Speech by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP secretary General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Slang at the Kulai DAP Branch Dinner in Kulai on Thursday, 15th December, 1994 at 8 pm
48 Chinese primary schools have been closed clown in Malaysia since independence in 1957
According to a recent parliamentary answer by the Minister for Education Datuk Dr. Sulaiman Daud in response to a question by DAP MP for Kota Melaka Lim Guan Eng since independence in 1957, 48 Chinese primary schools in the country have been closed down — 19 in Sarawak, ten in Johore, five in Pahang, four in Sabah, three each in Perak and Terengganu and one in Federal Territory.
However, the number of new Chinese primary schools which have been built since independence could only meet a fraction of the increased needs of pupils who wanted to enroll in Chinese primary schools.
This highlights the need for a full liberalisation in the policies and attitudes of the Barisan Nasional government with regard to Chinese primary schools in particular and Chinese education in general.
The very fact that the government is not prepared to assume full responsibility to build the Kwok Kwang II Chinese primary school as the Kwok Kuang Chinese primary school in Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Johore Baru has become the biggest and most overcrowded primary school in the country with some 5,000 students is proof of the need for full liberalisation in Malaysia on mother-tongue education.
I believe the people of Johore and Malaysia support the DAPs call for full liberalisation and democratisacion in mother-tongue education which, for Chinese primary schools, must include the following measures:
(1) Full 100% financial responsibility by the government for the building of new Chinese primary schools;
(2) Government respect of the people’s demand for mother-tongue education for their children by launching a crash programme to build new Chinese primary schools to meet demands which have been neglected for the last three decades;
(3) Replacement of the ringgit-to-ringgit contribution to the Chinese primary schools for expansion and renovation with full 100% government financial support; and
(4) Adequate qualified teachers for Chinese primary schools to ensure high academic standards and attainments.
Over the decades, one of the sources of great dissatisfaction of the Chinese community is the failure and refusal of the Barisan Nasional government to build new Chinese primary schools to cope with new demands particularly in new residential areas.
MCA is opposing not only the interests of the Chinese community but all Malaysians in refusing to support the demand for major changes in government land acquisition laws and policies.
In the past few months, there have been more and more instances of land acquisition abuses and injustices, where solemn government promises that the tights of the affected landowners would be given adequate protections have been completely ignored.
The two most scandalous cases are firstly the land acquisitions for the Second Johore-Singapore Crossing and second Johore Baru township and secondly the land acquisition For the Seremban II township.
In the Johore-Singapore Second Link and second Johore Baru township in Tanjong Kupang and Gelang Patali, a Johore MCA State Assemblyman had publicly said that the value of the acquired land in Gelang Patah for industrial purpose should be worth in the region of RM50 per sq. ft. as compared to RM75 per sq. ft. for industrial land in Johore Barn or RM680 per sq. ft. in Singapore.
However, the affected smallholders in Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang are being offered compensation of less than RM1 per sq. ft. on the ground that when they were acquired there were mere agricultural land. This means that the United Engineers Malaysia (UEM) and its subsidiary Prolink which will be carrying out the development project will be making more than RM49 per sq.ft. or more than two million ringgit per acre merely from the acquired land.
This is most scandalous as the smallholders in Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang were advised by the Johore Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Information Minister Datuk Mohamad Rahmat in 1990 not to sell their land, when they were being offered RM100, 000 per acre, on the ground that the land would fetch very much higher prices under the second Johore Barn township plan as they would be converted into residential, commercial and industrial uses.
All the MCA Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Parliamentary Secretary failed to come to the aid of the Gelang Patah and Tanjong Kupang smallholders when they were offered such a raw deal as compensation for acquisition, although it was precisely because of their votes in Parliament in support of the 1991 Land Acquisition Amendment Bill that these landowners have now become victims of land acquisition injustices.
The same applies in the case of the acquisition of 2.234 acres in Negeri Sembilan for the Seremban II project, affecting 600 smallholders in Main ban.
Not a single MCA Minister has come forward to champion the rights of the affected smallholders in Mambau and if not for the DAP intervention in the past month work on the Seremban II project by the developer. Roadbuilder Bhd. would have started and the smallholders turned out of their land and properties.
MCA is opposing not only the interests of the Chinese community but all Malaysians in refusing to support the demand for major changes in government land acquisition laws and policies.
The MCA leaders have forgotten that in 1991, they had expressed opposition to the proposed land Acquisition Amendment Bill on the ground that it was open to massive abuses. The MCA leadership at that time even demanded that if land was to be acquired for residential commercial and industrial development by the private sector the state government concerned should invite open tender.
However, something happened before the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill was presented to the Parliament in July 1991 which caused the MCA leadership to abandon its demands for adequate safeguards against land acquisition abuses and injustices and all MCA Ministers and MPs voted obediently in support of the new Land Acquisition Amendment Act.
I would urge the MCA leadership not to adopt the attitude that because they are very confident that in the next general elections thay are expected to do very well, they could now afford to ignore the people’s legitimate grievances and complaints.
The MCA leaders should rise above party interests and work with the DAP to oppose all forms of land acquisition abuses and injustices and to demand for land acquisition reforms.