by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 18th June 1994:
MCA and MCA Youth should declare whether they continue to oppose the use of Chinese as a medium of instruction at the tertiary level in Malaysia
It was reported in the press that the MCA Youth leader, Datuk Chan Kong Choy, specifically asked me in his speech at the MCA Youth General Meeting yesterday whether I supported the opposition of Parti Semangat 46, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to the use of English as a medium of instruction at the tertiary level in Malaysia.
If Datuk Chan Kong Choy had followed the DAP’s political party struggle and my speeches and press statements, he would not have asked such a silly question.
DAP had right from the sixties called for an open and liberal education policy reflective of Malaysia’s multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia, and this was why the DAP had been consistent and unswerving in our stand that different languages should be allowed to be used as media of instruction, whether at the primary, secondary or even tertiary level.
This was why the DAP had in the sixties and even seventies given full support to the proposed. Merdeka University, which would have used Bahasa Malaysia, English and Chinese as medium of instruction – and it was for this reason that MCA opposed and helped to ‘kill’ the Merdeka University proposal.
If Datuk Chan Kong Choy had not ‘forgotten’ the disgraceful and dishonourable MCA history on the proposed Merdeka University, he would not have asked his silly question yesterday.
DAP is not MCA, which could bend or break its principles if required by UMNO. DAP’s political stand will remain consistent and unswerving and we will not change our political stand like MCA.
If Tengku Razaleigh opposes the use of English as a medium of instruction at tertiary level in Malaysia, the DAP cannot support such a position and we will be forthright and frank with Tengku Razaleigh
Would MCA leaders dare to be equally frank and forthright with UMNO leaders like Dr. Mahathir Mohamed or Anwar Ibrahim?
It is not the DAP but the MCA which is in the ‘dock’. Let the MCA and MCA Youth declare whether they continue to oppose the use of Chinese language as a medium of instruction at the tertiary level in Malaysia!
DAP has been calling for a ‘major and full liberalisation’ instead of the ‘minor and limited liberalisation’ introduced by the UMNO leadership in the last three years.
Does MCA support the DAP’s call for ‘major and full liberalisation1? If so, then let MCA Ministers get Cabinet approval for the use of Chinese as a medium of instruction at the tertiary level – whether in colleges or university, government or private.
Is Chan Kong Choy or Ling Liong Sik prepared to answer my question promptly in the manner that I have answered Chan Kong Choy’s question yesterday?