Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretay-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, at the Rasah DAP Thousand-People Dinner at Seremban Municipal Hall, Seremban on Sunday, 7th August 1994 at 8 pm. To commemorate his 25th Anniversary as an elected Member of Parliament
DAP call on MCA and Gerakan Ministers to ask the Cabinet to approve ringgit-to-ringgit allocation for the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools for the next five years
The 60, Chinese Independent Secondary Schools need RM 600 million for the next five years, and the Cabinet should approve an allocation of RM 300 million for the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools for the next five years.
Otherwise, the statement by Fong Chan On that the government now regards Chinese education problems as national problems is empty and meaningless.
The MCA and Dong Jiao Zhong have reached agreement that the MCA should hand over the donations which it is raising for Chinese Independent Secondary Schools directly to the 60 Chinese Independent Secodary Schools by Chinese New Year early next year and not to keep them in the Huaren Fund account.
The question is why MCA cannot hand over the RM 3,188,888.88 donation which it had raised by the launching-off of the MCA nation-wide donation drive in Seremban on May 27 directly to Dong Jiao Zhong instead of keeping it in Huaren Fund Account for nine months until next January?
MCA has to account for three major items with regard to the donations which it is collecting from the Chinese community by using the name of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools:
*Firstly, the RM 3,188,888.88 which the MCA leadership had collected for the launching-off ceremony in Seremban on May 27;
*Secondly, the RM6 million from the 600,000 MCA members on the basis of RM10 per member; and
*Thirdly, the collection from the big donors in the Chinese community, making use of the tax-exempt status of Huaren Fund account, in the nine months from May to January next year before all the monies from the account are handed over to the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools – which should be in the region between RM15 to RM20 million.
The second and third items can be handed over to the 60 Chinese Independent Secondary Schools during the Chinese New Year Next Year, but there is no good reason for the MCA to retain the first item of RM3,888,888.88 in the Huaren Fund Account for nine months and should be handed over directly to the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools or to Dong Jiao Zhong.
Malaysia’s ‘Big Liberalisation’ means the restoration of Municipal and local council elections
DAP will be making ‘Big Liberalisation’ its major election theme in the next general elections, as what the people want are not the ‘Little Liberalisation’ in certain economic and educational measures in the past three years, but the full democratization of the nation-building process.
Malaysia’s ‘Big Liberalisation’ means for instance the restoration of Municipal and local council elections so that the people will appoint directly the Mayors, the Municipal Presidents and District Council Chairmen and councilors and make them directly responsible and accountable to the ratepayers.
MCA and Gerakan leaders have claimed credit for the ‘Little Liberalisation’ in government policies in the past three years. I had separately challenged the MCA and Gerakan leadership to list out the ‘Little Liberalisation’ in government policies in the past three years, and although I have given them three days to produce such a list, neither the MCA or the Gerakan leadership was able to do so.
This has confirmed what I had said right from the beginning – that the ‘Little Liberalisation’ in certain economic and educational measures in the last three years had nothing to do with the MCA or Gerakan, but were the decision of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, in responding to the DAP’s unprecedented success in urban areas in two consecutive general elections in 1986 and 1990.
If there is any MCA or Gerakan national leader who still wants to dispute this fact, I challenge them to produce the full list of ‘Little Liberalisation’ which the MCA or Gerakan claims full credit and responsibility!
I will visit Sabah next month to discuss with Sabah DAP leaders on DAP’s general election plans and objectives
Next month, I will visit Sabah to discuss with Sabah DAP leaders on DAP’s general election plans and objectives.
I had hoped that the DAP and the PBS would be able to co-operate in Sabah in the forthcoming parliamentary general elections, and I had publicly expressed the DAP’s preparedness for such a co-operation when I last visited Sabah in April.
However, the PBS President, Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan recently rejected this DAP offer.
If Joseph Pairin insists on a ‘free-for-all’ battle in Sabah in the next general elections, with multi-cornered contests, the DAP respects the PBS decision and will proceed to finalise the constituencies we will be fielding candidates in the next general elections.