4As-2Cs decision with a fairer 4Bs-2Cs decision.
This is because it is most ridiculous that a Chinese primary schools pupil who gets a C in Bahasa Malaysia and A in Chinese can be promoted to Form One, but not a pupil with A in Bahasa Malaysia but B in Chinese.
The Barisan Nasional government should be reminded that whole purpose of the Remove class is to improve on the command of Bahasa Malaysia of Chinese primary school pupils, and not his command in either Chinese or Mathematics.