Statement from the United Chinese SchoolCommittees' Association of Malaysia
May 13, 2013 

 

It has been reported that Pro Chancellor of Mara University of Technology Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad and former Appeals Court judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah proposed during the "Review of Post-13th General Elections: Muslim Leadership and Survival" forum on May 12 that multiple language education streams in the country should be converted into a single language stream. Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah even claimed that the existence of multiple language streams were not recognised in the Federal Constitution, and vowed revenge against Chinese Malaysians who voted for the opposition. Dong Zong hereby strongly protests and reprimands the extremist remarks made by these two individuals. Their remarks have been highly detrimental to national unity.

 

1. Malaysian voters exercised their rights as citizens of this country by casting their ballots in the just concluded 13th General Elections. Unfortunately, the irresponsible remarks by these two persons have wickedly attempted to intimidate and incite retribution against the voters in contravention to the statutory rights of Malaysian citizens to vote as well as the spirit of democracy. Their racist and extremist remarks have not only hijacked national unity but also dealt a severe blow on social harmony. Dong Zong feels that it is imperative for the Government to pursue legal liabilities against these two people.
   
   
2. Malaysians of all ethnic backgrounds have come to accept and develop mother tongue education which is in conformity to the country's constitutional spirit as well as international proclamations on human and civil rights. Such entitlement must not be denied by any individual. The British colonial government had in the 1951 Barnes Report attempted to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools but the proposal was thwarted because of the strong resistance from the people. Section 21 of the Education Act 1961 empowers the Education Minister to convert any national-type Chinese or Tamil primary school into a national primary school, but this was also discarded by the people. We can see from here that the seditious remarks intending to incite racial hatred and confrontation have been the actual culprit that thumps national unity in contravention to the realistic situation in this country as well as the fundamental requirements for rationality.
   
   
3. The GE13 results show that more than half of Malaysians from all ethnic backgrounds, in particular young voters, have shunned race-oriented politics, chauvinism, corruption, power abuse and other irrational social realities. They abhor the chronic violation against their rights to ethnic equality, democracy and freedom. This is an area those in power must seriously look into and make amends.
   
   
4. On May 12, former deputy higher education minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah warned that UMNO as the backbone of Barisan Nasional must continue to take the moderate path, and that the party will be committing political suicide if it shifts further to the right. We in Dong Zong feel that this should serve as a wake-up call for both Dr Abdul Rahman Arshad and Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah that singularism and racial extremism will only serve to jeopardise the interest of the nation and its people, and be eventually trashed by the rakyat.