Twenty of the 200 single session schools to be immediately built under  the RM3 billion economic stimulus package should be Chinese primary schools

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Speech
- DAP Public Memorial Reference  to former DAP MP for Sungei Besi, Chan Kok Kit
by Lim Kit Siang 

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As the founding chairman of the DAP Chinese education committee, Kok Kit was in the very forefront in all the battles waged in the past three decades in the defence and advancement of mother-tongue education, most notably the great issues and controversies concerning the Merdeka University, Aziz Education Report, the preservation of Chinese Independent Secondary Schools and Chinese primary schools, in particular in opposing and demanding the repeal of the infamous Section 21(2) of the 1961 Education Act.

Kok Kit, together with the founding secretary of the DAP Chinese education committee, Chian Heng Kai, were “rewarded” with four years and nine months of detention without trial under the Internal Security Act for their services. The Malaysian people, however, showed their great appreciation to these two warriors for Chinese education and a Malaysian Malaysia when they were given the people’s mandate to continue to take the cause to Parliament.  Kok Kit was elected MP for Sungei Besi in the 1978 general election while in detention, winning with the biggest-ever majority of 33,687 votes.

The best way to pay tribute to Kok Kit is for us to ensure that although he is no longer with us physically, his spirit is forever with  us to  keep battling  for the cause of Chinese education and a Malaysian Malaysia.

This is particularly pertinent and poignant in the present times when mother-tongue education as a whole and Chinese education in particular are facing new challenges as illustrated by the still-unresolved  three-month Damansara Chinese primary school controversy and the DAP demand for a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan.

Last month,  former MCA  Minister and  now  MCA Central Education Bureau chief, Datuk Dr. Ting Chew Peh hailed the Cabinet meeting of 21st February 2001 as a "historic breakthrough for the future of Chinese education" in Malaysia for two reasons:
 

• the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad  had directed the Education Ministry to implement as soon possible the 1999 general election promise to build four new  Chinese primary schools and relocate 13 Chinese primary schools; and
• the directive by the Prime Minister  that new Chinese primary schools should be built according to “need” under the Eighth Malaysia Plan.

DAP has called for a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education which includes the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools in the five years 2001-2005 under the Eighth Malaysia Plan.

Is the demand for 250 new Chinese primary schools excessive, unreasonable or extremist?

I was very angry today when someone alleged that to ask for the building of 250 Chinese new primary schools under the Eighth Malaysia Plan was going against the Malaysian Constitution as well as the Barisan Alternative common manifesto of “Towards A Just Malaysia”.

A New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan building 250 new Chinese primary schools in the next five years  is fully in keeping with both the spirit and letter of the Malaysian Constitution and the Barisan Alternative common manifesto of “Towards A Just Malaysia” - which is to build a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia.  It is also a most reasonable demand for the following reasons:
 

• There are some 70,000 non-Chinese students in the Chinese primary schools in the country, which should have meant the building of some 120 new Chinese primary schools just to cater to this demand.
• During Independence in 1957, there were 1,333 Chinese primary schools with a total  enrolment of 310,000 students. Forty-three years later in 2000, Chinese primary school enrolment has doubled to over 620,000.  There was however no  matching doubling of the number of Chinese primary  schools in the past four decades. Instead, there was  a reduction of 49 schools to 1,284 schools.
• In 1968, there were 2,770 national primary schools with a total enrolment of 666,389 students.  In the 32 years from 1968 to 2000, total enrolment in national primary schools reached  2,218,747 (an increase of 1,552,358) while the number of national primary schools increased by 2,637 new schools to reach a total of 5,407 schools.   This works out to an average of an increase of 588 students for a new national primary school.
• If the above  average of a new national  primary school for every increase of 588 students is applied to Chinese primary schools, there should be an increase of 527 new schools in the 43 years from Independence in 1957 to 2,000 for the doubling of the Chinese primary school enrolment from 310,000 to 620,000.  As in the past 43 years, there had been a reduction of 49 Chinese primary schools, this would put the shortfall of Chinese primary schools as of 2,000  at  527 + 49 = 576.
• Asking for the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools from 2001 to 2005 when there should have been 576 new Chinese primary schools built by 2000 is there not being excessive,  unreasonable or “extremist”, nor does it violate the Malaysian Constitution or the Barisan Alternative common manifesto of “Towards A Just Malaysia”.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister announced a RM3 billion economic  stimulus package of "pre-emptive measures” to sustain the country's growth momentum in the face of a slowdown of the United States economy, and among the new projects identified for immediate implementation are 200 single session schools.

On the occasion of paying tribute to Kok Kit’s life-long dedication and sacrifices for the cause of  Chinese education and a Malaysian Malaysia, and in perpetuation of both his memory and spirit, I call on the Cabinet to ensure that 20 of the  200 single session schools to be immediately built under  the RM3 billion economic stimulus package should be Chinese primary schools.

In his 2001 budget speech in Parliament last October, Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin had announced the building of  167 new  primary schools and 120 new secondary schools.

The Education Ministry has not revealed that there would be a single new Chinese primary school out of the 167 new primary schools to be built this year.  It is therefore not unreasonable, excessive or extremist to ask that 20 of the 200 single session sessions to be built under the economic stimulus package announced on Tuesday should be new Chinese primary schools.

(29/3/2001)